I don't need Zia or the CIA to tell me to do what I must do: Ganga Singh Dhillon

If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton then the Khalistan issue may well be decided on the hockey fields of Washington. The sport, once regarded here as an amusing pastime for 'preppies', was relatively unknown in the US until its cause was propagated with messianic zeal by a young Sikh immigrant.The man behind the drive to popularise India's national sport in America was Ganga Singh Dhillon, then in his late thirties. He went about his purpose with the tenacity of a tireless centre-forward and reaped rich dividends. Hockey leagues sprang up. Dhillon's name was splashed across the sports pages of major papers. And his crowning achievement was his ability to organise an annual tournament, in a field specially set aside for the event, named after John F. Kennedy. Today, Dhillon is applying that same relentless energy to achieving the realisation of yet another magnificent obsession: the recognition within India of a "Sikh Nation".Driven Man: Dhillon holds an American passport. But, as he said in the course of two days of interviews with India Today, "My flesh and blood are made from the soil of India and nothing can change that." This may sound like a strange, patriotic utterance from a man who, according to all news accounts, would like nothing better than to have a kirpan fight at high noon with the Indian Government.Make no mistake about it: Dhillon is a driven man. He has considerable support from Sikh organisations from across the world as well as numerous Sikh businessmen in New Delhi. But he is a far cry from his media image of a shadowy and raving megalomaniac and separatist, bent upon pushing India into a second partition.He demands neither a separate Khalistan nor does he advocate secession. Yet, he has panicked the Indian Government into denouncing him, declaring him persona non grata and denying him a visa to visit India.Dhillon first hit the headlines in India when he participated in the All India Sikh Educational Conference in Chandigarh last March. There, he constantly made references to the "Sikh Nation". The Indian press reacted with hysteria. "CIA's time bomb in India," screamed Blitz. "Zia's agent stirs Sikh passions," and "Zia's Trojan horse in Chandigarh."There is not a shred of evidence to support the charges of CIA connections being levelled against Dhillon. The man is an independently wealthy business consultant. Former Indian ambassadors to Washington, including T.N. Kaul and L.K. Jha, courted him as a prominent Washingtonian of Indian origin. And he makes no bones about his personal and abiding friendship with Pakistan's Zia.Religious: "Am I a foreign agent?" he asks, his piercing eyes narrowing, his lips pursed. "I am an agent, yes. I am an agent of Guru Gobind Singh, of Guru Nanak, and no one else. I don't need Zia or the CIA to tell me to do what I must do."Dhillon and General Zia: A personal friendshipHe is a deeply religious man whose flawless English is peppered with quotes from the Granth Sahib. He lives in a modest house in a distant Virginia suburb overlooking the Potomac river. Before the interview can begin he gently goads the reporter into taking off his shoes, covering his head with a scarf and visiting an adjacent room forguru darshan. There, Azma, a Muslim girl who helps him, doles outprasad.On the wall, opposite the door that opens into his living room, are portraits of his father Kahan Singh who was killed during Partition while trying to avert a local Hindu-Muslim clash, a pair of crossed kirpans and a painting of Guru Nanak.Dhillon's wife, Gurpal, a stunningly attractive woman with hair that reach below her waist, walks in with their 16-month-old son, Kahan, named after Dhillon's late father. The infant Kahan has already learnt to fold his hands in adulation before the portraits of the Sikh gurus, a fact that is an endless source of pride for both parents. Dhillon points to his son: "G.S. Dhillon will be gone one day. This boy will continue my work."His wife's father is Sardar Prahlad Singh Grewal, owner of 55,000 acres of sugar and timber land in East Africa and considered to be among the five richest Indians abroad. Dhillon has a stern visage. His features are aquiline. And he can switch in midstream from powerful political rhetoric to gushing sentimentality. He can weep openly and unabashedly when moved by a thought or remembrance.Cultural Homeland: What exactly is Dhillon's demand? What do his supporters want? He has been depicted as a Sikh Jinnah. That characterisation probably fits Canada's Jagjit Singh Chauhan more than it does Dhillon.As Dhillon himself puts it: "Chauhan has crossed that threshold and asked for Khalistan. I am at a crossroads. I hope the Government of India does not push me in a similar direction. I am personally against any partition because I believe that every partition in recent history has been the greatest human tragedy."He is still in the politically moderate wing of the Sikh movement. He supports designating a Punjabi-speaking area to be declared a cultural homeland for the Sikhs "where we can preserve our identity, our cultural and economic inheritance, but within the Indian Union".The reaction of the Indian media notwithstanding - Dhillon's views, far from being a historical aberration, are merely the latest reiteration of the expression Sikh Qaum that made the emperor Jehangir so nervous. Some historians such as J.D. Cunningham trace the origin of the cultural separatism of the Sikhs and their demand for an autonomous region to the Baisakhi of 1699 presided over by Guru Gobind Singh. Dhillon claims that the "establishment of the Sikh Commonwealth in 1799 was another milestone in this direction and the quest for re-establishing our national identity has been strong ever since the end of Sikh rule over Punjab and Kashmir in 1848. Sir Gokal Chand Narang in his book The Transformation of Sikhism used the term "Sikh Nation" as did Mohammed Latif in his History of The Punjab and Mushin Fani in Dabistan"."What have I said that is so terrible?" Dhillon asks with wounded outrage. "When Sikhs assert their distinct national identity within the Indian Union their aspirations are labelled as communal or separatist. But when the majority raises the slogan 'Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan' that is called, somewhat paradoxically, 'nationalistic'. Except for defence, currency and foreign affairs, the rest should be left to the Sikhs and their Hindu brothers in Punjab to decide. Sikhism is secular. Punjab will be open to all."No Partition: Dhillon's cardinal tenet taken from the Granth Sahib is: Jo ji saave so raji jaave (there is no compulson; come and go freely). He draws heavily on anthropology and historical sociology to explain his views: "The terms nation and state and country, though often used synonymously, are distinct conceptual categories.' If the Sikhs call themselves a nation, like the Tibetans, the Kurds and Palestinians, and call Punjab their homeland it should not mean a partition of the country. Recognition of India's rich cultural and regional diversity is not likely to weaken its unity. At the same time, the denial of the existence of a cultural mosaic is not likely to strengthen it."He then repeals what has become a Dhillon stock phrase: "Whenever the Sikhs asserted their right of distinct cultural identity and autonomy, the mass media controlled by the majority screamed 'Partition'! If one cries "wolf too often it is likely to pay a visit. Those who raise the spectre of partition over every Sikh demand are the ones who are unwittingly doing the greatest harm to the very cause they claim to espouse. If the majority persists in using these crude tools, India's balkanisation would be their responsibility. The issue of the Sikh nation cannot be wished away or washed away. We are not asking for the moon but only a place under the sun where we can lead a life of dignity worthy of the Khalsa Panth and in our own little cultural republic."Dialogue Needed: The denial of a visa for him to visit India weighs heavily on him. "The Indian Government doesn't understand. The more they try and oppress me the more rebellious I can become. If I am satisfied I will be more nationalistic. If I am not even allowed to say that I'm a Sikh with my own identity . . . Je mainu inni bhi ejazat nahin (if I don't even have this permission). . . if this injustice continues where I can't visit my own gurudwara, I'll lead a separation movement right from here. If the Government of India refuses to sit down and talk there will be a blow-up."Dhillon with his wife and son: I abhor terrorismDhillon says he has seen and felt more restiveness in Punjab than ever before. "Let me tell you something," he confides. "Those young men who hijacked the airplane are generally seen as traitors. But many Sikhs already see them as heroes. Following the hijacking I received at least 50 calls from Sikhs all over the world to go to Pakistan and help the hijackers.Unna mundayan da kuchh karo(do something about those boys) they would tell me. Others would say,Qaum zinda e! I abhor terrorism or endangering the lives of innocent people. But I'm telling you, a lot of Sikhs, deep down in their hearts, believe those hijackers to be heroes."The Government of India, Dhillon says without batting an eyelid, "has never talked to the real Sikh leadership. Zail Singh and Darbara Singh are puppet creations of the Congress. Darbara Singh merely exploits the Khalistan issue. He holds power by telling Mrs Gandhi he can keep the radicals down. Sant Bhindranwale's arrest like a common crook was a shame. Can you imagine - Punjab was made into a BSF chhavni just to arrest one man! So long as these tools are used nothing will be achieved. Mrs Gandhi can pacify Badal or Balwant Singh. Now they're using Longowal. But these are temporary arrangements. The next explosion will be like a jwalamukhi".Aside from his perception that publicly expressed Sikh yearnings for a cultural homeland have been treated as treasonable and suppressed by governments for hundreds of years, Dhillon also expresses an admixture of economic and political grievances that are regularly bandied about at global Sikh conferences.They include the following: Rs 200 crore have flowed out of Punjab for two decades with less than 10 per cent being reinvested in the state; there have been no government investments of heavy industry in the Punjab which causes a drain of skilled labour out of Punjab; under a "planned conspiracy" labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are brought into Punjab to build roads, and the Sikh population of Punjab has dropped by 10 percent during the last 14 years to 52 per cent of the state; Chandigarh "built on the flesh and blood of Sikh farmers who were ejected from their lands, is not being given to them".Mutual Respect: Dhillon is anything but an under-achiever. Even those who view his call for a Sikh nation as politically misguided and extreme admit that his successful effort on behalf of the preservation of sacred Sikh shrines in Pakistan won him the admiration of Sikhs across the world and contributed to the widening of his power base.It was during the course of this mission that Dhillon struck up a close and abiding personal friendship with Genera] Zia. His family albums are full of photographs of dinners, private and informal meetings in Washington and Islamabad between the Zia and Dhillon families. The Pakistani leader and Dhillon exchange frequent correspondence and telephone calls; they speak to each other in Punjabi.The Dhillon-Zia contacts were set up by the recently assassinated Choudhuri Elahi, a close Zia confidant and his minister for political affairs. "A great man," Dhillon says, tears rolling freely from his eyes. Elahi entertained 1,400 Sikh pilgrims in 1979 and 3,000 in 1980 on Baisakhi and served them lunch at his home in Lahore. He had even offered to put up Rs 4 lakh to pay for the expenses of sevadars for the Sikh shrines in Pakistan."He was always for the unity of India and Pakistan," Dhillon recalls. Some time ago, in the midst of a Hindu-Muslim conflagration in India, Elahi invited Ambassador Natwar Singh to his house for dinner. "The Pakistani papers were carrying vicious cartoons showing Hindus drawing Muslim blood while Elahi was serving juice to Natwar Singh. But he still didn't cancel that dinner."Through Elahi, Dhillon was able to organise the first jatha of 25 Sikhs to visit Sikh shrines in Pakistan in 1975. "Their condition was deplorable,'' says Dhillon, "specially what I saw, in Lahore in Nankana Sahib. These are our holiest of places. Except for Batala where Guru Nanak was married, there is no physical or architectural history of Nanak in India. It is all in Pakistan."He formed the world-wide Nankana Sahib Foundation in order to preserve the shrines and assure the access of all Sikhs to them. During several meetings with Zia which later blossomed into personal friendship, Dhillon was able to obtain from the Pakistani President not only an oral but also a detailed written commitment, pledging that the Pakistan Government would take care of the shrines and facilitate free access to, and freedom of worship at, these holy places.Stonewalled: But Dhillon's main quest is to place the management and maintenance of the shrines under an international body of Sikhs as is done with the sacred shrines of other major religions of the world. Zia said in a letter to Dhillon that a statutory mandate would be required to achieve this and it would have to be routed through, or initiated by, the Government of India."And the Government of India has failed to do this," Dhillon charges. "Repeated efforts have failed to stir the Government of India." Dhillon said his very first effort in preserving the shrines was stonewalled by the Indian Government when the ambassador to Washington. T.N. Kaul, discouraged Dhillon from visiting Pakistan in 1975. He ignored Kaul and went anyway."When they needed me they thought of me as a great patriot," says Dhillon bitterly. After India's first atomic blast when Congressional opposition to further economic aid to India was at its height, Dhillon organised a high-level private dinner, attended among others by the late Senator Hubert Humphrey where Indian diplomats were able to lobby him on the aid bill.Several documents and photographs show that India's Washington-based diplomats and visiting dignitaries repeatedly relied on Dhillon for informal contacts with important members of the US Congress. "I repeatedly helped that stupid government," Dhillon says."I was all right then, but today I'm not even allowed to go to Amritsar! They have imposed these restrictions on me to frighten Sikhs in India, to frighten Sikhs abroad, and to frighten Pakistan into not dealing with me."Motivating Forces: Dhillon was born in a small village in Pakistan in Sheikhupura where his father was a well-to-do farmer. "My father would always tell us two things: He didn't want any of his children to stay in the village and he wanted all of them to get B.A. degrees," Dhillon recalls. On a recent visit to Pakistan Dhillon visited the village where he had cremated his father."I closed my eyes and I said: 'Father, I have fulfilled your wishes. I am not just B.A. but M. A.-passed. One brother is a law graduate, my sister is an M.A. and another brother is an M.A. and we live, not in villages, but in the largest metropolitan areas in the world'."Dhillon weeps, applying a forefinger and thumb to his eyes to hold back his tears. "I'd never do anything my father would be ashamed of. I'm not answerable to Mrs Gandhi or Zia or Reagan. My greatest power is my Akalpurkh. If in the memory of my father my tears roll, why should I hide them ? If in the cause of Nanak I'm overwhelmed by emotion, why shouldn't the tears roll? But you won't see tears in my eyes in battle: I'm a sportsman.".Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 25, 2013 13:07 IST--- ENDS ---

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I don't need Zia or the CIA to tell me to do what I must do: Ganga Singh Dhillon

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