Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and they were annoyed by the fact that none of them had any base
any longer from which to observe and control it.
The Punjab seemed to represent neo-imperialism's only
opportunity to correct this omission, and so it was seized. Then it
was instantly dropped like a hot
roti
when the Soviet Union vanished
- Sikh dreams of Khalistan, an independent homeland, teased, then
abandoned.
All is now
relatively
quiet on the northwestern front. There are no
more of those direct flights to and from Birmingham.
For some reason, I'd never thought that the Golden Temple would
really be made of gold, but it is. Which is probably why it's
surrounded by water and the fiercest armed guards I could ever
imagine seeing.
Eight years after I was in Amritsar, on June 5, 1984, Indira Gandhi
ordered Indian troops to oust Sikh militants from the Golden Temple,
which they had turned into a fortified headquarters. It was the
anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjun Dev, the temple's
founder, and thousands of pilgrims were inside the sacred precincts
paying homage. After five days of continuous fighting, those
militants still alive finally surrendered. Some five thousand people
died, most of them innocents caught in the crossfire; the great
temple's archives were reduced to ashes, and many of its ancient
holy structures were irreparably damaged, including the four-
hundred-year-old Akhal Takhat. This domed temple had recently
been used by the revolutionary Sikhs' leader as a fortress
headquarters, though it was ostensibly seat of the supreme religious
council.
Those who had encouraged the militants and their increasingly
bloody quest for Khalistan, the 'Land of the Pure,' did not care about
the awful consequences of their self-interested actions, did not care
about the Punjab or the Sikhs at all, now that their buffer zone was
no longer crucial. Besides, this was not the first massacre the British
had been responsible for in Amritsar.
The Punjab was isolated, cut off from the rest of India; a thick
veil seemed to cover it and hide it from outside eyes. There
