100,000 Sikhs Defy High Priests and Rally to Back Excommunicated Leader

Defying the high priests of their faith, thousands of Sikhs massed in the mustard fields of this Punjab village Friday in support of a political leader who was recently excommunicated by the priests.

At least 100,000 Sikhs, including many from neighboring states, roared their approval of a resolution supporting Surjit Singh Barnala, chief minister of Punjab state and leader of Akali Dal, the Sikh political party. Thousands of policemen, some with machine guns, guarded against terrorist attack.

The rally pointed up the atmosphere of violence in a state where terrorists have killed more than 600 people in the past year and the growing division among Sikhs over the role of their religion in politics.

“This is a meeting to show where the masses stand,” said Haminder Singh, 55, a Sikh businessman who attended the rally. “Secessionists and terrorists have seized power in our Golden Temple (the holiest of Sikh holy places, in the Punjab city of Amritsar). The masses want to show they have a voice and that Sikhism is not meant only for militants.”

Likened to Martin Luther

Another man at the rally compared the meeting to “Martin Luther raising his voice against Rome”--a reference to the 16th-Century theologian who led the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

The five high priests of the Akal Takht, the Sikh spiritual and temporal throne in the Golden Temple complex, have recently aligned themselves with Sikh separatists who want to create an independent theocratic homeland called Khalistan, or Land of the Pure.

In contrast, Barnala and his Akali Dal party support the Indian union and oppose the separatists. Barnala’s Punjab government has received millions of dollars in aid from the central government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to combat the separatists. Barnala arrived here in an Indian air force helicopter.

The division in Sikhdom came to a head last week when the Sikh high priests demanded that Barnala, a wealthy farmer from a village near here in the rich Malwa region of Punjab, and all members of the Akali Dal resign their positions in the Punjab government or face excommunication.

Defied Priests’ Edict

Barnala refused to obey the priests’ edict and was excommunicated. According to the high priests, 19 members of Barnala’s party in the State Assembly gave their written agreement to the edict. But 11 of the 19 identified by the high priests attended Friday’s rally in support of Barnala, indicating that the beleaguered political leader would continue his tenuous control of the state.

Barnala’s faction of Akali Dal has 48 seats in the State Assembly, compared to 25 for the rival United Akali Dal, which is supported by Sikh extremists, and 31 for the state branch of Congress-I, the party of Prime Minister Gandhi. The Congress-I legislators support Barnala.

Punjab, with a population of 16 million, is India’s richest state. In stunning contrast to the tensions of the Sikh conflict, the state is enjoying its greatest wheat harvest ever. Wheat is so plentiful that the government is unable to transport it to areas that need it, and tons of it lie rotting in the fields.

According to informed sources, when the Sikh high priests issued their edict last week, Prime Minister Gandhi came close to disbanding the state government and installing emergency central government rule. However, Barnala’s decision to defy the priests and his continued control of the government, however shaky, led Gandhi to reconsider.

Turnout Could Help Barnala

The large turnout at Friday’s rally may also help Barnala. Under the Sikh faith, anyone who has been declared thankhaiya, or excommunicated, by the Sikh priests cannot be supported by true Sikhs.

A Sikh observer at the meeting said: “A Sikh who has been excommunicated from the faith is almost a condemned man. That so many people turned out to see a condemned man is a big thing.”

Many Sikhs at the meeting came in trucks and buses provided by the Punjab government. But others came by private car or in buses hired by Sikh businessmen who support Barnala.

Gursharan Singh, a movie house owner in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, said he spent 10,000 rupees ($800) to hire 11 buses to bring men and women from his village 150 miles away.

“We wanted to show that we are not only Sikhs but are also civilized citizens of the world,” he said.

Sikh scholar Khushwant Singh described the meeting as a “crossroads of history.”

Singh, the author of a two-volume history of Sikhism, which has 16 million followers in India, said the meeting “assumes importance because it gives the hitherto silent majority of Sikhs the opportunity to vocally express their loyalty to their motherland and to defy high priests who mouth their masters’ voices.”