Council of Khalistan

              COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN
"RECOGNIZE YE ALL THE HUMAN RACE AS ONE"
Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Master Eye Street N.W. # 901
Washington, D.C 20006, USA
NOVEMBER 5, 1991 Tel: 202-833-3262
Fax: 202-452-9161
STATEMENT BY
DR. GURMIT SINGH AULAKH
PRESIDENT
COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN
UNTVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
The violation of human rights in India exist on such a wide scale it is difficult for us as Americans to
fully comprehend the suffering and the betrayal felt by India's minority populations: the Sikhs, the Kashmiris,
the Assamese, the Tamils, the Christians of Nagaland, and even the so-called "untouchables" or low caste
Hindus, who, though not properly a minority, are perhaps the world's most oppressed people.
But I am here not to talk of all these other nations and communities, but of the one I know most: the
Sikh nation. And as students of history and politics, as surely some of you are, you will agree one must first
understand the past to fully comprehend the present.
The Sikh people comprise not only a culture and a faith, but a nation as well.\TJie Punjab, just east of
Pakistan and south of Kashmir, is our homeland - the land of our birth, and in too many cases during the
past decade, the land of our deathpThe Sikhs ruled an undivided Punjab from 1765 to 1849 directly before
the era of British colonial rule. At that point Sikh rule extended well into present day Pakistan and past
Kashmir up to the Khyber Pass. According to the records, the British forces fought an arduous, heavily
taxing campaign against the formidable Sikh army and quite nearly failed to conquer our land. The Sikhs
were the last nation on the Indian subcontinent to fall to British expansionism, and were the first to raise the
cry for freedom. Thus let it not be forgotten, that even then, the Sikhs were recognized as a distinct separate
, nation on the subcontinent; a distinct, separate power, independent unto itself; a sovereign nation with its
own independent political system.
In 1947, when the subcontinent won its independence from British colonial rule, the British again
recognized this fact and negotiated the transfer of power with three separate groups: the Muslims, the
Hindus, and the Sikhs. As you might well imagine, during the considerable euphoria at that time, the Sikhs
opposed the partition and struggled for a united multi-ethnic subcontinent. As you will remember, however,
the Muslims agitated for a separate nation, Pakistan. Seeing partition as inevitable, the Sikhs did what they
thought was the next best thing and joined with the majority Hindus forgoing the opportunity to reclaim
complete sovereignty in its homeland.
The Sikh nation agreed to this only with the solemn assurances of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru ( the
first Prime Minister of India) that no constitution would be accepted that was unsatisfactory to the Sikhs. It
was Nehru himself who said: "the Congress assures the Sikhs that no solution in any future constitution [of
India] will be acceptable to the congress that does not give the Sikhs full satisfaction."
Yet, despite such constant promises, India ratified its constitution in 1950 against the expressed
disapproval of the Sikh nation. The constitution was so inimical to Sikh interests that the Sikh representatives
at the Constituent Assembly refused to ant)end their signatures to the document. To this day, no Sikh leader
has signed the Indian constitution.