Guest Column| Punjab mandate: Find way to engage, don’t alienate
Instead of seeing radicalism here through an alarmist-nationalist prism, it is better regarded as a subconscious call for dignified accommodation through legitimate democratic decentralisation. Anger must not be mistaken as an ideology.
In June 1984, Punjab stood communally polarised by two mutually antagonistic figures – those of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, their antagonism defined by an event of traumatic scale, Operation Bluestar.
Forty years later, almost to the day, Punjab in general and the heart of their battleground, the Majha belt, in particular have sent out conflicting messages that will continue to confound historians, social scientists and political observers alike. To us in Punjab, these contradictions are a part of the way life is led here every day.
But to an outsider, the spectacle of the heirs of Indira Gandhi and Bhindranwale celebrating simultaneously in Amritsar and the adjoining Khadoor Sahib would be a riddle wrapped in mystery. Not so if we remember that neither did Bhindranwale ever demand a separate Sikh state nor was Mrs Gandhi the greatest patriot in India.
A short drive off Khadoor Sahib, the heir of one of the assassins of Mrs Gandhi, took Faridkot almost without firing a shot. Travel a little farther, and you have a national party nominee winning Sangrur and a moderate Sikh party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, winning Bathinda – both by handsome margins. Further down south, Ferozepur goes national with the Congress. Even in the battleground city for Bluestar, Amritsar, the polling date coincidence with the operation anniversary could not become an electoral issue. This provides an objective correlative to Ayodhya, refusing to endorse the Ram Mandir party.
A dynamic kaleidoscope
So, is there any cohesive ideological Punjab narrative emerging from the mandate? None, except that Punjab is still struggling to find the right language to express its anger and its hurt pride in terms that outsiders may understand.
But many of our fly-by-night paratrooper commentators and some time-warped local intellectuals will disagree. This lethal duo has often combined to create an emotional trench between Punjab and the rest of the country. We need better translators of moods on both sides. In short, it is time for sane reassertion of nationalism and to bring it in sync with religio-regional aspirations.
The thing about Punjab is its refusal to be taken for granted or to be imprisoned by narratives. It’s a dynamic kaleidoscope in a permanent twirl, with no settled pattern. It is not advisable to impose any single meaning on it. The narrative here continues to be non-conformist. And in Punjab, non-conformism is not anti-nationalist. The state will continue to cock a snook at nationalists by refusing to demonise Bhindranwale.
But the moment anyone tries to dress a pro-radical mandate in ideological robes, he is quickly reminded that since 1984, it has thrice invited Indira Gandhi’s party, the Congress, to rule here. For 15 years, it stood solidly behind the Akali narrative of Panthic identity walking hand in hand with “sarab-sanjhivalta” – cheaply translated as peace and communal harmony.
More emotion than ideology
Punjab is more about emotion than ideology. The term radical means all sorts of things to all sorts of people. An open and categorical separatism is certainly not one of them. Nor is the BJP or Indira Gandhi’s brand of populist patriotism. At the other end, even the spokespersons of Amritpal Singh have to deny charges of separatism and emphasise that their hero was merely “conducting Amrit sanchar and fighting drug abuse” – hardly a radical act by any definition.
And consider this mandate. The non-radical mainstream parties (the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal, Aam Aadmi Party, BJP) got 11 of the 13 seats and a staggering 84% of the vote share in Punjab, the rest being divided among all others, including the BSP, CPI, CPM, Independents, NOTA and the ‘radicals’.
Does Punjab then just love shaking its ideological kaleidoscope for fun – moderate in 1985, dramatically radical in 1989 and completely moderate again in 1997 and partly radical in 2024 – and neither here nor there in between? It is difficult to decode the ideological kaleidoscope called Punjab.
But the region’s religio-cultural history and its popular folk legends can provide a clue. To understand an agrarian society, go back to its roots – the folk. There is a streak of non-conformism in Punjab’s emotional fabric, symbolised by the local Robinhood cult of Dulla Bhatti. Individual bravado-cults can often expand into social movements in the exploited and deprived societies – the LTTE sentiment in Tamil Nadu, the students’ movement of the ’80s in Assam and the Prithipal Singh Randhawa and Pash cults in Punjab of the ’70s, for example. How paradoxical that Naxalite movement in Punjab was followed immediately by the Bhindranwale wave in the early ’80s. Soon thereafter, the kaleidoscope was twirled again – to produce a completely moderate pattern. The moderate space with emphasis on local pride will never vanish here.
Decoding the local DNA
And the economic and the religious streams have often flowed side by side. The agrarian discontent almost coincided with religious revivalism. Even in the massively successful farmers’ agitation against farm laws, the softer hues of religion reinforced the economic content. In Punjab, religion, economy, sociology and politics will always keep overlapping. They become almost symbiotic. No wonder you find a mystic Shah Hussain blessing the defiance and non-conformism of Dullah Bhatti in every age. I have brought this legend up because it provides a key to decoding the local DNA. Even today, despite the apparent surface calm, agrarian discontent continues to define Punjab and the shrines are never too far away from farms.
Instead of seeing radicalism here through an alarmist-nationalist prism, it is better regarded as a subconscious call for dignified accommodation through legitimate democratic decentralisation. Anger must not be mistaken as an ideology. Those willing to swear by the Constitution – even on the pretext of “strategy” – have already defined the limits of their bravado.
Do not confuse protest with rebellion or anger with anti-nationalism. But find a way to engage rather than alienate Punjab. bains.bains@gmail.com
The author is a freelance contributor. Views expressed are personal.