Lehal Library

Preface to the Second Edition I n the last twenty-five years dramatic changes took place in the fortunes of the Sikh community. Following the Indian Army's intrusion in the Golden Temple Complex, Amritsar, resulting in heavy loss of life and damage to sacred property, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, and frenzied killings of thousands of innocent Sikhs in revenge across northern India created a sense ofdistrust towards India's rulers, and support for the demand of a separate Sikh state. It also lent popular support to terrorist groups active in the state. It took almost ten years for t.he police and the Army to restore law and order and win back the confidence of the community. The demand for KhaJistan abated leaving only emigre groups in England, Canada, and the United States which continued to clamour for it. It took a long and painful decade punctuated by killings and combat-killings. for Punjabis to realize that KhaJistan was not the answer and it was essential for the two communities, Sikhs and Hindus, to live in harmony as they had done in the past centuries, to make Punjab the most prosperous state of India once again. This quarter of a century witnessed the reintegration of the Sikhs into the Indian mainstream, S}'mbolized by the election of a Sikh as Prime Minister of India and of another being put at the helm of India's Planning Commission. KHt:SHWANT SINGH New Delhi August 2004