It’s a year and half later and to my fellow punjabi I’m sorry. I’ve have seen the light, and that we punjabi’s are the master race. All hail our culture and race.

I’ve dropped by Sikhnet as a “lurker” once or twice recently but am no longer a “regular”. I agree about the change in overall tone there (especially compared to how it used to be), but I don’t know if the reason is over-moderation. As you know, one of the major reasons for my own exit from the forum was the fact that it was being repeatedly hijacked by some excessively conservative types who, I felt, were very good at arguing in intricate, convoluted (or plain stubborn) ways but did not have a grasp of the “spirit” of the faith, despite the fact that some of them have an excellent academic knowledge of scriptural quotes etc.

I think that the forum used to be much better — and certainly more broadminded — during the days of Dr Yuktanand Singh and Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa, although I do recall individuals such as Harpreet Singh Sandhu (an amazingly intelligent and insightful gentleman in his mid-60s from the US) valiantly attempting to counteract the efforts of his obstinately-conservative older-generation counterparts during the past year or two (with varying degrees of success).

I guess anyone interested in finding out what Sikhnet used to be like could do a ‘search’ there and read some of the older posts from more enlightened times

However, it is still an excellent resource for gurbani kirtan, summaries of Sikh history and religious tenets etc.

Very well put. Just a word on Sikhnet…it’s really gone downhill the past several months…far fewer posts, fewer responses, basically a small handful of regular posters (although the readership may still be large). I wonder if this was a consequence of over-regulation by the moderators. Anytime a discussion got interesting they would start shutting it down. About two years ago it was a pleasure to read Sikhnet discussion forum. I still check it every 1-2 days, but far less than I read this blog now.

Please do not take offense when I say that I find idea of dividing India again on basis of religion abhorrent.

I understand your point of view, but please note something I said in my post #115:

“However, the precise location of such a hypothetical state (whether in India or anywhere else) and the methods used to achieve the founding of such a nation, are of course entirely different matters.”

As you can see from my comment above, I do not necessarily believe in the viability of locating the country within the Indian subcontinent, at least due to the land-locked location it would exist in and its small size (not to mention the fact that it would possibly be surrounded by semi-hostile neighbours). These factors would also hardly be condusive to enabling the nation to act internationally on a humanitarian and military level (the latter with regards to situations such as Rwanda, Darfur, and other cases of genocide, persecution, human rights abuses etc worldwide) as per the core principles of Sikhism.

There is also a difference between a state governed by Sikh principles and one exclusively for Sikhs. The latter is incompatible with Sikhism — it is not an “exclusivist” faith in the religious sense, and in any case Sikhs (whilst maintaining their unique identity) are supposed to live peacefully amongst the rest of mankind and are not supposed to regard themselves as literally “separate” or “superior”. Indeed, Sikhs are supposed to live, work and exist for the wellbeing of the entire human race, not just for their fellow Sikhs.

This is embodied by the last verse of a well-known “Ardas”, which basically translates as “Wishing goodwill to all mankind” (“Sarbat da bhala”). Please note that it does not request divine blessings just for Sikhs.

In any case, we are just doing some independent “armchair strategic theorising” here and none of this necessarily has anything to do with past or present secessionist groups, who may not be motivated by intentions actually in line with Sikh ideals and, indeed, may not be using Sikhism-compatible methods either.

I do not regularly follow the issue, so I am not aware of the back story, but I think PJF was reasonable and ad hominem attacks on him (her ?) were uncalled for.

Regards

Please do not take offense when I say that I find idea of dividing India again on basis of religion abhorrent. Again I do not know about what is the current opinion in expat Sikh community but I doubt you will find many supporters among Indian Sikhs.When terrorism in Punjab was at its peak at that time not only Hindus but also many Sikhs had to bear the brunt. I desisted from commenting on this thread because for some reason, I have found that similar threads in past were closed, however I have always found you reasonable and so had to comment.

Regards

Apologies, my comment above was supposed to be in response to “I really am glad to have learned more from the two of you.”

(Copy & Paste error on my part).