He most certainly was an atheist and wrote quite extensively (and eloquently, in my opinion) of his steadfast refusal to embrace the concept of God before his death.

During the mid 80s in Punjab there was an enormous amount of timidity. Regular folks do exhibit timidity when they are confronted with the prosepct of losing their loved ones, their life or their property.

That may be, but extraordinary folks exhibit remarkable fearlessness and bravery when confronted with those same prospects.

My aim wasn’t to be hurtful. However it did turn out that way so I apologize.

I know that it does since I have been involved with it in the past.

Abhi did you imply by this that solidarity exists in current times? Because I don’t believe it does. I don’t want to start yet another debate (already had here)but Indians from two different regions of India don’t have solidarity despite being American so I don’t see that happening with two different countries because they happen to be from the same continent.

BTW all this infighting here brings back bad memories of Sulekha.com. Some people really have just bad manners and appear to be taking their personal frustrations out on each other here but you are all smart educated folks for cryin out loud, you can bitchslap each other with civility and intellect.

Jai, got your note, see my response to you there

and later when the police atrocities happened.

Unless I’m misunderstanding you myself, I have to politely disagree here. Police brutality actually pushed large numbers of Sikhs (especially those who were innocent but were directly/indirectly victims of “encounters”, beatings etc) towards becoming sympathetic towards the terrorists if not actually actively involved. The film Maachis depicts this in a fairly accurate way. Also, there have been ongoing movements by Sikhs worldwide to pursue (compensation, legal prosecutions etc) the police who were responsible for such actions. Such activities to bring the culprits to justice as still underway.

Also, the terrorists themselves were Sikhs, frequently drawn from rural backgrounds, and I don’t think they could be described as “timid” by any stretch of the imagination

I do think Sikhs back in India should be a little more assertive in matters such as their depiction in the desi media, as I’ve mentioned on SM a few times previously, but that’s not related to the issues you’ve been discussing anyway, so I don’t want to labor the point here.

But I don’t want to start another bitter exchange on here with A&A.

Good idea, man. You know how these things can spiral insanely out of control