SIKHS THREATEN SERIOUS TROUBLE IN INDIAN PUNJAB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A000400010024-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: March 3, 1966
• Content Type: IM

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3 March 1966
OCI No. 0499/66
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INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SIKHS THREATEN SERIOUS TROUBLE IN INDIAN PUNJAB
DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE
Office of Current Intelligence
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OCI No. 0499/66
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
3 March 1966
INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
Sikhs Threaten Serious Trouble in Indian Punjab
1. New Delhi is facing a major political crisis
in the Punjab, where the Sikh religious minority has
resumed its agitation for a separate Punjabi-speaking
state. Sant Fateh Singh, the Sikhs' most influential
leader, has announced he will undertake a "fast and
self-immolation" to culminate four weeks hence. The
Sant had issued a similar suicide threat last August,
but postponed it in September when the Indo-Pakistani
warfare in Kashmir spread to the Punjab.
2. The Punjabi Sikhs, who comprise about a third
of the state's population, have long demanded that
Hindi be dropped as a coequal official state language.
They argue that the practice is inconsistent with the
1956 reorganization of the Indian states along lin-
guistic lines. Since Punjabi is the majority tongue,
the Sikhs insist that New Delhi should either make
Punjabi the sole official language or partition the
state into Punjabi- and Hindi-speaking areas.
3. The state's Hindu majority adamantly opposes
the single-language concept, fearing that it would
eventually result in Sikh domination. Hindus are
divided on alternative proposals, however, Those
who live in the northwest, *here Sikhs predominate,
would strongly resist any concession to Sikh demands,
even though they are themselves Punjabi speakers.
In the economically depressed southeast, a substantial
proportion of the Hindi-speaking Hindu majority favor
partition, believing that they will thereby benefit
from a greater infusion of development funds.
4. The Congress Party government of the Punjab,
already strained by factional infighting, is likely
to be further torn by disagreements over language policy.
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Chief Minister Ram Kishan, a Hindu, has been critized
for overly emphatic statements that the Sikh demands
would not be met. Many other party leaders, both
Sikh and Hindu, are compelled by regional and religious
loyalties to support one of several partition proposals.
The disruptive bickering has already had an adverse
effect upon economic development programs, and the
situation may grow worse.
5. New Delhi appointed special parliamentary
and cabinet committees last year to study the situa-
tion in the Punjab. Prime Minister Shastri's death
and the preoccupation with finding a successor inter-
rupted their deliberations. The cabinet committee
automatically lapsed when its members tendered their
pro forma resignations from the government, and it
must now be reappointed.
6. Efforts to find a solution are not necessarily
doomed to failure, but great ingenuity will be required,
and time is running out. Fateh Singh, not overly eager
to carry his immolation threat to its logical conclusion,
would probably accept some sort of compromise, His
archrival for Sikh leadership, Master Tara Singh, will
not let him off the hook easily, however, and New Delhi
cannot rule out the possibility that events will get
out of control.
7. If the dramatic self-immolation actually occurs,
it could raise Sikh-Hindu communal antagonisms to a
dangerous level. This could pose a threat to public
order in the Punjab, and it would almost certainly
cost the Congress Party votes in the 1967 state and
national elections.
8. The animosity could also spill over into the
army, about half of which consists of Punjabi Hindus
and Sikhs. The high order of discipline and detachment
from politics of the Indian armed forces usually dampens
the military reaction to civilian issues. On the other
hand, the traditional practice of recruiting and train-
ing soldiers in ethnic and regional regiments (the
Sikh Light Infantry, the Jat Infantry, etc.) and assign-
ing them to ethnic/regional battalions increases the
troops' awareness of developments back home. Prior
to India's independence, Sikh and Hindu units found
themselves on the opposite sides of a mutiny on sev-
eral occasions.
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