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Dal Khalsa is a movement of rights and
aspirations
Dal Khalsa is a movement for restoration of the glorious period of the
history of the Sikh people, when they ruled the Punjab and were masters
of their own destiny. Dal Khalsa is a phase in the contemporary history
of the Sikhs, which will not die without a whimper, which will continue
to call a spade a spade, which will do what others in the community shy
from and which will continue to hold its head high so that the dignity
and honour of the community is never compromised.
Dal Khalsa has had three distinct avtars through various times in
history. The first was the Dal Khalsa of the medieval times, under the
tutelage of the Misl chiefs. On 29 March, 1748, at Amritsar, various
Sikh chieftains joined hands to form the Dal Khalsa under the command of
Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia to counter the armed invasion of Ahmad Shah
Durrani, who occupied Lahore in January of the same year.
The 11 units of Dal Khalsa functioned as a confederacy with faith as the
constitution embodied in the tradition of the collective resolutions of
the Sarbat Khalsa –the biannual Assembly of the Sikh people.
The nomenclature Dal Khalsa was again revived, nearly after two
centuries, for the rationale was the same–to counter the onslaught of
the mighty Indian state which was determined to crush the aspirations of
the Sikh people. In the religious environs of Gurdwara Akalgarh of
Sector 35, Chandigarh on 6 August 1978, a dedicated team of young Sikhs
led by Gajinder Singh, Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, Harsimran Singh and
others vowed to instil the traditional spirit of rebellion amongst Sikhs
and challenge the traditional Akali leadership of the times and thus
brought about the birth of the Dal Khalsa of the 19th century. This
lasted for nearly half a decade, culminating in the flight of the
pioneers from the Sikh homeland to keep the flag of being a sui generis
people alive. The government of the day invoked ban on the organisation
on May 1, 1982 that lapsed in May 1992.
The present day Dal Khalsa is a political organisation, of course with
the same aims and objectives as the earlier two avtars. In a sense, only
the baton has been passed on by forces of history.
In the late nineties of the last century, when things seemed to have
died down, when the governments of the day in Punjab and at the centre
in Delhi, were living in the glee of having crushed the spirit of
freedom, Kanwarpal Singh and his new team reignited the flavour and
aspiration for the right to an independent Sikh state through the third
avtar of the Dal Khalsa, in Amritsar on 6 August 1998, which continues
to be around till this day.
Dal Khalsa does not lose its focus of its mission in all its activities,
ranging from seeking associate status for the Sikh Nation at the United
Nations, observing the martyrdom day of Sikh martyrs including Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, holding of a week-long Sikh Freedom March
from Akal Takht to Takht Damdama Sahib, unfurling of the Sikh National
Flag of the Sarkar-e-Khalsa in defiance of the Indian tricolour on 26
January 2005, compiling a who’s who of martyrs of the Saka June 1984,
holding a series of road shows urging the government to regulate the
flow of migrant labour into the state that is destroying the demographic
framework of the Punjabi Suba and joining hands with like-minded Sikh
parties to systematically question and challenge the policies and
programmes of Indian mainstream political parties.
Dal Khalsa, in the true spirit of Sikhism, is not partisan in its
yearning for freedom. It upholds the right to freedom of all ethnic and
religious minorities, including the Kashmiris and the various peoples of
the north-east. Dal Khalsa maintains live liaison with the key
representatives of these ethnic minorities to share opinions and ideas,
express solidarity in times of distress and need and to devise
programmes and strategies to put up a common front against the onslaught
of the Indian state.
The present team of Dal Khalsa is a dedicated band of volunteers and
activists, who in their never-say-die spirit continue to engage the
people of Punjab in various activities designed to seek the right to
self-determination for the Sikh people in their beleaguered homeland
Punjab.
Dal Khalsa stands committed to an independent and sovereign Punjab, to
be achieved by democratic and peaceful means by engaging the United
Nations and the international community. |
