The over 50,000-strong Sikh community in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam say they are a neglected lot with neither the Assam nor the Punjab governments giving them due recognition, Press Trust of India reported.
Mostly scattered in Nagaon and Sonitpur districts, the Assamese Sikhs, as they have come to be known, trace their origin to 1820 when Maharaja Ranjit Singh sent 500 Sikh soldiers to the region to fight Myanmarese invaders.
Led by Chaitanya Singh, the contingent came to Assam in response to a request made by Assam king Chandrakanta Singha to fight invaders from Myanmar.
Nearly two centuries later, about 166 Assamese Sikhs embarked on a historic journey back to Punjab four years ago to seek their roots.
“It was an historic journey because never before had Assamese Sikhs made such a pilgrimage in an organised manner to find if any relatives, near or distant, were left,” said Pritam Singh, president of the Assamese Sikh Association.
Singh said it was like “throwing pebbles in the dark” because none of the 166 persons had any idea which villages they hailed from.
“Punjab too has undergone a lot of changes since. That was a very interesting journey, especially because none of us can actually speak or understand the language Sikhs speak elsewhere in the country,” he said.
Sikhs are follower of Sikhism, a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region of north India by Guru Nanak Dev.
Singh expressed regret that the state government had done little for the community’s socio-economic development despite assimilation of Assamese culture into theirs.
Though in 2002 former Assam Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia had promised that a piece of land measuring three bighas would be allotted in Guwahati to the community to construct a Guru Nanak Bhawan and a Sikh Cultural Centre, it remained to be implemented, he said.
“We have sent representations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on several occasions telling him about our history and how we have become an inseparable part of the Assamese society,” Singh stated.
He lamented that the prime minister, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam, “did nothing” when he was requested to provide land and funds for preservation of Sikh culture in the state.
Shrawan Singh, a police officer posted in East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, said the prime minister was yet to visit either Borkola or Chapormukh, where the Sikhs are concentrated.
In 2010 and 2011, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had sanctioned Rs 400,000 for construction of a gurudwara at Borkola, while PWD Minister Ajanta Neog had sanctioned Rs 8,000,000 for the construction of the vital Borkola-Kampur road from 2009 to 2010.
The Punjab government back in 2008 had sponsored a religious trip by 200 Assamese Sikhs to visit religious places in the land of the five rivers, while former President of India Zail Singh visited Borkola during 1975 and donated Rs 2.5 billion, Pritam Singh recalled.
“From that amount we have constructed a Guru Nanak Gramya Puthibharal (library),” he said.
Going back to history, Singh said that the Assamese Sikhs, after completing their campaign against Myanmarese invaders, had reached Chaparmukh in Nagaon district through the Kapili River and under the command of ?Mataji, wife of Chaitanya Singh established their first settlement.
“The arms used by the soldiers during the war are preserved at Chaparmukh until today,” Singh said.
