JALANDHAR/NEW DELHI, 14 June 2003 — Caste conflicts in Jalandhar district’s Talhan village took a turn for the worse yesterday with around 150 people locking themselves inside the Talhan Gurdwara (Sikh temple) to prevent the Punjab government from taking control of it.
Defying police orders to vacate the temple, Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh, one of the volunteers inside, said by phone that several women had threatened self-immolation if the government “tried to evict them.”
He said that there were two drums of diesel inside the Gurdwara.
Caste tension between Jat Sikhs and Dalits in Talhan over the management of the temple continued for six months.Donations to the temple add up to around Rs 6 crore a year, all of which is controlled by upper castes (including Jat Sikhs). Tensions took a menacing turn last week with the death of a Dalit youth under police fire.
Sikh leaders blame politicians for siding up with the Dalits and ignoring their religious sentiments. Activists of Damdami Taksal (Sikh clerics), feeling threatened, took over the temple and locked it from inside on Thursday evening.
Police reinforcements were rushed to the curfew-bound village the same evening to secure control of the temple. With nearly 150 people locked inside yesterday, police achieved little success.
Attempts made by the Punjab government to resolve the dispute have proved futile, with the Sikh religious leader and SGPC President Kirpal Singh Badungar urging the state government not to “play with fire which can go out of control and disturb the peace of the state.”
