Much worse, Punjabi intellectuals and the urban middle classes, always in search of professional and commercial spoils, often combined with such sectarian leaderships. Long years of political indoctrination and rewriting of histories followed, changing the self-perceptions of communities. Once the communities began to define themselves in such a narrow and divisive fashion, they were also ready to be easily manipulated and exploited.

What comes easily to mind in this context is the famous argument made by the eminent political scientist, Rajni Kothari. It is true, he said, that caste identities dominate Indian politics, but something else that is not so readily recognised is equally true: these caste identities are neither pristine nor perennial; they are what politics has made of them by constantly moulding and manipulating them.

I believe what Kothari said about ‘politicisation’ of castes equally applies to religious identities. Left to themselves, religious communities would perhaps find ways of living in peaceable coexistence. But they have been drained of that capacity by the political forces which work on them.

What are we to make, then, of the relationship between religion and politics? This is a question that occupies every thinking Indian but it is a question all the more pertinent in a state like Punjab. The Akali leadership has always maintained that the two are inseparable. How secular can the BJP possibly be in Punjab when their national leadership either leads Hindutva forces or, at least, is unable to maintain a credible distance from them? The Akali-BJP alliance is therefore purely tactical and could prove tenuous in changed circumstances. The credentials of the Congress as a secular party have also become suspect. Its chief ministers have, in the past, tried to prove they are greater Sikhs than the Akalis, and they have patronised as well as sought patronage from religious sects and deras.

... contd.