Taliban and the colour yellow

By Himmat Singh Gill

Khorasan' of the Middle Ages and ‘Aryana’ in the antiquity’, Afghanistan has seen them all pass by. The Aryans who left their Vedic and Avesta songs behind for posterity, Zoaraster the philosopher from Balkh who preached his religion a thousand years before Christ and Alexander the Greek have at some time or the other all left their footprints in this land of the hospitable Afghan people. Kanishka, Babar and the Buddhists have in earlier times lived here peacefully and never permitted a majority to rub out a minority to extinction.

But that was long long ago. Today, the Hindus and Sikhs who had made Afghanistan their home more than 170 years ago (when Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s influence extended all the way to Herat, and when business beckoned traders to Persia), have to face the ire of the fanatical Taliban who have decreed, Nazi style, that all human beings are not equal and must be quarantined in ghettoes of humiliation and shame.

Like the Jews, who were identified with yellow stars, the Hindus in present day Afghanistan (incidentally, in that country the Sikhs were also called Hindus as late as 1982, when this writer was a Military Attache at Kabul), have been ordered to hang a yellow cloth piece outside their homes. Their womenfolk too must always be attired in yellow. Press reports also speak of the Sikhs not being permitted to wear their turbans in that country. The few thousand-odd Hindu-Sikhs who remain on in that war-ravaged land would not be permitted to construct new temples and gurudwaras and neither be able to live alongside a Muslim brother in a house.

What a change indeed from the days of the golden raj of King Zahir Shah, when all lived peacefully and did not ever lock their homes. Or for that matter, even during Soviet rule for a decade till 1989, when not a single minority community member was ever harmed or harassed.

It is not difficult to see why these Afghan Hindus and Sikhs are being targeted. The December 2000 UN Security Council resolution no 1333 clamping sanctions against the Taliban, has India as one of its co-sponsors. Yet what can the free world expect from a religious brotherhood that even destroys the rock sentinels of the Buddha at Bamiyan and makes their own women live like petty vassals in modern times.

Today it is the Afghan Hindus and the Sikhs, tomorrow it could be the minority Shias and Hazara Muslims from central Afghanistan. The Taliban, a brainchild of Pakistan, could also sooner than one can imagine, turn their religous fury and unwelcome attention, towards their overlords and masters.

The Ministry of External Affairs has rightly deplored this totalitarian and medieval attitude of the Taliban, but much more needs to be done if those who are now stuck in Afghanistan are to be saved. The United Nations and the community of world democracies must unite to make an uproar and protest that will be heard across the Khyber Pass.

What is of some concern is the fact that so far, little in terms of concrete action has emerged from the Indian side. Either from government, any political party or organisation like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC). If so much could be done for Kashmiri Pandits fleeing the Valley, are these Hindus and Sikhs any less important?

The Shiromani Akali Dal and SGPC, both of whom maintain that they are the custodians of Sikh ethos and future, have not said a word about these poor Sikhs now being virtually hounded out of their homes. Citizen states can only last as long as the rights and dignity of its subjects is safeguarded at all times.

Today India has a powerful ally in this matter on its side, and which is also not happy with such acts against mankind in the name of religion, namely America. China too, must beware the spread of the Taliban to its Ugher Muslim dominated province of Singkiang. If the fundamentalist streak is not averted in Kabul,there is danger that many of the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs there could be converted out of their faith. The backlash of such a contingency could be felt severely in India.

If and when General Musharraf comes visiting, Mr Vajpayee, this issue should be discussed threadbare with him to impose some regulation on the Taliban. On its part, the government should open up alternative channels to well meaning intermediaries, who could deal with the Taliban government on the diplomatic front.

How one wishes that some sort of an Indian diplomatic mission had today existed in Kabul to convince the Taliban not to go on this route. We have an Afghan government in exile in New Delhi, and their services could also be utilised. Though legally these Hindus and Sikhs are Afghan nationals, necessary temporary landing papers and visas could be arranged through other friendly missions to get these people out if they so desire. Let us act before it is too late, and the last of the temple and gurudwara doors in Afghanistan are closed forever.