The Sikh Quam is no stranger to snitch’s. Be it from the lying snitch who was Prithi Chand, to Indira Gandhi’s great relative Gangu Bhramin, we’ve had our share of those who profited by trying to trip us up.

Why snitch? Why lie? Why any of it? I’ve personally never had a place in my heart for snitches. This goes back to when I was young and someone told the teachers about a fight, or when I saw other students baiting out others for cheating. Now don’t get things twisted. I’m not saying we should turn a blind eye, or let crooks get away with crimes. I’m more talking about when people interfere and twist things for their own profit, or bring others down in spite and revenge. i.e start witch hunts against their enemies by pointing at others and shouting “WITCH”, getting all the villagers to arm themselves with pitch forks and head off to crucify that person.

In India, though people don’t point and say witch, if you got a long dhari and keep Guru Sahibs roop, you can be sure that if you annoy the wrong people, you can get a knock on your door in the middle of the night ready to take you away, after all you just ended up fitting the description for India’s most wanted.

Many people disappeared in such ways, never to be seen or heard of again. Many probably even profited from such crimes. There are stories about how owners of photo stores in India used to report Singh’s, when they got photos developed. You know the photo’s I’m talking about, the ones that are hung up around the Gurdwara’s and now adorned on the many ‘84 tribute sites.

But even then, that type of snitching I guess should come to be expected, after all why would the enemy be on your side? Unless of course the enemy spends all day smiling at you, telling you that you’re family, but for trusting such people who can be blamed for such naivety but us. After all it’s not their fault we are / were naïve. So it’s not these snitches that I really care about or that get on my nerves. Instead it’s the ones who are supposed to be your brothers, the uncle toms with vengeance.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of those that were turned into the police in the 80’s were done so via anonymous tips, from their so called brethren. Now it’s these rats which annoy the @$## out of me. Now I can try to understand the reasons why they would sell their own out, but for a couple of dollars and even a semi lofty lifestyle it just doesn’t seem worth it. Then again greed and ambition will make people to crazy things.

I guess that only goes to brighten gems such as Bhai Taroo Singh. Who when asked by the Mughals as to where the Singh’s were laying, they gave them the cold shoulder. Then when a knife was put to his throat, still smiled back and said “nopes”. The Mughals thinking they where clever said fine we’ll take your kes, and instead of snitching, Bhai Taroo Singh gave them his scalp. Bhai Mani Singh another rare diamond, was asked to sell out Sangat or be cut piece by piece, told the Mughals not to miss a joint and even helped show them where to start.

Talking about loyalty, is talking about our history about our past and about us. How can a Sikh who snitches and lies even consider him or herself a Sikh? How do they even coexist with the likes of these and other Sikhs in history who we can list till we go blue in the face. Snitching is like the unwritten kurait within Sikhi. As Sikhs, we don’t drink, we don’t smoke, we don’t cut our kes and we definitely don’t snitch.

So why this long rambling on snitches? Because as much as we like to think that the morcha of the 80’s is over, it hasn’t even started. Paniarawalaa is still roaming around free, so is Ashotoush, while Singhs such as Jagtar Singh Harwara, are behind bars, thanks to those anonymous tips, and he’s not the only one, just one of the more publicized. There have been countless Singh’s who in an effort to stop such mentioned villains found themselves behind bar’s, even before they left home. Singh’s whose only wish was to do what the police and government seem to have little or no care for, justice.

So my brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles, my uncle toms, my field negro’s all of you, don’t go around snitching. Keep your mouths shut. After all, you’re selling out more then your brother, you’re selling out your faith, and your commitment to it. Fine disagree, but don’t go sending your brothers to jail, just because they against you for being jatehdaar, (ahem Dhumma), or so you can make a quick buck out of it (yall know who you are). So if, and when the GOI come-a-knocking and you don’t want to risk babbling like a brook, or singing like a canary, stitch ‘em up shut.

I wanted to write up on this news when I first found out, last Friday, but then again I knew very little about Bhai Sahibs life, other then their recordings.

When it comes to khavi’s or dhaadi’s the only name that resonates within youth circles these days is the Jago Wale Jatha, and rightfully so, since they are talented and part of only the handful of Dhadhi’s who will still openly talk and sing about 84. So little do most of us know (myself included) about individuals such as Bhai Dya Singh Dilbar.

With the passing of each dhadi it can only raise the question whether we will have other such great poets in the future, especially with the decline of youth masterfully learning Punjabi these days, but one can only hope.

I included a sample recording of one of favorite recordings done by Bhai Dya Singh,

If you want more you can find some here at GursikhiJeevan.

Fore more info on Bhai Sahibs passing check out the following links:

Panthic Weekly
Sanjh Savera

Saturday I was on SikhSangat and it was reported that Kim Bolan was coming to town to do a lecture at Ryerson University on February the 14th. Instantly I figured action needs to be taken against her, considering who she is, and what she writes.

For those who don’t know Kim Bolan, she works for the Vancouver Sun, (a news tabloid) and she’s made a career battling Sikhs. As a result she has had the odd death threat made her way and in the process gotten the media attention she so desperately seeks. Here in Ontario, Kim Bolan isn’t as much of a house hold name as she is in Vancouver, so anything and everything known about her comes from the West.

So I was sitting here wondering what type of action should be taken against Ms. Bolan, and minutes later had my concerns echoed back to me by others, only strengthening my resolve that something ought to be done. A day later, still coming short on reasons to protest against Ms. Bolan speaking here, other then the fact that I disagree with her views, and I came across a post on SolaRiders blog about an event where Balbir Singh spoke, (Kirtan Darbar at Ilford).

Now I’m all for keeping Kim Bolan from speaking or at least if she does speak let the school and community know about our disgust with her work, yet at the same time I’m starting to think that it’s energy wasted in the wrong direction, after all expending so much energy on her only accredits and acknowledges her lies to a certain degree. It just seems like a waste when we got brothers rotting in Indian jails, such as Prof. Davinderpal Singh.

Now a large part of my change in attitude could and probably is just frustration. Frustration at the fact that a school such as Ryerson is giving Kim Bolan the time of day to speak and address people. Frustration with the fact that Kim Bolan has received honors for her work, and her dedication to spewing these lies. Frustration that she has an army of Uncle Tom’s behind her acting as her credible sources on Sikhi. Frustration that due to political correctness and freedom of speech she is allowed to write her anti Sikh writings and her misguided, prejudiced and defamatory opinion. But then again maybe that’s the key to it all. That although she may not openly call Sikhs terrorists, it is implied in every single one of her articles and rather then trying to find an article where she says this, instead highlight why her opinion is totally wrong.

Now those thinking I did a complete 360 from the start, you’re probably right, after all most my posts including this one are just me thinking out loud. Originally I thought maybe we should let this slide since we got more important things to worry about, but then again she is a part of the same problem that we are trying to overcome and solve when it comes to Sikh prisoners in India. Considering its people like her who twist the facts, and construe events, in order to push their own brand of propaganda, that works to convince us and others that we are wrong and are at fault. I guess that’s more reason then any that we need to take a stand, against her and others like her. It is more then a good reason then any to show that she is wrong, and even more so a reason as to why this is battle worth fighting.

A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing. She believed him to be her dream guy so much, that she fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive for killing her sister?
[Give this some thought before you answer, I’ll post the answer in 2 days]

A video from Ja’s trip to India and their monkey friend.

Panthic.org is a new and upcoming Sikhi news site, which has been doing a tremendous sevaa, especially in the West, featuring many original articles and news breaking exposes. Some of the big ones to date include the breaking of the Daljeet Singh (Chicago), story which was then later picked up by others, and more recently the story on Rulda, an RSS agent who supposedly infiltrated main stream Sikh groups, with audio evidence and all.

Before Panthic Weekly arrived, the main sources for many people looking for Panthic News, was The Tribune and for western happenings, Sanjh Savera. The later, being a Punjabi only paper that left many youth who can’t read punjabi scratching their heads.

So it goes without saying that what Panthic Weekly is doing is an awesome thing, and we can only wait for it to grow, hoping that it one day becomes biweekly, until one day when it features updates everday.

However, such growth does not come without suffering growing pains. A recent thread on the Sikhi Unleashed forums suggested or at least left, what I would think was positive criticism. Unfortunately some of those connected with Panthic Weekly or supporters of it felt such criticism was insulting, which is pretty sad considering all of it was valid.

Basically the main points raised by Simmal Tree, were all surrounding the recent expose on Rulda (The RSS agent) and how the paper is starting to look like a Tabloid versus a credible impartial news paper.

for example, there is no use of the word ALLEGED. all of the rulda’s statements are allegations, but the article does not use the word alleged or “claimed” and therefore they seem to be truth.

secondly, there is no use of quotations. so things that rulda specifically said are mixed with things that the editors wrote, leaving readers to wonder what are ultimately the facts.

thirdly, bold red text is used to emphasize that sant baba thakur singh ji is alleged to have given a siropa to the head of the rss in the form of a shawl. firstly, the bold red is for what type of dramatic effect? there is no taste in that - it is only for the shock effect, and it is not needed. secondly, it is an allegation, not a statement of truth. and lastly, if this really did happen, then panthic weekly should have done some homework to try to find out why this happened, and get some type of justification out of representatives of the taksal or people who did seva with baba ji.

fourth, baba ji’s picture is placed right next to the rss cheif’s picture, as if both are some culprits in some master plot. the purposeful arrangement of the whole article makes it look like a propaganda article rather than a news article.

Now, I don’t see anything wrong being said, and off course everyone is entitled to there opinion. Supporters of Panthic Weekly provided rebuttals, to the above points of concern, and rightfully so cleared up much of the above up from the Panthic Weekly perspective.

One thing that was mentioned however, that seemed somewhat curious, was a remark by The Avenger,

If you have some concerns about Panthic Weekly or criticism you should send those directly to Panthic Weekly. What do you think?”I beleive you can get their email from the website: www.panthic.org

Now for a paper so keen on releasing the truth, it seems questionable as to why they would object to people taking offense to an article, or let alone express there views and provide certain criticism on a public forum, after all if Panthic Weekly is out for the truth, then it should always be ready to defend itself and justify itself without worry, after all if they didn’t, then they themselves would be going against the one practice they feel they examiplify, that being making things transparent for the public/sangat.

Also in defending itself as a paper without Jatha bias, supporters on the forum made note that no one doing wrong is safe and I agree 100%, anyone doing wrong should be pointed out. They quickly made note that AKJI has also been singled out, however one thing I noticed while looking at that article was the editorial note that seemingly gave the AKJ perspective on the issue or at least the individual. Leading me to wonder why no such feedback was sought from the other groups mentioned on what they had to say about things and also why the editors felt it nessary to clarify such information.

Also in replying to Simmal Tree’s third point about the bold red text, (trying to sensationalize the article), supporters pointed out that it was more to do with the outrageous remarks made by Rulda, then to show Baba Takhur Singh in a negative light. However many other statements made by Rulda were just as outrageous, yet none of these received the same treatment of bold text, and highlighting, which can only lead one to feel that a certain bias is at play.

So clearly Panthic Weekly has ways to go, and things that it needs to sort out if it wish’s to truly become a Panthic paper. It has made many positive strides in the small time that it has been around, but it should quickly sort these little things out now if it wants to continue with its success.

Akhooo Satnaaam Sri Vaaheguroo Jeee

The other day I was checking out AshSingh’s blog and he was featuring a new project of his, which utilized the Google Map API.

Similarly a while ago, I was able to work on a similar project for GursikhiJeevan, when we made the Gurdwara Index.

Apart from looking cool, such Gurdwara map’s also help show some traits about the Sikh population in different areas. For instance let each Nishaan Sahib represent about 100 Sikh families. So for every nishaan sahib you can take that as meaning that there are 100 Sikh families in a 20 km radius of that Gurdwara.

Check out Ontario for instance, you can easily see that the majority of the Sikh population in Ontario lives in the GTA. With Sangat scattered around with some in Ottawa, some in Kitchener etc.

Then when you look closer at the GTA you see that the majority of the Sikh populous in the GTA is located in Brampton, with each Gurdwara less then 30 km away from the next.

If any of you ever played StartCraft, you’ll remember that in order to build anything with the Protoss, you needed to first build a Crystal, and then you could build within a given radius of it.

It seems like the same applies for Sikhs, because we only exist in and around our Gurdwara’s. So what’s this mean? Well, like the old saying goes, “if you build it they shall come”, same applies for our communities. If they build the Gurdwara then Sangat is bound to follow.

Now if the above holds true, then it should only be a matter of time before Sangat moves to Hawaii, after all there is a Gurdwara there. Now imagine that, an AKJ International Smagaam in Hawaii, that’s one Smaggam outside of Toronto that I wouldn’t mind hitting up.

So what was the point of all this? Nothing really, I jus wanted to try out this new blogger word plugin that lets you blog from word. So if your reading this, then well it worked. Good stuff.