Embrace Islam or leave Valley, Sikhs threatened

The Times of India ^ | 20 August, 2010 | The Times of India

[Cronos]

Sikkim had been a protectorate of British India and that was transferred to independent India. In 1973, anti-royalty riots in front of the palace led to a formal request for protection from India. India worried that an unstable Sikkim would invite Chinese to act on its claims that Sikkim was part of Tibet, and therefore part of China. The Indian government appointed a Chief administrator, Mr. B. S. Das, who effectively wrested control of the country away from the Chogyal. On April 14, 1975, a referendum was held, in which Sikkim voted to merge with the union of India. Sikkim became the 22nd Indian State on April 26, 1975. On May 16, 1975, Sikkim officially became a state of the Indian Union and Lhendup Dorji became head of State (chief minister). This was promptly recognised by the United Nations and all countries except China.

Remember that India is basically a union of different nations, cultures, languages that have mixed together for millenium. This is like Eastern Europe before WWI --> and we know the hell that was wrought when Germans, Poles, Belarussians, Jews, Ukrainians, Serbs, Albanians, Croats, Romanians, Hungarians, Bulgars etc. who had been living next to each other for centuries demanded that each parcel of land should be exclusively belonging to one community

Sikkim's culture and language have been preserved by joining the Indian union, quite unlike the fate of the other Tibetans in Tibet after it was overrun by CHina.

[Cronos]

No, they are not descended from any Semitic sources — Sikhs are mainly, though not exclusively, Punjabis. There may have been converts from other northern Indian ethnic groups, but Punjabis dominate sikhdom. Punjabis are Indo-Europeans, i.e. Aryans. Their history dates back to at least the Harappan civilisation and are not linked in any way to the lost tribes of Israel — most of those were dispersed in what is now Iraq and Iran and were either absorbed by those or merged in with the returning Judah/Benjamin/Simeon tribe when that returned from exile thanks to Cyrus the Great of Persia.

[Vigilanteman]

Thank you for the added facts as well as commentary. It sounds that, like the United States, India is an amalgamation of many diverse cultural groups. And like us, they haven't always been perfect in the treatment of its minorities. But we've both been a hell of a lot better in this regard than our most vocal critics.

[Cronos]

The difference is that while the US initially had a mass of English and German/Dutch descendents dominating (for the first 150 years), India basically has no majority, it is a country of minorities: you can say Hindus are 81% so a majority, but that covers the fact that Hinduism is NOT a centrally themed religion at all --> you can take a person from the Arya Samaj and another who worships Lord Ayyappa and their belief systems, depictions even philosophy differs. Hinduism is more like a meta-religion which absorbed all the various regional gods and goddesses like Bhavani, etc.

In terms of ethnicity, India is completely unlike Pakistan where Punjabis are 40 to 60% of the population and utterly dominate socially and culturally. In India, no one ethnic group would constitute more than 20% of the population. Even linguistically, if you consider Bhojpuri etc. as individual languages, no language is the first language of > 20% of the population -- EVEN if you consider bhojpuri a dialect of Hindi, that makes it the first language of just about 40% of the population.

India is also terribly mixed -- in one area, take the city of Mangalore in Karnataka -- for centuries you had 4 linguistic groups:
1. native Tulu speakers
2. Kannada speakers
3. Konkani speakers
4. Urdu speakers

in the same place, superimposed on that you have/had 3 religious groups (or 4 for non-Bunt Hindus): Hindus, Christians and Muslims

And, superimposed on that were/are two races: Dravidian and Aryan and lately with all the Tibetans, adding in Mongoloids! And that's just ONE city!

[Cronos]

And, generally India’s smaller minorities have been treated well —> the muslims are, quite frankly a problem everywhere, whether in the US, India, Israel, Philippines, Russia, China, Kosovo, France, Germany, the UK, etc.