#IPledgeOrange

It is likely that you haven’t heard about the #IPledgeOrange campaign. If you have then I’m truly glad that it has crossed your path, and I hope I can affirm and add to what you have already learned.

The #IPledgeOrange campaign stands for fighting against injustice no matter what Religion, Race, or Beliefs. This campaign emerged over the proposed execution of Bhai Balwant Singh, a brave Sikh who saved thousands of other Sikhs from being murdered by the Indian Government. However, the focus is also on the decades of oppression and human rights violations to the minorities in India such as Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists.

Over the span of 60 years the Indian Government have tried to wipe out Sikhs. In more recent times they carried out what they called operation blue star, where they attacked Sikhs at their most holiest site, which is the Golden Temple. Under a false premise they murdered men, women, and children, who simply were there to pray. In the aftermath mobs searched for Sikhs and brutally murdered them in their home and on the streets.

Any time a Sikh has tried to stand up for the innocent, the Indian Government have labelled them a terrorist and have used that label to either kill them or let them rot in Jail. Most recently an innocent young man named Bhai Jaspal Singh was part of a peaceful protest and without warning the police opened fire on the crowd killing him and others as well as injuring more. This is just a drop in the ocean of what Sikhs have been through and the state of India today.


WHY SHOULD I CARE?

You maybe reading this in the comfort of your own home, enjoying your freedoms and protection of your government, but just imagine for one moment that where you live is in a country that sees you as worthless and a third rate citizen. Just imagine if these minorities who have been tortured, raped, and murdered were your brother, sister, mother or father. I guarantee you this, if it was, you would take action, you would campaign with all your might and do whatever it took to get this iron boulder of justice rolling.

I understand it’s so hard to care for strangers, especially strangers who live a different lifestyle and who may look different than you. Also it’s so easy to generalise and use comforters that this situation may not be that bad, or I’m sure things will turn around soon. NO. The only way these human beings will escape the clutches of the Indian Government is if YOU take action. This campaign is about unity for the injustice and that unity won’t work without you. Every single person is critical and has the capability to contribute on a mass scale and create huge momentum, which will eventually catch. If we all do this, we will create a wave that cannot be stopped, a wave that will wash away these tyrants.

It is extremely difficult to communicate the atrocities that have occurred over the past six decades in India, especially to Sikhs, and I can only highlight some of the more recent barbarities of the Indian Government. One example is of the illegal cremation sites where Sikhs would be abducted inside their own homes, killed, and then dumped at these sites. No one will ever know the true figures but at a minimum 150,000 Sikhs were brought to these sites and this included men, women, and even children. The Indian government didn’t stop there they have repeatedly thwarted any uprising for justice by imprisoning Sikh leaders and other activists on completely fabricated stories. Some Men and Women have been imprisoned for well over a decade and in some cases there hasn’t even been a court hearing or an opportunity to fight the case. The Indian judicial system is so bad and corrupt that often prisoners reject it, such as Bhai Balwant Singh, who rejected any appeal over his case, and is currently on death row.

A recent development has occurred in regards to the mass attempted genocide of the Sikhs in 1984, where a member of a senior congress party has been accused of inciting riots (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17811666) however this is the tip of the iceberg in regards to gaining justice on all those who are responsible. The first thing to highlight in this article is that it wasn’t a riot, it was a mob hungry for blood from innocent Sikhs.

This post is not to just create awareness, it’s to wake you up to the world we live in and take action against this… there isn’t a word to describe the amount of bloodshed and wickedness that has taken place in a country that claims to be the world’s largest democracy. It’s so easy to sit in a place where you have your freedoms and don’t have to worry about the people who are supposed to be there to protect you violating your rights.


WHAT CAN I DO?

Support and rep the #IPledgeOrange campaign 
Watch the video below (& the others in the series, if you really want to be a part of this movement)
Write to Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch
Educate and create awareness of this issue
Download & Sign a petition that will go to the House of Commons (available if you’re a U.K resident, contact me here and I’ll email the petition directly.)