Hard Working: The Only Option

less educated Sikh complained that the government had been perpetrating great injustice upon the Sikhs; that at the time of India’s independence the proportion of Sikhs in the Indian army was 30 per cent, while today their ratio has been reduced in these services to only two per cent. Interrupting this lecture, another Sikh came up to say that his brother had no knowledge of the real situation. Then he explained that it was true that there were certain reasons for the central government not being interested in keeping them in the military, and as a result their numbers had come down to a mere two per cent. But this had proved to be a blessing in disguise. When the Sikhs found that demands and agitations were not going to yield any fruit, as the government had been acting upon a well-considered plan, and that no amount of our protest was going to have any effect upon its policy, they did some hard thinking and finally came to the conclusion that they must be willing to accept the government’s policy in the changed scenario. Then he said, “Look at me, I was an officer in the Indian army, having retired recently from the service. After my retirement I received only seven lakh rupees as provident fund, etc. and with this sum I cannot even purchase a flat in Delhi. Whereas many of my friends who had opted to leave the services to take up business, now own palatial houses in Delhi, and drive luxury cars.” The number of Sikhs in military service has no doubt dwindled but their economic condition is now better than it ever was. They form only two per cent of the population of the country, but they control about 20 per cent of the country’s economic resources. How did this come about? The reason was that they gave up the limited scope offered by the services in favour of the unlimited scope offered by business and industry. Many of them left for Europe and America, and are now earning