‘Khasi students destroyed Shillong Sikhs’ job record’

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, October 21

A crucial piece of evidence regarding residence of Harijan Sikhs in Shillong’s Punjabi Lane (aka Harijan Colony) may have been destroyed in a fire initiated by the Khasi Students Union (KSU), said Professor Himadri Banerjee, who has extensively researched history of the Sikhs living in eastern India.

KSU’s animosity toward the Sikh settlers of Punjabi Lane is under spotlight again in the wake of its opposition to Punjabi Lane residents’ demand for enhancement of load carrying capacity of pre-paid electricity meters installed on their premises recently.

Banerjee said from 2005-2008, he made several attempts to reach the SMB archives to look for employment record of Sikh sweepers from 1910 onwards. The record would have been useful in tracing the history of Punjabi Lane Sikhs and strengthened their claim over the area. “But the SMB office repeatedly opposed my entry on the ground that these were sub judice,” he said.

“The SMB either does not have any such document in their record or the record was destroyed in an SMB record room fire initiated by KSU,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee said a British army unit, which had earlier served in Punjab, had first brought Harijan Sikhs with them to Shillong to work as sweepers.

“In 1910, when the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) was established, a significant number of Harijan Sikhs were recruited for different civic works,” Banerjee, who held the chair of Guru Nanak Professor of Indian History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, said.

The JU professor, author of a two-volume work titled “The Other Sikhs: A view from eastern India”, said the SMB allowed Harijan Sikhs to reside near the place of their work. “Thus, Punjabi Lane grew with the support and encouragement of British colonisers,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee said Punjabi Lane and Barabazar locations were then almost valueless. Mazhbis settled there because they were on SMB’s payrolls.