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New Straits Times
Monday, February 28 6:26 PM SGT
Your say: A Sikh by any other nameIT is interesting that both Sikhs and Bangladeshis are classed as "Bengali"
in Malaysia.
The name derives from Bengal in British India in the region of the Ganges Delta and adjoining districts. The recent application to those from the eastern, and Muslim, portion of that area that became Bangladesh after independence is etymologically correct. However, it is surprising that Sikhs from the Punjab on the west coast of India were ever called Bengalis in the first place. According to Wilkinson "Benggala" was a descriptive adjective not only for persons but also for articles imported from the port of Calcutta such as Indian onions or potatoes. Anybody arriving by ship from there would acquire that name. This would be reinforced by usage from the days when the East India Company at Fort William (Calcutta) governed the Straits Settlements. After the British took over the ancient civilisation of Bengal, the area was gradually extended to cover the whole territory garrisoned by the Bengal Army. A map of 1836 shows the British possessions, controlled from Calcutta, stretching eastward through Assam to the borders of Myanmar and to the northwest to engulf Delhi and much of the the Sikh states under British "protection". In India at first, a "Bengali" was a person from the province itself but as the territory spread, so the word embraced others throughout north India, including Sikhs. The Sikhs were quite rightly admired for their martial abilities and bravery. In two world wars they garnered almost half of the decorations awarded to the Indian Army. From the middle of the 19th century a number of Sikh battalions and regiments were raised for the Indian army. They served in such bodies as the Shanghai Municipal Police and the Tanjong Pagar Dock Police Force in Singapore. In 1873 the famous Captain Speedy of Larut recruited 110 Sikhs from the Punjab for the Perak Armed Police, enlarging to the 1st Perak Sikhs (1888) and then the Malay States Guides (1896). They were disbanded after the Great War and replaced at their depot at Taiping by the Burma Rifles - despite the name, another Sikh unit! Following on Speedy's success, the elite Sikh Police Contingent was raised and stationed at the Sepoy Lines, Pearl Hill. They were inspected just prior to the Japanese invasion by the Maharajah of Patiala when their commanding officer was Claude Fenner who escaped to join Force 136 and eventually rose to Inspector-General of the Royal Malaysian Police and was knighted. There were Sikhs in a little-known Malay Indian Regiment (the MIR) which between the wars supplied guards for anti-piracy duties on vessels sailing to Hong Kong. Sikhs also filled the ranks of the Royal Naval Base Police at both Singapore and Hong Kong and in various army depots while every bank and godown had a Sikh jaga with his charpoy. It should not be thought that only Sikh servicemen emigrated here. In the 1880s, others began to arrive, small businessmen, shopkeepers and farmers with their dairy cows - a familiar sight over the next hundred years or so. Many of their children reached high posts in government, the judiciary and as other professionals the Sikhs have served useful purposes in all levels of society. Although Sikhs are Punjabis, following Anglo-Indian usage and having arrived from the port of Calcutta, it is easy to see how they were called Bengalis. It is a rather ironic name as they fought against Hindu mutineers of the Bengal Army and because it is applied, more correctly, to the less martial Bangladeshis. ..TX: Captain Philip Rivers Cameron Highlands India Times Myanmar rejects US rights report YANGON: Myanmar's ruling military Sunday rejected a damning US State Department human rights report claiming its accounts of widespread abuses were based on ``hearsay.'' The generals said Washington had based its review of Myanmar in its annual global report on human rights performances on ``wrong information and biased sources.'' ``The government of Myanmar believes it is absolutely improper and insensitive to accuse other nations or governments just based on hearsay evidence,'' a statement from the spokesman's office said. The statement accused the US using allegations of human rights abuses, including rape and torture of ethnic minorities as well as forced labour, to justify policies such as sanctions toward Myanmar. It said the US allegations were ``ridiculous'' and ignored unspecified developments within the country. ``They remind us of a popular Western _expression_, `my mind is made up, do not confuse me with facts'.'' Washington on Friday slammed Myanmar's military government for continued severe and brutal repression of its people accusing it of a wide array of human rights abuses during 1999. ``Citizens continued to live subject at any time and without appeal to the arbitrary and sometimes brutal dictates of the military regime'', the report said in a 47-page section on Myanmar. (AFP) The Nation - Feb 28. 2000. Security beef-up at refugee camp
MAE HONG SON - Thai authorities will beef up security at Ban Thasala, a Burmese refugee camp in Mae Sariang district, following the discovery of hidden firearms inside the camp and a trail leading out of the camp towards a combat zone in Tak province, Mae Sariang's district chief said yesterday. Soawarat Yimrungrueng said Mae Hong Son Governor Pot Uthana had been asked to deploy additional defence volunteers as a security measure to prevent any outbreak of violence at the camp, which houses some 10,000 displaced persons fleeing fighting between Burmese government forces and dissidents near Tha Song Yang district in Tak province. Soawarat said that on Feb 21 Thai authorities had arrested Aung Sai, a dissident Burmese student leader, and seven others at a house in Mae Hong Son town. They were taken to Ban Thasala. "After surveying the camp of displaced persons in Ban Thasala who had fled fighting along the border, we found firearms and a trail out of the camp that some may have used to go to the front line in Tha Song Yang district in Tak province," he said. In addition Thai authorities found more than 100 documents in Burmese, military uniforms, medicine, army sacks and written material supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy leader. "We're getting the material translated to see what is and whether it affects Thai security. If so, we'll take drastic measures, that is ask the provincial authorities to move the camp," the district chief said. The Nation |