The Story Isn’t Over: History from the Margins

I get the pleasure to talk to Aman Bali from Kashmir, who is currently providing excellent on the ground coverage of the ongoing Kisaan-Majdoor protests in India, and Jodh Singh from America, who helps provide historical context and analysis. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ ★ Buy this podcast a coffee ★ We start off with what has caused these protests, we move on to how this spurned a people’s protest, seemingly bereft of any political impetus. To be cliché – a movement, for the people, by the people.  - We demarcate how these protests are not abrupt. In fact the protesting started back in June and the protests we now see in Delhi are simply the next step in the Kissan-Majdoor protest - that of increasing their own negotiation powers by bringing the protest to the capital. We take a look at the bills in some depth and, amongst a number of things, we demarcate how the socio-economic fabric of Punjab would be drastically altered. We start with the three main laws of contention - Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce, Promotion and Facilitation Act, Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement Act and the Essentials Commodity Amendment. We also discuss the two further ordinances – the air quality ordinance and the electricity amendment. We talk about sharecroppers, landgrabbing, middlemen, Mandis, Mandi Tax, MSP and alot more than I can fit in one post. Overall the one of the biggest themes that lept out is the appalling lack of legal redress any of these farmers would have if these bills were to be passed. In addition, it seems these laws are part of a bigger issue – India’s urgent want to industrialise almost overnight. A task which, as Aman Bali rightfully points out, needs to be done incrementally.  We look at the locus of the protests coming from Punjab and Haryana, the role of Sikhi and how the diaspora can help. We also dissect the idea that 250 million people have been protesting in Delhi.  

In this episode I get to talk with the man behind Sikh Archive. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ ★ Buy this podcast a coffee ★ We  start off the conversation talking about family, in particular his baby  daughter, Brexit, Punjab and tomatoes. We then dive into wider  migration patterns and how they affected his family. The difficulties in  tracing Punjabi family lineage, social and historical capital and the  legacy of colonial legislation. We then move onto more interesting  topics (one sent in by a number of followers) namely what does Sikh Archive say to those who accuse him of being too left-leaning? This  touches upon a number of things such as Kamala Harris, Marcus Rashford and identity politics. This then flows into a discussion regarding  what is justice? How do we engage with injustice, whether that be  historical injustice or societal injustice. We discuss Sikhs in the  military, integration and alignment to whiteness, the martial race  narrative and the Sikh nation. We round the episode off asking how  and why Sikh Archive was started, book recommendations, the Sikh ethos  of uprooting tyrannical systems and the changing landscape of Sikhi  & Gurdwaras.

Shabd has been someone who I’ve been following for a  while and inspired me to start my own podcast, so it was great to get to  know a bit more about him and I cannot thank him enough for taking the  time out to talk. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ ★ Buy this podcast a coffee ★ In this episode, we get to know a bit more about  Shabd and his upbringing near Washington DC in Northern Virginia,  amongst the 3HO community, his parents, who are both converts to Sikhi  through 3HO, his background including his mixture of Jewish, Basque and  Parisian ancestry, his attendance at Miri-Piri academy in Punjab, his  further education, a period of change in his life more recently and his  involvement in politics and how it took him further then he could have  imagined. Did you know his mum travelled overland through Afghanistan to reach India in the 1970s? We  continue and talk about how Shabd spends some of his spare time  focusing on his own podcast – The One: Intersection of Sikhi/Sikh  Affairs and Left/Progressive politics. How  Sikhi is more than a religion, a book called the “Jakarta Method” which  helps to map the American backing of the Indonesian death squads of the  1960s (resulting in the death of over a million people) and how this  was part of the CIA’s broader project of extinguishing the left wherever  it was. Those who doubt socialism and use a lack of historical examples  sometimes miss that since inception socialism has been aggressively  attacked and undermined by the USA and Western powers & specifically  undermined. Can Sikhs be part of a modern day military? How WWI  and WII are not unrelated or disconnected from colonialism and the  purpose of modern militaries. The tokenisation of Sikhs, the concept of  langar and the human right of food security, the relationship of  colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy. Malcolm X, truly  questioning the system, the Khalsa mindset, the acceptance of death,  learning and teaching and how Shabd tries to use this to keep grounded  when involved in politics. We then dive into Shabd’s upbringing as  a Sikh, experience of the 3HO community and the cult, criminal  activities and systems of abuse controlled by Yogi Bhajan. Shabd  outlines his own personal journey and the importance of Kashi House’s  accessible production of pre-colonial Sikh history that was particularly  helpful. Amongst other things, we round off the episode focusing on the  3HO community today, the entities and community of 3HO and why it is  important to identify and change the systems around us. We spoke  about so much more than that. More importantly, I learnt so much and  thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend time talking to Shabd Singh. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

In our very first episode of The ਸੋਚ Podcast, I get to talk with Satnam Singh from Denmark. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ ★ Buy this podcast a coffee ★ We  get to know a little bit about him and his upbringing in Denmark. We  discuss the importance of teachers, the books he is currently reading,  as well as a discussion about the need for impartiality when  researching. We continue and dive into the Anandpur Darbar and the  Early Misl Period. Just a few of the questions we discuss: What is the  Anandpur Darbar? Why the number 52? The Kavis Mansion in Anandpur and  the cultural, political and wider impacts of the Anandpur Darbar. The  discussion regarding the early Misl Period touches upon a number of  things, including a comparison with the Ottoman Empire of the time, how a  lot of the systems required for the success of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ji  were already setup during the misl period. We discuss art, literature  and culture under the early misl period and modern day auction houses.