Senator Says, “Sorry, Sikhs”. Suggests Secret Service Scuttled Soiree, Said Someone Seemed Suspicious. Sikh Swords Scary.

Silly Senator. Sad Sikhs.

The Clinton campaign’s abrupt cancellation of scheduled appearances here is leaving members of the Sikh community dismayed and demanding an explanation.

Traditional food, elaborate costumes, and ritual sword fighting were on display as thousands of Sikhs celebrated a religious festival here yesterday, but the expected guest of honor, Senator Clinton, was a no-show. Mrs. Clinton also scuttled a fund-raising breakfast at a nearby fairgrounds where Sikh leaders had hoped to raise $1 million for her presidential campaign.

If you’re going to diss a group who is really interested in throwing you a party and donating a million bucks to your campaign, the Sikhs make a very poor choice. Did you notice that bit about “ritual sword fighting”? That’s a very, very long tradition among Sikh males who, once upon a time, all received a sword upon attaining manhood [Correction: Not just males! See the first comment below.]. Nowadays, the Sikhs are peaceful neighbors and good citizens. Once upon a time, it took the British two wars to subdue the Sikhs and fold them into their Empire. Once they were there, the British took advantage of their subjects’ martial ways and incredibly courage. Sikh soldiers were among the most highly-decorated in both World War I and II.

After the jump, more on why skipping out on the Sikhs makes for a bad idea.

First, though, I wanted to share this story, just because. Sikhs were at the top of the Allied sword in Burma, fighting an entrenched and determined Japanese Army. The Japanese, though, didn’t know what they were up against:

On March 11, 1943 the battalion was the advance party along the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road. The Japanese were holding a knife-edge hill feature and putting up stiff resistance. The only way to approach the hill was by means of a narrow track. On this track leading the attack was the section commanded by Naik Nand Singh. When the section reached the crest it came under heavy machinegun fire and every man in the section was killed or wounded. Naik Nand Singh dashed forward alone, he was wounded by a grenade as he neared the first Japanese trench. He took out his bayonet and killed the two occupants. Under heavy fire Nand Singh jumped up and charged the second trench, he was again wounded by a grenade and knocked down, but he got up and hurled himself into the trench again killing two Japanese with his bayonet. He then moved on to the third trench and captured it single-handed. With the capture of the third trench the enemy fire started to die away and the rest of the platoon charged the other Japanese positions, killing with bayonet and grenade thirty seven out of the forty Japanese holding it. Naik Nand Singh wounded six times in the assault literally carried the position single-handed. For his valour an immediate award of Victoria Cross was bestowed upon him.

Folks like that you don’t want to make angry. They have long memories. More, they are a group that still maintains strong familial ties back home to a region that is very, very important to us. The largest concentration of Sikhs live in Punjab, a state in India. There are also fair-sized Sikh communities across the Middle East and East Africa (as well as most Western nations like Canada, Australia, and Britain). It’s a good idea to have the Sikhs think well of us because word like that gets back home, where it can play a part in the politics there.

For someone who is worried about how we are considered abroad, it’s a foolish move for the Senator to blow off this party. The Secret Service appeared to have some misgivings, but they didn’t seem to be particularly well-founded and I’m sure that some determination on the Senator’s part could have sorted out the problem pretty quickly.

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