This past Sunday marked the one-hundredth birth anniversary of Rajguru, who was a close associate of Bhagat Singh, the most revered martyr of India.

Born on Aug. 24, 1908 in India’s Maharashtra state, Rajguru was sentenced to death — along with Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, both Punjabis — for killing a British police officer. The three men were hanged together on March 23, 1931.

Though the Indo-Canadian community celebrated Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary last year, with Burnaby City Council evening issuing a proclamation in recognition of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru’s one-hundredth birthday was virtually ignored.

Since Punjabis, particularly Sikhs, dominate the Indo-Canadian community in Metro Vancouver, their enthusiasm over Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary is understandable.

But the birth centenary of Sukhdev, who was born the same year as Bhagat Singh, was also ignored.

While Sukhdev was a Hindu, Bhagat Singh was born to a Sikh family. It’s a separate matter that he died as an atheist — some Sikh politicians give too much importance to his religious background.

On Independence Day this year, Bhagat Singh’s statue was unveiled in the Indian parliament. While India’s Sikh politicians insisted that his turbaned statue be installed, Bhagat Singh’s picture with a hat is still very prominent.

Thanks to the diversity of India, the freedom struggle gave birth to revolutionaries who crossed all religious and cultural boundaries to drive the British rulers out of their country.

Despite the show of unity by these heroes, Indian society continues to divide these martyrs along religious and caste lines.

On my recent visit to India, I observed two instances that reflect this mindset.

I saw a hoarding with a message from the Kamboj community in Haryana state that glorified Udham Singh, another prominent Indian martyr. This was because Udham Singh was a Kamboj. Likewise, a gate on the road leading to the house of Sukhdev in Ludhiana, Punjab, greeted visitors on behalf of a society run by Thapars, the clan Sukhdev belonged to.

It is worth mentioning that the revolutionaries who were operating at that time from North America launched the Gadhar party. Although the majority of them were Sikhs, their policy was to keep religion and politics apart.

Still, a section of Canadian Sikhs emphasizes too much the ethnicity of their historical heroes. Ironically, those martyrs sacrificed their lives for a united and secular India.

Indian society has a long way to go to set itself free from the blinkers of religion and caste, which indeed led to the religious partition of the country in 1947.