Bhupinder Singh Holland

Prince Claus Radio Netherlands

Prince Claus, husband of Queen Beatrix of Holland died on October 6, 2002 at the age of 76. He was burried with full royal honor at New Church in Delft City on Tuesday October 15, besides the graves of Willem van Oranje (died in 1584), founder of House of Oranje - the Royal Dutch Family.

Prince Claus became the forty-fourth member of the royal family to be burried there. Princes Wilhelmina, who ruled Holland till 1948, the grand mother of the present queen Beatrix was buried there last in 1962. More than 140 countries participated in the ceremony including Prince Charles of England, the King and Queen of Belgium, Spain, and Denmark.

Prince Claus was well-liked by not only the Dutch but also countries in Africa and Asia, including India, where he was instrumental in pursuing projects for eradication of poverty and education. He was a champion in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, which was once an important colony of Holland. Under his guidance Holland gained an enviable place among the nations of Europe.

Carriage arrives at the last peace place October 15, 2002 (12:00 PM local time). Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau

The body of the deceased Prince was placed in the Noordeind Palace in Den Haag for public viewing where tens of thousands of people paid tributes to their departed leader. The respect Prince Claus had in the hearts of his people is evident from the long queues in the front of the palace where people waited for over three hours to get a glimpse of this great son of Holland.

Twenty-thousand Dutch Sikhs expressed sorrow at his passing. A Sikh delegation representing the community from across the Netherlands and including the three Gurdwaras of Holland laid Krans of flowers at Noodeind Palace.

I feel humbled to be allowed to lay a wreath on behalf of the international Sikh community. Messages of condolence were also signed by the delegates that included S Kuldip Singh, S Sitara Singh, S Jatinder Singh, Sardarni Rita Singh (Den Haag), S Gursev Singh, S Sohan Singh, S Manjot Singh, Sardarni Gurpreet Kaur (Amsterdam), S.Jagtar Singh (Rotterdam) and others.

Sikhs offered ardas (prayer) and it was covered by National Dutch TV and the press. It should be noted that Sikhs have enjoyed good relations with local communities and we thank them for it. For their part, the Dutch are appreciative of the services rendered by Sikh soldiers who safely transported their citizens back to Holland from Indonesia at the end of the second Word War.

Mourners gather to pay their final respects to the departed monarch. Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau

A brief account on the life and times of William van Oranje follows. It is written by Harjinder Singh Khalsa, a friend formerly from Holland who now lives in the UK.

Prince Claus - William Van Oranje

Willem van Oranje, better known as Willem de Zwijger (the taciturn, the silent) (1533-1584), was born in Germany as the eldest son of the Lutheran Protestant count and countess of Nassau. At the age of 11 he inherited the principality of Orange in France, and with this and the family properties in Germany and the Netherlands, he became an important member of the nobility.

Charles V, Emperor of Germany (much bigger than the present Germany), who was also King of Spain (including most of Latin America) and Lord of the Netherlands (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and a big part of northern France), thought he had become too important to be left alone, and demanded that Willem should come to the court in Brussels. From then on he was brought up as a Roman Catholic.

In 1555 the successor to Charles V in the Netherlands and Spain appointed Willem as his governor (stadhouder) for the Netherlands, as the new king was based in Madrid. This new king was in many ways worse than Aurangzeb, and supported those in the Roman Catholic Church who wanted to root out the Protestants by burning the heretics alive. Willem van Oranje joined the rebellion against the rule from Spain. He became a Calvinist, who were the main Protestant group in the Netherlands.

It is difficult to judge how religious Willem de Zwijger was. But what is clear is that he was not like many Calvinists, who were in favour of killing Roman Catholics, like they killed the Protestants. He envisaged keeping all the provinces that formed the Netherlands together, the southern mainly Roman Catholic areas and the northern Protestant ones. He did not achieve this, as the Spanish army and its generals actively supported the religious bigots amongst the Catholics. Out of the rebellion came the republic of the (Northern) Netherlands, with Willem and his successors still with the title of Stadhouder (governor).

In the struggle against the Spanish two of Willem's brothers gave their lives on the battlefield, and Willem's eldest son was held at the court in Spain, his father never saw him again. Hired killers twice attacked Willem. After the first attack his wife died of exhaustion from nursing him, the second attack killed the prince.

But his sacrifices were not in vain. He did help to create a state where non-Catholics, like the Jewish philosopher Baruch de Spinoza, and non-conformists, like the French philosopher René Descartes, settled. Business, science and the arts were blooming, the tiny Republic was like the medieval republic of Venice, ruling the waves, together with a few other parts of the world. And the tradition of the Netherlands as a place more open-minded than most, has survived into our twenty-first century.

What am I trying to tell my Sikh readers? Not at all that Willem was another Guru Gobind Singh, he was not. But fighting for the rights of people to be Catholics, Jews, Protestants or of whatever persuasion, that is what Guru stands for. Sacrificing yourself and your family in the struggle sounds familiar too. And then there is the fight of a small 'nation' (in those days there were no nations as we understand them now in either Punjab or the Netherlands) against a big Empire, which reminds us of the fight of the Sikhs against the Moghuls.

The Dutch were more successful, as they established a flourishing independent state, but they did not have Nadr Shah or Ahmed Shah Abdali for neighbours. And they ruled the waves, which is a great neutral expanse.

Sikh delegation being received at Queen's Palace Noordeind on October 12, 2002. Author is third from right (standing). Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau

Photo Credit

HRH Prince Claus of Holland

Mourners and Carriage carrying the body of Prince Claus: Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau

Copyright ©2002 Bhupinder Singh. About the author