Last week, the United Nations confirmed that it has received a $10,000 “donation” from the Pro-Khalistan group, Sikhs for Justice. The US-based secessionist movement that was banned by the Indian government in 2019, has also started lobbying the UN to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the alleged mistreatment of farmer protesters. After the controversial flag hoisting on the Republic day, the Pro-Khalistan movement has started getting a huge amount of attention. To understand where the movement stands in India today, we need to go back to its roots which starts before India’s independence in 1947.
Pre-Independence of India
The declaration of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and the religio-political vision that came with it fired the Sikh imagination with the belief that it was their God-given right to rule Punjab. In the early 19th century, Sikh forces captured Sirhind, the most powerful Mughal administrative center between Delhi and Lahore, and established a capital in nearby Mukhlispur. However, the rule was short-lived and by the time the British started taking control of India, Khalsa Raj was declining.
Before the 1947 partition of India, Sikhs were not in majority in any of the districts of pre-partition British Punjab Province other than Ludhiana. Rather, districts in the region had a majority of either the Hindus or Muslims depending on its location in the province. Since the division of territories was based on religion, Punjab province then having a Hindu-majority remained in India.
Post-Independence
After the independence, though the movement seemed to have lost its momentum, India’s problems on the other hand, had not died down. India still struggled from the wounds of colonialism and poverty, violence and huge disparities in wealth and education. This led to an entanglement of a myriad of problems, whose effect was felt in Punjab too. In the agriculture rich state of Punjab, the income inequality was further increased by the Green Revolution in the 1960s which attempted to revolutionise farming methods.
Then India’s Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi had agreed in 1970 to transfer Chandigarh to the recently divided Punjab as its sole capital, that simple act had never been carried out, for Haryana’s mainly Hindu populace vigorously demanded adequate compensation if their state were to be deprived of such a valuable asset.
Mrs. Gandhi tried to appease Sikh frustrations by appointing a Sikh, Zail Singh, as her home minister, in charge of police nationwide, yet most of the leaders in Chandigarh and Amritsar distrusted Singh and soon came to distrust Gandhi even more.
On 7 September 1966, the Punjab Reorganisation Act was passed in Parliament, implemented with effect beginning 1 November 1966. Accordingly, Punjab was divided into the state of Punjab and Haryana, with certain areas to Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh was made a centrally administered Union territory.
Operation Bluestar
By the early 1980s some Sikhs were calling for more than mere separate provincial statehood, instead demanding nothing less than a nation-state of their own, an autonomous Sikh Khalistan. Moderate leaders like Harchand Longowal who was elected the president of SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) in 1980 were unsuccessful in averting a civil war by trying to negotiate a settlement of Sikhs with the INC in Delhi.
However, extremists like Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale won the support of many younger devout Sikhs around Amritsar, who were armed with automatic weapons and launched a violent movement for Khalistan that took control of the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple. In these years, violence in Punjab grew in huge numbers.
The election was to be called in January 1985. Gandhi, in the fear of being judged as weak by the Hindu majority voter bank of India, launched Operation Bluestar (code-named) in 1984 against the Golden Temple.
Early in June, after a night of artillery fire, they moved tanks and troops into the temple precincts, and for four days and nights the battle raged, until Bhindranwale and most of his snipers were dead. Hundreds of innocent people were caught in the crossfire, and at least 100 soldiers died. In retaliation, on October 31, 1984, Gandhi herself was shot dead by two of her own Sikh guards inside her garden in New Delhi. This led to a huge spike in the violence between Hindu and Sikh groups, wherein cars and businesses were set on fire and religion based crimes were at their peak since the independence.
In the parliamentary elections of 1989, Sikh separatist representatives were victorious in 10 of Punjab's 13 national seats and had the most popular support. The Congress cancelled those elections and instead hosted a Khaki election. The separatists boycotted the poll. The voter turnout was 24%. The Congress won this election and used it to further its anti-separatist campaign. Most of the separatist leadership was wiped out and the moderates were suppressed by the end of 1993.
Present day
Currently, the movement has lost most of the traction it earlier held. The movement recently came to negative light during the farmer’s protests in and around the country’s capital where the incumbent government blamed the Pro-Khalistan leaders for spreading misinformation about the farm laws. Although the movement does receive support from India’s old rival, Pakistan, it has generally been insignificant and inconsequential.
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