Khalistan
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Historical Background
Khalistan (Gurmukhi: ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ) was the name given to a proposed nation-state encompassing much of the area of Punjabi-speaking India and Pakistan, which formed part of the old Sikh Kingdom. Khalistani sepratists declared their independence from India on October 7, 1987. However, this declaration was not recognized by any nation. The idea of an independent Sikh state -- Khalistan, to its current proponents -- is not new. The last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh (1666-1708 AD), effectively started a Sikh state in 1699 when he created the Khalsa Panth - the Sikh Commonwealth - which Sikhs entered through a religious ceremony known as the Amrit.
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In the 19th Century the followers of Guru Gobind Singh, inspired by religious zeal, were able to transform a purely religious sect into a formidable military confederacy in the early part of the 18th century. Maharaja Ranjit Singh brought together the theocratic confederacy into a Sikh Kingdom. The Kingdom lasted for half a century, until its collapse at Sobroan. The Sikh state managed to resist Mughal domination, but became part of the British Empire in the mid-1840's. The region came under British rule when the East India Company annexed the Punjab on March 29, 1849, and was made a province of British India, with Lahore as its capital. The provice contained 34 princely states, whose local rulers were under the provincial governor's authority.
In 1947, India gained independence, though not as a whole. She was divided along religious lines into Muslim Pakistan and mainly Hindu India. What followed was a violent and bloody mass migration, one of the largest in history, with Hindus and Muslims crossing the border to and from India and Pakistan. Partition also resulted in the division of the Punjab province between India and Pakistan, with certain small kingdoms like Ratnavali, ceding to Pakistan. The Indian portion of the former province became Punjab state in 1950, while the former princely states federated into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, or PEPSU. PEPSU was merged into Punjab state in 1956. Because Punjab included many Hindi speaking areas, many people in Punjab demanded a Punjabi speaking state. Punjab was divided along linguistic lines into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh states in 1966. The 1966 reorganization created a smaller Punjab state populated mostly by Sikhs and a predominantly Hindu Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Haryana includes the southern part of former Punjab and Himachal Pradesh includes the part of Punjab that lay in the Himalaya and its foothills. Chandigarh, on the boundary between East Punjab and Haryana, is the capital of both states, but is administered as a Union Territory from Delhi.
Sikh Discontent
Sikhs Gain, then Lose, then Gain Majority Status
During India's Independence movement, and especially during the 1920's and the 1930's, the Sikhs felt threatened and pressurized by the political struggle between Muslims and Hindus. In general, the Sikhs allied themselves with Hindus to counter the power of the Muslims, who were a majority in most areas of Punjab.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the movement for independence from Great Britain gained steam. Sikhs felt increasingly threatened by the political and religious activism between both Muslims and Hindus. Generally, Sikhs allied with Hindus to counterbalance the power of the Muslims. After partition, a majority of the Sikhs fled Pakistani Punjab and made their way to Indian Punjab. About a year after Independence, the Indian government consolidated the Punjab's princely states into a single unit, called the PEPSU. This unit had a Sikh Majority. Encouraged by gaining a majority status, the Shirmani Akali Dal, chief political party of the nationalistic Sikhs, started making demands for a Sikh state within the Indian union. Fearing a further division of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, tried to weaken Sikh political strength by combining Sikhs and Hindus into a larger state. In 1956, the Indian government combined PEPSU with (today's) Haryana and parts of Himachal Pradesh, to create the state of Punjab. In addition to this, the government declared that Punjab was a bilingual state, with both Punjabi and Hindi as the official languages. This was contrary to existing state boundaries which were along linguistic lines, and where each state had its official language. In the merged state, Sikhs made up only 35% of the population, and as s result, lost the majority status that they had in PEPSU. The actions of the Indian government angered many Sikhs.
Ten years after the the creation of bilingual Punjab, the Indian government reversed its actions. The boundaries of the Indian state of Punjab were redrawn. There was new land added to the existing state of Himachal Pradesh, and the rest was divided into two states - Punjab (60% Sikh) and Haryana (90% Hindu). The revision of state boundaries served to eliminate Sikh Discontent over the 1956 actions of the Indian government and also to reward the Sikhs for the loyalty, patriotism, and contributions to the 1965 war with Pakistan. The 1966 actions of the Indian government were also designed to give the Sikhs a state where their religion and language would be locally dominant. However, the creation of the new Punjab state went against Nehru's idea of a secular India. Nehru opposed the reorganization of state boundaries on the basis of religion, even though he permitted it for linguistic reasons. The issue with Sikhs presented a tricky issue because the Sikh language and religious identity are intertwined.
For most Sikhs, the 1966 creation of the state of Punjab gave them the majority status that they had long demanded. Other Sikhs, however, demanded a Sikh state independent of India.
Indira Gandhi's Actions
Sikhs made up the majority of the population of Punjab in 1966. However, they were not united politically. The Farmers mainly supported the Shiromani Akali Dal, while urban Sikhs, wealthy landowners, and Hindus supported Indira Gandhi's Congress Party. Both parties agreed on the issue of keeping Punjab within India. Disagreement rose on the issue of according Sikhism special privileges and protection. This position contradicted the Congress Party's vision of a secular India with no special favors or protection given to any particular religion. The Shiromani Akali Dal attempted to enact new laws designed to strengthen Sikhism, through the Punjab parliament. However, these actions were successfully opposed by the Congress party.
In 1980, Indira Gandhi exploited the differences among Sikhs to gain political power for the Congress Party. She supported Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a radical Sikh teacher. Her motive behind this action was the weaken the Shiromani Akali Dal. She believed that she could split the Sikh vote-bank into opposing camps thereby securing victory for the Congress Party, and as a result, control the Punjab legislature.
The Militancy
The Congress (I) party followed a strategy of alternating communal incitement and appeasment, which were based on a desire for the popular vote and a control of the religious affairs of the Sikhs through the Shiromani Gurudware Prabadhak Committe (SGPC). The SGPC is the body that administered Sikh religious affairs and places of worship. This explosive mix of unprincipled politics and manipulation of religious identities and communities succeeded in bringing the lunatic fringe of the Sikh far right into the forefront of State politics. Nowhere is this more evident than in Indira Gandhi's support of Bhindranwale, which succeeded in bringing a rather obscure, and radical teacher to the forefront. His political demands started attracting young male Sikhs. His most radical (and important) demand was the establishment of an Independent Khalistan, separate from India. Bhindranwale exploited the political frustrations of the Sikhs and succeeded in mobilizing a fundamentalist platform. Despite his seccessionist ideals, he was supported by the Congress (I) in the SGPC elections of 1979, though only 4 of his 40 candidates were able to secure seats.
Bhindranwale continued his radical actions. He armed his followers and they begain attacking Hindus and moderate Sikhs who did not support an independent Khalistan. Violence exploded all through the state of Punjab. Between 1981 and 1983, terrorists had killed 101 civilians. 75 of these were killed in 1983 itself. By cleverly exploiting the sentiments of the populace, he was able to raise his stature to the level of an icon. Repeated attempts were made by the government to gain custody of Bhindranwale - however, no overt attempt was made to arrest Bhindranwale himself. These actions only serverd to make Bhindranwale seem invincible and gained him more supporters. He moved freely across Punjab and even through the nation's capital, armed with sophisticated weaponry and his followers. His source of weaponry has been widely speculated to be Pakistan's ISI (See Pakistani involvement in Khalistan Insurgency).
When the government arrested one of Bhindranwale's close associates Amrik Singh, the President of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), on July 19, 1982, Bhindranwale decided to move into the sanctuary of the Golden Temple complex. What followed was a continuous sequence of sacrilege and desecration, as the holiest sites of the Sikhs became the headquarters for terror in Punjab. Between January 1, 1984 and June 3, 1984, terrorists killed 298 persons based on commands that were issued from the headquarters set up in the Golden Temple.
On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182, flying out of Toronto, Canada exploded over the Irish Sea, which until September 11, 2001 attacks was the worst single act of aviation terrorism globally. The chief suspects, three Canadian Sikhs who were said to be fighting for an independent Khalistan, were Talwinder Singh Parmar, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, the former was killed in 1992 in a police encounter, while the latter two were acquitted of all charges related to the bombing of Flight 182 by the British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada, on March 16, 2005. To date, only Canadian/British Inderjit Singh Reyat has been convicted of having any part in Flight 182's destruction. This was done via a plea bargain immediately after completing his 10 year prison sentence in 2001, for his part in constructing the bomb involved in the Air India Flight 301 explosion in Japan. Inderjit Singh Reyat will be freed from custody in 2006.
Indira Gandhi realized that she could no longer control Bhindranwale. On June 3, 1984, she set into motion Operation Bluestar. She ordered the Indian Army to flush the terrorists out of the temple. The highly criticized and hastily executed Operation Bluestar virtually destroyed the Akal Takht and also destroyed many other sacred and revered buildings within the Golden Temple complex. However, interviews with Army officers involved in the Operation seem to suggest that the main concern was to contain the insurgercy before it could evolve into a full-fledged movement for independence. Indian intelligence already suspected the involvement of Pakistani elements in the Khalistan insurgency. They feared that a declaration of Independence would prompt General Zia's government in Pakistan to recognize Khalistan and lead to the subsequent involvement of the Pakistani Army. More than a hundred Army officers and men died in the operation, and over 550 innocent civilians were killed in the crossfire. Operation Bluestar did incalculable damage, which was further excarberated by Operation Woodrose, which was a "mopping up" operation conducted by the Army. The indiscriminate actions of Operation Woodrose succeeded in pushing many young Sikhs across the border into the arms of Pakistani handlers. Even as the militancy drew to a close, the terrible tragedy was compounded by the pitiless massacre of Sikhs in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assasination by her own two Sikh security guards.
End of Militancy and Aftermath
Official government sources admit that more than 20,000 people were killed between 1984 and 1985 as a result of the insurgency. However, others claim that the number may be five times higher than what is suggested by the Indian government. Sikhs are also demanding justice for the thousands of Sikh youths who were illegally detained, tortured, and murdered by police (as a result of Operation Woodrose). Private Sikh organizations are currently investigating the abuse of power by state police during the campaign against the insurgency.
Attacks by Sikh militants have dropped markedly since 1992, as Indian security forces killed or captured a host of senior Militant Sikh leaders and scored other successes against extremist groups. Total civilian deaths in Punjab have declined by more than 95 per cent since 1991. Since 1995, some semblance of normalcy has been restored to Punjab. Political power has once again returned to the local authorities. The Shiromani Akali Dal and its allies were able to security victory in the 1997 elections, replacing the Congress party at both the state and federal levels of government.
Today
The Khalistan movement does not have very many supporters today. There are however, a small number of supporters, mainly in Canada. In the late 1990's there was a shift by the Government of India in addressing some of the Sikh social, political and economic concerns that led to the insurrection following Operation Blue Star in the first place. The Khalistani movement and its aftermath is a dark page in Indian history. It was a result of underhanded and immoral political tactics designed to secure power rather than care for the welfare of the people. It was also a result of unscrupulous leaders manipulating the religious passions of a people for their own personal gain.
References
- South Asia: Punab - Demands for Khalistan (http://www.cet.edu/earthinfo/sasia/punjab/PJtopic6.html)
- Punjab Backgrounder (http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/punjab/backgrounder/index.html)
- The Khalistan Movement In Punjab (http://www.yale.edu/ycias/globalization/punjab.pdf)
- The Hon. Rep. Dan Burton's Links to Global Terrorism (http://www.geocities.com/charcha_2000/essays/Burton_19.html)
- Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Analysis by South Asia Analysis Group (http://www.saag.org/papers3/paper287.html)
- Official Site of The Council of Khalistan (http://www.Khalistan.com)
- Khalistan Government in Exile (http://www.Khalistan.net)
- Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail (http://http://www.asht.info)
- All About Sikhs (http://allaboutsikhs.com/events/punjsuba.htm)
- CBC News: Air India Indepth Report (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/airindia/)
- CBC News: Sikh Militancy (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/airindia/sikh.html)
- Anadpur Resolution (http://www.maboli.com/Sikh_HR/pages/background.htmld/anandpur_resolution.html)de:Khalistan