The Khalistan Movement

During the course of history, mankind has witnessed some very gruesome assassinations, especially of the powerful leaders. From the stabbing of Julius Caesar, to the quite literally dramatic shooting of Abraham Lincoln, every event has its own unique backstory: this could simply be a few years in power or centuries of civil unrest or sometimes both. Today, we'll be exploring one of the biggest independence movements ever and how it led to a ruthless killing that would change the course of history for the years to come. 

c.1930, India - Nehru's Congress decrees the Purna Swaraj (or the Declaration of Independence), which revolves around fighting for independence of India from the British rule. India being a majorly Hindu country (hence the original name Hindustan), the idea of being their own autonomous state was rather favourable. However, for the non-Hindu population, they weren't too fond of being governed by a predominantly Hindu cabinet. Main figures who spoke against the Purna Swaraj included Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who represented the Muslim population and went on to becoming the leader of Pakistan after the partition (India being split into India and Pakistan shortly after the departure of the British); B.R Ambedkar, who represented the Dalits; and Master Tara Singh, who stood for the Sikh community. How does all this relate to Khalistan? Just hold tight, we'll get there later. 

This opposition from these figures was the inception of the call for independence from Hindustan, to form their own self-governed states as a result of religious differences. The demand for the independence of the Sikhs escalated to what became the Khalistan Movement. Their demand was rejected by the government several times, but that didn't stop them. The movement continued for so long that in 1966, when Indira Gandhi was sworn into power as the PM of India, it seemed relentless. 

The Sikh community were predominantly based in the state of Punjab. However, there was a part of its population who followed Hinduism and spoke Hindi. To provide them with religious independence, the government performed a trifurcation of the Punjabi state i.e. they split it up into three parts. One was Punjab, the Sikh community which spoke Punjabi, the second was Haryana, the Hindi speaking population, and the third was Chandigarh, which was established as a new capital for Eastern Punjab controlled by the government. This didn't really work. Whilst the Sikhs did get some sort of independence by having their own state, they were still a part of India and was governed just like any other state by a Hindu capital. You can imagine they weren't too satisfied with what they got in the end. 

Going back to the Khalistan movement, one of the biggest supporters was a man named Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who quickly rose to become the leader of the movement. They tied hands with the Akali Dal, a Sikh-centric political party, and turned the movement into an extremist insurgency. Bhindranwale called on the Sikh community to utilise violence to gain their freedom, saying that every Sikh should kill at least 32 Hindus if they wanted to resolve the ongoing conflict. The movement reached its peak under his rule, as people resorted to bombings, kidnappings and even the massacre of civilians. As a result of this, over 22000 Sikhs and Hindus were killed including 12000 civilians. 

Naturally, Bhindranwale was not extremely popular with the government, so he decided to take refuge in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. For two whole years, the government were unable to react to the protests and chaos, even after splitting Punjab. Finally, in 1984, Indira Gandhi staged Operation Blue Star, which was a national security mission to kill Khalistani separatists as well as capture Bhindranwale. The mission was so serious that all media sources were blacked out and all travel was suspended. From 1 June to 8 June of that year, 83 Indian soldiers and around 500 civilians were killed, although sources state that the actual figure us much higher than that. During gunfire, Bhindranwale was killed and the mission came to a halt. 

Now you may think it's all well for the Indian government now that the Khalistan movement was somewhat smothered. Not if you were Indira Gandhi you weren't. On 31 October 1984, two of her bodyguards, who were Sikhs, fired over 30 bullets at her, 23 of them passing through her body and the rest staying inside. An act of revenge which turned the whole country upside down. Anti-Sikh riots broke out resulting in more than 8000 Sikhs being killed. Pro Khalistan groups were forced out of the country as they settled in places around the world, including as far as Canada. Even today, certain groups exist which have sparked civil unrest in places all over the world. One such group is the SFJ, Sikhs for Justice. Now this is where it gets a bit interesting. The leader of the SFJ has stated that once they set up their Khalistan, they will have headquarters in Lahore in Pakistan. Now how on earth do Pakistan come into the picture, here? India and Pakistan have not always gotten along with each other since the partition - it would take me a whole other blogpost to explain the conflict in depth. After the loss of East Pakistan, which is now known as Bangladesh, Pakistan stated that they are looking to take a chunk off India. I think it's pretty clear where they're eyeing.

Overall, we have looked at the inception of the Khalistan movement and the fight for an independent Sikh state, and how certain extremist activities caused the whole country to descend into unstoppable violence and disorder. The scars of these events still remain to this day as the fight for independence goes on.