The tensions between India and Canada again have flared up over the Khalistan issue. What is the Khalistan movement? When did the movement start and why? What was the Anandpur Sahib Resolution? Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.

 

Knowledge Nugget: Khalistan movement

Subject: History 

Relations between India and Canada, strained on Monday (October 14), when India ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats while also announcing its decision to withdraw the Indian High Commissioner to Canada and “other targeted diplomats,”  citing security concerns after Ottawa identified them as “persons of interest” in its investigation into the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

1. The Khalistan movement is a fight for a separate, sovereign Sikh state in present day Punjab (both India and Pakistan). Over the years, it has survived in various forms, in various places and amongst different populations.

2. The Khalistan movement was crushed in India following Operation Blue Star (1984) and Operation Black Thunder (1986 and 1988), but it continues to evoke sympathy and support among sections of the Sikh population, especially in the Sikh diaspora in countries such as Canada, the UK, and Australia.

3. The origins of the khalistan movement have been traced back to India’s independence and subsequent Partition along religious lines. The Punjab province, which was divided between India and Pakistan, saw some of the worst communal violence and generated millions of refugees: Sikhs and Hindus stranded on the west (in Pakistan) rushed to the east, whereas Muslims in the east fled westward.

4. Lahore, the capital of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s great Sikh Empire, went to Pakistan, as did holy Sikh sites including Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. While most Sikhs found themselves in India, they were a small minority in the country, making up around 2 per cent of the population. It led to a sense of loss among Indian Sikhs, with culturally and religiously important cities, such as Lahore and Nankana Sahib, going to Pakistan.

5. The political struggle for greater autonomy began around the time of Independence, with the Punjabi Suba Movement for the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state. The States Reorganisation Commission, in its 1955 report, rejected this demand, but in 1966, after years of protest, the state of Punjab was reorganised to reflect the Punjabi Suba demand.

6. The erstwhile Punjab state was trifurcated into the Hindi-speaking, Hindu-majority states of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, and the Punjabi-speaking, Sikh-majority Punjab.

7. Even as the movement finds little resonance in the Sikh population within India, it survives in parts of the Sikh diaspora in countries like Canada, the US, and the UK. In fact, the Khalistan movement had been a global movement from its inception. The first declaration for a separate Sikh state was made in the United States, in a publication no less significant than The New York Times. On October 12, 1971, an advertisement in The New York Times proclaimed the birth of Khalistan. “Today we are launching the final crusade till victory is achieved … We are a nation in our own right”, it said.

Operation Bluestar

7. The Punjabi Suba movement galvanised the Akali Dal, making it a major force in the new Sikh-majority Punjab. The Congress faced tough opposition from the Akali Dal in the Legislative Assembly elections of 1967 and 1969. However, in 1972, following Indira Gandhi’s significant victory in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, the Akali Dal’s performance in the state was disappointing.

8. In 1973, the party convened at the sacred town of Anandpur Sahib, the birthplace of the Khalsa, and released a list of demands that would shape the political direction of the Akali Dal. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution, among other things, called for autonomy for the state of Punjab, identified regions that would be part of a separate state, and sought the right to frame its own internal constitution.

9. The Akali Dal was trying to cash in on the growing demand for an autonomous state which had emerged alongside the Punjabi Suba movement and had gone global by 1971 — when an advertisement appeared on The New York Times proclaiming the birth of Khalistan.

10. While the Akalis clarified that they were not seeking secession from India, the Anandpur Sahib Resolution raised serious concerns for the Indian state.

(Sources: the Khalistan movement, History of the Khalistan movement in Canada)

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