On April 23, 2023, Amritpal Singh, a leader of the Sikh religion in India, was arrested by the Central government on charges of treason. Singh had been on the run since that February for calling for the secession of his home state of Punjab, the only Sikh-majority State in India. Who are the Sikhs and why are they interested in independence? This episode we cover the Khalistan Movement on Springtime of Nations

Sikhism was founded in the 15th century, a branch off of the Hindu religion in modern day Eastern Pakistan. It grew a significant following over the next few centuries. Sikhs gained a national consciousness when Guru Arjan, the 5th of 10 Gurus of Sikhism was executed in 1606 for refusing to kowtow to the muslim Mughal rulers of india at the time. His son Hargobind, 11 years old, was thrust into the spiritual leadership and was also charged by his father with protecting the faith by arms if necessary. This began the era of the Mughal-Sikh wars. The Sikh people militarized and used fast cavalry units to defeat the forces of the Empire, and saw much success in maintaining their autonomy until in 1716 the Mughal Empire banned their religious practice, offering bounties for every sikh’s head and the Sikhs fled to the jungles of Punjab, fighting a true guerilla war until, by sacking the capital of Delhi in 1783 they were able to extract a settlement from the Mughals and were able to consolidate their power. By 1801 the Sikhs had a totally sovereign territory in modern day Punjab. This Sikh empire expanded to control a large area of muslim majority Northern India, and their anti-muslim policies (undoubtably molded by their own oppression by the Mughals) caused the empire to become weak, weak enough that in 1845 the British East India Company attacked the Sikhs and by 1849 incorporated them into their patchwork of client states. 

The 1857 Sepoy mutiny in India was an important moment in Sikh history. Sikhs stayed loyal to the British, and when Company rule was replaced by direct government by Her Majesty Sikhs became one of the most important nationalities in Colonial rule, making up a huge proportion of Army recruits for their population size. They served loyally in World War I on the side of the British, but the close feelings for the empire were threatened by the 1919 Amritsar Massacre where Sikh pro-independence activists (a minority of Sikhs at the time) were brutally killed by British gun fire, with estimates of the death toll running into the thousands. While the Sikhs still made up much of the British Indian Army in World War Two, the violent and non-violent wings of the Indian Independence Movement both had large numbers of Sikhs in them. The Amritsar Massacre was “avenged” in 1940 by a Sikh named Udham Singh who killed the Lt. Governor who endorsed the massacre. His words at his trial: 

“ He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?”

The post-war partition of India was not liked by the Sikh people. Much of Punjab was to be given to the proposed muslim state of Pakistan, and during the partition many Sikhs and Muslims killed eachother in disorganized violence, and the populations of both sides of the border flooded over eachother trying to escape religious persecution. This is why Punjab State in India is now majority Sikh instead of majority muslim as it had been. Sikhs continued their martial tradition by service in the Indian army in their various wars with Pakistan, but the failure of the Indian government to create a unified Punjab state with all its historical territory led to an increase in calls for Sikh autonomy. This was often led by the Sikh diaspora in the West, and in 1970 the Khalistan movement (for an independent Punjab) was “officially” launched in London by Jagjit Singh Chohan. Ironically, Chohan had support from Pakistan and was invited to the country following the disastrous 1971 Indo-Pakistani war that resulted in the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan. This obviously caused consternation in India, however the “Khalistan movement” in reality was not much of a movement and certainly not a security threat to the Indian state. Increased autonomy was very popular in Punjab, but full secession was not. This did not stop violence erupting between Hindu and Sikh civilians however, and the State of Punjab was declared in a state of emergency in 1983. A minority of Sikhs supported and were members of the Babbar and Dal Khalsa paramilitary units who WERE separatists, and allied with the communist Naxalites to resist and sabotage indian national police activity in Punjab and to acquire weapons from red China, which the Chinese had sent to destabilize India and help a nascent maoist revolution there. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the head of the autonomist movement was invited to stay at the holiest site in Sikhism, The Golden Temple in Amritsar where he and his followers stockpiled weapons and used it as a base of operations. The Soviet KGB, then friendly with the Indian state in its fight against the US backed Pakistan, falsely informed Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi that the Golden Temple housed Pakistani commandos for the purpose of creating a violent civil conflict in India. Acting on this, the government idiotically planned to attack the Temple, the holiest site in Sikh religion, on the anniversary of the execution of Guru Arjun. Sikhs from all over the world were flocking to Amristar to observe this holy day. A perfect storm had been set up.

Called Operation Blue Star, the Indian army operation commenced on 1 June 1984. The Indian forces at first besieged the Temple complex, then 3 days later started shelling it, without any warning to any civilians to evacuate the area. The following day, the 5th, a direct assault was undertaken and a bloodbath ensued. The militants traded machine gun fire with the army and used Chinese RPGs against the tanks and APCs that were authorized to use their cannons on the temple. When the smoke cleared on 10th of June with the last militants having been neutralized, hundreds of soldiers and hundreds of militants and probably an equal number of Sikh civilians lay dead. The aftermath was the deadliest civil unrest in Indian history since the partition. The violence radicalized the Sikh population even more towards Khalistani independence. In revenge for the mass murder, Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her and in reaction, a wave of anti-Sikh pogroms by Hindus killed as many as 17,000 Sikhs. This time, with insurgent units becoming much more active and organized, the Pakistani government did indeed help arm and train them to the detriment of India’s internal security. 3400 Indian security forces (including the Indian Army chief of Staff) and almost 8000 Sikh militants were killed, but the civilian death toll was a whole order of magnitude greater. Some have placed it in the neighborhood of 100,000 over the period 1986-1995, when the insurgency was finally crushed, and needless to say both sides engaged in atrocities and violations of civil liberties including suicide bombings, war rape, torture, and indefinite detention.

The story of Sikh violence has always developed in reaction to their repression. Sikhs were loyal soldiers for states that treated them with respect and appreciation for their martial virtues, and were vicious fighters against those who came to take their freedom away. Will the Indian government refuse to learn this lesson and exacerbate tensions between them and the Punjab? We at springtime of Nations pray this does not happen. Jai Khalistan! And may 1000 flowers bloom.