Canada and India expelled top diplomats and issued travel advisories to their citizens this week after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Delhi of assassinating Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who advocated for a Sikh homeland distinct in northern India, named Khalistan.
India calls this allegation “absurd”. But he takes separatist activism seriously. The Khalistan movement has a long history in Punjab, reaching a violent peak in the 1980s with a series of assassinations, anti-Sikh riots, insurgent violence and a severe police crackdown that left thousands dead and driven from home. many Sikhs abroad. Most of the militant factions collapsed by the mid-1990s, but the movement never completely died.
Why we wrote this
The diplomatic drama unfolding between India and Canada has its roots in a decades-old movement for an independent Sikh state – a vision that sparked immense violence in the 1980s and continues to color the foreign policy of India.
Shinder Purewal, a political science professor in Canada who has studied the movement’s evolution in Western liberal democracies, says that while there is little public sympathy for its historically violent tactics, the desire for autonomy remains strong in the country. within the Sikh diaspora. And in recent years, the rise of Hindu nationalism has helped revive interest in Khalistan as a political idea, both domestically and abroad.
“Compared to the past, the movement is more restricted and weaker,” he says. “However, social media hype and years of cultivating relationships with the Liberal Party of Canada have given them a stronger voice in the upper echelons of power. »
Relations between India and Canada have become stormy after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week accused India of assassinating Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who actively campaigned for a separate Sikh homeland in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
Mr. Nijjar, who emigrated from India in 1997, was shot dead outside a temple in British Columbia in June. The Indian government had declared Mr. Nijjar a terrorist in 2020, accusing him of leading the banned militant group Khalistan Tiger Force.
Indian authorities have denied Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and warned Indian nationals of “increasing anti-Indian activities and politically tolerated hate crimes” in Canada. Both countries have expelled senior diplomats in response to the allegations and issued travel advisories to their citizens in a reciprocal move. India has also suspended visa services for Canadian citizens.
Why we wrote this
The diplomatic drama unfolding between India and Canada has its roots in a decades-old movement for an independent Sikh state – a vision that sparked immense violence in the 1980s and continues to color the foreign policy of India.
At the same time, escalating tensions have drawn renewed attention to the Sikhs’ demand for their own state, known as Khalistan.
What is the Khalistan movement?
The Sikh community’s call for an independent ethno-religious state dates back to the end of British colonial rule, although the Khalistan movement began to take formal shape in the late 1970s. Across Punjab, insurgents armed forces launched attacks on police and Indian army soldiers and effectively ran a parallel government in the region.
The insurgency reached its peak in 1984, when the Indian army stormed the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, and killed movement leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who had fortified the temple and made it his headquarters. While the Indian government estimates the death toll from Operation Blue Star at around 400, Sikh groups say thousands were killed, including pilgrims.
Three months later, in retaliation, Indira Gandhi, then Indian Prime Minister, was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, sparking riots in Delhi and other parts of the country that left thousands dead.
Jagtar Singh, a Punjab-based journalist who has written two books on the Khalistan movement, says Mr. Bhindranwale’s assassination made him an icon of Sikh resistance, sparking support for independence but also leading to a severe repression on the part of the Indian authorities.
In the chaotic years that followed, thousands of Sikhs – affiliated with the Khalistan movement and those who were not – emigrated abroad, including to the United Kingdom and Canada, now home to the largest large Sikh population outside India. Some, like Mr. Nijjar, brought with them Khalistani ideology. He sought refuge in Canada in 1997 and, after working as a plumber for a time, became an active activist.
In India, aggressive counterinsurgency, as well as internal infighting within the movement, led most of the major militant factions to collapse by the mid-1990s, but the movement never really died, Mr. Singh says.
Is the Khalistan movement still active today?
Although things are not always peaceful in Punjab, priorities on the ground have largely changed. Amandeep Sandhu, a Punjabi writer and journalist who closely follows the movement, says people “have moved away from the demands of the Khalistan movement” and now want better governance and jobs.
Yet experts note that the rise of Hindu nationalism, particularly within India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has helped revive interest in Khalistan as a political idea, both nationally and internationally. ‘stranger.
“The movement (originally Khalistan) was primarily an armed struggle, which does not exist now,” says Mr. Singh. “There are people who continue to raise the issue at the political level, including in the Indian Parliament. The way things are happening today – and affecting the national political discourse – it has certainly gained momentum.”
However, separatist violence persists and India views Khalistan activism – particularly anything that might be linked to the Khalistan Tiger Force or other current militant groups – as a serious threat to national security. His quest to prevent future insurrections is often felt abroad.
Mr Nijjar is not the first prominent defender of Khalistan to be killed on foreign soil. Two well-known Khalistani militants were also shot dead this year in Lahore, Pakistan, for which Sikh activists blamed India. And Indian consulates in London and San Francisco were vandalized by Khalistan supporters in March after India launched a massive search for separatist leader Amritpal Singh.
Mukhbir Singh, a board member of the World Sikh Organization, said Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa, Ont., that the revelation of India’s alleged role in Mr. Nijjar’s death n It wasn’t a surprise. “For decades, India has targeted Sikhs in Canada through espionage, disinformation and now murder,” he said, adding that Canada must take stronger measures to protect its Sikh citizens. .
What awaits the movement and diplomacy?
While many credit the powerful Sikh diaspora with keeping the Khalistan issue alive, some are skeptical about the movement’s future.
“Average Sikh migrants living abroad work hard to earn money; they send money to the family in Punjab,” says Mr. Sandhu. “And from time to time they go to gurudwaras (Sikh temples), many of whom continue to talk about Khalistan, (but) they are not actively pursuing Khalistan.
Shinder Purewal, a political science professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada who has studied the evolution of the Sikh secessionist movement in Western liberal democracies, agrees that there is little public sympathy for the Sikh’s historically violent tactics. Khalistan movement. But that doesn’t mean the desire for autonomy has disappeared.
“Compared to the past, the movement is more restricted and weaker,” he says. “However, the social media hype and years of relationship with the Liberal Party of Canada have given them a stronger voice in the upper echelons of power. »
Even so, many believe the current tensions between India and Canada are temporary, both because of the lack of a real roadmap among Khalistan supporters and because of the geopolitical importance of the India for the West.
Professor Purewal says Canada’s accusation “will have an immediate impact on bilateral relations, although sensible voices will prevail in the long term because the United States and the West view India as a strategic partner.”
But some experts don’t see the Khalistan movement dying down, at least not until Delhi finds a peaceful solution to address the concerns of Punjab’s Sikhs.
“We cannot kill a political movement by police methods. It will have to come back to life at some point,” says Mr. Singh. As for the thousands of Sikhs killed at the height of the Khalistan movement, he adds, “there has to be some responsibility.”