Khalistan: A Complicated Story in Punjab

During his first visit to India as Canada's Prime Minister in 2018, Justin Trudeau visited Punjab and stopped for a photo opportunity at the Golden Temple while dressed entirely in Punjabi attire.

He also received a list of India's most wanted men on Canadian territory, as well as an earful of grievances, courtesy of the Indian government.

One of the men on that list, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed this summer, and the result has been a diplomatic spat between India and Canada. This month, Trudeau asserted that Indian spies were responsible for planning the murder inside Canada. India denied the claim and charged Canada with disobeying its warnings that Sikh extremists from Canada like Nijjar were preparing to commit violence in Punjab.

But beyond the accusations, a more complicated story is developing in Punjab, according to analysts, political figures, and locals. There is little sympathy in Punjab for a secessionist cause that peaked in fatal bloodshed decades ago and was put an end to, despite the Indian government's assertion that Canada's lenient attitude against radicalism among its politically influential Sikhs poses a national security concern inside India.

In reality, most of the violence in Punjab that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration blames on Sikh separatists is gang-related and a chaotic combination of extortion, drug trafficking, and grudge-settling. In a state where farmers are crushed by mounting debt and many teenagers lack job or direction, the criminal masterminds, frequently operating from abroad, take advantage of the economic despair. These issues are made worse by a sense of political alienation in minority Sikh communities.

In front of a national election early next year, Modi sees the pursuit of a small but vocal group of criminals in a foreign land — India had been seeking for the extradition of 26 before Nijjar's death — and the escalation of the separatist threat as vital political narratives.

It strengthens his reputation as a strongman leader who will do everything it takes to defend his country. Even some of his most ardent detractors have come around to him in response to Canada's accusation because of it. And it provides a brand-new menace to point to after Modi used Pakistan's violent militancy to his advantage before the most recent election in 2019 to spark a political upsurge.

India's 25 million Sikhs are in a challenging position as a result of the prospect of Khalistan being re-ignited as a national issue. They now find themselves in the center of a diplomatic dispute that isolates them from family in the sizable Sikh diaspora as old scars of prejudice against them have been resurrected.

According to observers, the BJP has little to lose by exaggerating the security dangers in a minority group.

The party has made an effort to win over Sikhs as supporters, viewing them as members of the larger Hindu family. However, the Sikh community has fiercely rejected that initiative, seeing it as an attempt to obliterate their particular identity as a group and as adherents of a faith they believe to be unique. The farmers' movement in 2021 presented Modi with the toughest political test of his ten years in office, pushing him to make a rare compromise in which Parliament repealed regulations meant to expose agriculture to market forces. The farmers' movement was heavily influenced by Sikhs.

In recent years, whenever Punjabis felt ignored and enraged, they voted out their government instead of pursuing secession. This unhappiness was so pervasive in Punjab in 2022 that none of the old parties that had previously ruled the province received a single vote. Instead, it chose the AAP to govern because it promised better governance, including better healthcare and public schools.

According to Surinder Singh Jodhka, a sociology professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, "there is no Khalistan movement as such." But there is a feeling that we aren't being treated with justice in some way.

The topic of Khalistan has mostly remained one of emigration, with those who support its violent pursuit constituting a very small fraction. When Sikhs in Punjab do discuss secession, it is in opposition to the national ruling party and its affiliated groups, some of whom have a violent history, who openly declare their intention to convert India into a Hindu state.

The Khalistan separatist movement, which began in earnest before 1947 saw the creation of post-colonial India, came to a gory head in the 1980s when militants brutally seized control of the Golden Temple to advance their cause. At the time, a bombing on an Air India flight carrying passengers from Toronto to London resulted in the deaths of almost 300 people. Following that, the separatist violence stopped.

However, Khalistan continued to be a concern for some Sikhs in nations including Australia, the UK, and the US. With almost 770,000 Sikhs, Canada is the country outside of India with the highest Sikh population. Many of them fled India during or shortly after the separatist conflict, carrying wounds that fueled their support for the Khalistani cause.

According to Paramjit Singh, a 45-year-old truck driver in Jalandhar, "They don't even have funds, and they can't come here because they are banned in India, but they try to provoke people on social media."

When Sikh-led farmer protests broke out in 2021, Modi's lieutenants were angry and frequently accused the demonstrators of being Khalistanis who had been incited by foreign powers. Kamaljit Singh, a farmer from the outskirts of Jalandhar who took part in the protests, claimed that "Modi is playing this politics for votes." "We are in the middle of it all."