Khalistan movement
The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno-religious sovereign state called Khalistan in the Punjab region. The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab, while larger claims include Pakistani Punjab and other parts of North India such as Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.
The call for a separate Sikh state began during the 1930s, when British rule in India was nearing its end. In 1940, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in a pamphlet titled "Khalistan". In the 1940s, a demand for a Sikh country called 'Sikhistan' arose. With financial and political support from the Sikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab – which has a Sikh-majority population – continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, and reaching its zenith in the late 1980s. The Sikh separatist leader Jagjit Singh Chohan said that during his talks with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the latter affirmed his support for the Khalistan movement in retaliation for the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, which resulted in the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.
The insurgency in Punjab started in the early 1980s after 1978 Sikh–Nirankari clash. Several Pro-Khalistan groups were involved in the armed insurgency, including Babbar Khalsa and Khalistan Commando Force, among others. In 1986, Khalistan Commando Force took responsibility for the assassination of General Arun Vaidya, in retaliation for 1984's Operation Blue Star. By the mid-1990s, the
insurgency petered out, with the last major incident being the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was killed in a bomb blast by a member of Babbar Khalsa. The movement failed to reach its objective for multiple reasons, including violent police crackdowns on separatists, factional infighting, and disillusionment from the Sikh population.
There is some support within India and the Sikh diaspora, with yearly demonstrations in protest of those killed during Operation Blue Star. In early 2018, some militant groups were arrested by police in Punjab, India. Former Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh claimed that the recent extremism is backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and "Khalistani sympathisers" in Canada, Italy, and the UK. Shiromani Akali Dal is currently the only pro-Khalistan party recognised by the Election Commission of India. As of 2024, two seats in the Indian Parliament are held by Amritpal Singh, an incarcerated pro-Khalistan activist, and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, who is the son of the assassin of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Pre-1950s
Sikhs have been concentrated in the Punjab region of South Asia. Before its conquest by the British, the region around Punjab had been ruled by the confederacy of Sikh Misls in the 18th century and a Sikh Empire and kingdoms in the first half of the 19th century. The Misls ruled over the eastern Punjab from 1733 to 1799, until their confederacy was unified into the Sikh Empire by Maharajah Ranjit Singh from 1799 to 1849.At the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the Sikh Empire was dissolved into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab. In newly conquered regions, "religio-nationalist movements emerged in response to British divide and rule administrative policies, the perceived success of Christian missionaries converting Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, and a general belief that the solution to the downfall among India's religious communities was a grassroots religious revival."
As the British Empire began to dissolve in the 1930s, Sikhs made their first call for a Sikh homeland. When the Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League demanded Punjab be made into a Muslim state, the Akalis viewed it as an attempt to usurp a historically Sikh territory. In response, the Sikh party Shiromani Akali Dal argued for a community that was separate from Hindus and Muslims. The Akali Dal imagined Khalistan as a theocratic state led by the Maharaja of Patiala with the aid of a cabinet consisting of the representatives of other units. The country would include parts of present-day Punjab, India, present-day Punjab, Pakistan, and the Simla Hill States.
Azad Punjab, 1943
Azad Punjab was a proposal of a redrawing of the boundaries of Punjab to excise the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority northwestern-areas west of the Jhelum river out of, which the Akali Dal claimed were not actually part of Punjab proper but had been added administratively to Punjab earlier by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Azad Punjab proposal was a redrawing of borders in-order to demographically balance the religious make-up of the Punjab to around 40% Muslim, 40% Hindu, an 20% Sikh so that no single religious community would demographically dominate overall whilst also ensuring the Sikhs would remain the power-brokers between the equally-numbered Muslims and Hindus. The Azad Punjab proposal was never intended to be a separate Sikh state. The areas claimed for Azad Punjab were Ambala, Jullunder, and Lahore divisions, Lyallpur district of the Multan division, and parts of Montgomery and Multan districts. However, the Azad Punjab proposal was not popular outside of the Akali Dal.Sikhistan, 1944–1946
Sikhistan was a proposal taken up by Master Tara Singh for an "independent Sikh nation" in the 1940s. In 1940, V. S. Bhatti proposed the creation of a Sikh nation called 'Sikhistan' to be led by the Maharaja of Patiala. He envisioned a "Khalistan" where the Maharaja would be aided by a cabinet comprising representatives from various federating units. These units included the central districts of Punjab province directly administered by the British at that time, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Ambala, Firozpur, Amritsar, and Lahore. It also encompassed the princely states of the Cis-Sutlej region, including Patiala, Nabha, Faridkot, and Malerkotla, as well as the states in the 'Shimla Group'.Sikhistan was further proposed in mid-1944 at the All-Parties Sikh Conference in Amritsar in-response to the C. R. formula, which the Sikhs of the Akali Dal felt betrayed by as the proposal would divide the Sikh population at the time into two halves. Sikhistan differed from the Azad Punjab scheme that the Akali Dal had previously supported in 1943, as while Sikhistan demanded a separate Sikh state and was marked by a "Sikh complexion", Azad Punjab was on the other hand was a call for a more demographically religiously-balanced Punjab. However, Sikhistan did not feature in the election of campaign of the Akali Dal in 1946. On 22 March 1946, the Akali Dal pressed the demand for Sikhistan to the Cabinet Mission. Another name used for the proposed Sikh country was Khalistan.
Sikhistan was envisioned to be a Sikh federation, where regions in central and eastern Punjab with large amounts of Sikhs, alongside territory held by the Sikh-ruled princely states of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Kalsia, and Kapurthala, would form a country. According to Giani Kartar Singh, Sikhistan would comprise the entirety of Lahore, Karnal, Simla, Montgomery, and Lyallpur districts. Meanwhile, Baldev Singh envisioned Sikhistan as comprising Ambala, Jullunder, and Lahore divisions. Master Tara Singh vaguely mentioned that a future Sikhistan would reserve the right to federate with either Pakistan or India. According to Tan Tai Yong, the demand for Sikhistan was a sign of the desperation of the Sikh leaders, who wanted to communicate to the British their fears of being under a "Muslim Raj" and their hope for representation in post-colonial Punjab. Therefore, the Sikhs copied the Muslim League in their demand for Pakistan by making a demand for Sikhistan in-order to achieve their aims for future political representation and power, although the Sikh leaders knew the demand for Sikhistan would not be taken seriously. The Cabinet Mission dismissed the Sikhistan demand as unrealistic and impossible.
Partition of India, 1947
Before the 1947 partition of India, Sikhs were not in majority in any of the districts of pre-partition British Punjab Province other than Ludhiana. Rather, districts in the region had a majority of either the Hindus or Muslims depending on its location in the province.British India was partitioned on a religious basis in 1947, where the Punjab province was divided between India and the newly created Pakistan. As result, a majority of Sikhs, along with the Hindus, migrated from the Pakistani region to India's Punjab, which included present-day Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The Sikh population, which had gone as high as 19.8% in some Pakistani districts in 1941, dropped to 0.1% in Pakistan, and rose sharply in the districts assigned to India. However, they would still be a minority in the Punjab province of India, which remained a Hindu-majority province.
After the Partition of India in 1947, a Sikh publication called The Liberator advocated for Khalistan, proposing that it should include East Punjab merged with the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, with the Maharaja of Patiala as its monarch.
Sikh relationship with Punjab (via Oberoi)
Sikh historian Harjot Singh Oberoi argues that, despite the historical linkages between Sikhs and Punjab, territory has never been a major element of Sikh self-definition. He makes the case that the attachment of Punjab with Sikhism is a recent phenomenon, stemming from the 1940s. Historically, Sikhism has been pan-Indian, with the Guru Granth Sahib drawing from works of saints in both North and South India, while several major seats in Sikhism are located outside of Punjab.Oberoi makes the case that Sikh leaders in the late 1930s and 1940s realised that the dominance of Muslims in Pakistan and of Hindus in India was imminent. To justify a separate Sikh state within the Punjab, Sikh leaders started to mobilise meta-commentaries and signs to argue that Punjab belonged to Sikhs and Sikhs belong to Punjab. This began the territorialisation of the Sikh community.
This territorialisation of the Sikh community would be formalised in March 1946, when the Sikh political party of Akali Dal passed a resolution proclaiming the natural association of Punjab and the Sikh religious community. Oberoi argues that despite having its beginnings in the early 20th century, Khalistan as a separatist movement was never a major issue until the late 1970s and 1980s when it began to militarise.