Khalistan or Quixotistan?

 

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The Khalistan specter is back on the horizons of India’s political landscape. Not that it had ever gone away. The demand for Khalistan has become more of a quixotic exercise than a serious menace. I shall explain all this in a minute. Sikhs were never in a majority in the pre-partition Punjab. Muslims were the largest religious group, followed by Hindus and Sikhs. In order to safeguard the Sikh identity, and provide the community with a political voice, Shiromani Akali Dal was formed on 14 December 1920. The Muslim League’s March 1940 Lahore Resolution demanded a separate Muslim State comprising the undivided Punjab and other parts of North India. This alarmed the Akalis. They demanded a separate homeland for Sikhs, because they were distinct from both Hindus and Sikhs. The Akali leader, Master Tara Singh, raised the slogan of Azad Punjab, comprising Lahore, Multan and some other areas.

After India’s independence, the Azad Punjab slogan morphed into the demand for Punjabi Suba. This resulted in the further truncating of the state. Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the present-day Punjab were carved out of the post-partition Punjab. Although Sikhs are in the overall majority in Punjab now, no district is exclusively Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. Malerkotla remains the only Muslim majority district in the state.

Even as the demand for a separate Sikh homeland appeared to die down in India, the UK based Davinder Singh Parmar and Dr. Jagjit Singh Chauhan raised the Khalistan issue in late 1960s. In 1971, Chauhan declared the formation of Khalistan through an advertisement in the New York Times. He headed an outfit called Khalistan National Council. Here, it would be pertinent to point out that was also the time when USA’s CIA and Pakistan’s ISI had teamed up to “teach Mrs. Indira Gandhi a lesson” for her steadfast support to the formation of Bangladesh, which was still in an embryonic stage, but whose delivery was assured thanks to the Indian Armed forces. Other anglophone countries like United Kingdom, Canada and Australia toed the American line and extended patronage to Khalistani activists within their respective territories.

But one cannot blame the international agencies alone. Our own politicians, especially the Indian National Congress, have played a diabolic role in stoking the Khalistani fires. Giani Zail Singh, a Ramgarhia Sikh, propped up Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale to break the Jat Sikh dominated Akali Dal’s hold on the cash rich Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee or SGPC that managed gurdwaras in Punjab and other parts of India, barring Delhi, which had Delhi Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee or DSGPC. And since the Akali Dal often resorted to communal verbiage to strengthen its hold on the Sikh masses, Bhindranwale had to employ more extreme tactics to attract mass support. He spewed Sikh supremacist and separatist shibboleths, held kangaroo courts and dispensed instant justice, which earned him admirers in the community. It remains a perpetual mystery how the forward looking and progressive Sikh community fell for this barely educated, regressive demagogue. How could they not see that theirs was the only community in India that had more than their fair share of employment in the armed forces, sports, politics, judiciary and various government jobs? They had settled in different parts of India and prospered as farmers, industrialists and business owners. All this because the Hindus always treated them as one of their own.

The Bhindranwale factor boosted the demand for Khalistan not only in Punjab but also in other parts of India and abroad. Traditional Hindu-Sikh ties came under serious strain when extremist groups resorted to targeted killings in Punjab. The victims were both Hindus and Sikhs. Eventually, a stage arrived when things appeared to be going out of control. Operation Bluestar became inevitable when reports of Khalistan being declared a separate state reached Delhi. There were also reports of Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan ready to recognize Khalistan as soon as its formation was to be declared. Operation Bluestar extracted a heavy price in terms of lives of our soldiers, and culminated in the assassination of Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The bloodbath that followed scarred the Punjabi psyche.

Khalistanis stepped up their vicious killings in Punjab and elsewhere. General Vaidya was assassinated. Hindus were pulled out of buses, lined up, and shot in Punjab. But the attempt at ethnic cleansing by the Pakistan sponsored Khalistanis flopped thanks to the centuries old ties between Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs. Even as militancy subsided, Operations Black Thunder carried out on 30 April 1986 and 9 May 1988 rendered a death blow to the Khalistan movement in India. However, there were sporadic incidents of Khalistani violence abroad. Some of these incidents were serious. For example, the bombing of Air India’s Kanishka on June 23, 1985 was one of the most lethal terror acts carried out by the Babbar Khalsa group of Khalistanis. 329 people died as the aircraft exploded midair. The Canadian agencies arrested several suspects, but only one, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was convicted for “manslaughter”. Others went scot-free. Such was the Canadian justice.

When the original Khalistan ideologue Jagjit Singh Chauhan returned to India in 1997 and apologized for his separatist activities, it closed the Khalistan chapter for good, or so we presumed. But we should not underestimate the separatist poison being spread by the likes of Simranjit Singh Mann. Minor activists like Jugraj Singh, Deep Sidhu and Amritpal Singh etc have been trying to revive the separatist movement in Punjab but have been rejected by the people of Punjab. There have been speculations on the role of some elements in the ruling dispensation at the center, patronizing Khalistani activists. If true, they need to be reminded of the disastrous consequences India had to suffer in the past because of similar tactics.

With the change in global geopolitical scenario, western countries are now not keen on patronizing the Khalistani groups but feel compelled to support them because of powerful Sikh lobbies there. USA, Australia and Britain are groping in the dark for resolving Khalistani conundrum facing them. These countries need to be reminded of Hillary Clinton’s “snakes in the backyard” warning given so patronizingly to Pakistanis.

Anyway, the demand for Khalistan was bizarre and quixotic right from the beginning. There are several reasons. First, their claim that they want to restore Punjab to its glory of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s times is untenable. Most of Ranjit Singh’s empire was to the Sutlej River’s west in what is now Pakistan and extended right into Afghanistan. His army comprised diverse communities.

1.   Sikhs: The Sikh community formed the backbone of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army. The Sikhs were fiercely loyal to their leader and played a vital role in his military campaigns. They were known for their martial traditions and were organized into different regiments, known as misls. These Sikh warriors, also known as Khalsa soldiers, were highly disciplined and considered among the finest soldiers of the time.

2.   Punjabi Muslims: Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army also included a significant number of Punjabi Muslims. Muslims from various regions of Punjab, including the western districts, served in different capacities within the army. They were recruited as infantry, cavalry, and artillerymen, and their skills and expertise were valued by the Maharaja.

3.   Dogras: The Dogras, a Hindu ethnic group from the Jammu region, were another important component of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army. The Dogra soldiers, known for their bravery and loyalty, served in both the infantry and cavalry units. They played a crucial role in many military campaigns and were considered among the most trusted troops of the Maharaja.

4.   Gurkhas: Maharaja Ranjit Singh employed a contingent of Gurkhas in his army. The Gurkhas, known for their martial prowess, hailed from the hilly regions of present-day Nepal. They served as elite soldiers and were highly respected for their valor and combat skills.

5.   Europeans: Maharaja Ranjit Singh also employed some European officers and soldiers within his army. These individuals, mostly of French and Italian origin, served as military advisors, artillery experts, and trainers. Their presence added a level of professionalism and technical expertise to the Sikh forces.

The army’s diverse composition underlined Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s inclusive and secular approach to governance and military administration. He followed the pluralistic template created over the centuries by Shivaji, Tipu Sultan, Akbar, and Laxmibai.

Second, the Khalistani ideologues are confused about what actually Khalistan would stand for. There never was a philosophical or theological construct for the Khalistan state. Nor do they have anything distinctly Khalsa doctrine and framework for civil and criminal laws.

Finally, treating Sikhs as a homogenous community is unrealistic. The Sikh community, despite its egalitarian tenets, is a microcosm of the parent Hindu community in terms of social stratification, with all attendant prejudices and internecine conflicts and rivalries. Even today, in many rural areas, Dalit Sikhs of various denominations have gurdwaras and funeral grounds separate from those meant for the dominant Jat Sikh community. The Sikh community has other striking internal diversities in terms of belief systems and sub-caste hierarchies. There are deras and sects headed by Jat, or upper caste Sikhs. There are sects like Udasi, Namdhari, Nirankari and Radha Soami that have significant following. Politicians in Punjab and Delhi take full advantage of these stratifications. While a majority of Jat Sikhs side with the Akali Dal, non-Jat Sikhs have stayed with the Indian National Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.

The likes of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun are living in a fool’s paradise. Or, they have turned separatist politics into a lucrative profession for themselves and others of their ilk. They forget that there are more Sikhs living outside Punjab in various parts of India than the Sikh diasporas in the West and elsewhere. They also forget that, even today, Sikhs are prospering in their professions and businesses in various parts of India, including Punjab – a sign of their solid integration with the rest of India. Punjab has moved away from communal politics. This becomes clear with the Aam Aadmi Party winning the last assembly elections with a massive mandate.

The separatist politics practiced by a few have already done immense harm to Punjab and Punjabiyat. The largest and most prosperous province of the undivided India is now one of the smaller states. Khalistanis will only provoke another division of Punjab and turn it into a much smaller and unviable entity. Do they want this to happen? I, for one, belong to the school of thought, which supports Punjab’s continued integration with India and its continuous efforts to reclaim its former status as the country’s Number One state.