Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary

 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes

   
 

Khalistan

Khalistan (Land of the Pure) was the name given to a proposed nation-state encompassing much of the area of Punjabi-speaking India and Pakistan primarily reserved for members of the Sikh religion.


The idea of an independent Sikh state -- Khalistan, to its current proponents -- is not new. The last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh (1666-1708 AD), effectively started a Sikh state in 1699 when he created the Khalsa Panth - the Sikh Commonwealth - which Sikhs entered through a religious ceremony known as the Amrit.

Later on, a Sikh empire was formed under the powerful leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh whose armies of "saint-soldiers" managed to resist Mughal Islamic domination and expanded rule from the powerbase of sovereign Punjab to capture lands from the borders of Afghanistan to the west and China to the east, but the empire eventually fell and became part of the British Empire in the mid-1840's after two bloody wars, known as the Anglo-Sikh wars. Lands captured were incorporated into British India. Then in 1947, the sub-continent was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan by the British at independence. In 1966 Hindus preferred to back Hindi as their mother tongue while Sikhs wanted to save Punjabi. This led the Indian government of the day to further split the Punjab further into three states (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh).

Beginning in 1982, Sikhs activist began a series of peaceful civil disobedience campaigns during which time perhaps over 100,000 Sikhs were imprisoned. These campaigns embarrassed the Indian government (led at the time by Indira Gandhi) and stressed India's prison system.

Things came to a head when in 1984 the India government replaced regular police and other law enforcement agencies in Amritsar with Indian Army troops for the attack on the Golden Temple. On the 3rd of June 1984, Operation Blue Star was begun. Official records state that 493 militants were killed, 86 were wounded, and 1,592 were apprehended. The Indian Army lost 83 men, and another 249 were wounded.

In April 1986, a group of Sikh intellectuals produced a declaration of independence for Khalistan, which they sought to form as a separate Sikh nation and created a political structure and an army. They sought help from western governments (USA, UK, Canada, Europe) and the UN of recognition of this new entity, but those cries for freedom fell on deaf ears after Air India Flight 182 was blown up in the world's largest attack on a civilian aircraft at the time. Fingers point to the culprits being either RAW Indian agents based in Canada, wanting to destroy all support for the Khalistan movement, or Sikh separatists who may have wanted to avenge the bloody massacre of Sikhs and destruction of Sikhdom's holiest shrines by the Indian army.

The 10th Guru, a leader of Sikhism, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji said, "Raj Bina Nahin Dharam Chale Hain, Dharam Bina Sab Dalle Malle Hain" which literally means that "Without a state religion cannot move forward; without religion everything breaks down." However, the Gurus do give a clear message of peace and simple living, so Sikhs are not meant to make their Khalistan by unjust means*, but Guru Gobind Singh Ji also said "When all other means have failed it is righteous to raise the sword."

On ang 74 of the SGGS:

  • Now, the Merciful Lord has issued His Command. Let no one chase after and attack anyone else. Let all abide in peace, under this Benevolent Rule. ||13||

Many critics claim that the idea of Khalistan goes contrary to an idea of a secular India that does not recognize religious boundaries. Pakistan, on the other hand, an Islamic state, is unlikely to yield land to Sikh separatists (especially since practically all Sikhs reside in the Indian Punjab). Thus, most Khalistani pressure is found to be directed at India. But the desire to unite and secure the whole of Punjab in the boundaries of a future independent Khalistan remains a definite goal.

International human rights organizations' estimates of the number of people killed between 1984 and 1994 as a result of the struggle against India range from 10,000 to 250,000. The vast majority of the atrocities against civilian populations were undertaken at the hands of the Indian army, police and other government authorities. Such reports also document the Indian government's regular use of false charges, torture, extrajudicial killings, and secret cremations.

The literal meaning of Khalistan is "The Sovereign Land,", "Land of Khalsa" or "Land of the Pure" which comprise of an egalitarian social system. The ideal type of governance would be the Sikh concept of "halemi-raj," meaning 'humanitarian and just governance.' In this definition of governance, the citizens of the country with political authority are servants of the same ideology as normal citizens; their possible position as an official of the government would grant them authority to make decisions based on the public, rather than self-serving, interest.

Non-Sikhs are mostly against the carrying out of such a proposal; most Sikhs in the Punjab seem to have abandoned the idea of winning a separate state and many state that most have no interest in one. Others argue that skewed media spin misrepresents the true will of India-based followers of the movement. The idea of a nation-state called Khalistan is seemingly no longer prominent in India, but is supported by majority of Sikhs in other countries, notably in Canada, USA, UK and other European countries. No independent poll has been commissioned to show the level of support for this proposal.

External links

Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04