Why India Worries About the Push for a Separate Sikh State
Governments past and present only have themselves to blame for renewed community tensions inside and outside the country.
Farmers celebrate after Modi withdrew a controversial agriculture bill.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/BloombergIt’s the separatist movement most people have never heard of, but it is at the heart of the very public India-Canada spat ignited by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India is behind the assassination of a Sikh activist in British Columbia — charges New Delhi firmly denies. Behind the rhetoric, though, is a desire for Sikh nationhood. And that’s why India is so worried.
Khalistan, as campaigners call this proposed independent homeland, is a crisis of India’s own making. Successive governments have neglected, manipulated and exploited the state of Punjab — traditionally seen as India’s breadbasket — and the Sikhs who inhabit it for their own political and economic gain. That, in turn, has led to a brewing resentment among the community both in and outside India that could revive a mostly dormant domestic independence movement, transforming it into another flashpoint like Kashmir or Manipur in the northeast.