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Khalistan

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Republic of Khalistan
Flag of Khalistan
Flag
Anthem: Deg Teg Fateh[citation needed]
CapitalAmritsar[citation needed]
Largest cityLudhiana[citation needed]
Official languagesPunjabi[citation needed] and English[citation needed]
GovernmentTheocracy
• Supreme Ruler
Guru Granth Sahib
• Commander-in-Chief
Interim Committee of five Jathedars of five Takhts and Chief of Damdami Taksal[citation needed]

Khālistān (Punjabi: ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ), official title Republic of Khalistan, was the name given by Jagjit Singh Chauhan, to a proposed Sikh nation-state based on theocratic principles.[1] The separatist movement for Khalistan rose to its peak in 1980s in India. Khalistan had support from the Sikh community in North America and the UK.[2] This culminated in the bombing by Sikh's of Air India Flight 182, in which 329 people were killed.[3] The Khalistan movement is now widely seen as a smaller scale separatist movement by Sikh youth in Canada, the US and the UK. Khalistani terrorist groups are monitored by European and American Governments. [4]

Political lobbyists in the USA once included politicians Dan Burton,[5] Jesse Helms,[6] and Edolphus Towns.[7] Other lobbyists include Lord Avebury (Eric Lubbock) [8], and Lord Nazir Ahmed[9] from the UK, and the late General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the late 8th Chief of Staff of Pakistan Army and former President of Pakistan and late Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, a Pakistani politician. The ISI ran Operation K2 in the 90's to create both Kashmir and the remainder of Punjab with the hope of accession of both states to The Islamic State of Pakistan[10]

History

The Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh (d. 1839), one of the most famous religiously egalitarian monarchs in South Asian history, had an independent kingdom with Lahore as the capital. In 1849 his country was annexed and became part of British Empire. Under the Treaty of Amritsar the country was to be restored to the Sikhs once Duleep Singh attained the age of 21.[11][12]

In the 1970s and 80s, a movement began in the Indian state of Punjab to secede from the Indian Union and create a separate sovereign Sikh state of Khalistan. Supported by many Panjabi's, American lobbyists, Sikh immigrants and refugees abroad as well as the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence[13][14] agency,the movement reached its peak during mid 1980s under Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It then slowly ebbed out, primarily due to the loss of popular support. The movement also hindered economic investment, became increasingly militant, and threw Punjab into a state of anarchy with increased levels of terrorism. The movement was also countered by counter-terrorism operations conducted by the Indian Army and the Punjab Police led by KPS Gill. According to the Human Rights Watch, casualties numbering in thousands resulted as fallout of the Khalistan movement.

After the bombing of Air India Flight 182 that claimed the lives of 329 Canadian civilians over the Irish Sea on 23rd June 1985, the worst aviation terrorist attack before September 11, 2001 attacks, support for Khalistan lessened to a large extent. The accused in the case were Sikh separatists, Inderjit Singh Reyat was sentenced to ten years after pleading guilty in 1989.[15] The other two Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were found not guilty for lack of admissible evidence and released. Canadian journalists Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew in their book Soft Target propounded a conspiracy theory that the Government of India could have staged the attack to portray the separatists in bad light. This book was later viewed by the official Commission of Inquiry in Canada as a work of fiction based on the events surrouding Flight 182 especially after the plead of guilt by Inderjit Singh Reyat[16]

Another book written by acclaimed investigative journalist Salim Jiwa titled 'Margin of Terror': A Reporter's Twenty-Year Odyssey Covering The Tragedies of the Air India Bombing, shed new light and gave an eye-witness account of the terrorist bombing of Flight 182 and appears to be in line with the findings of Canadian Law Enforcement.[17]

Other prominent journalists who have had death threats against them for their investigative journalism into Khalistan terrorism include Vancouver Sun journalist, Kim Bolan and Tara Singh Hayer who was murdered on November 18th 1998. In 1999, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression renamed its Press Freedom Award the "Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award" in Hayer's honour. Each year, the award is given to a Canadian journalist who, through his or her work, has made an important contribution to reinforcing and promoting the principle of freedom of the press in Canada or elsewhere.

Support for Khalistan has diminished among Sikh communities in the UK and North America, since surveillance has been tight in UK & Canada.[18] The Sikh community in Canada were opposed to an inquiry into the Air India bombing.[citation needed]

Geography

According to the Khalistan web-site:

The geographical boundaries of Khalistan will include current East Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh, part of Rajasthan and small part of Uttar Pardesh. River Ravi on the west and river Jamuna on the east will be some of the boundary lines between Khalistan & Pakistan, Khalistan & India respectively. In the north, part of Himalayan range and in south, part of Thar Desert will make the geographical boundaries of Khalistan.[19]

This would still end up making the proposed region a Hindu majority by default.[20] Paramjit Singh Ajrawat states that Khalistan will be a theocratic state with a non-secular based fundamentalist constitution.

References

  1. ^ Website of Paramjit Singh Ajrawat
  2. ^ "BBC NEWS | Programmes | File on 4 | Sikh separatists 'funded from UK'". News.bbc.co.uk. Last Updated:. Retrieved 2008-11-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  3. ^ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:NCQL2LxTSTYJ:www.sikhtimes.com/news_031705a.html+Khalistan+Alive+In+Sikh-Canadian+Hearts+and+Minds&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us Khalistan Alive In Sikh-Canadian Hearts and Minds,The Globe and Mail, Mississauga, Ontario, Mar. 17, 2005, By ROBERT MATAS
  4. ^ Sikh separatists 'funded from UK', BBC
  5. ^ Dr. Aulakh, Others Expose Indian Human Rights Violations at Congressional Hearing
  6. ^ Studying the Sikhs: Issues for North America By John Stratton Hawley, Gurinder Singh Mann, Published 1993 SUNY Press
  7. ^ DR. AULAKH OF COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Thursday, October 15, 1998
  8. ^ "(8) IHRO Watch- August 1991". Ihro.in. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  9. ^ http://www.panthic.org/news/121/ARTICLE/1619/2005-07-31.html Self Determination: The Only Basis for Human Rights in South Asia Sunday 31st of July 2005
  10. ^ "Kashmir Herald - Khalistan Redux". Kashmirherald.com. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  11. ^ "The Sikhs' Last Emperor. - Review - book review | Contemporary Review | Find Articles at BNET.com". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  12. ^ "Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign". Exoticindiaart.com. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  13. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (2004). A History Of Pakistan And Its Origins. Anthem South Asian Studies. Anthem Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-1843311492.
  14. ^ Shah, Mehtab Ali (1997). The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy, 1971-1994. I.B.Tauris. p. 23. ISBN 978-1860641695.
  15. ^ Sentencing Inderjit Singh Reyat
  16. ^ Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 TERRORISM, INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT – CANADA’S RESPONSE TO SIKH TERRORISM http://www.majorcomm.ca/documents/dossier2_ENG.pdf DOSSIER 2)
  17. ^ Salim Jiwa, Donald J Hauka (2006). Margin of Terror - A Reporter's Twenty-Year Odyssey Covering The Tragedies of the Air India Bombing. Key Porter Books. p. 288. ISBN 1552637727.
  18. ^ "Proscribed terrorist groups | Home Office". Homeoffice.gov.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  19. ^ "Khalistan.net - Khalistan the New Global Reality". Khalistan.net. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  20. ^ A Demographic Case Study of Forced Migration:The 1947 Partition of India Authors: Hill K, Seltzer W, Leaning J , Malik SJ, Russell SS4, Makinson C, http://paa2004.princeton.edu/download.asp?submissionId=41274

Sources

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