Khalistan movement
Topic: Regional Aspirations: J&K, Punjab, the North-East and Accommodation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Khalistan movement was a separatist demand for an independent Sikh country called "Khalistan". It grew in Punjab after 1980, when control of Akali politics passed from moderates to extremists such as Bhindranwale. In the 1980s it became an armed insurgency, meaning an armed revolt against the state. By the early 1990s it had been largely crushed. It matters as a case where a regional demand turned into secession, the demand to break away from India.
Example
The militants turned the Golden Temple in Amritsar into an armed fortress. This led to Operation Blue Star in June 1984. Violence and police excesses lasted about a decade, and only 24% of voters turned out in Punjab's 1992 election. Peace returned by the mid-1990s.
Don't confuse with
- Punjabi Suba movement: a peaceful demand for a Punjabi-speaking state inside India, which was met in 1966. The Khalistan movement wanted a separate country.
Related concepts
- Operation Blue Star
- Anti-Sikh riots of 1984
- Nanavati Commission
- Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal Accord
- Operation Black Thunder