Khalistan Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
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 whoses armies of "saint-soldiers" managed to resist Mughal Islamic domination, but 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 India, then in 1947 the sub-continent was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan by the British at independence. In 1966 Hindus prefered to back Hindi as their mother tongue while Sikhs wanted to save Punjabi. This lead the Indian government of the day to futher split the Punjab further into three states (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh). Punjab was ment to be the "glow of freedom" PM Nehru had promised to the Sikhs pre-independance but in reality all promises were broken and Sikhs were beginning to feel isolated and discriminated in mainstream Indian society and politics.
Beginning in 1982, Sikhs activists 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 Ghandi) 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 and specially trained commando units (NSG) who had been preparing for the attack for several months on mock replica's of the Golden Temple. On the 3rd of June 1984, Operation Blue Star was begun. The battle lasted 3 days, Indian military forces may have lost as many as 6000 men storming the approx 250 Sikh fighters who put up a brave but fanatical resistance in defence of the temple complex.
After the blood bath, some worshippers who survived it reported that many of the innocent civilians were rounded up by the army and killed within the grounds of the holy site or the locality. The Sri Akal Takht (Sikh parliment) was destoryed, Sikh reference library which stored rare and priceless manuscripts was looted and burn down and bullets pumped into the Sri Guru Granth Sahib (sacred book and eternal Guru of the Sikhs). Accusations of atrocities against civilian Sikhs were made against the Indian government in the wake of the battle. Many outraged Sikhs who were against Khalistan then actively turned into fighters for it against, what they saw was, a terrorist Indian enemy trying to suppress their religion, freedom and human rights.
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 recognistion of this new entity, but those cries for freedom fell on deaf ears due to sensitive geo-political concerns with India being backed by the once mighty Soviet Union.
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 rightous to raise the sword."
On ang 74 of the SGGS:
Many critics claim that the idea of Khalistan goes contrary to an idea of a secular India that does not recognize religious boundaries. But critics argue India as a secular state, with a Hindu majority, allows genocides to be committed against it's religous minorities. 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 independant Khalistan remains a definate goal.
International human rights organizations' estimates 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 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 being commissioned to show the level of support for this proposal.
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