The question of Khalistan.
Recent pro-Khalistani demonstrations in Australia come on the back of similar incidents in Canada and the UK. What is Khalistan? Is it a threat? And What to do about it?
To understand, we must understand how the concept of Khalistan was created. In straightforward terms, Khalistan is product of three elements.
Sikh-Hindu divide - first leg of Khalistan
Sikhism is a branch of Sanatan Dharma. The founders of this religion, the books of this religion and practices have roots in Sanatan Dharma. The martial elements of this religion were created for resisting the Islamic conquest of India.
But, Sikhs and Hindus were deliberately separated under their divide-and-rule policy. They encouraged the Abrahamisation of both - the Sanatan Dharma as well as of Sikhism. They chose convenient customs and rituals out of their original context creating and hardening the divisions within the society. The British encouraged the clashes between these two branches of Sanatan Dharma. The British were not successful, though. In the intervening period, India became independent.
Islamic forces’ became interested in the Hindu-Sikh divisions - the second leg of Khalistan.
The British divided India along religious line between Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan (and Bangladesh). The Islamic forces consolidated in and around Pakistan. The state of Pakistan was created as being anti-India. They tried and lost two wars to India.
Therefore, they came up with a new strategy to bleed India with a thousand cuts. They sought to carve out a few more nations from India, a Sikh part, a Communist chunk, a South Indian section of Dravidistan etc.
However internal conflict between West Pakistan and East Pakistan resulted in a massive genocide. To avert further loss of life, in 1971, India facilitated the freedom of East Pakistan into a new state of Bangladesh. This brought the anti-India Islamic forces to a boil. But they did not have enough strategic capacity to impose on India. This changed in 1980 with US involvement in Afghanistan.
US involvement in Afghanistan in 1980 is the third leg of Khalistan.
US involvement, rather entanglement, in the region began with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The US poured money, weapons and training into the hands most despicable - the ISI, Inter Service Intelligence, the intelligence agency of Pakistan. The ISI siphoned money, weapons, other resources and strategies (like info warfare etc.) into the new strategy.
The first target of this operation was Punjab (the other was Kashmir). Punjab was divided during the partition of India in 1947, resulting in more than a million casualties. Yet, there were cultural similarities between Muslim West Punjab of Pakistan, and Hindu-Sikh East Punjab of India.
The Pakistanis pressed on the Hindu-Sikh fissures created by the British and the concept of Khalistan was born. The Congress party, the inheritors of the British divide and rule policy, aided them in this process.
Khalistan - A separate country to be formed ONLY out of Indian governed Punjab
The mal-formation of Khalistan belies its origin. Khalistan does not purport to be a Punjabi country formed from divided parts of Punjab, one from Pakistan and the other from India. Rather it only wants independence for Indian Punjab.
The Khalistanis were, and are, reluctant to claim the Punjab area of Pakistan for themselves. Any claim on Pakistani territory will dry up the funding and possibly lead to an assassination of the leaders.
Nevertheless, this ploy was used to flood Indian Punjab with money, drugs, weapons and a separatist ideology. Thus, started the Punjab terrorist issue for India.
But India suppressed Punjab terrorism
Indian government initially empowered the Army and then the Police and brought this terrorist threat under control. Indian police officer KPS Gill (a Sikh himself), put the final nail in this issue.
Indian government also focussed on development, leading to economic prosperity of Punjab. With this carrot and stick approach the Khalistan problem seemed to have resolved.
Yet, Indian government did not conclusively deal with the issue of religious divisions between Hindus and Sikhs. That takes cultural maturity and clarity regarding this nations Sanatan roots. The governments of the day lacked both of these. It meant that Khalistan problem was never reconciled. It simply lay buried, waiting for malicious actors to revive it. And now, it has been revived.
How was the Khalistan problem revived?
The Khalistan problem has been revived using the Punjabi diaspora residing overseas. Break-India forces are trying to create disruptions between Hindu and Sikh resident abroad. The confrontations are manipulated to serve as fodder to poison Hindu and Sikh minds in India.
The Sikh diaspora was prodded to respond to farm laws - a set of legislation that allowed farmers to sell directly to markets across the country. Misinformation and outrage were deployed to create a frenzy against the Indian government. It opened financing channels to anti-India elements in Punjab. The corrupt regime of AAP used this financing to insert itself into this Anti-India equation.
Still, organising an anti-India operation in Punjab is difficult, so the current focus is only on drugs and smuggling. It needs distributed financing channels for the operations. These can be created using the Khalistan campaign in foreign countries with substantial Sikh diaspora. While India focused on local Punjabi issues, global financiers slanted the Sikh diaspora towards a pro-Islamic stance. This is now being activated to feed the distributed financing channels into Indian Punjab.
Khalistan is a powder keg waiting to ignite. I hope the Indian government is taking proactive action to prevent future problems.
How can we solve this problem?
The solution is multi-part:
Tracking financing is critical. Foreign funded NGOs may be deployed to support Khalistan related dissonance in Punjab. Government needs to track these funding channels carefully.
Tracking the divine interpreters globally: As with other Abrahamic religions, the interpreters of the divine word are source of all conflict. Some of these interpreters are Granthis, the heads of Gurdwaras, others are commentators and influencers. Most of these interpreters overseas must be checked out and their financing and support mechanisms evaluated.
Information warfare is ON: One main element of information warfare is narrative control within India. We need to get ahead of the narratives being built by these foreign agencies. We need to empower Indians with information that they will be able to debate and win over their foreign influencers.
Support the Indian diaspora with information and tools. Indian diaspora is perfectly capable of tackling the issues arising in the countries of their residence. However, they need support and backing - information and moral support.
Countering nations that support Khalistan: The Khalistan movement also has tacit support from foreign governments. In tit-for-tat diplomacy, India should encourage debate about internal divisions in those countries. Australian treatment of Aborigines, Canadian killing of natives deserve some international conferences and media coverage. The conferences should examine what drove those indigenous cultures into extinction and what are modern equivalents of those behaviours.
Reintegrating Sikhism into Dharmic traditions: While this needs sustained and nuanced effort, it should be the easiest as the founding Gurus of Sikhs were dharmic.
In Sum
Khalistan problem has to be laid to rest completely. The problem is timed to erupt during the national elections of 2024. It is possible that if Pakistan disintegrates, this issue may subside. However, once such fissures are identified, we need to close the wounds and heal the nation.