History of Sikh Riot and the Current Situation
With the partition of India into India and Pakistan, the Sikhs have time and again uplifted their demands, which according to them are fully justified.
There have been lots of controversies that Sikhism is nothing but an amalgamation of the teachings of the Hindus and Muslims, to which the Sikhs have always been negative and declared themselves a separate entity always, and so the relationship between these religious groups have always been grungy. With the partition, majority of the Sikhs fled to India, however the major Shrines were still in Pakistan, but they feared more brutal torture at the hands of Muslim rulers than the Hindu, as history witnessed lot of brutality by the Mughals on the Sikh Guru’s and their followers. It was 1966, that the state of Punjab, with Sikh majority and Punjabi as the official language was created under the Indian subcontinent. This was not enough however, and it was for Sant Jarnail Sing Bhindranwale, a charismatic preacher and his followers, that the demand for a separate nation for the Sikhs arose, which they already named as, ‘Khalistan’. He along with his followers, took shelter in the Golden Temple, Amritsar, and it was for this incident that later led to an Anti-Sikh Riot, in India. The Operation Blue Star was launched and the Indian Army with tanks and artillery arrived and after a 5 day battle, these militants, according to the Government of India, who were planning against the Government, were flushed out completely, however, this hurt the feelings of the Sikhs across the country, as the operation led to a heavy loss of lives of the Sikhs as well as brought major destructions to the Gurdwara, sacred to the Sikhs. If we go by the statistics, there were around 3,000 people in the Temple when the Operation was launched, and according to the Government statistics, approximately 1000 people were killed, however unofficial sources report that the civilian causalities were itself higher than this. This generated anger in the hearts of the Sikh Community, and within 6 months, i.e. 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, who had ordered for the launch of the operation, was assassinated, by her Sikh bodyguards, which further infuriated an ANTI-SIKH RIOT in New Delhi, and Sikhs were continuously attached in the whole of Northern India, which resulted in the loss of the lives of many. Later a peace agreement was concluded between the Indian Government and moderate Akali Dal Sikhs led by Harchand Singh Longowal in July 1985, which however was not adhered to by the Sikh community as a whole and further led to the assassination of Longowal in 1985, and extremism arose to new levels. In 1987, due to the increasing terror of the extremists, the State Government of Punjab was dismissed and President’s Rule was implied. It was only brought to an end, with the election in 1922, where Congress emerged victorious and Beant Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister, which too was boycotted by the extremists and later Beant Singh was killed by car bomb. The Sikh Extremists have time and again caused a lot of problems to the proper functioning of the Government in the state of Punjab, however things have been under control for the past few year, with the Akali Dal being the political wing of the Sikhs. The Sikhs every now and then raise this matter, however it doesn’t seem possible in the near future or even later, as Punjab the ground for green revolution and now the country’s major grain supplier, will not and cannot be declared a separate entity apart from the Indian State.
2015
It was on 27th July 2015, that a terrorist attached the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, which according to a few of the members of the Parliament, is an attempt to revive the Khalistan-ian issue/agenda, as on Sunday Pro-Khalistan slogans were raised in front of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. These activities have increased, for the past few months, and were and are not being dealt properly by both the governments, such statements have been made by the MP’s themselves. There has been rising criticism for the Government for having migrated many political prisoners of Bengaluru and various other states to Punjab, and the hunger strike of Surat Singh Khalsa, demanding the release of political prisoners and the Akali Government’s soft approach has been the reason for the re-emerging of the problems in Punjab, according to the MPs.
