Sikh Separatism In India

There has been a lot of news lately about the rejuvenation of Sikh Separatism in the Punjab state of India. Most Indians today had not yet been born when, in 1984, the Indian Army raided the Golden Temple, in Amritsar, the center of the Sikh Religion. I was working for some people from India at the time and followed the raid on the news.

Image from Google Street View

The separatist movement was led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in the raid, although according to information online he was not actually seeking the separate country, to be called Khalistan. The Sikhs in the Golden Temple were heavily armed, in anticipation of the raid, but the Indian Army finally got control of the Temple.

The structure adjacent to the Golden Temple, the Small Takht, was damaged in the raid. The Indian Government paid to rebuild the structure afterward but the Sikhs famously tore the rebuilt structure down and rebuilt it themselves.

Image from Google Street View

The raid on the Golden Temple, known as Operation Blue Star, was followed by turmoil in India. The prime minister who had ordered the raid, Indira Gandhi, had two Sikh bodyguards who assassinated her. This set off a horrendous wave of violence across the country, between Hindus and Sikhs, that led to the bombing of an Air India plane that disintegrated over the ocean off the coast of Ireland. It was the worst instance of terrorism involving an aircraft before 9/11.

The Air India flight was from Montreal to India but actually began as a flight from Toronto. The disaster hit close to home, with so many victims being from Toronto's Indian community. This is the monument in Toronto commemorating the loss, a sundial and wall with the names of the victims.

Image from Google Street View

But now Sikh militancy, and possibly separatism, is emerging again, possibly irritated by the strong emphasis on Hinduism by the present Indian Government. Amritpal Singh, who was not yet born when the raid on the Golden Temple took place, is becoming known as "Bhindranwale 2.0".

Does everyone know the real story of this turmoil in India during the 1980s? Did you know that it was purposely incited by outside powers?

Here is a paragraph copied and pasted from the Wikipedia article "Operation Blue Star". At the time the last war between India and Pakistan was still in fairly recent memory. The KGB forged documentation indicating that Pakistan was supplying the Sikhs with armaments and encouraging them to separate from India. As we might expect the CIA was supposedly in on it too. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi believed what she was told.

Here is another paragraph from the same Wikipedia article "Operation Blue Star". This explains how the forged documentation alleged that Pakistani commandos were infiltrating the border to assist the Sikh separatists.

The distance from earth to Mars is how far India has come since this turmoil of the 1980s. Let's not go back to this. The world looks to India as a world leader. Remember that we saw in the recent posting. "Has India Entered Another Golden Age"? March 2023, that India has a history of having a golden age about every four hundred years, and that means it is due to start the next one right about now.