Will Sikh Separatism divide India and the West?

In September 2023, Canadian prime ministerJustin Trudeau publicly accused India of being involved in the assassination of a Canadiancitizen, “Hardeep Singh Nijjar” in British Colombia. Mr. Nijjar was a prominent figurein the Sikh separatist movement in Canada, which advocates for the creation of “Khalistan”,an independent Sikh state centered around India's Punjab region. When Trudeau made his allegationspublic, he did not disclose concrete evidence and his claims were met with fierce rejection fromIndia – which in turn accused Canada of sheltering Sikh extremists. As a result, Canadian-Indianrelations reached an unprecedented low-point. Diplomats were withdrawn, visa issuancewas paused and protests erupted in both countries. But what began as a Canadian-Indianconflict expanded in scope two months later,.

When the United States released an indictmentaccusing an Indian government agent of conspiring to assassinate another prominent Sikh separatistleader in New York. These accusations come at an awkward time: Canada, the US and other Westerncountries have worked to deepen the economic and strategic partnership with India foryears – especially in the Asia-Pacific, where there is a common interest in containingChina's regional ambitions. But the resilience of this partnership has long been questionedbecause there are many issues that could divide India and its Western partners, includingIndia's conflict with segments of the Sikh diaspora in the West. But why do some Sikhs wantto establish a separatist state in India? How did this issue evolve from an intra Indian conflictinto an international one? And what does this.

Issue mean for the future strategic relationshipbetween India and West? To find out, we must first explore the history of this conflict. Let me justquickly check the internet for information and… uh… (Start of Sponsorship) Oh no! Spam emailsagain? If only there was a way to stop these damn data brokers from collecting my data! Wait…what's that? It's… it's… this video's sponsor, Aura! Aura is a tool that helps you stay saferonline. Your full name, email, home address and even health records – data brokers try to suckthis information out of your online activity and then sell it to scammers, spammers or even worse- that one crazy ex you have. But not with Aura! It shows you which data brokers are sellingyour information and automatically submits opt-out requests for you! Hah! Take that Nigerianprinces'! Cleaning your information with Aura not.

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Sponsoring this video (End of sponsorship) andnow let's explore the history of Sikh separatism. In the 15th century, South Asia wasdeeply divided in many ways: politically, religiously and by cast. One man who soughtto overcome these divisions was Guru Nanak, a revered spiritual leader of his time andthe founder of Sikhism. He believed that by following the teachings of the guru one couldestablish a relationship with the creator, transcend artificial human divisionsand end the cycle of birth andrebirth. Guru Nanak's teachings eventually found asmall following in his native region of Punjab, and after his passing, nine successor-gurusbuilt upon the foundation he had laid. As Sikhism spread in Punjab, its believers wouldperiodically endure brutal persecutions by local.

Rulers – especially by the Muslim Mughals,who ruled this region for around 200 years. In response to these persecutions, Sikhs graduallyadopted military traditions to defend their faith, which were cemented by the last humanguruthrough the establishment of the order of the “Khalsa” – a special community ofinitiated Sikhs task with preserving the faith and protecting it's followers. The Khalsawas deeply influential on Sikhism in many ways. It introduced the “5 K”s to Sikhism, givingmany Sikhs the distinct look we know today. And it's also where we get the term Khalistanfrom. Subsequently, Sikhs gained notoriety as capable warriors while the Mughal empire beganto crumble. The Mughals decline allowed Sikh leaders to establish their own small states,and under Ranjit Singh a unified Sikh empire.

Emerged which stretched over much of what istoday Northern Pakistan and India. But in 1849, this state was subjugated by the Britishand incorporated into British India. The colonial period was a formative timefor the Sikhs, as their leaders sought to consolidate a distinct Sikh identity by gettinglegal recognition as their own religious group distinct from Hindus. This often led to tensions- not only with Hindus but also with the British, who didn’t want to upset the Hindu majorityand saw both in one category anyways: Mine. But this view was challengedin the early 20th century with the spread of the Indian independencestruggle. The common Indian dream of independence finally becamereality after World War 2 – but soon turned into.

A nightmare as the subcontinent was partitionedinto majority Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu and non-Muslim India. Some Sikh leaders arguedfor the establishment of a third, Sikh state as well, but were ultimately rejected. The partition of India was a very extremely violent affair – and Punjab was rightat the center of it all, as the new border split the region between the two newstates. Centuries old economic, spiritual and familial ties were suddenly severed, and thedemographics of the region changed completely: Pakistan's Punjab became almost entirely Muslim,while India’s Punjab was now dominated by Sikhs and Hindus – and the latter two groups wouldincreasingly come into conflict with each other. The Sikhs were worried about being assimilatedinto the Hindu majority which is why they sought.

Legal recognition and political rights as aseparate group, while the Hindus were concerned that Sikhs would dominate Punjab politically andeconomically if their demands were agreed to. Over the next decades, negotiationsbetween Sikh leaders and the Indian government yielded few results, especiallyduring Indira Gandhi’s time in office, who sought to centralize morepower in the capital New Delhi. Even when compromises were made, they wereusually stalled and ultimately fell apart. Such was the case with the 1966administrative reorganization of East Punjab. It divided theregion into three states: Two majority Hindu and Hindi speaking ones, anda new smaller Punjab state that was majority.

Sikh and Punjabi speaking. This was supposedto satisfy Sikh desires for autonomy, but in the end excluded some important territoriesthat Sikhs expected to be part of the state. The growing feeling of discrimination amongSikhs and economic mismanagement of Punjab soon motivated larger numbers of Sikhs toseek a better life by emigrating abroad, especially in North America. Despite the distance, many in this diaspora continued tocare about the situation in Punjab, which continued to deteriorate which allowedmore radical voices to come to the forefront. One such voice was Jarnell Singh Hindrenwale,a radical preacher who mainstreamed a much more militant approach to achieve Sikh demands,which he equated to Sikh resistance against the.

Mughals. This was an extremely worryingdevelopment for India’s government, which already had to contend with variousviolent movements across the country. The increasing inter-religious violencemade Indian authorities in Punjab become more repressive; and so, the stategradually turned into a giant powder keg that finally exploded in 1984at the hands of two major events. The first one was Operation Blue Star, amilitary operation ordered by Indira Gandhi to get Bhindranwale and his armed followersout of the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, the holiest site in Sikhism. Bhindranwale andhis followers had retreated to parts of the complex two years prior to avoid arrest, and theoperation was supposed to surgically remove them.

Instead, it devolved into a bloodbath thatsignificantly damaged and desecrated the Golden Temple and resulted in the death ofBhindranwale and his followers, many Indian soldiers and innocent pilgrims. Unsurprisingly,this outraged Sikhs across the world. The second event was the assassinationof Indira Gandhi. She was killed a few months later by her two Sikh bodyguardsin revenge for Operation Blue Star, which sparked violent anti-Sikh riots,especially in the capital New Delhi. After these events, disillusioned andeconomically disenfranchised Sikhs flocked to militant groups that were now openly fightingfor an independent Khalistan while some segments of the Sikh diaspora began conducting campaignsin their support, with some organizations even.

Directly providing militant groups with fundsand weaponry – which Pakistan did too by the way. The situation in Punjab only began to normalizein the late 1990s for two main reasons: Firstly, the Indian government started a large-scalemilitary operation that was notoriously harsh, but kept a tight strangleholdover militants in the region. And secondly, Khalistani militant groupslost the limited support they had within the Sikh community. As the insurgency progressed,these groups fractured as they had different visions of Khalistan and increasinglyturned to street-gang like behavior, often hurting regular Sikhs the mostwhile achieving nothing of worth for them. Although Sikh separatism almost completelydied out in Punjab, the specter of.

Khalistani separatism did not go away entirely,as the idea was kept alive within some segments of the Sikh diaspora. It's difficult to sayhow widespread support for Khalistan is among the diaspora, but experts estimate at the heightof the movements it was at around 25% at most. This minority within a minority continuesto closely observe what’s happening in Punjab for possible signs of renewedinterest in Khalistan – and that is a growing concern for India because ofone particular reason: The internet. Over the past decades, the internet hasallowed pro-Khalistan organizations to better connect with each other and thePunjabi homeland. And since thousands of Indians get access to the internet every day,.

This represents an opportunity for thosegroups to exert influence, even from far away. This was demonstrated in 2020, with the start ofthe massive farmer protests in Punjab and Northern India. The protests were aimed at three farmacts that were passed by the Parliament of India; and Sikhs were quite overrepresented, since theymake up a big chunk of North-India’s farmers. But almost immediately, these protestswere instrumentalized by all sides: Activists from the Sikh diaspora beganportraying the new laws as an attack on Sikhs specifically – although non-Sikh farmers wereimpacted too. Some Indian politicians meanwhile accused the protesters of being Khalistansupporters to delegitimize their grievances. All of this has made the Indian governmentpay much closer attention to what is happening.

Within the Sikh diaspora abroad – and thatcaused some minor diplomatic incidents in the past already. But with the recentaccusations from Canada and the US, this conflict seems to have entered a new chapter- which brings us to the situation we have today. +++++ One of the big questions that arose afterTrudeau's speech in 2023 was: Why did he choose to make these accusations in such a public way,without disclosing any evidence- knowing that this was sure to cause a diplomatic crisis? Whydidn’t he wait for the Americans to make their accusations first with the indictment to backthem up? Well, there are a few possibilities: Maybe he wanted to get ahead of theCanadian media which may have gotten.

Wind of the story’s connection to India.Maybe he wanted to unify Canada behind him, as his minority government had alow approval rating. Or maybe he believed that this was the only way to make theIndian government take this issue seriously. The truth is, we don’t reallyknow. What we do know, however, is that the subsequent diplomatic crisisdemonstrated how fragile the relationship between India and the West really is. Tounderstand why that is, we have to consider that the current strategic partnership betweenboth parties is a relatively new phenomenon. Throughout the Cold War, India was keen to stayoutside the two main power-blocks – which is why it was a founding member of the Non-Alignedmovement together with Yugoslavia and Egypt..

But despite its neutrality, India did notshy away from building a relationship with the Soviet Union while the US and its Westernpartners cooperated with India’s rival Pakistan. It was only in the 1990s that Indiaand the West began to reconsider their relationship. For economic reasons, but alsobecause of a big geopolitical development: The rise of China. India and China have quite afew problems, especially regarding their border, which is something I also made a video aboutwhich you can check out later. So it's not very surprising that today India is part ofthe Quad, a security dialogue between India, Japan, Australia and the United States, aimedat fostering security cooperation between its members in what they call the Indo-Pacific -so in other words, aimed at containing China.

But outside of this goal, India andmost Western countries don’t really see eye to eye that often. Issues likeIndia’s close relationship with Russia throughout the Ukraine War and accusation ofmilitary espionage have occasionally shaken this partnership – with the newest issue beingthe murder-plot accusations in North America. And while extraterritorialmurder-plots seem to be all the rage on the world stage at the moment,this case is still odd for two reasons: Firstly, because of the sheer importanceof India’s strategic relationship with the West and the US in particular. WasIndia really willing to risk alienating such powerful and strategic partnersjust so it could eliminate some Sikh.

Separatist leaders in exile, whose ideologyhas very little support in Punjab anyways? And secondly, because the extent of the allegedIndian involvement is still unclear. Was India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and his governmentaware of these activities? Was it perhaps only a specific ministry or department that knew of it?Or was it a rogue agent that acted on his own? In response to the US indictment, Indiaannounced the start of its own investigation and shortly before the release of this video,the Indian government claimed to have found the people responsible; and among them is atleast one senior Indian intelligence agent, which according to New Delhi, acted withoutauthorisation from the government. Whether these individuals will face trial in Indiaor be extradited to the US is still unclear.

But no matter the outcome of theseinvestigations, the damage to the Western-Indian partnership is already done- the question is, how much was it damaged? Well, that depends on who we are talking about.The Canadian-Indian relationship was no doubt hit the hardest. For one, a Canadian citizen wasallegedly murdered with the help of foreign government within Canada – which would be asignificant violation of Canada’s sovereignty. For another, nowhere else in the West are Sikhssuch a significant and influential minority. Sikhs make up close to 3% of Canada’s totalpopulation – which is a bigger share than Sikhs have in India. And Sikhs are alsohighly represented in Canadian politics across all political levels and parties andthe government. And that means that any issue.

Affecting Sikhs has a bigger political weightin Canada than in any other Western country. It also didn’t help that the way Trudau madehis announcement in 2023 was seen as a grave insult in India. This, combined with the fact thatIndia doesn’t consider Canada to be as important of a partner like the US, is why India isstill being so dismissive towards Canada. The US and India in contrast chose to keep thisissue at a much lower intensity-level. The US government stressed that it takes the issuevery seriously, but also emphasized that it sees India as an important strategic partner.And India responded by quickly organizing its own investigation, and showing good-will torectify the situation – at least with the US. Other Western countries meanwhile were reluctantto get directly involved. The UK and Australia,.

For example, released only vague statements,expressing concern and calling for restraint. All of this left Canada pretty isolatedin their conflict with India, which shows how important most Western countriesconsider their partnership with India and the potential it holds for the future.However, this does not mean that the Western-Indian partnership could not deterioratein the long-term if the conflict between India and Khalistani activists escalates.The Sikhdiaspora continues to grow across the West, even in places where there has beena limited Sikh presence thus far. In recent years, India signedseveral migration agreements with various European countries;and as has been the case before,.

Economically disenfranchised Sikhs have usedthis opportunity to build better lives abroad. If this trend continues, it could lead to Sikhissues gaining more political relevance in more Western countries, similar to how it is inCanada today. And although most Sikhs abroad do not support the idea of Khalistan, there willinevitably be a growing and vocal pro-Khalistan minority that could increase animositybetween more Western countries and India. But to really threaten the Western-Indianrelationship, there would also have to be a resurgence of the Khalistan movement in Punjab- which by now has become a fringe ideology with little support among India’s Sikh population.Nonetheless, the underlying problems that enabled the rise of the Khalistan movement in the 1980spersist even today, and due to the spread of Hindu.

Nationalism across Indian politics, it's unlikelythat those will be resolved any time soon. But if the specter of Sikh Separatism returns, would it be enough to destroy the strategicpartnership between India and the West? On its own, probably not. For the West, thepotential partnership with India is too valuable to give up. India has become the world’s fastestgrowing major economy, has a healthy demographic structure and its strategic position is vitalfor the Western quest to contain China. The West meanwhile presents a unique opportunity forIndia to grow its economy much quicker, access the latest technology and military equipment andalso relieve pressure from its border with China. However, Khalistani separatism won’tbe the only issue that will strain the.

Western-Indian relationship. Combined with otherproblems, such as India’s close relationship with Russia – it could eventually leadto the end of a close partnership. The Western-Indian relationship and the issueof Khalistani separatism are extremely complex topics, and there are many aspects of itthat didn’t make it into this video. If you are interested in a more detailed historyof Sikh separatism in India, you should check out cogito’s informative video on this topichere. And if you are interested in the situation between Canada and India specifically- check out JJ. McCollins video here. A big thank you to all my Patronsand Channel Members. Their support is important for keeping thischannel going! If you want,.

Consider becoming a supporter as well! Thanksfor watching, I’ll see you in the next one, bye.

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