Khalistan movement

The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno-religious sovereign state called Khalistan (lit. 'land of the Khalsa') in the Punjab region. The proposed boundaries of Khalistan vary between different groups; some suggest the entirety of the Sikh-majority Indian state of Punjab, while larger claims include Pakistani Punjab and other parts of North India such as Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.

The call for a separate Sikh state began during the 1930s, when British rule in India was nearing its end. In 1940, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in a pamphlet titled "Khalistan". In the 1940s, a demand for a Sikh country called 'Sikhistan' arose. With financial and political support from the Sikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab – which has a Sikh-majority population – continuing through the 1970s and 1980s, and reaching its zenith in the late 1980s. The Sikh separatist leader Jagjit Singh Chohan said that during his talks with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the latter affirmed his support for the Khalistan movement in retaliation for the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, which resulted in the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

The insurgency in Punjab started in the early 1980s after 1978 Sikh–Nirankari clash. Several Pro-Khalistan groups were involved in the armed insurgency, including Babbar Khalsa and Khalistan Commando Force, among others. In 1986, Khalistan Commando Force took responsibility for the assassination of General Arun Vaidya, in retaliation for 1984's Operation Blue Star. By the mid-1990s, the insurgency petered out, with the last major incident being the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was killed in a bomb blast by a member of Babbar Khalsa. The movement failed to reach its objective for multiple reasons, including violent police crackdowns on separatists, factional infighting, and disillusionment from the Sikh population.

There is some support within India and the Sikh diaspora, with yearly demonstrations in protest of those killed during Operation Blue Star. In early 2018, some militant groups were arrested by police in Punjab, India. Former Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh claimed that the recent extremism is backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and "Khalistani sympathisers" in Canada, Italy, and the UK. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is currently the only pro-Khalistan party recognised by the Election Commission of India. As of 2024, two seats in the Indian Parliament are held by Amritpal Singh, an incarcerated pro-Khalistan activist, and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, who is the son of the assassin of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Sikhs have been concentrated in the Punjab region of South Asia. Before its conquest by the British, the region around Punjab had been ruled by the confederacy of Sikh Misls in the 18th century and a Sikh Empire and kingdoms in the first half of the 19th century. The Misls ruled over the eastern Punjab from 1733 to 1799, until their confederacy was unified into the Sikh Empire by Maharajah Ranjit Singh from 1799 to 1849.

At the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the Sikh Empire was dissolved into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab. In newly conquered regions, "religio-nationalist movements emerged in response to British 'divide and rule' administrative policies, the perceived success of Christian missionaries converting Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, and a general belief that the solution to the downfall among India's religious communities was a grassroots religious revival."

As the British Empire began to dissolve in the 1930s, Sikhs made their first call for a Sikh homeland. When the Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League demanded Punjab be made into a Muslim state, the Akalis viewed it as an attempt to usurp a historically Sikh territory. In response, the Sikh party Shiromani Akali Dal argued for a community that was separate from Hindus and Muslims. The Akali Dal imagined Khalistan as a theocratic state led by the Maharaja of Patiala with the aid of a cabinet consisting of the representatives of other units. The country would include parts of present-day Punjab, India, present-day Punjab, Pakistan (including Lahore), and the Simla Hill States.

Azad Punjab was a proposal of a redrawing of the boundaries of Punjab to excise the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority northwestern-areas west of the Jhelum river out of, which the Akali Dal claimed were not actually part of Punjab proper but had been added administratively to Punjab earlier by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Azad Punjab proposal was a redrawing of borders in-order to demographically balance the religious make-up of the Punjab to around 40% Muslim, 40% Hindu, an 20% Sikh so that no single religious community would demographically dominate overall whilst also ensuring the Sikhs would remain the power-brokers between the equally-numbered Muslims and Hindus. The Azad Punjab proposal was never intended to be a separate Sikh state. The areas claimed for Azad Punjab were Ambala, Jullunder, and Lahore divisions, Lyallpur district of the Multan division, and parts of Montgomery and Multan districts. However, the Azad Punjab proposal was not popular outside of the Akali Dal.