We’ve just had a bunch of Khalistan independence protests in Canada following the killing of one of their major figures. The Canadian government seems to be tacitly allowing them and more or less shying away from or ignoring the topic, and most of the Western media seems to say it’s a fringe extremist group. From what I read they’re basically an ethnostate/theocracy type of movement and not any sort of leftist and are by no means popular with the broader Sikh or Punjabi communites, but I’m not a Sikh nor a South Asian so I don’t have any personal perspective on it.
Interestingly I’ve not seen it mentioned in socialist/communist circles and really don’t want my only source of information to be Western mainstream news, so anyone more knowledgeable on the subject able to weigh in and point me to some reading material from a socialist view? Especially interested in thoughts from Sikh or South Asian socialists.
When Indian state (provincial) lines were first drawn, Punjab didn’t exist at it does today. Punjabis fought for a state of their own because the onstenible Indian policy was to create states on a liguistic basis. Punjab had a strong case on this basis since they have their own language and even religion which is why they were able to win statehood for themselves.
Khalistanis on the other hand want not just a state but a country for themselves which all things considered is absurd. They are extremists. There were claims by India’s Research and Analysis Wing that they were being helped by Pakistan’s and USA’s intelligence services. I don’t to what exact extent these claims are true because they come intelligence reports but I’m sure there is some truth to them.
Regarding the Canada thing I’m not exactly sure what the deal with them is.
Edit: also read up a little bit about Operation Blue Star on Wikipedia. It was an insane standoff between Indian army and Khalistani militants that most people outside don’t know about. It indirectly also led to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi getting assassinated.
They are religious extremists and want a seperate country from India. Majority sikhs of India don’t want to indulge in this but many farmers from Punjab took part in the protest against Modi which had immense left support and activism. The largest communist party of India don’t support them and have criticized their movement.
