Sikhism is a monotheistic faith founded at the end of the 15th century in the Punjab region that straddles what today are the nations of India and Pakistan. It developed from the teachings of Guru Nanak, and its holy book is the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Nanak and his descendants preached equality and unity, defying India’s caste system and rejecting the authority of the priests of the dominant Hindu religion. Throughout history, followers of Sikhism have at times been targeted by both Hindus and Muslims. Today, India’s 23 million Sikhs make up about 1.7% of the population overall, though they are a majority in the state of Punjab. Another three million Sikhs live outside of India, notably in Canada, the UK, the US and Australia. Canada is now home to the largest Sikh population outside of India, with about 770,000 people who reported being of the faith in the 2021 census.

2. What’s the history of the Sikh separatist movement?

When India gained its independence from Britain in 1947, Sikh leaders advocated for the establishment of a separate Sikh state. They did not get their wish, of course. However, Pakistan was carved out as a separate Muslim state from Hindu-majority India, cutting the Punjab in two and causing unprecedented bloodshed and migration that deeply impacted the Sikhs. In the new India, Sikhs were major food producers and yet felt they were treated as second-class citizens in the Hindu-majority country. The charismatic preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale seized upon these grievances in the 1980s and became the leading figure of the movement for an independent state known as Khalistan, though some experts say he did not explicitly call for one himself. 

3. How has the battle for separatism played out? 

In the early 1980s, Sikh activists hijacked a number of Indian airliners. In June 1984 on the orders of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Indian army attacked Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Sikhdom’s holiest site, to flush out Bhindranwale and his followers, who were sheltering there. Bhindranwale and many civilians were killed, and the Sikh community was outraged by the assault on the temple. In an act of revenge, two of Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her the following October. That triggered vicious anti-Sikh riots in which thousands died as well as a government crackdown that prompted many members of the faith to take refuge abroad. The next year, Sikh separatism was one of the causes claimed by a group of radicals responsible for the bombing of an Air India plane en route from Toronto to London, which killed all 329 people onboard. 

4. What’s the state of the separatist movement in India today?

Today, the separatist movement in India isn’t nearly as febrile as it was in the 1980s. However, Indian authorities have raised concerns that separatist sentiment is rising in Punjab state. In February, supporters of the self-styled preacher Amritpal Singh, who’s urged supporters to fight for an independent state and made assassination threats against government ministers, stormed a police station. After a month-long manhunt, police arrested him in April. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party views the majority religion’s culture and history as central to the country’s identity. Under Modi’s leadership, sectarian violence in general has flared. His government regards the Khalistan movement as a violent threat to India’s territorial sovereignty. The Indian media has largely echoed his stance.

5. What’s the state of the Sikh separatist movement overseas?

Certainly, there is some support for an independent homeland among the Sikh diaspora. A US-based group called Sikhs for Justice has been mobilizing members of the diaspora around the world to vote in a non-binding referendum on an independent homeland. The Indian government has raised concerns about troublemaking at its diplomatic missions by Sikh activists in Canada, the UK, the US and Australia and complains that officials there don’t take sufficient actions against them. Canadian Sikhs maintain that their mainstream movement for an independent Khalistan is a peaceful one that hasn’t resulted in violence on domestic soil in decades. “Advocating for Khalistan and against human rights abuses in India is not illegal in Canada and despite India’s claims, is not extremism,” Tejinder Singh Sidhu of the World Sikh Organization has said. However, Indian authorities have repeatedly accused Canada of harboring Sikh extremists and terrorists.

6. Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar?

The 45-year-old father, who was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia, in June, was originally from India’s Punjab state. He immigrated to Canada decades ago. As a prominent member of the Khalistan movement, he was an organizer of the referendum on a homeland. He owned a plumbing business and served as the president of the Sikh temple outside of which he was shot. To India, however, he was a terrorist: the country accused him of masterminding a bombing in Punjab and training militants in a small British Columbia city. He denied these allegations — calling them “garbage.” The World Sikh Organization described him as a leader of “peaceful protests” against India’s human-rights violations.

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