User:Punjabreferendum

The Punjab Referendum 2020 movement is a Sikh nationalist movement, which seeks to create a separate country called Khalistān (Punjabi: ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ, "The Land of the Pure") in the Punjab region of South Asia.[4] The territorial definition of the proposed country Khalistan ranges from the current Punjab.[5][6][7][8]

The Punjab region has been the traditional homeland for the Sikhs. Before its conquest by the British it had been ruled by the Sikhs for 82 years; the Sikh Misls ruled over the entire Punjab from 1767 to 1799,[9] until their confederacy was unified into the Sikh Empire by Maharajah Ranjit Singh. However, the region also has a substantial number of Hindus and Muslims, and before 1947, the Sikhs formed the largest religious group only in the Ludhiana district of the British province. When the Muslim League demanded a separate country for Muslims via the Lahore Resolution of 1940, a section of Sikh leaders grew concerned that their community would be left without any homeland following the partition of India between the Hindus and the Muslims. They put forward the idea of Khalistan, envisaging it as a theocratic state covering a small part of the greater Punjab region.

After the partition was announced, the majority of the Sikhs migrated from the Pakistani province of Punjab to the Indian province of Punjab, which then included parts of present-day Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Following India's independence in 1947, the Punjabi Suba Movement led by the Akali Dal aimed at the creation of a Punjabi-majority state (Suba) in the Punjab region of India in the 1950s.[10] Concerned that creating a Punjabi-majority state would effectively mean creating a Sikh-majority state, the Indian government initially rejected the demand. After a series of protests, violent clampdowns on the Sikhs, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the Government finally agreed to partition the state, creating a new Sikh-majority Punjab state and splitting the rest of the region into the states of Himachal Pradesh and the new state of Haryana.[11] Subsequently, the Sikh leaders started demanding more autonomy for the states, alleging that the Central government was discriminating against Punjab. Although the Akali Dal explicitly opposed the demand for an independent Sikh country, the issues raised by it were used as a premise for the creation of a separate country by the proponents of Khalistan.

In 1971, the Khalistan proponent Jagjit Singh Chauhan travelled to the United States. He placed an advertisement in The New York Times proclaiming the formation of Khalistan and was able to collect millions of dollars from the Sikh diaspora.[12] On 12 April 1980, he held a meeting with the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi before declaring the formation of a "National Council of Khalistan", at Anandpur Sahib.[13] He declared himself the President of the Council and Balbir Singh Sandhu as its Secretary General. In May 1980, Jagjit Singh Chauhan travelled to London and announced the formation of Khalistan. A similar announcement was made by Balbir Singh Sandhu, in Amritsar, who released stamps and currency of Khalistan. The inaction of the authorities in Amritsar and elsewhere was decried by Akali Dal headed by the Sikh leader Harchand Singh Longowal as a political stunt by the Congress party of Indira Gandhi.[14]

The Khalistan movement reached its zenith in the 1970s and 1980s, flourishing in the Indian state of Punjab, which has a Sikh-majority population and has been the traditional homeland of the Sikh religion. Various pro-Khalistan outfits have been involved in a separatist movement against the government of India ever since. There are claims of funding from Sikhs outside India to attract young people into these pro-Khalistan militant groups.[15]

In the 1980s, some of the Khalistan proponents turned to protest. As the law and order situation deteriorated, one of the leaders of the Khalistan movement, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, moved into the Harmandir Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple) with some followers. He began to fortify the temple with heavy machine guns and self-loading rifles. The Indian Prime Minister at the time, Indira Gandhi, ordered the commencement of Operation Blue Star in June 1984 to flush out Bhindranwale and his supporters. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force and Punjab Police were all involved. Bhindranwale was killed in the operation, although there were significant military and civilian casualties as well, alongside significant damage to the temple. Many Sikhs strongly maintain that the attack resulted in the desecration of the holiest Sikh shrine. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in retaliation. Following her death, thousands of Sikhs were massacred in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, termed as a genocide by Congress activists and mobs.[16]

In January 1986, the Golden Temple was occupied by militants belonging to All India Sikh Students Federation and Damdami Taksal.[17] On 26 January 1986, the gathering passed a resolution (gurmattā) favouring the creation of Khalistan. Subsequently, a number of rebel militant groups in favour of Khalistan waged a major insurgency against the government of India. Indian security forces suppressed the insurgency in the early 1990s, but Sikh political groups such as the Khalsa Raj Party and SAD (A) continued to pursue an independent Khalistan through non-violent means.[18][19][20] Pro-Khalistan organisations such as Dal Khalsa (International) are also active outside India, supported by a section of the Sikh diaspora.[21]

In November 2015, a Sarbat Khalsa, or congregation of the Sikh community, was called in response to recent unrest in the Punjab region. The Sarbat Khalsa adopted 13 resolutions to strengthen Sikh institutions and traditions. The 12th resolution reaffirmed the resolutions adopted by the Sarbat Khalsa in 1986, including the declaration of the sovereign state of Khalistan.[22]