Sikh Diaspora - Agitation For A Homeland

Agitation For A Homeland

Axel (2001) argues that the Sikh diaspora community, having established themselves in foreign countries begin to fetishize the past and nurture idealized designs for their 'lost and imaginary' Sikh empire. This comes into fruition to a certain degree with the establishment of Indian Punjab in 1966 as a Sikh majority state. However Tatla(1998) argues that the marginalization and sense of grievance that Indian Sikhs were facing due to Indira Gandhi's heavy handed tactics, were amplified in the Sikh diaspora. Subsequently, the Sikh diaspora, especially in Canada and the UK become willing suppliers of logistical and financial support when the organic agitation for a separate Sikh nation, Khalistan, began in the late 1970s. The actions taken by the Indian government to counter the Sikh separatist movement, via 1984's Operation Blue Star, had a seismic effect on the Sikh diaspora. Axel (2001) argues that the desecration of the Sikh's holiest shrine, Harimandir Sahib, and the following Sikh Genocide in which thousands of Sikhs were massacred; led to a resurgence in Sikh religiosity and a strengthening of ties with their Sikh brethren in Punjab. Diaspora Sikhs felt betrayed by India, and the events of 1984 defined their Sikhism and underlined a distinct commonality shared with other diaspora Sikhs. Mark Tully describes 1984's Operation Blue Star as the Sikh's '9/11', this was certainly the case for diaspora Sikhs, who in the main could only watch on in horror as the events of 1984 played out on TV.

In 1971 Dr Jagit Singh Chohan, an ex-minister in a short-lived government of Akali dissidents, saw an alignment of like-minded Sikhs. Chohan placed a half-page advertisement in The New York Times of 12 October 1971, making several claims about Punjab as a Sikh homeland. However Chohan won little sympathy from ordinary Sikhs .

Tatla summarises the change in Sikh diaspora community leaders post 1984 a being a "painful transition from a self-confident community with haughty discourse, to the self-defensive strategies of a vulnerable minority". Organisations such as the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), the Babbar Khalsa and the Council of Khalistan emerged within the diaspora, and these agencies rallied against "Hindu imperialism" or "Indian nationalism" and lobbied to join the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization UNPO aligning the Sikh cause with other ethnic groups seeking freedom, citing cases of Jews, Palestinians, Kurds, Balochis, Kashmiris and Sri Lankan Tamils.

Axel (2001) argues that the history of the Sikh diaspora, its psyche of grievance and the violence inflicted on it, means that the notion of the Sikh diaspora as a community today inevitably converges on the notion of Khalistan. In addition to this, Axel points out the 'nightmare' scenario facing the Sikh diaspora; the Indian state 'demands' the 'Unity-in-Diversity' model of 'rashtriya ekta' (national integration) which Axel contends is signified by "the denial of difference through surrender, assimilation and integration".

Since the formation of the Khalsa, the Sikhs have defined themselves though their 'separateness' and have differentiated themselves philosophically and physically from other Indian religious communities, thus the process of 'rashtriya ekta' is a threat to Sikhi itself. Any 'weakening' or 'dilution' Sikhi in the Punjab, is doubly painful for the Sikh diaspora for it means a corresponding weakness in Khalistan, which, both real and imaginary, epitomizes the Sikh diasporic place today.