A lady is consoled as folks mourn Sikh neighborhood chief and temple president Hardeep Singh Nijjar throughout Antim Darshan, the primary a part of day-long funeral providers for him, in Surrey, British Columbia, Sunday, June 25, 2023. Nijjar was gunned down in his car whereas leaving the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Sahib car parking zone. The September 2023 accusation by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India might have been behind the assassination of Nijjar, a Sikh separatist chief, has raised a number of complicated questions in regards to the nature of Sikh activism within the North American diaspora. Credit score: AP/Darryl Dyck
The stunning accusation this week by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India might have been behind the assassination of a Sikh separatist chief in British Columbia has raised a number of complicated questions in regards to the nature of Sikh activism within the North American diaspora.
Canada is residence to the biggest Sikh inhabitants exterior India. There are about 800,000 Sikhs in Canada — roughly 2% of the inhabitants. The USA is residence to about 500,000 Sikhs. Whereas some Sikhs argue there may be widespread assist within the diaspora for an unbiased Sikh state within the subcontinent known as Khalistan, others say there is no such thing as a such consensus.
The talk over assist for Khalistan and what activism seems like within the Sikh diaspora has intensified after Trudeau’s accusation that India might have had a hand within the assassination of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen shot useless exterior the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey on June 18.
That data is predicated on Canadian intelligence as nicely intelligence from a serious ally, in keeping with a Canadian official who spoke on situation of anonymity as they weren’t approved to talk publicly. The data is predicated partially on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada.
Nijjar, a distinguished Sikh chief in British Columbia, was designated a terrorist by India in 2020 for his alleged hyperlinks to the Khalistan Tiger Power, a gaggle campaigning for unbiased Khalistan within the Punjab area of India. The energetic insurgency ended many years in the past, however Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s authorities not too long ago warned that Sikh separatists had been making an attempt to stage a comeback and pressed international locations like Canada to do extra to cease them.
The query of Khalistan or Sikh sovereignty “is just not a fringe idea or concept locally,” mentioned Jaskaran Sandhu, a board member with the World Sikh Group of Canada, the biggest Sikh advocacy group in that nation.
“Once you have a look at Sikh historical past, it has all the time been about sovereignty and self-determination,” he mentioned. “Sikh voices calling for an unbiased state the place they’ll observe their religion freely are getting louder. There may be robust assist for Khalistan within the diaspora as a result of we have now the appropriate to free speech and the appropriate to arrange right here, whilst you don’t have that in India.”
India has outlawed the Khalistan motion. Teams related to it are listed as terrorist organizations underneath India’s Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act and are thought-about a critical safety risk by the federal government. Within the U.S. and Canada, Khalistani activism is just not unlawful and is protected underneath free speech legal guidelines.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, common counsel with Sikhs for Justice, has additionally been listed as a terrorist by the Indian authorities. The group was banned by India in 2019.
Pannun has been a number one organizer of the Khalistan Referendum, inviting Sikhs worldwide to vote on whether or not Punjab ought to grow to be an unbiased nation primarily based on faith. Organizers of the nonbinding referendum hope to current the outcomes to the U.N. Common Meeting in about two years.
“Sikh sovereignty means having your unbiased, autonomous state the place you could have complete management of the state’s sources,” Pannun mentioned, including that Sikhs in India are nonetheless pressured to stay underneath Hindu legal guidelines governing marriage, inheritance and adoption. Pannun faces sedition and a slew of different costs in India and has confronted criticism for saying “Indo-Hindus who work towards the pursuits of Canada” ought to return to India.
Pannun says he labored carefully with Nijjar for a few years and calls him “one of many devoted campaigners for Khalistan.”
“He knew his life was at risk,” he mentioned. “We spoke 18 hours earlier than his assassination. However he by no means took a step again.”
Not all agree that Khalistani activism is on the rise within the diaspora. Amandeep Sandhu, India-based journalist and creator of “Panjab: Journeys By means of Fault Strains,” believes it stays a fringe motion. Even when 200,000 folks might have proven as much as vote at referendums held to this point, that quantity is small in comparison with the 30 million Sikhs who stay in India and all over the world, he mentioned.
Whereas Sikhs who migrated to North America, Australia and the UK might carry inter-generational trauma and recollections of a “brutal Indian state,” they haven’t grow to be engaged within the struggle for Khalistan as a result of they’re busy constructing lives for themselves, Sandhu mentioned.
“Life is difficult for migrants,” he mentioned. “How a lot cash and sources do you could have for Khalistan, a state that continues to be undefined?”
Neither the Sikh neighborhood in India nor the diaspora is monolithic, he mentioned. In India, Sikhs are additionally among the many most patriotic. They’re about 2% of India’s inhabitants, however kind 8% of the nation’s military, and Sikh troopers are among the many nation’s most embellished, Sandhu mentioned.
Rajvinder Singh, a New Delhi retailer proprietor, mentioned he believes “Khalistan’s ideology has no place within the minds of the Sikhs.”
“I don’t assist Khalistan,” he mentioned. “If some foreigners consider in it, what can we do about it? This can be a matter for diplomatic discussions. Each international locations ought to work in the direction of changing into higher commerce companions and never struggle over these points.”
Within the diaspora, it’s laborious to inform what number of truly assist state separatism, mentioned Anneeth Kaur Hundle, affiliate professor of anthropology and a specialist in Sikh research on the College of California, Irvine.
Hundle mentioned that along with the Khalistan concern, a number of current activism within the diaspora has targeted on gaining extra recognition for Sikh struggling linked to occasions of 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi despatched the Indian military to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines, to flush out a number of key figures within the rising militant Khalistani motion. Months later, following Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards, hundreds of Sikhs had been killed throughout north India because the violence unfold past Amritsar.
“Whereas neighborhood members will not be in settlement in relation to what autonomy is or seems like, all Sikhs do need to interact in no matter activism they need with out being attacked or killed for it,” she mentioned. “Trudeau, with this assertion, has stood up for all activists within the diaspora.”
Since Monday, ties between India and Canada have plunged to their lowest level in years as India stopped issuing visas to Canadian residents and informed Canada to scale back its diplomatic employees.
Some say these occasions are having an affect on the remainder of the Indian diaspora and straining relationship with Hindus, who barely outnumber Sikhs in Canada.
Samir Kalra, managing director of the Hindu American Basis, mentioned the “resurgence of Khalistani extremism within the diaspora has considerably impacted Indian People of all backgrounds and has led to quite a lot of worry and insecurity throughout the neighborhood.” He cited “a disturbing pattern” of incidents together with vandalism at Hindu temples and Mahatma Gandhi statues in Canada and the USA.
“Indian males, ladies and youngsters have endured intimidation and harassment at India Day festivals in each international locations, in addition to at a Diwali pageant in Canada final 12 months,” mentioned Kalra. He mentioned Indian People even have been harassed exterior the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, the place “Khalistani extremists have continuously proven up and tried to interrupt into and set on hearth the consulate constructing.”
Cynthia Mahmood, professor of anthropology at Central Faculty in Iowa and an skilled on the Khalistani motion, has talked to militants and written in regards to the idea of violence and nonviolence in Sikhism. She holds that it’s totally different from Western concepts.
“In Sikhism, the query is in regards to the struggle for justice,” she mentioned. “Typically it’s a must to use violence, and typically, nonviolence, for self-defense and to pursue justice. The Western polarity of conflict and peace doesn’t fairly apply within the Sikh context.”