Book review | 'Sikh Separatism': Senior journalist Rajesh Singh brings out whole history of Khalistan extremism

Punjab has historically been a multicultural land, a cradle of humanity, home to rulers and settlers, an important centre of politics, and a land of renowned litterateurs and musicians. This book will tell you everything you want to know about Punjab’s separatist movements. The author has covered many untold aspects of it that most people are still unaware of. Recent incidents in Punjab, including those involving a preacher and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh, have raised apprehensions that the state could slip into another era of violence, reminiscent of the 1980s, if corrective measures were not taken and the situation was not closely monitored by both central and state agencies. In this backdrop, a recently published book titled, Sikh Separatism: A History of Conflicts, authored by Rajesh Singh, provides the readers a holistic account of how Punjab reached the dangerous era of the 1980s, a period of brutality and violence, which ended with the crushing of militancy in the mid-1990s. [caption id=“attachment_12845342” align=“alignnone” width=“507”] SIKH SEPARATISM: A History of Conflicts by Rajesh Singh.
Publisher: Garuda Prakashan.
Price: Rs 399/-[/caption] Singh categorises the stories into five parts and 22 chapters. Each of these volumes is like a clear mirror through which a persistent problem and current situation can be seen, and their historical context can also be understood. Each section of it is like a tributary of a major river that flows continuously, one into the other. A holistic understanding of Sikh separatism is not possible without going back into history, down the centuries, revisiting the events that shaped the Sikh psyche in the years that followed. While nothing in the past can justify the mindless violence that gripped Punjab for fifteen long years, a study of the developments leading up to the same helps expose the misdeeds of those who exploited religion to take innocent lives in later years, and the brazen manner in which they desecrated the memory of the gurus, whom they constantly invoked to justify their acts. Rajesh Singh traces the development back in time, since the founding of the Sikh religion. Guru Nanak Dev founded a faith that was passive and gentle in nature. But after the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, his successor Guru Hargobind realised that the Sikh faith could not be protected without a call to arms. He initiated the creation of a martial Sikh race, a process that reached its peak during the tenure of the tenth and last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, who also gave the Sikhs a new identity with the mandate of the five K’s and the surname “Singh”. The struggle for the Sikhs had only just begun. They had to face many challenges in the decades to come, including those from foreign Muslim invaders. With Independence, the author writes, came another challenge: the fight for a separate Punjabi state on the same linguistic basis that other states were being formed. But the Jawaharlal Nehru government refused to accede to the demand on the ground that the Sikhs were demanding a separate state on the basis of religion. The Sikhs’ struggle bore fruit when Punjab was trifurcated and Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were created out of it. The formation of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) revived the struggle of the Sikh community, which now placed a range of demands, both religious and political. This came into the shape of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973. Years passed and governments and Sikh community leaders talked and discussed the matter, without any clear resolution. It was in this backdrop that Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale emerged into reckoning. He cunningly exploited the religious and political sentiments of the Sikhs, channelling it to serve his toxic agenda. The author gives an insight into how Bhindranwale gained prominence. The blunders repeatedly committed by the Congress party, the Akali Dal and the SGPC, which the author provides in abundance by culling material from various sources, helped the secessionist leader turn into a larger-than-life figure. While the Akali Dal simply did not have the spine to counter him, the Congress was busy playing internal petty politics which assisted Bhindranwale. Writing about Operation Bluestar, Rajesh Singh says that while the Indian Army and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received flak from certain quarters for allowing the desecration of the Golden Temple, the fact is that the sacred presumes had been desecrated by Bhindranwale and his group, who had taken shelter in the temple, armed to the teeth. Indira Gandhi had been left with no option but to order military action to flush the terrorists out. The author points out that the situation worsened with the assassination of Indira Gandhi. The selective massacre of thousands of innocent Sikhs in Delhi as “revenge” further alienated the Sikh community. The fact is, as the writer says, militancy reached its peak after the retaliatory killing of the Sikhs. Neither the new Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi nor his successors—VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar, could resolve the issue. Rajesh Singh, again quoting a wide variety of sources, offers reasons why the Rao government succeeded in the early 1990s where the others had failed. He gave a free hand to chief minister Beant Singh and Director General of Police KPS Gill to end the menace, promising that there would be no political interference; he kept his word. Gill understood the Sikh psyche, besides policing, unlike his predecessor Julio Ribeiro, who had dealt with the matter as a mere law-and-order problem and had little connection with either his police force or the people. Gill, on the other hand, had managed to co-opt the people in his fight against terrorism. Sikh Separatism tells its story with several anecdotes and offers insights into the functioning of organisations and individuals who had a stake in restoring peace. The book ends with a timely reminder: That we must not lower our guard, since separatism needs only a spark to revive.    The reviewer is a Bengaluru-based management professional, literary critic, and co-director of the Kalinga Literary Festival. He can be reached at ashutoshbthakur@gmail.com. Views are personal.  Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.