Khalistan

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Khalistan ( Punjabi : ਖਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ, "Pure Land"), even Sikh Republic of Khalistan or Sacred Kingdom Khalistan Sikh is that arisen from the early 20th century idea of a nationalist movement among the Sikhs , an independent state in India and Pakistan to build , which is said to include today's Punjab and surrounding areas.

Khalistan emerged as an insurrectionary movement in the vicinity of other religious nationalist groups that were directed against the British colonial administration . The project of a nation state based on theocratic and democratic principles was named by Jagjit Singh Chauhan.

The separatist movement for the establishment of Khalistan reached its peak in India in the 1980s and has since lost significant momentum, although limited support for it continues to exist in circles of Sikhs living abroad. Before the terrorist attack on Air India Flight 182 , Khalistan had enjoyed considerable support in parts of the North American Sikhs. The Khalistan movement is now seen mainly as a minor separatist movement, supported primarily by non-Punjab Sikhs. Existing pro-Khalistan groups are monitored by European and American governments.

Politicians Dan Burton, Jesse Helms and Edolphus Towns were among the political advocates of the idea in the USA . Also among the sympathizers are Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury and Lord Nazir Ahmed from Great Britain, as well as the late General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Army and President of Pakistan.

The Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh (d. 1839), a somewhat secular and religiously tolerant monarch, ruled an independent Sikh empire in the 19th century with Lahore as its capital. In 1849 his empire was annexed and made part of the British Empire. According to the Treaty of Amritsar , the area should have been returned to the monarchy as soon as a member of the ruling family named Duleep Singh came of age. However, it is widely viewed as irrelevant and its political exploitation by the Khalistan movement is rejected.

The violent struggle for independence reached its peak in the 1980s when the Indian army stormed the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star in 1984 . As a result, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by her Sikh bodyguards. In 1986 Arun Vaidya, the chief of the Indian army in Operation Blue Star, was murdered by Harjinder Singh Jinda , Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Ranjit Singh Gill. The Pakistani secret service ISI carried out Operation K2 in the 1990s in the hope of splitting off both Kashmir and Punjab from India and annexing Pakistan .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. site of Paramjit Singh Ajrawat
  2. ^ Robert Matas: Khalistan Alive In Sikh-Canadian Hearts and Minds . The Globe and Mail, Mississauga, Ontario, March 17, 2005, By ROBERT MATAS
  3. ^ Sikh separatists 'funded from UK'. BBC, March 4, 2008
  4. khalistan.com ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Dr. Aulakh, Others Expose Indian Human Rights Violations at Congressional Hearing
  5. ^ John Stratton Hawley, Gurinder Singh Mann: Studying the Sikhs: Issues for North America . SUNY Press, 1993
  6. Dr. Aulakh of Council of Khalistan Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize Hon. Edolphus Towns of New York in the House of Representatives . (PDF) October 15, 1998
  7. (8) IHRO Watch - August 1991. ( Memento from August 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Self Determination: The Only Basis for Human Rights in South Asia . panthic.org, July 31, 2005
  9. The Sikhs' Last Emperor. Review. ( Memento from July 19, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Find Articles at BNET.com
  10. ^ Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign .
  11. Khalistan Redux. Kashmir Herald