Sikh terrorism in the struggle for Khalistan

Abstract

The attack on the Golden Temple, the “Holy of Holies” of the Sikh religion in Amritsar, India, in June 1984 found the world's attention on a long‐simmering but low‐keyed conflict—the fight of the Sikh separatists for an independent Punjab, renamed Khalistan. The Sikh struggle has all of the earmarks of the type of conflicts breaking out in the new third world nations, which are remnants of the old colonial empires; a quest for ethnic identity, a desire for religious purity (i.e., the fear of being absorbed by the majority Hindus), and the desire for nationhood. The Sikhs are a proud and achieving people who feel unequally yoked with the Hindus, but their desire for an independent nation in the middle of a hostile India borders on fantasy.