Review: Looking Back at the Khalistan Movement: Some Recent Researches on Its Rise

and Decline
Reviewed Work(s): Sikh Ethnonationalism and the Political Economy of Punjab by
Shinder Purewal: Terrorism in Punjab: Understanding Grassroots Reality by H. K. Puri,
P. S. Judge and J. S. Shekhon: Ethnic Conflict in India: A Case-Study of Punjab by
Gurharpal Singh: Punjabi Identity in a Global Context by Pritam Singh and Shinder
Singh Thandi
Review by: Surinder S. Jodhka
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Apr. 21-27, 2001, Vol. 36, No. 16 (Apr. 21-27,
2001), pp. 1311-1313+1315-1318
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 Review article

Looking Back at the Khalistan Movement

Some Recent Researches on Its Rise and Decline
Punjab had also done quite well eco- prolonged phase of militancy also had far-
Sikh Ethnonationalism and the nomically during the post-independence reaching impact on the state economy and
Political Economy of period. Apart from the prosperity that the led to many changes in the social life of
Punjab by Shinder Purewal; success of the green revolution during the the people. More importantly, it changed,
Oxford University Press, New 1960s and 1970s brought to the people of quite fundamentally, the popular image of
Delhi, 2000; Punjab, it also played a very important role Punjab. From a state known for its eco-
pp ix+215, Rs 545. in solving the vexing problem of food nomic vibrancy and progress, Punjab began
scarcity in India. Though occupying merely to be seen as a 'crisis ridden' region with
Terrorism in Punjab: 1.6 per cent of the total land area, Punjab serious problems of law and order and
Understanding Grassroots began to produce nearly one-fourth of the political unrest [Jodhka 2001].
Reality by H K Puri, P S Judge total foodgrain production of India and The political happenings in Punjab
and J S Shekhon; contributed to approximately two-thirds during the 1980s, as also in some other
Har-Anand Publications, of the entire central pool of foodgrains. parts of India, had far-reaching implica-
New Delhi, 1999; In 1980-81, for example, the share of tions for the ideological structures of the
pp 200, Rs 395. Punjab in the central pool of wheat was Indian nation state. Apart from the "crisis
73 per cent and that of rice was 45 per of governability" [Kohli 1980] that it posed
Ethnic Conflict in India: A Case-Study cent. As an offshoot of its success in the to the Indian state, writings on the ' 1980s'
of Punjab by Gurharpal Singh; agricultural sector, Punjab also emerged also raised many critical questions that
Macmillan Press, London, 2000; as the most prosperous state of the country challenged some of the basic assumptions
pp xv+231, price not mentioned. with the highest per capita income. The around which the independent Indian
state has also had the distinction of having nation was being forged. The new debates
Punjabi Identity in a Global one of the lowest proportions of the on secularism, culture, community iden-
Context, (ed) Pritam Singh and population living below the poverty line.2 tities and rights were, in a sense, carried out
Shinder Singli Thandi; Punjab indeed was asuccess story, a model directly in response to the various 'new'
to be emulated by other states! social movements that emanated in differ-
Oxford University Press, New
Delhi, 1999; Not surprisingly, therefore, the rise of ent parts of the country during the 1980s.
a secessionist movement in the state was
The new academic interest generated by
pp xiv+416, Rs 495.
a puzzle for many. Explaining the 'Punjabthe Khalistan movement during 1980s in'
crisis' became a challenge for the academiathe region did not die with the 'crisis'.
SURINDER S JODHKA and an obsession with the press. A largeDuring the last two decades, the Punjab
volume of literature was generated duringand Sikh studies have, in a sense, become
rT he rise of a powerful secessionist the early 1980s on the 'Punjab crisis'. Theinstitutionalised in the global academy
movement in Punjab during the events taking place in the state occupied the[Hawley and Mann 1993; Jodhka 1997;
decade of 1980s was an unprece- front pages of virtually every Indian news-Singh and Thandi 1999]. The agenda of
dented development in post-independence paper for more than a decade. The academia'Punjab studies' has also seen a signifi-
India. Never before had the independent applied all available frameworks and per-cant shift during this period. Punjab, during
Indian state experienced such a serious spectives to understand the-'crisis'.3 the decades of 1960s and 1970s, was
crisis of political legitimacy as encoun- Contrary to much of the academic specu-'known primarily for effective application
tered while dealing with the Sikh mili- lation, after 15 years of violence and of the Green Revolution technology and
tants. Though a border state, Punjab had bloodshed, Sikh militancy began to de-a successful case of development plan-
been a quite well integrated part of the cline by the early 1990s and by the middlening in a third world setting. From 1980s
country. There had never been any doubts of the 1990s the Khalistan movement was onward, students of Punjab began to see
about the nationalist credentials of the virtually over. Though the movement was it as a region with troubled ethnic relations
over, the implications of the crisis were and the agenda for Punjah.studies changed
Sikhs. Not only did they participate in the
nationalist freedom movement with much far too many, both for the Sikh community to the study of culture, nationalism and
enthusiasm, the people of Punjab, along and also for the Indian nation state, to be identity, questions that have also become
with those of Bengal, were also the ones forgotten with the return of 'peace'. More a major preoccupation with the students
who suffered the most during partition at than 30,000 people, a large majority of of India.
the time of independence in 1947. No whom were Sikhs, had lost their lives in Apart from the puzzle of understanding
other regions of India had to pay such a Punjab and elsewhere in India in the "what was happening to India", to use
price for freedom from colonial rule! violence linked to the 'crisis'.4 A rather Roger Jeffrey's expression [Jeffrey 1994],

Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001 1311

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the resurgence of interest in Punjab also mobilisations among the Sikhs as aresponse explaining what constitutes power and what
had several other reasons. For example, the to the anxieties generated by the process gives rise to conflict in society. It sought
rise of Khalistan movement coincided with of moderisation. The Sikhs felt a crisis to understand the relationship between
economics and politics, and explain how
the new interest in the questions of nation- of identity and a fear of assimilation [Narang
alism and ethnicity. The ascendance of 1983, Singh 1984, Bombwall 1985]. the relationship between the two worked".
post-modernist perspectives made the case Though his study is perhaps the most
More recently Harjot Oberoi (1997) has
of Punjab fit quite well in the newly argued that the crisis of 1980s was a
comprehensive of all those in the genre,
emerging trends in the global academy. consequence of the economic inequalities
his central arguments or the 'thesis' is not
The debut of a new generation of diaspora generated by the green revolution in thenew. As has been earlier argued by several
Punjabi academics in the English-speak- Punjab countryside, which were in con- Marxist scholars, Purewal too locates the
ing western world and developments in flict with the cultural ethos of the Sikhs. crisis of 1980s in the contradictions and
telecommunications and information tech- "The rising tide of inequalities in the Punjabnew class alignments brought into the
nologies also played a positive role [Singh did not easily blend with the dominant Punjab economy and politics by the suc-
and Thandi 1999; Tatla 1999]. In the fast ethos of Sikh religious tradition, whichcess of green revolution.5
globalising world, the 'homeland' has once demanded a just moral economy based on Putting his core thesis in a rather simple
again become easily accessible to the equitable distribution of wealth and re-and unambiguous language, Purewal as-
diaspora. The economic mobility experi- sources" (p 321). Though such a processserts that the crisis of 1980s was a doing
enced by some sections of the working of growing inequality was present else-of a "small but powerful class of capitalist
class Punjabi migrants helped them send where in India too, "the egalitarian ill farmers (the kulaks)". They are the ones
their children to schools and universities. pulse within the Sikh tradition", Oberoiwho had benefited the most from the green
Turmoil in the "homeland" obviouslyargues, "was to make the voice of redis-revolution technology. In their struggle
generated passion and interest among manytributive justice more compelling in against the commercial and industrial
of them. Having settled themselves eco-Punjab" (p 322). bourgeoisie fordomination, the Sikh kulaks
nomically they understandably began to Those working with the Marxists classinvoked the ideology of Sikhism and their
think of their cultural identities once again.framework too pointed to the politicalreligious identity to build a common bond
It is rather interesting to note that of theeconomy of the green revolution as being with the marginal and landless Sikh peas-
four books (and a few other studies pub- responsible for the crisis of 1980s. How-antry who had been further marginalised
lished in the form of research papers) beingever, their emphasis was more specific,by the green revolution. In the name of
reviewed for this article, three have beenviz, on the emerging economic contradic-Sikhism the kulaks sought to strengthen
published by diaporic Sikhs, settled intions between different classes [see, fortheir domination over the home market of
different parts of the western world. Theexample, Gill and Singhal 1985, 1995;Punjab through getting the Anandpur Sahib
emergence of diaspora as an active agentDang 1988]. Shinder Purewal's book Sikhresolution implemented or through seek-
in the articulation of Sikh/Punjabi identityEthnonationalism and the Political ing a separate nation of Khalistan. "The
could have far-reaching implications forEconomy of Punjab in a sense further militant brigades of the kulaks, which had
the Sikh community and the imagining ofadvances this thesis. Purewal argues theirthat
origin in the political economy of
its identity in the long run, a point that Ithose who "explore the realm of identities
predatory capitalism, fought pitched battles
hope to take up later in this paper. and culture without taking into with
account
the central government, which de-
the material context in which identities fended the interests of commercial and
Understanding Khalistan take shape" fail to answer some obvious industrial bourgeoisie" (p viii).
Movement questions, such as, "why certain aspectsThough his explanation of the 1980s
of identity become hegemonic at a parti- crisis is not new, his treatment of the subject
Much of the early writings on the 'Punjabcular historic moment"? "Whose interests does point to several important new di-
crisis' tended to look at the mobilisations
are served by.the politics of identity"? Or, mensions. For example, through a historical
in Punjab in terms of a 'problem' [Jodhka in other words, "what constitutes the survey of the politics in the region, Purewal
1997]. Many of these writings emanated content of these cultural identities and shows that though the question of separate
from the then dominant paradigm of symbolic politics and who defines that Sikh identity was also raised during the
modernisation and saw crises like those in
content"? For example, Purewal points late 19th and early 20th centuries, its
socio-economic base had undergone a
Punjab primarily as transitional pheno- out, though the Sikh reformers during the
mena, a problem in the evolutionary pro- late 19th century had also raised the ques-
significant change during the last hundred
cess of nation building or a consequence tion of identity, their emphasis was on years
a or so. From the urban petty-bour-
of elite manipulation, a typical feature of "non-Hindu Sikh identity", while thegeoisie - the urban upper caste Sikhs - the
young democracies like India. agenda for the "kulak-based Sikh leader-
advocacy of the separate identity had shifted
In terms of determining variables, the ship" during the 1980s was to propagate to the rural dominant caste, the Jats. This
role of green revolution, experienced in an "anti-Hindu Sikh identity" (p 46). shift had taken place during the 1960s. It
the state during the proceeding decades, He insists that it was necessary to look was in the 1960s that the Sikh Jats, who
was perhaps the most obvious reference at the politics of ethnicity and identitieswere earlier closer to the Congress Party,
point. Vandana Shiva, for example, attri- from the perspective of the political switched their loyalty to the Akali Dal and
buted the growing culture of violence in economy. "The political economy approach eventually came to dominate the party, and
Punjab directly to the breakdown of thewas better because it studied the pheno- also the SGPC.
traditional "village community" [Shiva menon of identity formation and The rise of Bhinderanwale and the
1991]. Similarly many saw the communal ethnonationalism in its material context bydemand for Khalistan, according to

1312 Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001

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Purewal, were clearly in accordance with explains the appeal or charisma of SantA large majority of them were either school
the logic of the kulaks' politics. Though Bhinderanwale' cannot simply be ex- drop-outs or were illiterates. More than
Bhinderanwale recruited youth from half of them were either working on the
plained in the framework of manipulative
marginalised peasantry, his political politics of kulaks. Such'arguments, asfamily landholdings or were 'not doing
programme of uniting the Sikhs against the anything' specific (were unemployed).
Gupta rightly points out, "do not provide
Hindus served the interests of the kulaks. an analytical foundation to explain whyThe most importantfindings of the survey
relate to the motives of their joining 'ter-
From the Anandpur Sahib resolution to the ethnic self-images and perceptions are what
declaration of Khalistan, the political they are. The distinctive character of eth-rorism'. Contradicting Roger Jeffery and
demands of the 1980s movements were all nic images and the context in which they Harjot Oberoi' s arguments, Puri et al show
to serve the interests of the kulaks. Thus,are fashioned are often overlooked in such through their empirical data that only a
for Purewal, the Sikh ethnonationalism ofwritings" [Gupta 1992:223]. The so-called small proportion (around 10 per cent) of
1980s was, literally speaking, not a fun-common masses, in such formulations, them were reported to have had commit-
damentalist movement in the sense that it tend to appear as a bunch of fools, ready ment for the cause'of Khalistan or were
did not ask for a return to the fundamentals to be manipulated by the cunning elite and influenced by Bhinderanwale. Those who
of the Sikh faith, which Purewal contends wily classes! joined militancy due to police excesses
were in fact pro-poor and inclusionary were also not many. A large number of
in nature. Who Were the Sikh Militants them were reported to have taken to the
His instrumental logic and complete gun just "out of fun" (38 per cent) or to
economic determinism apart, Purewal An understanding of the Khalistan further their own private interests. None
seems also suggest a complete unity of movement would obviously require em- of them were reported to have come from
purpose and ideology between the Akalis pirical documentation of who exactly were "respectable families". Though they be-
(i e, the kulaks) and the Khalistani mili- the Sikh militants. And how were their longed to the locally dominant caste, the
tants/terrorists. Equating the two was not activities perceived by the Sikh masses? Jats, their economic status was not very
only empirically contestable, it may also What was the impact of the Khalistan secure. They were typically the ones who
be politically wrong. Though the Akalis movement on the socio-economic and felt that they had been "rendered useless
indeed are a party of the kulaks, their cultural life in Punjab? The available by the existing conditions and had free
regionalism, like the regionalism of other empirical literature on the social time back-and impulse for excitement... Access
regional parties, has not always been ground of the Sikh militants also contra- to weapons such as AK-47 Assault Rifles
communalist in nature. The Anandpur dicts Purewal's thesis. On the basis of his appeared to provide to the powerless
Sahib resolution, for example, though pri- well-documented study, Roger Jefferyan entitlement td power" (pp 184-85).
marily articulated the interests of the rich (1994), for example, claims that a largeA majority of them were, as the authors
farmers of Punjab, also talked about the majority of the Sikh militants were youngwrite, "social drop-outs who came into the
question of decentralisation.of powers and and came from all Sikh castes. Most of business of terrorism for their own per-
resources, a demand that has often been them had been to schools, even if only sonal for reasons of adventure and making
raised by other peripheral regions of India a few years. "Their families were often money" (p 86).
as well. Even left-wing political forma- peasants who managed to live adequately This lack of ideological commitment
tions have raised such a demand. but who were far from being 'green revo- was also reflected in their action. Their
Interestingly, Purewal makes no refer- activities eventually made them unpopular
lution' capitalist farmers. If they were from
ences to the oppressive structures of the urban families, their fathers were likelywith
te the local people, who, directly or
Indian nation state anywhere in the book. be in petty commerce or government ser- indirectly, began to offer resistance to their
vice" (p 179). Confirming Oberoi's (1997)
In fact he seems to work with a rather sharp activities.
distinction between the central govern- arguments about the militanats, Jeffery Apart from investigating "who the ter-
ment on the one hand and the regional/ claims that, "what all seemed to share, rorists were" and "how the villagers felt
Sikh elite of Punjab on the other and the however, was a vision of Sikh history thatabout them", the study also explored the
two are projected as representing com- fitted poorly with their own demoralised incidence of "counter terrorism of the state"
pletely contradictory politco-economic present" (Jeffery 1994:179]. in the villages of the two border districts.
interests, presumably the former being Another empirical study carried out Thereby were many cases of police brutali-
H K Puri, P S Judge and J S Shekhon
democratic and the latter sectarian! Though ties and violation of the legal procedures
Purewal rightly points to the need to look(1999) also confirms Jeffery's thesis thatwhile dealing with the young militants.
at ethnic identities in relation to the material
the Sikh militants were neither the kulak-
Most of the 'boys' were killed by the police
processes, his own analysis however seems farmers themselves, nor did they have thein fake encounters, without charging them
to leave too many questions unanswered. support or sympathies of the class of rich
of any crime. The police, during the clos-
While Purewal is right in pointing to the ing years of the movement, had become
farmers. They were typically from families
fact that much of the new literature on of marginalised Jat cultivators. More than
so brutal that in one case when they dis-
ethnicity tends to ignore 'class', a Marxist covered four terrorists hiding in a house,
80 per cent of the terrorists they identified
theory of ethnicity should not commit in a their study villages in the two borderinstead of forcing them to come out and
similar mistake by going to the otherdistricts of Punjab came from Jat Sikh
arrest them, the police simply set the house
extreme. Reducing everything to class in on fire. All the four 'boys' were killed in
families. In terms of land ownership, only
a rather mechanical way may not answer10 per cent of them came from families the fire (p 127).
all the questions raised by such 'crises'.having 10 or more acres of land. Only Further,
2 the study also tried to find out
For example, questions such as 'what the kind of changes that had come about
per cent of them had graduation degrees.

Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001 1313

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in the village life. Though nearly 80 per the movement. Nor does it, as the authors was also marked by some kind of a
cent of those who were killed by the ter- themselves admit, exhaust all the issuescivilisational unity. The so-called 'ethnic
rorists were Sikhs, it was primarily the raised by the movement. A 'village-view' identities', for them, were a contextual and
Hindus, who migrated out of the villages. of the Khalistan movement is not neces- constructed phenomenon rather than an
Some of the well-to-do Sikh farmers too underlying feature of the Indian society.
sarily more authentic or perhaps even more
partially shifted their residence to nearbyimportant than the 'middle-class view'.No single ethnic group could be said to
dominate Indian politics. Implicitly or ex-
towns. As a result of these out-migrations, The two, however, can surely be different.
the villages in the two districts began to plicitly, the instrumentalists gave primacy
appear religiously homogeneous. The Question of Sikh Ethnicity/Identity
to the process of political manipulation/
shops left behind by the Hindu traders mobilisation while talking about ethnic
were soon occupied by local Sikhs, thereby As mentioned above, of all the issuesidentities. Some of them also attributed the
rise of ethnic consciousness to the process
blurring "the earlier dichotomy in which raised during the 1980s, the questions of
Sikhs were mainly peasants and Hindus ethnicity and Sikh identity have turned of modernisation.
the moneylending shopkeepers" (p 158). out to be the most contentious ones. Do Primordialists, as against instrumental-
Such a "grass roots reality" of the the Sikhs constitute a separate religion ists, emphasise the inherent nature of ethnic
Khalistan movement, the authors claim, and/or nation? When did they begin difference. to "Attachments derived from
was very different from "the social con- imagine or think of themselves as a distinctplace of birth, kinship, relationship, reli-
struction of the Khalistan movement by itspeople? Was the emergence of a separate gion, language and social practices that are
leaders and academics on the one hand and Sikh identity a modern/recent phenom- natural...provided the basis for an easy
by the government of India, on the other" enon, viz, a consequence of the colonial affinity with other people from the same
background" (Brass quoted on p 11). Such
(p 9). What they found most surprising was policies, elite manipulations, class contra-
a lack of ideological commitment among dictions in Punjab economy, or else had an approach has often been used in the
those "fighting the battle for the Sikh the Sikhs always been a different people, Indian context while analysing India's
nation" as it was being articulated by the right from the times of the Gurus? These religious and caste minorities.
urban middle class ideologues of the move- questions have not only been of interestThe state revisionists pleaded for a "radi-
ment in the media or the academia. cal reappraise" of "the issue of ethnicity
to historians and social scientists working
However, before making an assessment on the region but have also been trouble- outside the paradigm of modernist politi-
of the study, it may be worth our while some issues for the Sikh community and cal science". Drawing their arguments from
to remember that the study by Puri et its al leaders. Though the crisis of 1980s post-modernist and neo-Gandhian posi-
tions, they argued that communities ought
provided an important context, the conten-
was carried out during the middle of 1990s,
after the Khalistan movement had been to be recognised as legitimate political
tions on the question of Sikh identity have
defeated. Most of the 'terrorists' theybeen around since the late 19th century. actors in the Indian context and cultural
studied had been killed, mostly in police Though not directly addressing to the heterogeneity rather than uniformity was
encounters. Their respondents were the crisis of 1980s, Harjot Oberoi's study the of reality of Indian history. The cultural
villagers who "knew the terrorists well".the Construction of Religious Boundaries6 conflict, according to them, could be
Though one cannot possibly question the proved to be the most controversial, and managed by accommodating diverse iden-
findings of the study, there is surely scopeaccording to many, a landmark study tities of without trying to pursue the goal of
of interpreting their data -differently.Sikh history. His thesis was not only con- national uniformity/homogeneity.
Knowing that militancy in Punjab had beentested by many historians of the region, but Gurharpal Singh also argues that there
defeated and the will of the state had won,it also generated passions among a section has been a great deal of reluctance in
the respondent villagers, who told theof the Sikh community, who saw in his accepting the fact that any real ethnic
investigators about the dead terrorists,works an attempt at the "invasion of re- divisions existed in Indian society. As per
obviously had reasons to distance them- the 'conventional wisdom' on the subject,
ligious boundaries", as the title of one such
selves from the movement. Such a distanc- publication said.7 much of India's contemporary ethnic
ing was important not only. while 'report- Gurharpal Singh's book Ethnic Conflict conflict was a consequence: of "political
ing' about the 'dreaded terrorists' to the in India: A Case Study of Punjab further perversion: that is, the decline of Nehruvian
outside researchers, but perhaps also for values identified in post-Nehruvian pro-
analyses some of the issues that were raised
their own self, given that at one stage manyin the context of the 1980s crisis. Survey-cesses of centralisation, deinstitutionali-
of them had in fact been swayed by the ing the literature on ethnicity and relatedsation, and political decay" (p 39). Ac-
charisma of Sant Bhinderanwale! Interest- themes in the Indian context, Singh iden- cording to this 'conventional wisdom'
ingly, the authors do recognise that at one tifies three perspectives that have been (i) ethnic identities in India were not pri-
time Bhinderanwale did carry such an popular with students of ethnic conflict mordial but constructed, permeable and
appeal, particularly among the Sikh in Indian politics and they have all been contingent, (ii) ethnic groups selectively
youth who "saw him in the mould of Guru used in the case of Punjab as well, viz, emphasised particular dimensions of
Gobind Singh and felt that he had arrived instrumentalism, primordialism and state their identity as appropriate, (iii) ethnic
as a saviour to rescue the besieged Sikhs" revisionism. groups lacked cohesion, and (iv)-the Indian
(p 44). The instrumentalists, though differing state was secular and sought to foster
Further, though their study can help us significantly in theiremphasis, shared many political integration alongside a multi-
understand a crucial question, viz, why did common points. Most of them would, for cultural society.
Khalistan movement suddenly decline orexample, argue that while India had plu- The actual reality, according to Singh,
die, the study does not explain the rise ofralities of different kinds, Indian society was however very different. A critical

Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001 1315

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reading of the Nehruvian period clearly circumstances". The most serious problem Pakistani Punjabi emigrants to the west.
reveals "a high degree of 'bossism', con- with such a perspective was that it tended The volume represents all the three seg-
stitutional subversions, and conscious to avoid confronting the political context ments of 'Punjab'.
efforts to culturally and politically assimi- of the ethnic problem and tended to accept In their introduction to the volume, the
late minorities" (p 44). The notion of the status quo of structures against which editors suggest that a global perspective
cultural pluralism is applied only to cul- Sikh ethnicity was defined, contested andon the region could help us in identifying
tural groups that remain within the broadly constructed. the differences and similarities of Punjab's
defined Hindu fold but discriminated However, though he is critical of Harjot experience with the other regions of the
against the non-Hindu minorities [Singh Oberoi's 'instrumentalist' account of the world that have gone. through "similar
1996:120]. Such an assessment would Sikh ethnicity, he recognises the evolving processes of colonial subjection and post-
highlight the apparent cultural homogene-nature of Sikh religious institutions. He, colonial integration into new nation states".
ity of Hinduism, which often transcendedfor example, recognises the crucial role Thus the very style in which Singh and
linguistic and other barriers. The notion of that the Singh Sabhas and Akali move- Thandi pose the question opens up many
"underlying civilisational unity" was "en- ments played in "the homogenisation of new possibilities of imaging identities in
coded with Hindu myths, symbols and Sikh identity around the Singhs" (p 84) the post-colonial contexts. Using the
imagery". Hinduism functioned as a 'meta-during the first quarter of the twentieth diasporic space, they, in a sense, attempt
ethnicity' of the post-independence Indiancentury. However, he asserts, "the con- to recover an identity that has been.frac-
nation, according to him. sciousness of community" existed among tured by history and lost in the political
Singh suggests that recognition of the the Sikhs even during the period of Ranjit battles of communities and nations, the
hegemonic and dominant place of Hindu- Singh and was not a product of the colonial Punjabi identity. One may obviously
ism would ask for an alternative interpre-period. wonder whether such a project was a viable
tation of the Indian state and its relation The structure of Sikh society and its one to begin with in the given historical
with the minorities. He suggests that Indiapolitical institutions had evolved by the context! One of the contributors to the
be viewed as an 'ethnic democracy' as third decade of the twentieth century, and, volume articulates this predicament of the
against the prevalent assumption of India by and large, have remained unaltered since region quite well. He writes:
being a secular, multinational and plural this period. The two most important fea-
The Punjab, which largely coincided with
democracy. tures of the modern Sikh ethnicity/identity
a fairly well defined geographical region,
that he identifies are (i) declining propor- has been replaced by the states of the
Within India's ethnic democracy hege-
monic and violent control is exercised over tions of the sahajdhari Sikhs and (ii) pre- Punjab and Haryana, the Union Territory
minorities, especially borderland minori- dominant position of Jats within the Sikhs. of Chandigarh, parts of Himachal Pradesh
ties. Here hegemonic control underpins However, he also underlines the fact that and the Punjab of Pakistan. At the same
the functioning of political and adminis- though caste cleavages existed among the time Punjabi identity has got weakened,
trative structures; and when it is chal- Sikhs, "the overall impression was still if not fractured, by the highly pronounced
lenged, contested or opposed, the Indian that of caste homogeneity rather than communal identities. The politics of recent
state regularly resorts to violent control...In division". Singh goes on to explain and decades have tended to deepen the grooves
short, the method of ethnic conflict man- identify reasons as to why scholars tended created during the previous century. The
agement followed by the Indian state since to overemphasise the fact that caste was shattered image of Punjabi consciousness
1947 with special reference to the border- significant among the Sikhs. Though one reflects tiny images, which refuse to coa-
land states pose a fundamental challenge may appreciate his concern, but his posi- lesce into a portrait (Grewal, p 52).
to the assumption of state secularism and tion on the question of caste would per- Notwithstanding the depressing picture
the view of India as a multinational and
haps have been very different if he was drawn by Grewal, the papers put together
plural democracy (p 200).
focusing on, say, the rural society or agrarian in the volume do appear to have a unity
It is in the background of such an under-social structure of Punjab!8 of theme, which is looking at different
standing/conceptualisation of the contem- dimensions of the fracturing of the Punjabi
porary India that Gurharpal Singh pro-Punjab Studies and the Global identity during the last century, and where
vides his own account of the ethnic ques- Context do we stand today. It is obviously easier
tion in Punjab today. for those working on the pre-colonial
Singh is quite critical of some of the Punjab Identity in a Global Context, thePunjab to think of a common Punjabi
recent post-structuralist writings on book edited by Pritam Singh and Shinderidentity when the boundaries separating
Sikhism, in particular the works of HarjotSingh Thandi, offers a good example ofcommunities were 'fuzzy' in nature. The
Oberoi. The Sikh ethincity in such 'instru-the manner in which Punjabi/Sikh identitytwo papers on Punjabi poets, Qadiryar and
mentalist perspectives' was treated as a is being imagined from the location of the Shah Mohammad, respectively by Athar
fluid, contingent/constructed phenomenon.diaspora. The book is an outcome of a Tahir and Darshan Singh are good ex-
Scholars like Harjot Oberoi, he argues, conference that was organised by the newlyamples of such a search.
tended to ignore the context of the asser-launched Association of Punjab Studies However, as the colonial rulers intro-
tion of Sikh ethnicity, that is, its develop- (APS) in Oxford. APS covers not only theduced new modes and discourses of govern-
ment in relation to, and in competitionSikh dominated Indian Punjab but has ance, people of the region began to think
with, other ethnicities. Sikh ethnicity, inthree segments, viz, the Indian Punjab, themore and more in terms of boundaries
such accounts, was viewed "simply as the Pakistani Punjab and the Punjabi diaspora.separating religious communities of the
product of 'narratives', which could beThe Punjabi diaspora understandablyregion. The common elements of Punjabi
varied and 'constructed' according to include both the Indian as well as the culture began to matter less and less to the

1316 Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001

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communities of Punjab. The social reform societies the elite groups were responsiblePunjab and the Punjabi diaspora. The
movements during the later years of the for creating social boundaries based pri-papers on Pakistani Punjab obviously do
19th century played a critical role in further marily on a certain understanding of re-not fall within the purview of this paper
crystallising these divisions. ligion as the cultural signifier. but those on international migrations and
Roger Ballard's paper on Punjabi reli- Analysing the impact of the Britishdiaspora do concern us. While Parminder
gions focuses precisely on this historical colonial rule and the social reform move- Bhachu looks at the "cultural reproduction
process of ethnic polarisations and forma- ments on the Punj abi society certainly does and transformation" of twice migrant
tion of exclusive religious identities in the not exhaust the question of Sikh identity. women of Sikh descent, Arthur Helweg
region. Broadly agreeing with Oberoi's Not everything about communities and examines the evolving and emerging na-
position, Ballard argues that "the ideas and their self-images was an offshoot of the ture of ethnic identities among the Punjabis
practices which it was currently conven- colonial governance. The Sikhs, the Hin- abroad.
tional to identify as constituting Hindu, dus and the Muslims did have separate Perhaps the most relevant paper in the
Sikh and Muslim orthodoxy were far less identities, though not as clearly defined as section on diaspora is by Bruce La Brack
ancient than was commonly assumed. On they came to be later on. The Sikhs, for who has studied the Punjab/Sikh identity
the contrary they were very largely a prod- example, not only saw themselves as being in California. In nearly 100 years of Punjabi
uct of the fertile processes of religious different from the Muslims, but also had presence in North America major shifts in
reconstruction which were let loose by their own political culture.9 Using the what it meant to be a 'Sikh' have occurred.
19th century reform movements" (p 8). popular Sikh litany, 'Raj Karega Khalsa' "What 'Sikh' meant in 1904 and what it
The Arya Samaj played the most important (the Khalsa shall rule!), Bhupinder Singh means today are quite different":
role in this process. (Another paperby Indu explores various dimensions of the Sikh
...the Punjabis who came to Canada and
Banga focuses exclusively on the activities notion of politics.
the United States at the turn of the century
of Arya Samaj in Punjab and how its There are also several papers on the tended to stress their south Asian cultural
politics was responsible in shaping the contemporary socio-economic and politi- commonalties and their disadvantaged
Hindu communal identity in the region.) cal processes. Sucha Singh Gill points to corporate status in the west rather than
Going into the details of the processes the contradictions generated by the nature their religious differences. It is not
of religious identity formation in the re- of economic development during the post- that...such distinctions were irrelevant, but
gion, Ballard centres his arguments on independence period and the demographic rather that a more secular Punjabi identity
four dimensions of the Punjabi religion, spread of religious communities in the tended to transcend religious particular-
viz, the panthic dimension, the kismetic state. The fact that large majorities of the ism. This was essentially a continuation of
dimension, dharmic dimension, and the Sikh are concentrated in rural areas work- the reality of village life in the Punjab of
that era and not a new or adaptive strategy
quomic dimension. Through a historical ing on land while the Hindus are predomi-
precipitated by migration (p 373).
investigation, he examines how the socio- nantly urban traders often "leads to the
logical contents of these categories under- conversion of economic conflict into Over the last 90 years or so this "incor-
went a change in the region. Though, for communal divisions". In another paper, porative Punjabi identity" has been re-
example, the notion of qaum (which Lakhwinder Singh looks at the nature of by "a more self conscious, increas-
placed
could be loosely translated as community) industrial development in Punjab. Though ingly militant, and exclusive Sikh iden-
existed, its meanings were different from industry has been'growing in Punjab, tity".the Interestingly, this process of identity
the way it came to be understood later. nature of its industrialisation is such that
formation in North America, in a sense,
"During the early days of British Raj it fails to attract the surplus populationcorresponds quite closely with the changes
social and political mobilisation was much from the agricultural sector. taking place within Sikhism in the sub-
more commonly articulated in terms of As mentioned above, one of the direct continent. Reactions of the Sikhs living in
solidarities of zat or biradari, or in other consequences of the '1980s crisis' California
was to the events in the 1980s clearly
words through communities which the that it changed the popular'image ofpointsthe to the emergence of a global Sikh
early British administrators identified Sikh community. Chaman Lal looks atidentity
the that transcends the boundaries of
as castes and tribes" and rarely in religious changes that came about in the image theofnation state. While this process of
terms. Punjabis in Hindi literature after 1984. globalisation of identities obviously im-
Using some of the categories of the post- "Punjab", as he writes, "was perceived plies
as a challenge for the Indian nation
structuralist theory, Arvind-pal Singh too state, a 'de-territorialised' Sikh identity
a fertile land and its people easy going and
focuses on the transformation of- fuzzyhard-working". The Sikhs, in the popular also means a process of re-imagining of
boundaries into well-marked difference community that may have far-reaching
imagination, were seen "as brave, patriotic
that took place during the colonial rule.and saviours of religion by Hindu religious implication for its politics.
"Punjab", he argues, "was, and remains,leaders and dare devil romantics by popu-
one of the best examples in south Asia oflar sayings". The year 1984 proved to Concluding
be Remarks
how a dominant European culture shaped a watershed when this image was shat-
and transformed virtually every aspect oftered. Hindi writings during the period Though the growing involvement of the
life there" (p 119). The impact of the tend to show a state of confusion when old diasporic Sikhs with the 'affairs' of their
colonial rule was so far-reaching that overmyths had shattered without being replaced native land could have important impli-
the years, the Muslims, Hindus and theby new ones. cations for the ways in which the Sikhs
Sikhs, all began to see themselves as the Apart from papers on the changing imagine their community identity, their
British saw them. By westernising the edu-contours of identities in the Indian Punjab, influence on the political process in the
cational infrastructure of the indigenousthe book also has papers on the Pakistani region, as evident from the post-crisis

Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001 1317

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period, remains rather insignificant.l0 The References
community responds to such slogans, if
questions of politics in Punjab today raised again. BiE
Ahluwalia, M S (2000): 'Economic Performance
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4 More than 25,000 were reported killed in theGrewal, J S (1997): 'Sikh Identity, theAkalis and
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(1985). Gupta, D (1992): 'Ethnic Imagos and their
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The predicaments of Punjab today are Contemporary
today and the 'faith systems', as it was practiced Punjab', Contributions to
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isation in the national economy was quite lism (Second Edition), Macmillan, London.
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G S Gill (1995) was published by Canada SikhAgenda of Punjab Studies: A Survey of Some
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the market for sale to the official procure- from different parts of the world. - (2000): 'Punjab: Decline of Identity Politics',
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XXXV
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(2001): 'Marginalisation of Punjab', Seminar
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those relating to the agricultural sector. the scheduled castes. Also there are others, Kohli, A (1990): Democracy and Discontent,
Though the anxieties generated by the ensu- such the OBCs and the traditional urban castes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (Ext-
racts in S Kaviraj, ed, Politics in India, Oxford
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University Press, Delhi, 1997, pp 383-96).
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more in a state like Punjab where agricul- of Religious Boundaries: A Critique of Harjot
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Akali Politics, Gitanjali Publishing House,
It may, however, be important to end the during the pre-colonial period, Grewal's New Delhi.
observations are quite useful. He writes:
paper on a cautious note. To conclude that Oberoi, H (1994): The Construction of Religious
If we apply the connotation of 'Hindu' as
the question of identity in Punjab has been a non-Muslim Indian to the Sikhs of the 16th
Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in
resolved or forgotten could be an errone- the Sikh Tradition, Oxford University Press,
and 17th centuries, they were certainly Delhi.
ous assumption. What may be convenient Hindus. However, if we take the 'Hindus'
- (1997): 'Sikh Fundamentalists' in S Kaviraj
to the political elite of the state today to mean upper caste non-Muslim Indians, the
(ed), Politics in India, Oxford University Press,
Sikhs were not 'Hindu'. The Sikh Panth
may not remain so by the next assembly Delhi, pp 318-28.
included not only khatris, brahmans Samiuddin
and A (ed) (1985): The Punjab Crisis: Chal-
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Shiva, V (1991): The Violence of Green Revolution,
cal issues. The ensuing economic crisis is to represent the socio-religious systems Zed Books, London.
only likely to add more to these problems. upheld by the brahmans, the Sikhs were notSingh, G (1996): 'Re-examining the Punjab
The ruling alliance does not seem to have 'Hindu' [Grewal 1997:91]. Problem' in G Singh and I Talbot (eda), Punjabi
either the vision or the conviction to10 Further, it would be wrong to attribute any Identity: Continuity and Change, Manohar,
design to the diasporic Sikh scholars working Delhi, pp 115-38.
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question would be to see how the Sikhstudies reviewed above. for Statehood, UCL Press, London.

1318 Economic and Political Weekly April 21, 2001

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