What is the Khalistan movement in India and why is Canada involved?

Canada and India have scrapped recent trade talks and expelled each other’s diplomats. But the topic at the core of this diplomatic row isn’t anything new. In fact, it’s been brewing for over four decades.

Some sections amongst Sikhs in India, who form the country's fourth-largest religious group, have been pushing for the establishment of a sovereign state in the Punjab region, of which they are a majority at 58 percent, according to the National Post.

They call this region Khalistan or “the land of the pure.” But support for this separatist movement has been largely fuelled by groups more than 11,000 kilometres away from the region: notably the Sikh diaspora in Canada.

In the Canadian province of British Columbia, cities like Brampton and Mississauga have large Sikh populations that have been vocal supporters of this movement and campaigns led by the group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).

Many Sikhs have generational ties to Canada, first amassing in the 20th century but over the years as the Khalistan movement in Punjab picked up, many more escaped to Canada as refugees out of fear of “political persecution.”

The growing presence of the Sikhs openly supporting the movement in Canada has become a headache for the Indian government, which has designated SFJ a terrorist organisation and called on Canada multiple times to take action against the group and even demanded Interpol put out an arrest warrant for its leader.

Now simmering tensions have reached a boiling point with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleging that agents of the Indian Government may be involved in the murder of a top figure of the Khalistan earlier this year.

Let’s break down what we know:

Referendum campaigns

SFJ – whose leader is a New York-based lawyer and joint US and Canadian citizen, Singh Pannun – has been organising referendums around the world for communities to vote in favour of the creation of Khalistan. The Indian government has declared Pannun as a terrorist and seized his properties in his home state Punjab.

The world-wide voting campaign started in October 2021 in the UK and so far has been held in over a dozen European capitals with over one million Sikhs having already voted, according to SFJ. However, the highest turnouts for these events consistently occur in Canada.

Sikhs over the age of 18 living outside India are eligible to vote and the voting is being held under the supervision of an independent panel of experts known as The Punjab Referendum Commission.

Following overseas voting, a vote will take place in Punjab and the results will be presented to the UN and add pressure to the international community to support the creation of Khalistan.

To combat this, New Delhi banned SFJ in India in 2019 as an unlawful association and has urged Canada to stop the referendum votes, alleging “Khalistani terrorists” are “using Canadian territory for activities which could jeopardise India’s security and interests.”

“If the (Canadian) government can do something about (the referendum) and try to prevent it, that would be useful because it only creates a bad atmosphere and incites violence against India and Indians,” India’s acting high commissioner Manish told the National Post.

However, on Tuesday, a crowd of more than 135,000 Canadian Sikhs gathered at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, breaking a previous record of voter turnout at a gathering in Canada's Brompton five months earlier.

Murder of Nijjar

Gurdwara is a significant location of choice for this latest round of voting as this is where leading Sikh activist and Khalistan Referendum Canada’s President Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed on June 18, 2023.

It is the murder of this very figure that has sent tensions soaring after Trudeau told the House of Commons on Monday that there is “credible” information linking Indian government agents to Nijjar’s murder.

“Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar," Trudeau said.

Trudeau said he spoke with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit last week about the incident, saying that “any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable”.

But India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected Trudeau’s accusation as “absurd and motivated” in a statement on Tuesday.

“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalıstani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.

“The inaction of the Canadian government on this matter has been long-standing and continuing concern,” it added.

Hindu Canadians concerned

Over the years, the Canadian government has refused India’s requests to crackdown on the group, arguing the movement is “a peaceful and democratic process within the legal parameters of the country's laws,” The Hindustan Times reports.

But India points out that the pro-Khalistani groups have also engaged in hate crimes that threaten the safety of Hindu Canadians and violent activities, such as the deadly bombing of an Air India flight from Canada in 1985 which it blamed on Sikhs.

All 307 passengers and 22 crew members on board were killed when the aircraft,flying from Montreal to London, was blown up. The terror incident is marked annually in Canada’s National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.

A year prior to the plane bombing, Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site. India alleges the plane attack a year later was carried out by Sikh extremists in response to this raid, dubbed Operation Blue Star, launched by prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Around 450 to 500 Sikhs and 83 Indian troops were killed during the operation, which was heavily condemned internationally and led to the assassination of Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Tensions remained high in the years to come and in 2018, Canada listed “Sikh (Khalistani) extremism” in its “Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada”.

“While their attacks in Canada have been extremely limited, some Canadians continue to support these extremist groups, including through financing,” the report said. Following public outrage, the term was deleted from the report.

Just last week, tensions between the groups in Canada were still evident. A prominent Hindu temple, BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto, was vandalised with anti-India graffiti.

The Indian High Commission condemned the incident on Twitter and urged Canadian authorities to “take prompt action on perpetrators."

Chandra Arya, Member of Canada’s Parliament also slammed the incident in a statement on Twitter, highlighting that it is “not just an isolated event”.

“Canadian Hindu temples have been targeted in the recent past by these kinds of hate crimes. Hindu Canadians are legitimately concerned,” Arya said.

In addition, in August Khalistan slogans were painted on the walls of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, a viral video circulating on social media showed.

Meanwhile, four days after Trudeau’s bombshell allegations against India, the Indian government has reportedly suspended visa services for Canadian citizens “until further notice”.