An unofficial, non-binding referendum on Punjab independence has stirred up passions that are fuelling a spate of anti-Hindu hate incidents in Canada, an Indian diplomat says
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Lined up opposite each other in a Mississauga, Ont., parking lot, the opposing sides looked almost like the beginnings of a medieval battle. On one side was a clamouring crowd waving flags of Khalistan — the independent state that some Sikhs want to see carved out of India. On the other were equally noisy nationalists brandishing the Indian flag.
In between was a constant explosion of colourful fireworks, and a few nervous police officers.
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No violence occurred, but the clash on the South Asian holiday of Diwali last October came amid a major, international voting project that has unfolded largely under the mainstream radar — and infuriated India’s Hindu-nationalist government and media.
The Punjab referendum is asking people of Sikh origin in several countries whether they want the Sikh-majority Indian state to become an independent nation. Canada was one of the first to hold votes, and organizers claimed it attracted over 100,000 people on the first day of balloting near Toronto last September.
The battle for Sikh independence and a separate state of Khalistan in India has created boiling tensions far from India, culminating in a stunning announcement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday that Canada has credible information that the Indian government agents were involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen in Surrey, B.C. earlier this year. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader, was shot on June 18 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey.
What is Khalistan?
Khalistan is a Sikh homeland the activists want created out of Punjab and some surrounding Indian territory. Cities like Brampton and Mississauga west of Toronto, and Surrey in B.C. — with large Indo-Canadian populations — are hotbeds of the independence movement.
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What will the referendum accomplish?
The referendum — unofficial and binding on no one — has stirred up passions that are fuelling a spate of anti-Hindu hate incidents here in Canada, charges Manish, India’s acting high commissioner, who goes by just one name.
“We don’t want any violence. We don’t want any violence from pro-Khalistan forces or the Indian side,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice, the referendum’s organizer previously told the Post. “We are saying, let’s give votes a chance…. We are fighting for our own political opinions to be heard.”
After a pandemic delay, voting started in the U.K., continued in Italy and then moved to Canada and Australia. The most recent vote was held in Vancouver on Sept. 13.
The independent commission that Sikhs for Justice created to oversee the process is working on a plan to let residents of Punjab itself vote, though it is assumed New Delhi will block any such attempt.
Who are the main groups?
Sikhs for Justice are the referendum’s main organizer. But where Sikhs for Justice touts a peaceful exercise in free will, New Delhi sees red. It has designated the group a terrorist organization and tried, unsuccessfully, to have Interpol put out an arrest warrant for Singh Pannun, a New York-based lawyer of joint U.S. and Canadian citizenship, leading the group.
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Indian media, much of it loyal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government, tends to reflexively describe the organization and its founder as terroristic.
Last year, a Hindu temple was defaced in Toronto and a nearby statue of Mahatma Gandhi with pro-independence graffiti.
“They’re using Canadian territory for activities which could jeopardize India’s security and interests,” Manish previously told the National Post. “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.”
So, why has the tension reached Canada?
Support for Khalistan is much stronger among the Sikh diaspora in places like Canada than Sikhs in Punjab, where they make up 58 per cent of the population.
One prominent Sikh-Canadian in Ontario, a longtime opponent of the Khalistani movement, previously told the Post it’s no longer safe to voice such opinions publicly because of the independence movement’s power here. Asking to remain anonymous, the person said a relative was chastised and his house egged by Khalistanis for dating a Hindu-Canadian woman.
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The Sikh separatist cause had largely fallen quiet after years of turmoil that culminated in the bombing of an Air India flight from Canada in 1985, killing 329 people.
The attack was blamed on Canadian-based Sikh extremists, enraged by Indian troops storming the Golden Temple — Sikhism’s holiest site — to oust armed rebels in 1984, and the incident’s bloody fallout.
After two Sikh bodyguards murdered prime minister Indira Gandhi, a wave of pogroms saw at least 3,000 Sikhs slaughtered by rampaging Hindus.
What about the diplomatic tensions?
Canada recently cancelled trade talks with India and a proposed Team Canada trade mission was cancelled over the weekend, but this is not the first time Canada has gotten itself embroiled in India’s affairs.
In 2017, India was livid when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the stage at the Sikh-Canadian community’s annual Khalsa Day celebration. The appearance was the latest irritation for an Indian government reportedly worried that the Liberals are too cozy with a peaceful but “growing” Sikh-separatist movement in Canada.
India’s Foreign Ministry had previously issued separate protests to the Trudeau government about episodes of the Liberals’ politicking among a vote-rich community.
— With additional reporting by Tom Blackwell
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