THE KHALISTAN MOVEMENT IN INDIA: The Interplay of Politics and State Power

This paper traces the growth of nationalist sentiment among Sikhs in the Punjab and examines the factors that led to the rise of the Khalistan movement in the 1980s and its subsequent decline by 1992. The Khalistan movement, which sought a separate state for Sikhs, was a result of a multitude of social, economic and political factors that had led to a growing sense of alienation among Sikhs in India. The failure of the state to address the political and economic problems of the Sikhs facilitated the rise of militancy and the movement for a separate state, widening the chasm between the Sikhs and the Indian state for about a decade before Punjab limped to normalcy in 1992.