Punjab Outlook

Editor’s Note:It is our privilege to present “The Political Economy of the Cycles of Violence and Non-violence in the Sikh Struggle”, a scholarly article by Paritam Singh, Emeritus Professor of Economics, which will be published as a second series out of  four-part series. This insightful work offers a thoughtful analysis of the historical, political, and economic dimensions of the Sikh struggle, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the factors that have shaped its evolution over time. We believe this article is of significant historical and educational value and will serve as an important resource for students, researchers, and anyone interested in Sikh history and contemporary political thought. We sincerely hope our readers will find this series both informative and engaging.— Editor

After the British annexation of Punjab in 1849, the Sikhs’ relationship with the colonial rulers reflected two conflicting moods in the community.  April 2007 was a mood of anger and revenge against the Raj for having annexed their kingdom; the other was of demoralisation, resignation and adaptation to the historic reality of the power of the British Empire. A section of the religiously minded Sikhs and ex-soldiers of Ranjit Singh’s army gave expression to the mood of revenge by indulging in acts of violent and non-violent defiance of British rule. Large numbers of Sikh peasants and soldiers sympathised silently with these acts of defiance but were also tempted by the lure of careers in the British army. The colonial rulers dealt very harshly with the small defiant section of the community and offered generous and seemingly honourable opportunities to the accomodationist section. A large number of Sikhs was recruited into the British army and their religious practices were respected with great care.

This, however, did not prevent the Sikhs from coming into non-violent conflict with their British rulers in the 1920s over the question of the control and self-management of their gurdwaras, the religious institutions. The Sikhs eventually succeeded in winning the democratic right to self-manage their gurdwaras. The victory of the Sikhs’ non-violent struggle won the admiration of Mahatma Gandhi. The end of British Rule in 1947 was accompanied by the partition of India between the Muslim-majority Pakistan and the Hindu-majority, though formally secular, India. The Sikh leadership, after failing to achieve the almost impossible goal of a Sikh-majority state, Khalistan, opted to remain within India. About 4.5 million Sikhs and Hindus migrated from West Punjab to India’s East Punjab and some 5.5 million Muslims migrated from East Punjab to Pakistan’s West Punjab. Around 500 000 people were killed in the brutal sectarian violence that accompanied the partition. The successes and failures of the Sikhs’ non-violent struggles in independent India (1947 to 1970s) The most remarkable success of the non-violent Sikh struggle in independent India was the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state in 1966 by grouping together the Punjabi speaking areas of theunited multilingual Punjab.

For the first time in their history the Sikhs had a state in which they were a majority. The 1971 census showed that the Sikhs comprised 60.22% of the total population of Punjab.16  This linguistic–demographic success was reflected through the political power the Sikhs attained in the new Punjab. The main Sikh party, Akali Dal, became the leading party in the first two governments that were form edinthis new Punjab.Thiswasanotherinstanceofasignificantsuccessfor non-violent, moderate and constitutional forms of struggle. However, this success proved to be short-lived.SincethecentralgovernmentinDelhiwasinthe hands of Congress Party, the party of Indian nationalism, both the latter governments were overthrown through manoeuvres initiated by the central government. This made the Akali Sikh leadership feel that, unless there was a fundamental restructuring of centre–state relations in favour of the states; they (the Akali Sikhs) could not hope to achieve sustainable power in Punjab. This thinking led them to adopt a policy document called the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in 1973.

The core of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution is an  April 2007 elaboration of two points: one, that the Sikhs are a nation; and two, that the Indian political system needs to be restructured by devolving power from the centre to the states in all areas except defence, foreign affairs, currency and communications. This document was used subsequently both by Congress Party extremists to condemn the Akalis and the Sikh secessionists and by Sikh extremists to sabotage the moderate Akalis’ attempt to reach a negotiated settlement with the central government on issues concerning the Punjab’s conflict with the centre. The rise of Sikh revivalism, extremism and militancy (1970s to early 1990s) Alhough Sikh religious revivalism and political extremism became overlapping phenomena in the 1980s, they arose in the late 1970s for different reasons. The rise of religious revivalism was primarily a response to the sociocultural changes taking place in Punjabi society as a result of the capitalist transformation of the rural economy, whereas the rise of the extremist politics was mainly an offshoot of the central Congress leadership’s attempts to undermine moderate Akali politics. The Green Revolution strategy of agricultural development in Punjab in the 1960s led to the extension and deepening of the capitalist mode of production in Punjab agriculture. The commodification of social life as a consequence of increasing capitalist modernisation in Punjab’s rural society resulted in several forms of fissures in social practices and cultural norms.

Twodiametrically opposite ideological currents emerged as a response to this sociocultural crisis: one a radical Marxism-inspired vision of an alternative collectivist socialist life, the other a religious revivalist vision of a pure Sikh way of life. The emergence of the Maoist Naxalite movement in Punjab in the late 1960s was an expression of the influence of the Marxist vision.19 The Maoist movementwascrushedthroughbrutal state terror by the mid-1970s. The collapse of the Naxalite movement was followed by the emergence of religious revivalist currents, although there is no direct causal link between the two. The indirect link, however, can be imagined. The political vacuum created by the defeat of the Naxalite movement did contribute to creating a fertile ground for the emergence of alternative visions. The Sikh religious vision, which had remained dormant in the previous decade,seemedtoacquireaddedattractioninthenewcontext.AnumberofSikh revivalist groups startedpreachingthesuperiorityofasimpleSikhethicalwayof life over the decadent consumerist style of life penetrating the rural society of Punjab as a result of the degenerate forms of capitalist modernisation. ‘This degenerative form of modernisation expressed itself in the menacing spread of alcoholism, smoking, drug-addiction, pornographic literature, lewd music and vulgar cinema’. The religious revivalist groups found responsive audiences among the rural Sikh population when they launched a moral and ideological crusade against this degenerate form of capitalist modernisation.

April 2007 electoral base by showing any sign of reconciliation with the Sikhs. He rejected the demand for an enquiry into the anti-Sikh carnage of November 1984. However, the continuing Punjab crisis was the major political challenge facing his administration. His leadership skills at resolving this national crisis were at stake. By mid-1985 he had initiated some moves to test Hindu opinion in the country on resolving the Punjab crisis. He appointed Arjan Singh as the new Governor of Punjab. A former Congress chief minister of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Arjan Singh was considered very close to the Nehru–Gandhi family and one of the key advisors of Rajiv Gandhi. Arjan Singh succeeded in getting the Punjab Accord signed between Rajiv Gandhi on behalf of the government of India and Sant Longowal on behalf of the moderate Akali Dal on 24 July 1985. The Punjab Accord was, in most aspects, a serious gesture of conciliation with the Sikhs. It stipulated, among other things, the holding of fresh state assembly elections in the Punjab, the hand-over of Chandigarh to Punjab by 26 January 1986, the rehabilitation of Sikh soldiers who had deserted the army in protest against the Operation Blue Star, compensation for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi and some other towns, the appointment of a commission of enquiry into the 1984 violence against the Sikhs, the release of imprisoned Sikh activists who did not have any serious charge against them, and the examination of centre–state relations in the light of the Anandpur Sahib resolution.   Contd………….