What is the demand for Khalistan and when did it first arise?
Khalistan means the land of Khalsa. That means the state of Khalsa (Sikhs). It is clear from its name itself that the
demand for Khalistan means the demand for a separate country for the Sikhs. The demand for a separate state for Sikhs
gained momentum after India’s independence and the partition of the country. When india was partitioned in 1947,
Muslims suffered the most and then Sikhs. At that time Sikhs lived in punjab of both india and Pakistan. But when
pakistan was formed, the Sikhs had to leave their traditional land pakistan due to partition, due to which there was deep
dissatisfaction among them. After this, in the year 1955, Akali Dal launched a movement in which they demanded that
the state should be reorganized on the basis of language. The demand of Akali Dal was to divide the state into Punjabi
and non-Punjabi speaking areas. Gradually this demand started increasing and in the year 1966, the then Prime Minister
Indira gandhi divided punjab into three parts. In which punjab, haryana were made states and chandigarh was made a
union territory.
At that time, Akali Dal had also demanded autonomy. If you understand in simple language, Akali Dal wanted that the
then Indira government should give all the powers to the punjab government except defence, foreign, communication
and currency, but Indira had rejected their demand. Now in the year 1980, the Khalistan movement once again gained
momentum. The name of the person who fueled that movement at that time was Jarnail Singh Bhidrawala. He was the
head of Damdami Taksal.
In the midst of the Khalistan movement, in the year 1981, punjab Kesari newspaper editor Lala Jagat Narayan was
murdered. After which Khalistan supporters had killed punjab DIG AS Atwal in the golden temple of amritsar in 1983.
Due to this incident, law and order in punjab completely deteriorated, in view of which the then prime minister Indira
gandhi imposed President's rule in the state.