Punjab: Federalism, elections, suppression

Robin Jeffrey

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    Abstract

    Between 1981 and 1993, a movement for an independent, Sikh-majority state, dubbed Khalistan, resulted in more than 20,000 deaths in north India and elsewhere. Those who died as a consequence of this insurgency included the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, murdered in October 1984, and 329 people on an Air India plane destroyed by a bomb off the coast of Ireland in June 1985. By 2012, however, the ‘Punjab insurgency’ (or ‘Khalistan movement’) had vanished from the world’s news reports, and even a website devoted to the cause – www.khalistan.net – carefully noted that its supporters fought ‘the tyranny and terrorism of the Indian state’ using ‘peaceful, democratic and political means’. The Khalistan insurgency had subsided bewilderingly quickly in 1993 and nearly 20 years later shows few signs of revival.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationDiminishing Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific: Why some subside and others don't
    EditorsEdward Aspinall, Robin Jeffrey and Anthony J Regan
    Place of PublicationAbingdon and New York
    PublisherRoutledge, Taylor & Francis Group
    Pages85-100
    Volume1
    Edition1st
    ISBN (Print)9780415670319
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

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