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The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India: Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements THE Sikhs boast of achievements in every field. Yet, a section of it is disgruntled for not getting its due. The writer talks about the crisis in leadership within this community and how that resulted in complicating the Punjab/Sikh problem.
Going down to the genesis of the problem, he traces the Nirankari-Sikh clash, the role the Jan Sangh and the rise of the radicals among the Sikhs. He discusses the role of the SGPC throughout the movement, factionalism within the Akali Dal and the decisions taken in the Legislature. The pattern of change in one led to repercussions in the others. Chima writes with slow deliberation, pondering over each incident, each split, each decision, since he feels that every decision led to the crisis that engulfed Punjab for nearly a decade. He, at times, is anguished at the turn of events but continues on his journey of narrating the problem and arriving at conclusions. In the process, he examines the faults of all the leaders, irrespective of the party they hail from. It is the leadership and its lacuna that is the focus of his attention. If he points an accusing finger at prominent leaders in the Indian National Congress (INC), he also talks about the confusion of the leaders in the Akali Dal. He feels that petty interests, the desire to emerge as larger-than-life leaders, intra-party rivalry and clumsy handling of the situation by the ‘Delhi Darbar’ led to the Punjab problem. Each chapter flows into the other without breaking the thread of communication. The sub-headings summarise the argument that follows. To get a clearer picture of the ever- changing complex picture, the author has given tables in each chapter to clarify the complicated Sikh political spectrum. The changing scenario is reflected in the tables, which is very helpful because Sikh politics was ridden with rifts at every stage. The author has extensively read the works of prominent writers who have worked on Punjab in the recent past. He has quoted liberally from these works to substantiate his arguments. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s rise and fall occupies a major part of the work. The author tells about the efforts of some leaders who tried to solve matters and also about others who sabotaged the efforts. He quotes The Tribune on the failure of the various rounds of talks between the Centre and the Akali Dal. "In view of all this, the government and the Akalis seem to be set on a collision course in spite of their desires to the contrary.’ The author has examined the behavioural patterns of the Sikh insurgency and compared it with ethno-nationalist movements in four different areas of the world—Assam, Kashmir, Chechnya and Northern Ireland. The crucial role of
organisations like KLF, AISSF is also discussed. As one goes through
the work, the sequence of events becomes clearer. It is a book loaded
with facts and figures. It is an important resource on the state of
Punjab and the rough journey that it has emerged out of. The work has
to be read as carefully as it has been written.
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He
took up this subject as his Ph.D dissertation and has delved into the
sustenance and demise of the ethno-nationalist movements, especially
in Punjab. This is the fresh element in his work. He introduces the
reader to the structure of Sikh politics and places the Sikh political
system in larger context of that in Punjab and Indian politics
providing an overview of post-Independence politics in Punjab. He
offers a systematic, detailed critical political history from the
movement’s emergence in the early 1980s to its tempering down in the
mid-1990s. He writes: "I constructed a theory of how ‘patterns
of political leadership’ affect the trajectory of ethno-nationalist
movements." The Foreword by Dr Paul Wallace, Professor Emeritus,
Department of Political Science, University of Missouri, USA, adds to
the credibility of the work.