It is needless to speculate the outcome of the recent Melbourne round of a “non-governmental” referendum on Khalistan. Only those in favour of a sovereign state for Sikhs were expected to participate in it. Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the sponsoring organisation, is planning to hold the next round of referendums in Brisbane on March 19. One wishes Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, co-founder of SFJ, if he shows up in Brisbane, to be charged by Khalistanis for shortchanging them. In June 2022, Pannun, based in New York, conducted a virtual press conference at Lahore Press Club where he released a new map of Khalistan. Pannun, who apparently suffered from a bad bout of amnesia, forgot that Lahore was the historical capital of the Sikh kingdom under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Therefore, he made no mention of it, nor the Sikh connection with the city down the fateful year of 1947. Having himself grown used to the cold clime of New York, he intelligently preferred Shimla as the capital of his proposed Khalistan.
His map of the sovereign Sikh state, besides the Indian state of Punjab, encompassed almost the whole of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, five districts of Rajasthan, several districts of Uttarakhand (including Dehradun and Haridwar) and a number of districts of Uttar Pradesh. He generously left New Delhi, though not Gurugram, thus raising an imaginary wall through the National Capital Region. However, by the same act, he left the fate of historic Gurdwaras like Sheesh Ganj Sahib, Rakab Ganj Sahib, Bangla Sahib, etc, hanging in thin air. These would possibly be dealt with in the same manner as Gurdwaras like Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. Those historic shrines would also remain outside the ambit of the proposed Khalistan, as Pannun has not asked for a single square inch of land from the Pakistan side of Punjab. Having not been born in 1947, he wisely chose not to recall the slaughter of Sikhs by Muslim League cadres and the Pakistan Army in West Punjab (including Lahore), concentrating on things nearer to hand like the 1984 carnage of Sikhs in India.
That “Pannun Khalistanis” were more serious about their agenda than say Pannun Kashmir members, was evident from the fact that on May 8, 2022, Khalistani flags and graffiti were found at the entrance of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly building at Dharamshala in Kangra district. Several journalists in Shimla received a pre-recorded threatening call. At a time Khalistanis seemed all set to make Shimla–the Queen of Hills–the capital of the proposed sovereign Sikh state, the Melbourne Referendum came as an abysmal climb-down! The ballot contained one bland question – “Should Indian-governed Punjab be an independent country- Yes or No.” Indian-governed Punjab contains neither Shimla nor Chandigarh. There was no provision in the referendum for the capital city whether it is Jalandhar, Sangrur, Bhatinda, or Kapurthala! Having sold Shimla’s dreams on paper a few months ago, and making cartographic conquest of millions of hectares of land across Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the Sikhs, Pannun was now placing only Indian-governed Punjab on the table for stamping. Jinnah had a term for it – moth-eaten. Pannun, who is an attorney, knows very well that this is called prevarication in law. Let the Khalistani-enthusiasts decide the punishment for it. Do they trust a liar to lead them to Khalistan? I am sure he would at least get the best of Punjabi expletives.
As a good defence lawyer, Pannun could say there was nothing exactly new about this map. Khushwant Singh (1992) records that once, during a visit to England, where he had a thoroughly unimpressive meeting with Khalistani ideologue Ganga Singh Dhillion, he was able to procure a detailed map of Khalistan for £2 only. It was published in England. “According to this map”, writes Khushwant Singh, “Khalistan will include Jammu, the whole of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, New Delhi, chunks of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Saurashtra to give the state an outlet to the sea. By rough reckoning, the Sikh population of this state will be no more than 13 percent. What kind of Sikh state will be this? Quite clearly, not democratic.” (My Bleeding Punjab, P.155-156).
The non-attainment of Khalistan is a blessing in disguise for the Sikhs, whereas its attainment would have been an undisguised curse. This would be evident from the recent farmers’ agitation (2020-21), in which Jat Sikh cultivators from Punjab predominated. The agitation was fuelled by a mistaken belief, a tribute to the disastrous communication policy of the Modi government, that the Centre would privatise agricultural marketing and cease procuring rice and wheat for the central pool of food grains. The farmers, therefore, wanted procurement to be statutorily guaranteed.
Punjab is the biggest beneficiary of the Green Revolution that began in the mid-1960s. The state had benefitted more from the central procurement system of food grains that began with the establishment of the Food Corporation of India in 1964. At present, 30 percent of wheat, and (hold your breath) 38 percent of rice by the agencies, come from Punjab. According to the Annual Report 2021-22 of the Department of Food & Public Distribution of the Government of India, out of 433.44 lakh MT of wheat procured nationally, 132.22 lakh MT was from Punjab. Out of 326.03 lakh MT of rice procured nationally, 125.19 lakh MT was from Punjab (P.28-29). Interestingly, Punjab does not come into the paddy agro-climatic zone and rice is not a staple diet in Punjab. Almost the entire rice production of Punjab, which began in the mid-1960s, is aimed at the national market. The actual rice-consuming states like West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka do not collectively contribute even 10 percent to the central pool.
It was the unfounded fear of losing this central pool that made the farmers of Punjab sit in a demonstration in Delhi for more than a year. The three farm laws, enacted without consulting the stakeholders, had to be repealed. The process, however, revealed that the farmers of Punjab are over-dependent on central procurement. The farmers of Punjab are happy to supply rice and wheat to the central pool. This attitude has a negative effect on the prospects of crop diversification in the state. As of 2019, Punjab has 98.7 percent of agricultural land under irrigation–the highest in the country–as against the national average of 54.3 percent (Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, 2021, P.47).
The industrial development of Punjab has lagged behind expectations. As per the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) policy document Reinvigorating Industry in Punjab (2020), textile & apparel, sports goods, and bicycle & bicycle parts are the main industrial segments to look for. Punjab has been known for the machine tool industry rather than the heavy industry. In the past, the Sikh opinion had blamed the Central government for deliberately discouraging industrial development in Punjab on the pretext of it being a frontier state, vulnerable to attack. However, even better industrial growth of Punjab possibly could not have satisfied the Sikh opinion. This was because, its benefit would have directly gone to the Hindus, who constitute around 40 percent of the state’s population, and are overwhelmingly concentrated in the urban areas.
A sovereign Khalistan would be a disaster for the Sikhs themselves, more so for the farmers of the state, who are overwhelming Sikhs. The land of five rivers has always been a landlocked state. Khalistan would be a country sandwiched between India and Pakistan, and dependent on trade with both. The heads of the rivers that irrigate Punjab would all be in India. They would have to sell their food grain to these two neighbours if they wish to not be buried under mounds of food grain themselves. While India might temporarily experience a shortfall in food grain, deprived of Punjab, it has enough strategic depth in arable land to make good for it. For instance, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have emerged as new grain bowls of India in the last two decades. However, Khalistan would be in mortal danger if it fails to offload its grains. The absence of an outlet to the sea would deprive it of the maritime trade available to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Khalistan would also deprive the Sikhs of other opportunities that a vast country like India offers in the Armed Forces, government jobs and the transport sector. Today, the roads from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Kutch to Kohima are open to Sikh truck drivers. Can all of them move to the US or Canada to pursue trucking? The Sikhs will find that Khalistan has become a small solitary confinement for them. This is a calamity the Sikhs should try to avoid. If indeed a Khalistan is to be conceded, it should be in Canada or Australia, which have plenty of land and limited population, rather than in India.
The writer is author of the book ‘The Microphone Men: How Orators Created a Modern India’ (2019) and an independent researcher based in New Delhi. Views expressed are personal.
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