8/2/2019 khalistan

1/17

From Punjab to "Khalistan": Territoriality and MetacommentaryAuthor(s): Harjot S. OberoiReviewed work(s):Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 26-41Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British ColumbiaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2758828 .Accessed: 27/04/2012 06:30

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend

access to Pacific Affairs.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ubchttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2758828?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2758828?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ubc

8/2/2019 khalistan

2/17

POLITICS IN THE PUNJAB

From Punjab to "Khalistan":Territorialityand MetacommentaryHarjot S. Oberoi

We renot ookingustfor piece f and.We re ooking orterritoryhere ikhscan protectheirwomen nd children.WhereSikh anbecome masterfhis wndestiny-whereurreligioushrines renot llowed o be run ver y rmy anks.You can call itan independentunjab,a sovereigntate, rKhalistan.Whatweareasking ors a homeland or he ikhnation. GANGA INGHDHILLONtT HETWOWORDS erritorialitynd metacommentaryn the title f thispaperareobscure nd call for lucidation.According oThe OxfordEnglish Dictionary 1933 edition),the tymologyfthewordterritorialityis unclear,but t s usually acceptedthat herelatedwordterritoryerivesfrom he Latin terra,meaningearth. n itsdictionary sage, territorialitydenotesthequality,condition,position,orstatus f andor a territory.thas beenusedbybothpolitical geographersnd socialanthropologistsndmade a partoftheir onceptual baggage. In thevocabulary ftheformer,the term ignifies crucialcomponent n themakingof the nation-state:without a distinctterritoryherecan, of course,be no state.Politicaltheoristslso use the ermoconvey hepolitical organization f state ntoadministrative nits,and through t theyconceptualize politics that sconducted within theboundaries of a territory.ocial anthropologists,particularlyhoseworking n Africa, mploythe ategoryodelineate hecomplex relationshipbetween a lineage segment nd a physical space,alongwith tsresources ndproduction.Drawingon itsvarioususages,for

* This paper sdedicated o thememory f SumeetSingh, the hirty-one-year-oldditor fPunjab's oldest iteraryournal, Prit-Lari.On 22 February 984,hewas gunneddown by asquad ofhit-men. am extremely rateful o Robin Jeffrey,ohnCaiger,and Susana B.C.Devalle forhaving read an earlierdraft f thisessay,and forhaving made manyhelpfulcriticisms nd suggestions.The usual disclaimers pply.t Ganga Singh Dhillon, "Give us Khalistanand Leave us in Peace," The IllustratedWeekly f ndia, July 1, 1985.26

8/2/2019 khalistan

3/17

FromPunjab to "Khalistan"the presentpurpose,territorialitys defined s the beliefthat a territorybelongsto a particularcommunity,nd that thissenseofplace, amongotherfactors, inds thatcommunity ogether,ndowingitsconstituentswitha significantmblemofself-identity.Comparedto theambiguitiesofterritoriality,efiningmetacommen-tary s somewhatsimplerand in this follow thefascinating rticlebyGeertz n a Balinese cockfight,n which he graphically llustrates hatmetacommentarys "a story hey a people] tell themselves bout them-selves,"2 kindof codedreadingof their xperiences, eeds,feelings,ndworldviews. Here I will be usingtheconceptprimarily or ookingat thestories nd narratives heSikh Panth theSikhreligiouscommunity) astold tself, rom he timeof ts nception, bout thePunjab.

Today, formany people it appears "natural" that manySikhs claimPunjab as theirhomeland. Many of the Sikh Gurus were born in thevillages and townsof Punjab, and they onstantly raversedcross thisancient and;historically,heSikh Panth maturedntheregion;theversesin its sacred literaturedraw their rich imageryfrom the surroundinglandscape; themajor pilgrimcentres f thecommunity re scattered llover thePunjab; and the faithful ver thepastfive enturies ave tried omould the and in their wn corporate mage. They have aimed to do sothrough repertoirefmyths,metaphors, igns, symbols, nd gestures.3Surprisingly,espite hesehistorical inkageswiththePunjab, formost fthe ikhs'history, erritoryas notplayed key ole n their elf-definition.Itwas only n the1940s,when thedemandforPakistanwas articulated ytheMuslim League, and when the cold truthdawned that the Punjabmight fter ll bedivided, hat heSikhswith tragic esperation egantovisualizethePunjab as theirhomeland.In theprocess they einterpretedtheir wnpastand reformulatedhehistory fthose round them.This essay eeks oexplorehowthe xpression fPunjab as a homelandwas woven nto the elf-definitionsf theSikh Panth.It ismy ubmissionthat ffectivettachmentwiththePunjab among theSikhs s fairly ecent,and itdoes notdate back tothe arly nnalsoftheSikhcommunity,s someideologuesof "Khalistan"wouldlike to assert oday. t s the ntersectionfhistory nd geography, iscourse and space, territorialitynd metacom-

I It s interestingo note npassingthat,nthefirst ecadesofthepresent entury,hewordterritorialistame to be used for a member ftheJewish rganizationwhose aim is to ecureseparate erritoryor heJews" The OxfordEnglish Dictionary,1933 dition).2 Clifford eertz, he InterpretationfCulturesLondon: Hutchinson,1975),pp. 412-53.3 In 1960,GurnamSingh, futurehiefminister f thePunjab,wrotena memorandum othe ndian president: The Sikhshavethe and ofFive Rivers, hePunjab as theirhomeland,the and of their istorical phiphany, heir olyplaces and their istorical truggles,nd theywerethe overeign ulers fthegreater unjab till themiddleofthenineteenthentury, ndtheywere the ast people to be submerged nto theBritish ndian empirewhosemighty ndgrowing tentacles heyresistedwith a patriotic entiment nd determined ourage as noAsiatic people had so far mbibed or known" (Gurnam Singh, A Unilingual Punjabi Stateand the Sikh UnrestNew Delhi: SuperPress, 1960]),p. 27 (emphasis added).

27

8/2/2019 khalistan

4/17

PacificAffairsmentaries, hathas transformedhePunjab intoKhalistan.BothPunjaband Khalistan reman-made ntities,nd theresnothing natural"aboutthem.To Marx'sfamousdictum n how men make their wnhistory,4 emayadd thevoice of Vico and state that men also make theirown geo-graphy.5 n looking at the absence of territorialityromthe culturalmarkers ftheSikhPanth,this ssay s also concernedwith ketching utwhatkind ofethnographic nsigniacontributed o theSikhsenseof"us"and "them." How did theSikhs come tosaywho "we" were?Historically,what is Sikh ethnicity, nd what are its metaphorical, symbolic,andinstitutional ropesofexpression?Answers o theseunderlying urrentswithin heSikhcommunityre crucial to an understandingf theplace ofPunjab in the Sikhconsciousness.

These are complex andsensitivessues,madedifficultythe motionalheat they enerate, he ong passageof time heynvolve, nd the mmensevariety f sources thatmaybe consulted to debate the answers. Persianchronicles rom heMughal times, hewritings fEuropean travellersndadventurers,dministrative ecords f theLahore stateunderMaharajaRanjit Singh and historiesof the Britishadministrators, olklore, ndpolitical propagandaare ust few fthe ources nemaydrawon. While tmaybe attractive nd highlyrewarding ostudy hisencyclopaedic itera-ture n theproblem f theSikhgroup dentity,haveoptedto nterpretheinternal iewof theSikhs,bypursuingdiachronically nespecific enre fmetacommentaries.ince thesemetacommentaries aveevolved nd beenshaped npart ccording o the hiftsnd transformationsacedby he ikhPanth, theessay ooks at theirformation nd mediationover fourmajorphases of Sikh history; heGuru period coveringthe sixteenth nd theseventeenthenturies, heheroicage up to the British nnexation of thePunjab in 1849, the colonial phase lasting until 1947,and finallythepost-colonial period-here termed he nation-state hase. But,beforewedo so, itis imperative oask,what s Punjab?PUNJAB INTIME AND SPACE

Whileeveryonewho has something o do withthe Punjab has a hazymental mageof tstopography nd boundaries,what the term ignals nlinguistics,geography, nd politics can be a historian'snightmare. heregionwe today know as the Punjab was not alwaysknown by the samename, and, even when the termPunjab came to be used linguistically, twas somethingof a misnomer.The Persian word for Punjab literally

I K. Marx,"The Eighteenth rumaire f Louis Bonaparte," nDavid McLellan, ed., KarlMarxSelectedWritingsOxford:OxfordUniversity ress, 1977),p. 300.5 G. Vico, TheNew Science 1744], ranslatedyT. G. Bergin nd M. H. Fisch Ithaca,NewYork: CornellUniversity ress, 1968),p. 425.

28

8/2/2019 khalistan

5/17

From Punjab to "Khalistan"means "land of fivewaters," probablyreferringo thefiverivers n theregion.Butactually here resix,notfive, iversnwhatwas the erritoryfthePunjab. The Indo-AryansalledtheregionSapta-Sindhava, he andofsevenrivers,nd thePersians, t a later ime,named t HaftaHindva. PartsofthePunjab were lso knownby three thernames: Pancanada, Madra-desh, and Uttarapath.6 t was only under the Mughals, as late as thesixteenth entury, hat the Persian wordPunjab was frequently sed todescribe heprovince fLahore,an administrativenitwithin heMughalempire.7t was primarily termfor political unitwithout ny precisegeographicalboundaries.Interestingly,ome areas which are now per-ceivedas core partsof the ndian Punjab did not thenform part oftheMughal provinceofPunjab orwhatwas referredo as Suba-i-Punjab.8

Despite ts geographicalvagueness nd restricted sageas an adminis-trative oncept,the termgradually slipped into widercirculationandbecamea meaningful horthand or heterritoriesetween heriverndusand Sutlej, connoting particularly he fivedoabs, or inter-fluvialracts,thatetch nternalphysiographic ones in thePunjab.9 In theeighteenthcenturyWarrisShah, in his ever-popular oetic compositionHir-Warris(1766), usedthewordPunjab, and, by reating or t themetaphor beauti-fulforehead fHindustan,"he soughttodistinguish heregionfrom herest f ndia,"0 lthoughhe did not delineate ts exact boundaries.But,byexcludingfrom hePunjab Kabul and Qandar in thewest, nd theeastasfar s Delhi,heprovidesus with contemporarypatialmapoftheregionthatcorrespondsto the land of the fiverivers. n theearly nineteenthcentury,when Persianchroniclerswrotehistories f theregion fortheirBritish atrons, heymanifested clearconsciousness fwhatwas Punjab.For them t covered hefive oabs, althoughthey lso usedtheterm or hevast kingdomof Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which comprisedsubstantialterritoriesutside whatwas beingdefined s the Punjab."6For linguisticterms pplied to thePunjab and descriptions f itsgeography n earlySanskrit nd Pali literature, ee D.C. Sircar, AncientGeographyof thePunjab," in L.M.Joshi, d.,History fthePunjab (Patiala: Punjabi University, 976),pp. 25-45.7J.S. Grewal, "The Historian'sPanjab," MiscellaneousArticlesAmritsar:GuruNanakUniversity,974),p. 2.8 For instance,Malwa came undertheSirhindrevenuedistrict f Delhi province. SeeChetanSingh, "Socio-economicConditions n Punjab During the17thCentury,"unpub-lisheddoctoraldiss.,Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, ew Delhi, 1984,p. 35.9Fromwestto east,they re:SindSagarDoab, Chaj Doab, RechnaDoab, Bari Doab, andJullundurDoab.10Grewal,"Historian's Panjab," p. 2. (Grewal gives no furthernformationbout hissource.)" One prominentxample of uchusagefrom he arlynineteenthenturysGanesh Das,Char-Bagh-i-PanjabEarlyNineteenth-Centuryanjab) [1849], d. and trans. yJ.S.Grewaland Indu Banga (Amritsar:GuruNanak University,975).Alsosee,Ghulam Muhayyud-din(popularly known as Bute Shah), "Tdrikh-i-Panjdb" Lahore, 1842), ms. available at theKhalsaCollegeLibrary, mritsar;ndShahMuhammad,Jangndma hahMuhammad,1847,KirpalSinghKasel,ed. Patiala: Punjab LanguagesDepartment, 970).These two textshowa clearawareness fbothPunjab and its nhabitants, hePunjabis.

29

8/2/2019 khalistan

6/17

Pacific AffairsThe next chapter n thearea's historywas written n 1849 when theBritish mperialpowerannexed Ranjit Singh's dominionsand created heBritish tate f Punjab. The newprovince xtended rom eshawar n the

westto Delhi in the ast.Buttherewas an awareness hat hisnew Punjabwas only a political arrangement nd that the "real Punjab," as H.K.Trevaskis, n English civil servantalled t, ay between heJhelum nd theSutlej. By "real Punjab" he probably mplied a zone of ecological andculturalunity. n self-clarificatione observed though the Britishpro-vinceof thatname Punjab] nowextends rom he ndus to theJamuna, hepeasantsof theoutlying istrictsfRohtak, KangraorMianwali [districtsof BritishPunjab] will still refer o thePunjab as anothercountry."''2Obviously, not everyone iving within the Punjab identifiedwith theterritory,hichperiodically ontractedrexpanded,dependingupon thefluctuating ortunesfempires, rinces, nd scribes.'3In 1947, on the partitionof India, the Radcliffe ine cut mercilesslyacrossthe BritishprovinceofPunjab, awardingalmost66 percentof theterritoryo Pakistanand therest o ndia. Forthefirst ime nhistoryherewere woPunjabs-one inPakistan nd oneinIndia. Since1947 he ndianprovincehas beenknown,variously, s the ndian Punjab, East Punjab,and Punjab (India), but ultimately he older name Punjab stuck.Nineyearsafter hepartitionof thePunjab, theboundariesof the truncatedPunjab wereonce again alteredwiththe ncorporation fthePatiala andEast Punjab StatesUnion (PEPSU)-an administrative nitthathad beenformedn 1948by themerger f the largelySikh princely tates n theEasternPunjab. One wondersfthediewasfinally ast n 1966,when, ftera prolonged agitation bytheAkalis, the new stateofPunjab came intoexistence-madeup ofthefollowing levendistricts: urdaspur,Amritsar,Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Jullundur,Firozpur, Ludhiana, Ropar, Bha-tinda, angrur, ndPatiala. The chimera-like oundaries fthePunjab arehardly conducivesoil forthecultivationofa sense ofplace. Ironically,when theAkali leadersspeakof thePunjab as a homelandfor heSikhs,and the zealous protagonists fKhalistan shed blood in thenameofthePunjab, no one is anythewiser s towhichPunjab is being nvoked: s itGuru Nanak's Punjab (althoughtherewas no suchcultural construct tthattime),or is itRanjit Singh's Punjab, or is it the BritishPunjab? Weshall comeback tothispoint aterbut now turn oSikhmetacommentarieson thePunjab and groupidentity.

12 H.K. Trevaskis,The Land ofFive Rivers Oxford:OxfordUniversity ress,1928),p. 8.13 In 1901 heNorth-Westrontier rovincewascreated utofBritish unjab bydetachingthefrontieristricts losetoAfghanistan.n 191 ,whenDelhiwasmadethenewcapitaloftheempire, twas separatedfrom he Punjab.30

8/2/2019 khalistan

7/17

FromPun ab to "Khalistan"THE GURU PHASE (1600-1707)

Whatconstitutedikh dentity uring he rucial Guru period?Only byposing, and answering, his entral uestioncan we know the mportanceof the Punjab to the earlySikh community. ome of the elementsthatprovided ignificantxes of dentity n thehistory f theembryonic om-munityre wellknown:allegianceto thepersonofthefounder f theSikhfaith,GuruNanak,and his ninesuccessors; dentification ith heir each-ings (badni); he foundationof congregations safgats); the settingup ofpilgrim entrest places likeGovindwal andAmritsar; he onvention fcommunal meal (langar); and the compilation by Guru Arjan of ananthologythatultimately ecame the sacred scripture fthecommunity,makingSikhs, ike theJudeo-Christians,nto a people of theBook.'4A revealing nsight ntowhat was demandedof a Sikh and what werethepossiblemeanings fbeinga Sikh nthe nitial phase is providedbythevars (heroic odes with several stanzas) of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla (1558[?]-1636), a contemporarynd close associate of four Sikh Gurus. Well-known forhis role as a scribe nd amanuensisof theAdi Granth,he alsowrote xegeses n the ompositions ftheSikhGurus. There canhardly ea better ourceforunderstanding arlySikh identity han the metacom-mentaries f Bhai Gurdas writtenn thesixteenth nd the seventeenthcenturies.'5Accordingto them, t was requiredthata Sikh should risebefore awn,bathe, nd recite he acred ompositionsoftheSikhmasters.In theearlyhoursof themorning Sikh should visita dharamsald, heplace usedfor evotional inging ndprayernthe ocality, ndparticipatein the ctivities f the ssembled angat.Bhai Gurdas advisedthefaithfulobe humble,courteous, nd charitable, oeat,speak,and sleep in modera-tion, nd, in doing so, to transcend hehumanego. Unrestrained umanenergies nd chaoticlivingcan lead to sorrow nd pain. The ideal waytoovercome hese fflictionsnd produceorder s topracticetheprecepts fthegurus.Thereareno explicitstatementsn an independent ikhiden-tity,but some of themostenduringthemes n Sikh consciousness areenunciated:thecentrality f belief and abiding faith n thepersonandutterancesf thegurus;theneedtogo to thedharamsala,out of which theSikhgurdwarawas toemerge s a salient nstitutionn the cultural andpolitical identity f thecommunity; nd therepeated emphasis on thesangat as a bodyofpractitionersn faith.Bhai Gurdas is notcompletelyunawareofboundaries.Frequentlyn his versehe labours thepoint that

14 For background, ee W.H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community Oxford:Clarendon Press,1976); nd Harbans Singh,Berkeley ectures n Sikhism New Delhi: GuruNanak Foundation, 1983).15 For an annotated election fBhai Gurdas' vars, ee Jodh ingh,SikhzKi Hai, (Amritsar:Sikh Publishing House Limited, 1911).A recent ranslation f Sikh sacred iterature ntoEnglish byW.H. McLeod provides n excellent urvey fthe ame source Textual SourcesfortheStudyof Sikhism Manchester:ManchesterUniversity ress, 1984],pp. 63-69).

31

8/2/2019 khalistan

8/17

Pacific AffairsMuslimsaremissing he orrect ath, nd Hindus arecaught nthe nare fempty ituals nd social inequalities.The solution forhim stheSikhwayof ife, distinctive hirdpathtohumanproblems, nd the deal man is agursikh, follower f the Sikh gurusand theirdoctrines.These are notmerelymetaphysical ifferencesutsuggest newidiom, a separate om-munity fbelievers,nd thereworking fthe social order.Having said all this, tmustbe stated ategorically hattheSikhs werestill n theprocessof evolution and growth.The category, ikh,was stillflexible, roblematic, nd substantially mpty: long historical nterven-tion was neededbefore twas saturatedwithsigns, cons,and narratives,and madefairly igid bytheearlydecadesofthe twentiethentury. herewas still critical pace at the centre nd periphery fthe community hathad not been appropriated and shaded in the colours of a dominantideology. At best, the conventions developed during the Guru periodepitomizedwhat linguiststerm denotation." In otherwords,the abel,Sikh, designated sectionof thepopulation,but thisgroupdid not as yetpossessa "connotation"-a corpusof dentical econdarymeanings.'6It shardly urprising hat ttempteddentification iththe erritoryfthe Punjab playedno criticalrole n theconstruction ftheSikhidentityduringtheGuru period.The very onceptofPunjab as a culturalunitwasstillon thehorizon, s was theKhalsa Panth. Four ofthe tenSikhmastershad spentmost of their ivesoutside thePunjab. The last one was bornoutside the province, nd bysome strangedestinyhe also died far wayfrom he scorchingplains of centralPunjab.THE HEROIC PHASE (1708-1849)

The evolvingSikhcommunity robably ntered neof ts most riticalstageswhenthe ineof human masters nded n 1708.No longerwas therethepossibility fdarsan, face-to-facencounter, etween hemaster ndthedisciple.The guidinghand of a supremereligious authority hathadplayed such a creativerole in theyoung community'shistory eased tofunction.More thaneverbefore, heheterogeneous ikhcommunity owrequireddistinct ymbols nd doctrines, oth toreplacethe nstitution fthe humanguruand tosurvive,n what must haveappeared tomany nincreasinglyhostile political environment.The tenthand last Guru,Gobind Singh,had undoubtedlyeft richheritage, ut tselementswerelargely unpractisedand required theworkand intervention f severalgenerations f Sikhs before hey ould beaccepted s part ndparcelofthe

16 For linguisticusage of thesetwo terms denotation" and "connotation," seeJohn R.Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity ress,1969), pp. 165-74.Accordingto Searle, in linguisticsthe proponentsofdenotationhold that propernames donothavesenses; hey re meaninglessmarks; hey avedenotationbutnotconnotation" p. 163). Opposed tothis, he heorists fconnotation elievethatnames "musthave descriptiveontent, heymusthavea sense" (p. 165).32

8/2/2019 khalistan

9/17

From Punjab to "Khalistan"Sikh dentity. hese practiceswere laborated ndgaineda wider urrencyin the ighteenthentury,lthoughtheir riginsmaybe traced o an earlierperiod.

According otheSikhmetacommentaries,wo of Gobind Singh'smostenduring ontributions o the urvival f thePanthwerehisendowing tsconstituentswith what are popularly known as the "five k's" and theinstallation f theAdiGranth s hissuccessor.All Sikhmen, women, ndchildrencan recount,withgreatease and grace,thestory f how at theBaisakhi festival f 1699 the tenthmaster reatedthe Khalsa order andpronounced thathenceforthll hisdisciplesmustmaintain thefive xter-nal symbols:kesa unshornhair), kangha a comb), kara a steelbracelet),kachh shortbreeches), nd kirpan a sword)'7-often collectively ermedthe fivek's." Similarly, ikhmetacommentariestate hat he astmaster,in the days beforehis death, enjoined that n the future he place of thehuman guru will be takenup bytheAdi Granth nd thePanth. It is to thescripturend thecorporate ommunity hattheSikhsmust turnforgui-dance, ritual, nd authority.'8It is no part ofmytaskhere toquestion thesemetacommentariesndpointoutthe ackofpositivehistorical vidence o backtheir laims. Whatneedstobenotedhere retwomajordoctrineswhichgraduallygrew ut oftheutterancesscribed oGobindSingh.One is therahit nd theother hedoctrine ftheGuruPanth.Both haveplayeda central ole n the rticula-tion of Sikhidentity,nd it s hard to maginea Sikhcommunitywithoutthem. The heroicage of the Sikhs added to therahit,the Sikh code ofdiscipline,not only the maintenanceof thefivek's but also significantreligious,moral, nd social injunctions.Unfortunatelyor hehistorian,tis still unclear whatprecisely onstituted he rahit n the eighteenth en-tury,how it was transmitted, hether r not therewas a notion of theviolationoftherahit, nd, iftherewas,whatauthoritymeted utpunish-menttothose who transgressedhe rahit. t is hoped future esearchwillprovideanswersto some ofthesequestions.'9There is, however,greaterclarity boutthe oncept ftheGuru Panth.This notionhad started o takerootfrom he ime f the arlyGurus, s itbecame ncreasingly ifficultormembers f thegrowing community o establish directphysicalcontactwiththeGuru.Awayout was found nthebelief hat heGuru was presentwhereverheSikhcongregation athered,nd the ast master urned othisbeliefprior to his death. The solution was that in future,f the Sikhcommunitywas facedwith insoluble problems, t should turnto the

17 For a graphic account of thismetacommentary,ee Teja Singh, Essays in Sikhism(Lahore: SikhUniversityress, 1944),pp. 31-34.18 For thispart of thetradition, eeHarbansSingh,Berkeley ectures,pp. 24-32.19 or a forcefulnsight nto the volutionoftherahit ndassociatedmetacommunicativetexts, ee W.H. McLeod, "The ProblemofPanjabi rahit-namas,"n S.N. Mukherjee, d.,India, History nd Thought. Essays in Honour ofA.L. Basham (Calcutta: Subarnarekha,1982),pp. 103-26.33

8/2/2019 khalistan

10/17

Pacific Affairscollectivewisdom of the Panth, and the Guru would be present n thecorporatebody of thecommunity.A secondvariationof thesame funda-mentalprinciple was that theGuru was henceforth resent n the AdiGranth.This was tobe thescripturalGuru. These twoprinciples-theGuru Panth, orcorporateGuru,and Guru Granth, r scripturalGurubound the community ogethernd helped todistinguish tsconstituentmembers rom thers n the ocal societywho sharedno suchdoctrines rinstitutions.In addition, in this period Sikh ethnicityncorporated wo furthercultural ndicators f the ollectivedentityfthe ommunity. irstly,ikhpropernames,particularlyormales,nowincreasinglyften adthe uffixSingh, or Lion.20Secondly,the Golden Temple at Amritsar ecame theforemost entre fSikhpilgrimage. n theprocessofgaining thisascen-dancy tdisplacedother acred itesthathad come totakeprecedence verit,particularly uring he ifetime fGobindSingh.Greatreligiousmerit,itwas believed, ccruedtothosewho visited heholyshrine tAmritsar.But,onceagain,whiletheurgeto found separatedentitysthere,s inthe Guru phase, in themetacommentariesf theperiodthere s no con-scious expressionconcerning heterritoryf thePunjab. As yet,Punjabhad no role in the construction f the collective selfhood of the Sikhs.Metacommentaries roducedduringthe heroicage-Sainapati's Sri GurSobha (1711),Sukha Singh'sGurbilasDasvin Patsahi(1797),KoerSingh'sGurbilasPatsahi 10,and Sohan's GurbilasChhevinPatsahi (the ast twotextswerewrittenn thefirst alfofthenineteenthentury)-aredevoidofanyrepresentationfPunjab inSikh dentity.21 heirdominant oncern stoexhibitthe ives,valour,and battlesfoughtbythe sixth nd tenth ikhgurus. Sikh identity n thesemetacommentaries egins to be definedthrough powerfulmyth f origin,whose principal characteristicsrebravery,uffering,ersecution, lood, sacrifice,nd martyrdom.

The climax in the heroicage is reachedbyRattan Singh Bhangu'sinfluentialmetacommentaryrachin PanthPrakas,finishedn 1841.22 efurthernlarged he orpusoftheSikhorigin myth hrough n exegesisofthe conventionsnoted above. The Khalsa communitywas born out ofblood and martyrdom,nd by consistently pholding these norms its20 This statementsbasedonmy eadings fSikhgenealogiesfrom he eventeenthndtheeighteenthenturies.21 Sainapati, Sri Gur Sobha, ed. Ganda Singh (Patiala: Punjabi University,967);BhaiSukha Singh, Gurbilas Dasvin Patsahi (Lahore: Ram Chand, n.d.); Koer Singh, GurbildsPatsahi 10, ed. S.S. Ashok (Patiala: Punjabi University, 966); and Sohan Kavi, GurbildsChhevin Pdtsahi, ed. Inder Singh Giani (Amritsar:Bhasa Vibhag Punjab, 1968). For acomprehensivend searching tudy ftheseworks, eeSurjitSinghHans, "Historicalanaly-sis of Sikh Literature A.D. 1500-1850)," unpublished doctoral diss., Guru Nanak DevUniversity, 980. Fora summary tatementfthethesis, eeHans, "Social Transformationand theCreativemagination n the ikhLiterature,"nS. Chandra,ed.,Social Transforma-tzon nd theCreativemagination New Delhi: Allied Publishers,1984),pp. 91-106.22 RattanSingh Bhangu, PrachinPanth Prakas', d. Bhai VirSingh (Amritsar:KhalsaSamachar,1982).

34

8/2/2019 khalistan

11/17

From Punjab to "Khalistan"members ad cometogoverndifferentreas of thePunjab. When Bhangurefers o thePunjab in his text,23e shows a geographical wareness boutthe erritoryndits nternal hysiographic ivisions-Manja, Malwa, andDoaba-but at no stage does he strike n explicit equation between thePunjab and Sikh consciousness. t is primarily spatial backdrop gainstwhich the Khalsa Panth is shaping itsdestiny.The closest he comes toidentifyinghePunjab with theSikhs is in a narrative egment n which,following the foundation fthe Khalsa Panth, the tenthmaster sks hisdisciples nwhat partofthe ountrymulak), in the astor thewest,wouldthey iketohavetheiragirs land grants).Their answer, fter omedeliber-ation, s in central unjab, for heywouldnot ike to be far rom his rea.24Despite this incipient association with the central Punjab in a mid-nineteenth enturymetacommunicativeext, heecologyofthe provincewas not crucialin determining ikhidentity. his taskwas performed yotherkindsofcultural nsignia;therewas no moral nvestmentn the andduringthisperiod.THE COLONIAL PHASE (1849-1947)

Some scholars reso impressed ythe mportance fthisperiod n theevolution of Sikh identityhatthey rgue thatthe Sikhshad virtually oidentity rior tothisphase.25Whileitis hard to subscribe o thisthesis nlightofwhat has been observed bove, there s no doubt the Sikh Panthconstructed paradigm n thecolonial periodwhichwas non-existentntheearlierphases of theSikh movement, nd, what is more crucial,thisparadigmhas not been deconstructedince.At the startof thisperiod it was possible to be an Udasi, Nirmala,Suthresashi,angatsaihbie, itmalie, akhatmlie, hagatbhagavanie, ihan-sahie, or a votary fMuslim pirs (saints) like Sakhi Sarvar, nd still beconsidered Sikh.Manyof theseSikhsshaved theirheads, freelymokedtobaccoand opium, and werenotparticularlyealous inmaintainingthefive xternal ymbols fthefaith.n the bsenceof centralized hurch ndan attendant eligioushierarchy, eterogeneitynreligiousbeliefs, lural-ityof rituals,and diversity f life styleswere freely cknowledged.Apilgrimageto the Golden Temple could be supplementedwith similarundertakings o theGanges at Hardwar or the shrineof a Muslimpir.Attending easonal festivals t BenaresorHardwar was in no wayconsi-dereda transgressionfprevailingSikh doctrines,whatever eleologicalstudiesmay like to asserttoday. Except for the Sikh initiationrite,thecommunities'ritesde passage were n no waydifferentrom hoseofthe

23 Ibid.,p. 80-82.24 Ibid.,p. 46.25 Forhints f this eeN.G. Barrier, heSikhs and their iteratureDelhi: ManoharBookService, 970);and R.G. Fox,Lions ofthePunjab: Culture n theMaking Berkeley, alifor-nia: University fCaliforniaPress,1985).35

8/2/2019 khalistan

12/17

PacificAffairsbulk of the population. Contemporary ehicles of knowledge-myths,texts,narratives, olklore,plays-produced by non-Sikh authors wereaccorded firm lace withinthe Sikhcosmology.

By the closing decades of thisphase, successivewaves of Sikh reformmovementsike theSinghSabha,its nheritor heChiefKhalsaDiwan, andthe Akali combatants n the1920shad succeeded n purgingthehouse ofSikhismofmostof these lderconventionsnd practices.n a Nietzscheanveinthey stablished newvisionofwhat tmeantto be a Sikh: onewhofullysubscribed to their fivek's, visitedonly Sikh shrines,consideredPunjabi as thesacred anguageoftheSikhs,conductedhis rites epassageaccordingto theprescribed ituals, nd abjured prohibitedfoods.A newculturaleliteaggressively surpedtheright orepresentheotherswithinthecommunity.Their ethnocentricogic subsumedother dentities nddissolvedalternativedeals (likeasceticism)under monolithic, odified,and closed culture.This movement ained currency ecause itsdominantcharacteristicsepresentedn unchanging diom in a periodoffluxandchange.Henceforth,ikhs would berequiredtothink nd speak throughone language,thatof theculturalelites.Those whodeviatedor refused omould themselvesccording o the tandards f this great radition"weregraduallydisplacedandconsignedtothemargins f the ommunity.Afterconsiderableresistance, hesemarginalized groups finallyturnedtheirbackson Sikhism ndwent heir wnways.The olderSanatanist thenamegiven to Sikh beliefs,practices, nd rituals in the nineteenth entury)paradigmof Sikhism was displaced forever,nd itwas replaced bywhatcame tobe knownas theTat Khalsa.26Interestingly,uring he mergence, ormulation,nd consolidationofneo-Sikhism, hemetacommunicativemessages ftheperiod producedbya versatile ikhintelligentsia howed no concernwithspeculations boutthe andofthefive ivers. hey awakenedtothis ask nly towards he loseof thecolonial phase,when the British mpire-builders,gnoringone oftheir taunchestllies,theSikhs, xhibited willingness o etHindus andMuslims carvetwo separate countriesout of the"brightest ewel in thecrown.27Tossed between MuslimPakistan nd a Hindu India, and withthe prospectof Punjab being split into two, the Sikhs in desperationopenedthe luicegatesofhistoryndbegansaturating he andscape ofthetroubledprovincewith a systematic se of signs through the genre of

26 This transition rom ne paradigm toanother sexamined nmyforthcomingoctoraldissertationfor the AustralianNational University, entativelyitled "A World Recon-structed: eligion,Ritual and CommunityAmongtheSikhs 1850-1909)."27 For events eading to the partitionof the Punjab, see AyeshaJalal and Anil Seal,"Alternative oPartition:Muslim PoliticsBetween heWars,"ModernAsian Studies,vol. 15,no. 3 (1981), pp. 415-54; David Paul Gilmartin, Tribe, Land and Religion in thePunjab:Muslim Politics and theMaking of Pakistan," unpublished doctoraldiss., University fCalifornia, 979; ndDavid Page,Prelude to PartitionDelhi: OxfordUniversity ress, 982).

36

8/2/2019 khalistan

13/17

FromPunjab to "Khalistan"matacommentaries.he underlyingogicbehind themessagewas simple:Sikhsbelongedto thePunjab; thePunjab belongs to the Sikhs. Feelingbetrayed y theCripps, Gandhis, and Jinnahsof thisworld,the Sikhsdemandeda Sikhistan land oftheSikhs),orAzad (independent)Punjab.The executive ommitteeftheAkaliDal, theSikhpolitical party, assed aresolution n March22, 1946stating:Whereas he ikhs eing ttached othe unjabby ntimateonds fholy hrines,property,anguage,raditions,ndhistorylaimt s their omelandndholy andwhich heBritishook ver s a "trust" rom heast ikh uler uring isminorityand whereas he ntityfthe ikhssbeing hreatenednaccount f he ersistentdemand f[sic] PakistanbytheMuslims n theone handand ofdanger fabsorption y heHindus nthe ther,he xecutiveommitteefthe hiromaniAkaliDal demandsorhe reservationndprotectionf he eligious,ulturalndeconomic ndpolitical ightsf he ikhnation,he reation f Sikh tatewhichwould nclude substantialmajorityf theSikh population nd their acredshrinesnd historicalurdwaras ith rovisionor he ransferndexchangefpopulation ndproperty.28

The formulations ontained in the Akali resolutionwere relayedbymetacommentatorshroughoutthe Punjab in vernacularnewspapers,pamphlets,and books. Here was a dramaticstory o tell-how Punjabbreathed ife into the Sikhs-and the Sikh narrators ecounted t withtelling ffect.29ftheyweregoingto ose thePunjab, theywerenotwillingto let it go without the rest of theworld knowing to whom it reallybelonged.As a resultofcomplexBritish trategies,hemessianicconvic-tionsof the Muslim League, thedetermination ftheCongresstoattainfreedom t any cost,and ample confusionwithintheranksof the Sikhleadership,when the future f India was finallydecided,thehalf-bakeddemandsof theSikhs wereeasilybrushedaside. CyrilRadcliffe n 1947awardedmore than half of thePunjab territorieso thenew nation ofPakistan.The creationof twoPunjabs-one in Pakistan,theother ne inIndia-cost two hundred thousand lives,renderednine million peoplehomeless, nd left veryonenvolved n thetransition itternd confused.The lessonsof thistragedywerenoteasilylost.The Sikhsmaynothaveattainedtheirparadise,but theirmetacommentariesonfirmed ts exist-ence.

28 Quoted in B.R. Nayar,Minority olitics in thePunjab (Princeton,NewJersey: rin-cetonUniversity ress, 1966),p. 89.29 For example, see Gurbachan Singh and Gyani Lal Singh, The Idea ofthe Sikh State(Lahore: Lahore Book Shop, 1946); and Sadhu Swarup Singh, The Sikhs Demand theirHomeland (Lahore: LahoreBook Shop, 1946).The authors f theformer orkbuttressedheSikh demand for n independent ikh statebyarguing:"It is in this and [centralPunjab],whichby virtue fproprietorship, evelopment, istoric-associationsnd religious anctityalreadybelongsto theSikhs,where heSikhswishto find safehome,free romnterference.The Sikhs own morethan quarter f theone hundred housand quare milesof the and ofthePunjab. Inside thisarea whichis theirhomeland,mostof this and lies. The Sikhs are

37

8/2/2019 khalistan

14/17

Pacific AffairsTHE NATION-STATE PHASE (1947-85)

Once theviolentfires fthepartition nd theglow offreedom ad died,Sikh eaders,never hy fhyperbole,ncessantlynquired: "theHindus gotHindustan, the Muslims got Pakistan,what did the Sikhs get?"30Withhistoricalhindsight, ne may say that n the ast fourdecades the Sikhshave been collectively rying o solve this conundrum. One dominantresponse,within themultiplediscourseswhichhave tried oanswer thisproblem,has been to fusetheemblemofterritorialitynto Sikhethnicity.Whether his was intentionalor unintentional s hardlyrelevant o myanalysis.This cementing f territorialitynto Sikh identity tarted oonafter he inaugurationof an independent ndia, when Sikh leadershipcalled forthesettingup of the"Punjabi Suba" a statewithinthe ndianrepublic,where hePunjabi-speakingpopulationwouldbe n a majority.3'This was a legitimatedemand, because during the nationalistera, theIndian National Congresshad firmly cceptedtheprincipleof inguisticstates forfree ndia. It had publicly said so in its annual resolutions,committee eports,nd electionmanifestoes. n attaining ndependence,Nehru and his close associates opposed thisprinciple, fearing egionalchauvinism nd fissiparous endencies. ut,unable toresist hemountingpopular pressure, hey aved n,and itwasagreedto setup provinces asedon the ingua franca f theregion.When a similardemand for Punjabi-speakingstatewasvociferously ut forward, rimarily ytheSikhs, t wasflatly efused. herewere threemain reasonsfor his.Firstly,incethedemand was largely oicedbytheSikhs twas seen s acommunalploy. Secondly, t was believed ucha statewould furtherourtherelationshipbetweenthe Sikhs and theHindus, because in thepro-posedstate herewouldbe a Sikhmajority. hirdly, section fthe entralleadershipperceived securityhreatn a Sikh-dominated tateborderingPakistan,becausetherewas uncertaintyn how Sikhs would react n caseof war with Pakistan.32The story f how, despitetheseobjections,thePunjabi Suba (a statewith Punabi-speakingSikhmajority),was finallyattained n 1966 s too wellknowntoberepeatedhere.33Whatrequires obeclaiming, n askingfor thisarea,no more than whatbelongsto them venbytheright fprivateproperty.Neverwas there morefair, ust and tenable laim" (pp. 47-48).

30 This puzzleis generally ttributed o MasterTara Singh. See The Spokesman,vol. 11,no. 27 1961), p. 10,quotedinNayar,Minority olitics,p. 102. Sikhshave nvented umerousjocular answers o thisriddle.31Fortwo arlymetacommentariesxemplifyinghisdemand, eeBawa HarkishanSingh,APlea for Punjabi SpeakingProvince NewDelhi: n.p., 1948); ndKulwant SinghVirk ndHarbans Singh,Greater ast Punjab: A Plea forLinguisticRegrouping Ludhiana: LahoreBook Shop, 1948).32 These and other bjectionstotheformation f a unilingual Punjabi state re discussedinGurnamSingh,A Unilingual Punjabi State ndthe ikhUnrest,NewDelhi: Super Press,1960),pp. 45-88.33 Fordetails eePaul Brass,Language, Religion and Politics n North ndia (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity ress, 1974),pp. 277-336; and Robin Jeffrey, hat'sHappening toIndia? (London: Macmillan, 1986),pp. 36-45.

38

8/2/2019 khalistan

15/17

FromPunjab to "Khalistan"noted is thattheprotracted,oftenbitter, truggletoattain thePunjabi Subafinally established an undeniable nexus between the Punjab and Sikhconsciousness.Ironically, what historyhad denied the Sikhs was given to thembythemyopic policies of the central government. For the first ime, largely as aresult ofthePunjabi Suba agitation, the Sikhs felttheymore than anybodyelse had a moral relationship to the land of thefiverivers. This collectiveattachment to the landscape of thePunjab in Sikh thought and sentimentcontinued unabated with the increasing economic prosperityof the Pun-jab. The "Green Revolution" was perceived (whatever fallacies in theargument) as a Sikh miracle in their own backyard. The new ideologywhich surfaced in the 1960s boasted that while the rest of the countrystarved,Punjab, as a surplus producer, had become India's breadbasket.This view is reflectedwith great clarityin the writings of K.S. Sihra:The Punjab is mainly n agricultural tate.About83 per cent of ts area is undercultivation nd 70 percentof tspopulation isengaged nagriculture. hanks to acombinationofplentiful unshine,good irrigation, pennesstoinnovatory ech-niques, andvery ardwork, hePunjab produces80percentof thewhole of ndia'sfoodgrain equirement-includingwheat,rice, maize, barley, nd pulses. It alsogrows il seeds, ugarcane,tobacco whatwould Khalistanisthink fthis?], ottonand potatoeswithconsiderable uccess.The per capita income of thePunjab ismore than50 percenthigher hanthe ndian average.34Whateverthebravado behind theseclaims, they llustrate Sikh perceptionsof the Punjab. The modern metacommunicative texts had somewhatshiftedtheirmessage. Itwas no longer merelya matterofreligion, shrines,and pilgrimage centres; economically too, the Punjab was different romthe rest of India. Did it not produce the bulk of India's food-grainrequirements?By the time Ganga Singh Dhillon delivered his infamous speech atChandigarh in March 1981,proclaiming Sikhs tobe a nation, manywithinthe community already viewed the Punjab as the territory f this nation.This theme was given a furtherfillip by the differentprotagonists ofKhalistan ("land of the pure"), from1982 onwards. It could now be pub-licly stated:God gave the Sikhs their and, a richand fertile and blessedwithmuchsun andirrigation,he"land of five ivers," hePunjab .... MaharajahRanjit Singh gavethe Sikhs their tate, ater handed in trust, irst o the British hen to the HinduRaj -but the ikhsnever urrenderedheir ltimate overeigntyo ny powerotherthan their wn. Today, after orty ears buse of their rust,heSikhs areready ocreate gain theirndependent,overeign tate.35

34 Kirpal Singh Sihra,Sikhdom South Harrow: Sikh Commonwealth, 985), . 55. Sihra'sclaim that Punjab produces 80 percent of India's food-grains s highly exaggerated. tproduces nly bout 10percent f the ountry's otalgrainproduction.However, t s possiblethathe s referringoPunjab's contribution o the entral overnment's rocurement fgrain,India-wide, n which case the state's ontribution s close to50 percent.35 bid., p. 77.39

8/2/2019 khalistan

16/17

Pacific AffairsAftermore hanfour enturies f theSikh movement, new symbolhadfinally een added to the volving nventory f Sikh ethnicity: unjab, theland of the Sikhs. To borrow van D. Duchacek's felicitousphrase,theSikhs had turnedntoan "ethnoterritorialommunity."36 nderlying histransitionwas theparallel transformationf the Punjab into Khalistan.Sant Bhindranwaleand his stormtroopers id not invent he demandforKhalistan-it was already mbedded n Sikh consciousness.The equationbetween heSikhsand thePunjab had long been "naturalized." Just s thePunjabi landscape was conceived to be "natural" by ts nhabitants, im-ilarly n Sikhthought hePunjab "naturally"belonged to theSikhs, s "agiftofGod."37This thinking s fully xpressedwhen the Sikhs use themetaphor f fatherland or heregion.How deeplythis diom has seeped

into Sikh consciousness s illustrated ytheeventsfollowingMrs. Gand-hi's assassination nOctober1984.MorethanfiftyhousandSikhs,fearingthatpogromswould be directed gainst them,fledtheirhomes acrossnorthernndia to takerefugen thePunjab-not onlya safehaven,but aterritoryhatwas seen tobe their wn.38Now, a senseofplace will be animportant omponentof the nswerwhen theSikhs answerthequestion,"who are we?" Each time thisquestion is raised and answered, t willfurthertrengthenikh associations withthePunjab.Having derived ustenancefrom he stories fterritoriality,heSikhsare now entrapped n thedepthsofa classic dilemma: iftheypursueitsresolution, heyre facedwith situation imilar o that ftheBasques,theKurds, nd thePalestinians whichare fellowethnoterritorialommuni-ties),but ftheybandonthisnewly onstituted mblem hey ndermine nelement ftheir wn identity. ne possible wayoutofthe abyrinthwouldbegradually o nventnewmyths,which would be nscribedn thebodyofnewmetacommentaries,orging ewpan-Indianidentities.CONCLUSION

The theme f thispaper is complex and is enormous n scope,conse-quentlya greatdeal of additional ethnographic nd historicalresearchneeds to bedone beforenyfinal onclusions on thenature fSikh dentitycanemerge.But t should bepossiblefor hereader oseehowSikh dentityhas evolved,the continuities nd discontinuitieswithin t,and the ncor-porationofterritorialitys a Sikh symbol.This factorhas hitherto een36 Ivan D. Duchacek, "AntagonisticCooperation:Territorial nd EthnicCommunities,"Publius,vol. 7,no. 4 (1977), pp. 3-30.37 On how societies"naturalize" human thought nd turn history ntoNature" see thehighly uggestiveworkbyR. Barthes,Mythologies, ranslated rom heFrenchbyA. Lavers(London: Granada, 1980).38 Estimatebasedon MarkTully and SatishJacob,Amritsar:Mrs.Gandhis's Last Battle(London: JonathanCape, 1985),p. 7.The non-officialiguretandsbetween ighty housandand a hundred housand.

40

8/2/2019 khalistan

17/17

FromPun ab to "Khalistan"ignored, ecause symbolicssues,whichdependupon the onstructionndreconstructionfmeaning, eemto beunimportant or cholarswriting nthePunjab. All sorts fmaterial ndiceshavebeenenlistedtoexplain therecent olitical turmoil here: hefederal overnment'sthecentre's) rain-ing oftheprovince's theperiphery's) esources; hemorefavourable ermsoftrade or ndustrial-sectoroods;the imitations ftheGreenRevolutiontechnologyn furtheraisingfarmoutputs;growing nequalities in thecountryside;heproblemsofunemployedyouth; nd theshrinking lec-toralbase oftheAkali Dal.39Buthardly nymention smade of the emantic ources hat ncodetheSikh drive for utonomy. t has been my aim to bring at least one suchfactor o ight.Bynotgivingprominence oour ownanalytical ategories,a conceptual attempthas beenmade to etpeople narratehow they hem-selves onstruct nd disseminatemeanings.Those who consider uchsym-bolic meaningsto be merely piphenomena, or reflections fa falsecon-sciousness,will find tveryhard toexplain Sikhseparatism rwhymanySikhs willinglybecame martyrsn recentyears-or, forthat matter, oexplain whythere s such a deep relationshipbetween he Sikhs and theland offive ivers.While am awarethat n essay n Sikhmetacommunica-tive exts nd self-perceptions aynot holdall the nswers ocontempor-aryPunjab, at least tpointsto the omplexity f the ulture nd theplaceof humanexperience n itsconstitution. he Sikhs,as evena laymancaninfer, re a highly symbolicpeople, and theirpolitics and everydayifecannotbe fullyunderstoodwithouttaking thesymbolicdimension ntoaccount.

AustralianNational University, ovember1986

39 or an overview fthematerialistpproach, seeHarishK. Puri,"The AkaliAgitation:AnAnalysis fSocio-EconomicBases ofProtest," conomicandPoliticalWeekly,2January1983, p. 113-18; ndM.S. Dhami,"Punjab andCommunalism,"Seminar,no. 314 1985)pp.25-38.41