The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India; Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements

by Jugdep S Chima

• ISBN13: 9788132103028
• ISBN10: 8132103025
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-09
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd

Summary

This book provides an authoritative political history of the Sikh separatist insurgency in Punjab by focusing on the 'œpatterns of political leadership', a previously unexplored variable. It describes in detail the events which led to the emergence of the 'œPunjab Crisis', the various means through which the movement was sustained, and the changing nature of political leadership and courses of military action which necessitated its decline in the mid-1990s. Providing a microhistorical analysis of the Punjab crisis, the book argues that the trajectories of ethnonationalist movements are largely based on the interaction between self-interested political elites, who not only react to the structural choices they face, but whose purposeful actions and decisions ultimately affect the course of ethnic group-state relations.

Author Biography

Jugdep S. Chima currently holds the positional of Associate Editor for South Asia with Asian Survey (Institute of East Asian Studies) at the University of California, Berkeley. He has previously also held other positions at the University of California, Berkeley including Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow with the Center for South Asia Studies, and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science. His research articles have been published in Asian Survey, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, Review of International Studies, Small Wars and Insurgencies, and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

Table of Contents

Introduction

"Patterns of Political Leadership" and Ethnonationalist Insurgency

Sikh Ethnic Identity and Early Post-Independence Politics in Punjab

The Emergence of the Sikh Ethnonationalist Movement (1978-1984)

Beginnings of Sikh Extremism - 1978-81

Emergence of Ethnonationalist Violence - 1981 to 1983

Agitation, Ethnic Insurgency, and the Road to Operation Bluestar - 1983 to 1984

The Sustenance of the Sikh Ethnonationalist Movement (1984-1992)

Failed Political Compromises and Re-marginalizaion of Sikh Moderates 1984 to 1986

Reorganization of the Militants and the Armed Struggle for Khalistan - 1986 to 1988

The Divided State and Electoral Victory of the Extremists - 1988 to 1990

Escalating Factionalism and Internecine Violence within the Separatist Movement - 1990 to 1992

The Demise of the Sikh Ethnonationalist Movement (1992-1997)

The Crushing of the Violent Sikh Ethnonationalist Movement by the Unified State -1992 to 1993

The Return of Normalcy to Punjab and Sikh Politics -1993 -1997

Conclusion

"Patterns of Political Leadership" and Ethnonationalist Insurgency in a Comparative Perspective

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