“Religious Humiliation” and Violence: Identity, Politics and Sikh separatism in India

Abstract

Sikh religion originated under the shade of Hinduism and Islam in India. It shaped itself as a distinct category away from “Hinduism”. While the Muslim Rulers of that era tried to contain the influence of Sikhism, the Hindu elites in the 19th and 20th centuries tried to assimilate Sikhs and treated them as a sect within Hinduism. This paper tries to map the quest of Sikhism for maintaining its distinct identity and resisting attempts of assimilation. The Khalistan movement or the Sikh separatism in India is also an attempt to maintain a distinct identity and resist assimilation. Humiliation has been often identified as the immediate cause of violence. This paper will however try to probe the specific notion of “Religious Humiliation” as a cause of violence and also its “cyclic nature”. The paper would present humiliation and violence as both antecedents as well as precedents of each other, thereby feeding into each other. The khalistan movement framed and located its identity in militant Sikhism, encompassing a mythical glorious past, a collective decline, and the urge to rise up.