The violent-nonviolent binary of democratic protest: phantasmagoria, gursikhi, and Khalsa sovereignty

ABSTRACT The connection between the recolonization of India’s economy through neoliberal reforms and the re-emergence of rhetoric around Khalistan during the farmers’ protest in Delhi are examined in this article. Despite the use of humanistic principles based on the Sikh tradition during the protest to draw attention to issues around food and land insecurity, lack of education, and poverty the Indian state creates phantasmagoria around the issue of Khalistan to enact economic liberalization while, counterintuitively, destabilizing its democratic institutions. I argue that the Delhi Morcha requires the dynamics of religion, politics, and violence in democracies needs to be rethought.