WHO SPEAKS FOR KHALISTAN: NARRATING SIKH LIBERATION Assu, Nanakshahi 552 Written and produced by the Khalistan Centre The Khalistan Centre is dedicated to supporting and cultivating Gurmat-driven leadership to further the struggle for Khalistan. Assu, Nanakshahi 552 / October 2020 CE This report is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. We acknowledge that the Khalistan Centre, is on the unceded traditional territory of the Katzie, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen and other Coast Salish Peoples. Khalistan Centre 101 - 12885 85 Ave Surrey, BC Canada V3W 0K8
[email protected] www.khalistan.org PAGE 2 Khalistan Centre Contents Executive Summary 4 Section 1 Background 6 Indian Repression of Sikh Activism Around the World 9 Manipulating Media and Government Representatives in Canada 12 Section 2 Amplifying Propaganda: 14 The Global Circulation of Indian Targeted Messaging Armed Struggle: Manufacturing Sikh “Terrorism” 18 “A Project of Pakistan” 24 Khalistan By the Numbers: Statistics, Trends and Electoral Results 27 “Peace” in Punjab Today 30 Section 3 The Politics of Race and Capitalism 32 Section 4 Next Steps: Indian Interference and a Panthic Response 36 Citations 42 Narrating Sikh Liberation PAGE 3 Executive Summary As another example of the ongoing Indian for explicitly rejecting the Indian electoral interference in foreign countries to erase the system and engaging in Khalistani activism Sikh sangarsh 1 for Khalistan, an Ottawa- through a variety of means. This includes based think-tank, MacDonald-Laurier advocacy over social media, supporting calls Institute (MLI), recently released a report for a referendum in Punjab, and distributing written by Terry Milewski. The report Sikh literature—all activities which India has presents itself as a factual account of the criminalized and forcibly shut down using its Khalistan movement but amounts to little arbitrary anti-terror legislation.