Hi there! Welcome to Part 3 of our overly-long running series, here’s a link to Part 2.
Before we begin, we’d like to point out that this post includes discussion of some of the, largely political, dialogue surrounding the bombing of Air India Flight 182.
It was the worst mass-murder in Canadian history, one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time, and over 300 innocent people lost their lives. Thousands of Canadians lost family members and friends and, not only has their pain never been properly acknowledged, but they also haven’t seen any real justice or gotten any solid answers regarding what happened.
Furthermore, whenever the subject does come up, for example, on the recent anniversary of the tragedy, pretty much every attempt they make at a sombre, peaceful, remembrance of their loved ones turns into a free-air-time opportunity for people, from a variety of political stripes, who are more interested in pushing their personal agendas rather than demonstrating any real sympathy.
Long story, short, this is upsetting stuff, and we think some of the things we mention, here, are likely to further someone’s pain. So, for this post, we’re throwing up an emphatic trigger warning.
Now, when we left off, we were on the cusp of discussing the events of 1984.
Yes! Tell me about 1984! I’ve heard Sikhs mention that year almost as often as Leafs fans mention 1967!
The stalement between Gandhi and Bhindranwale came to a head in June of 1984, when the government instituted a military blackout in Punjab, expelled all international journalists, and launched a full scale military operation, known as “Operation Blue Star”, on not only Bhindranwale’s followers in the Golden Temple complex, but also in other gurdwaras and sites around the state.
The date of the assault was particularly noteworthy as it coincided with a significant religious occasion for Sikhs, and thus, the complex had a higher-than-usual civilian presence. The end result of the operation killed, according to the Indian government, around 500 people, mostly Bhindranwale and his followers. Independent estimates, however have placed the death toll much higher, including several thousands of civilians (Ed.: The Indian government uses a special kind of math for casualty numbers, particularly for civilian casualties, that often results in death tolls an order-of-magnitude smaller than independent estimates).
The scale of the operation was so horrific, that it actually amplified support for the sovereignty movement, which quickly evolved from an originally intellectual and diplomatic movement, to a militant one. It would also come back to haunt Gandhi in a big way.
You’re talking about the guys who killed her, right? The ones they call terrorists.
It depends on your definition of terrorists. If your definition of a terrorist includes someone who assassinates a political official, and absolutely no one else, and then immediately surrenders, while also taking care to make sure no one else was unfairly blamed for their actions, then, sure, they’re terrorists.
This part of the story is pretty straightforward. Two of Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards, both Sikhs, saw the result of Operation Blue Star and felt that they were obligated to restore the dignity of the Sikhs by assassinating the woman they were charged with protecting.
The aftermath of their actions included wide-scale genocidal riots, that the Indian government acknowledges killed around 3000 people, while independent estimates place the toll at around 20 000 (Ed.: Some more of that Indian math).
At this point, agitation and support for the sovereignty movement was at its zenith. Things would begin to take a turn in 1985, when much of the narrative surrounding the Khalistani movement begins to involve Canada, after the Air India Bombing.
Okay, now we’re talking. I’ve been hearing some tinfoil hat types claim the Air India Bombing was an Indian inside-job.
Yeah, at first blush it might seem like some classic steel-beams-don’t-melt-Bush-did-9/11 stuff, and, don’t get us wrong, it may very well be completely untrue, but it’s actually not the whacky completely-out-there theory that some would have you believe.
A little background, first. Because of their stronger-than-average relationship with British forces, Sikhs make up a larger-than-average proportion of the South Asian Diaspora. This is actually a pattern you’ll see in a lot of older immigrant communities in Commonwealth nations, they represent ethnic minorities in their respective Motherlands.
In the case of Canada, for much of its history, Sikhs represented a significant majority of the South Asian population. That is no longer the case for the last few decades, but, nonetheless, they remain a plurality of the Indian-origin people in the country. In fact, proportionally-speaking, Canada is the “most Sikh” country on the planet.
Despite their presence in Canada, most Sikhs still have many relatives in Punjab, and thus, are fairly in tune with the politics of the state, often engaging in human rights activism, and other causes. For some, these clauses included active support for the Khalistani movement. It merits noting that, in India, activists for a separatist cause would risk death, which meant that those in Canada enjoyed a freedom to voice their support more openly. (Ed.: There were also lost of Sikhs in Canada who DIDN’T support the separatist movement, they have this funny habit of being human and having varied political opinions).
In fact, this support was strong enough that Indira Gandhi began openly pressuring Canada to clamp down on activists, even possibly going as far as demanding that the country let Indian authorities conduct their own operations on its soil.
Canada didn’t agree to those demands, not least of which because people advocating for a separatist movement on the other side of the world posed no threat to Canadian civilians.
But then Air India happened.
Yep, Air India just HAPPENED to take place when Khalistani support was at an all-time high, as was more politically-neutral Sikh human rights activism. Over three hundred innocent people, mostly Canadians, were murdered (Ed.: For the record, many of the victims of the bombing were, themselves, Sikh, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many Sikhs in Canada, at that time, who didn’t know someone on that flight).
That certainly sounds like something that might succeed in changing the Canadian government’s mind regarding Sikh activism. It actually DID turn a lot of Sikhs off of the separatist movement, as people often find the killing of innocent civilians distasteful.
Yeah, I’m gonna need more than that.
Well the Indian government knew that most of the people on the plane were Canadian before Brian Mulroney.
I thought that was just because Mulroney was racist.
No, he didn’t know because he just didn’t have the information. He didn’t CARE because he was racist.
Still, that’s just one thing.
Also, don’t you find it strange that they’d target an Air India flight in Canada, when there are literally thousands in India they could’ve bombed? Especially considering how unsophisticated India’s security system was back then?
Okay, but doesn’t India staging a terror attack to further their political ends seem kind of crazy?
It’s funny how the Western media likes to act that that is a completely ridiculous notion, but has no problem saying the saying about Vladimir Putin and the Russian Apartment Bombings. Maybe they wouldn’t if Russia was willing to use its populace as slave labour for Western corporations.
It also merits pointing out that Canadian authorities did give strong consideration to it having been a false-flag operation but didn’t have the resources to conduct any kind of thorough investigation on that angle.
Yeah, but, they’ve pretty much established the mastermind was that guy, Talwinder Singh Parmar.
Yep, they did. Funny thing about him, though. Did you know that multiple investigative reporters have claimed that Parmar was an Indian agent?
Chill out, Mulder. Parmar was a separatist who murdered a moderate reporter named Tara Singh Hayer. Terry Milewski told me that.
That’s true. You know what Terry Milewski always conveniently leaves out, though? That Tara Singh Hayer was himself a separatist who advocated for Sikh sovereignty long before Parmar entered the public sphere. He ran afoul of Parmar and his group when he made a point of condemning violent extremism as a strategy.
Okay, this is getting too weird, let’s change direction. What’s with all these referendums and stuff in Canada? Don’t they know no one in Punjab wants Khalistan? A loud Brown guy on the news said so.
Funny thing, that’s been a common talking point from non-separatists for more than 30 years, now. That the Khalistani movement is entirely Canadian and everyone in Punjab is perfectly happy in India. Except an awful lot of the people at these pro-Khalistan rallies were born in India and only came to Canada relatively recently. Are we supposed to believe they landed at Pearson and all of a sudden hated India? (Ed.: If anything, landing at Pearson should make you hate Canada)
Also, considering that India apparently carried out a multi-target assassination plot in the United States and Canada, and the tens of thousands of deaths before and during the period of insurgency, it doesn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility that people in India might be reluctant to publicly announce their separatist sympathies.
Okay, I guess that clears everything up, for now. Thanks.
No problem! Anything else?
Nah, I’m good.
So we’ve answered all of your questions?
Not in the least, but this was a lot to read, and I realised a while ago I don’t care that much.
Oh, thank God. This took way longer to write than we anticipated. We were drafting a breakdown of the farmer protests when our staff threatened to mutiny.
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