As Dal Khalsa an­nounced cel­e­bra­tions of its 40-year strug­gle for Sikh sov­er­eignty, Jag­mo­han Singh, the ed­i­tor of The World Sikh News catches up with the sheet an­chor of the Dal Khalsa or­gan­i­sa­tion –Kan­warpal Singh, who since the last two decades has given a new facelift to the or­gan­i­sa­tion and spread the ide­ol­ogy of Sikh free­dom across the state of Pun­jab. This in­ter­view with the spokesper­son of the body takes a deep look into its past, an­a­lyzes the pre­sent and pro­vides a glance at the fu­ture of the or­ga­ni­za­tion as well as the strug­gle for Sikh na­tion­hood as per­ceived by the Dal Khalsa.

Here is the his­toric WSN in­ter­view with Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­warpal Singh over a wide range of is­sues and con­cerns about Sikh sov­er­eignty.

WSN: What is Dal Khalsa up to nowa­days?

Kan­warpal Singh: We will cel­e­brate 40 years of our for­ma­tion. The de­ci­sion to form the Dal Khalsa –the nomen­cla­ture given by Bhai Sahib Sir­dar Ka­pur Singh to the founders –was taken on 6 Au­gust 1978 and it was for­mally an­nounced on 13 Au­gust 1978 in Chandi­garh. Dal Khalsa will hold a con­fer­ence on 13 Au­gust 2018 in the city where it was formed amidst key in­di­vid­u­als who have made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the Sikh strug­gle for in­de­pen­dence and our Dal Khalsa cadres. On 15 Au­gust 2018, we will protest the In­dian In­de­pen­dence day and ob­serve it as Black Day in Moga.

WSN: How do you look back at your 40-year jour­ney?

Kan­warpal Singh: We look back at our jour­ney with sat­is­fac­tion. We have sus­tained the spirit of Sikh free­dom de­spite state on­slaught, ha­rass­ment, de­ten­tions, and deaths. We have over­come the stigma of be­ing called names and cre­ated a re­spectable po­si­tion amongst the Sikh na­tion, so­ci­ety in gen­eral and even among those who op­pose our ide­ol­ogy.

“Dal Khalsa will hold a con­fer­ence on 13 Au­gust 2018 in Chandi­garh amidst key in­di­vid­u­als who have made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the Sikh strug­gle for in­de­pen­dence and our Dal Khalsa cadres. On 15 Au­gust 2018, we will protest the In­dian In­de­pen­dence day and ob­serve it as Black Day in Moga.”

We know our pit­falls and weak­nesses. Maybe we were un­able to achieve as much as we wanted, but we know that with the power of the free me­dia, the reach of the global Sikh com­mu­nity, we will move for­ward and it will not be easy for the In­dian state to crush the Sikh sov­er­eignty move­ment, whose flag we have kept fly­ing.

WSN: Who have been the guid­ing forces of Dal Khalsa?

Kan­warpal Singh: The “Nir­mal Panth” of the founder of the Sikh faith –Guru Nanak and the “Teesra Panth” of Guru Gob­ind Singh were the guid­ing lights for Sikh ac­tivists Gajin­der Singh, Sat­nam Singh Paonta Sahib, Tejin­der Singh, Har­sim­ran Singh, Jaswant Singh Thekedar and Man­mo­han Singh Khalsa, when they formed the Dal Khalsa on 6 Au­gust 1978. The ex­em­plary con­tri­bu­tion of rev­o­lu­tion­ary poet Gajin­der Singh, presently in ex­ile and the con­sis­tent ac­tivism of Sat­nam Singh Paonta Sahib, de­spite his ill­ness and age, have guided the body through thick and thin.

In re­cent times, Bhai Daljit Singh, Har­cha­ran­jit Singh Dhami, and our pre­sent pres­i­dent Harpal Singh Cheema con­tinue to en­able us to tra­verse the dif­fi­cult ter­rain. Young ac­tivists, writ­ers and pro­fes­sional youth like Sarab­jit Singh Ghu­man and many oth­ers are com­pa­tri­ots on this path. The com­ing to­gether of Dal Khalsa and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Panch Pard­hani) has given us a much-needed boost in Pun­jab and the Di­as­pora.

“In­dia is a world power with a gi­gan­tic mar­ket po­ten­tial and a tow­er­ing im­age of be­ing a non-vi­o­lent and peace­ful coun­try. On the other hand, it has a huge trust deficit with its peo­ples, par­tic­u­larly the mi­nori­ties, Dal­its and re­gional iden­ti­ties.”

When I had re-launched the body on 6 Au­gust 1998, the en­cour­age­ment of Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann, Prof. Jag­mo­han Singh, Prof. Sukhjin­der Singh and Bhai Narain Singh en­abled me and the new youth who then joined us un­der dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances.

WSN: Yours is the only or­ga­nized group that was the first to raise the slo­gan for Khal­is­tan in In­dia. Some peo­ple say that the peo­ple of Pun­jab re­jected it. How­ever, you con­tinue to raise that slo­gan. Why?

Kan­warpal Singh: Yes, we are proud that our found­ing fa­thers raised this slo­gan way back in 1978 when they clearly un­der­stood the machi­na­tions of the In­dian state man­i­fested through the var­i­ous acts of omis­sion and com­mis­sion since 1947. The vi­sion­ary lead­ers were not only fo­cused on the long litany of griev­ances and in­jus­tices but were in­spired by the ide­o­log­i­cal po­si­tion of the “third na­tion” out­lined by Guru Gob­ind Singh. They rem­i­nisced the ex­em­plary pe­riod of Sikh self-rule of Baba Banda Singh Ba­hadur and Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh.

“We are proud that our found­ing fa­thers raised a ban­ner of re­volt and made a de­c­la­ra­tion for the cre­ation of a Sikh state in 1978 when they un­der­stood the machi­na­tions of the In­dian state man­i­fested through the var­i­ous acts of omis­sion and com­mis­sion since 1947. The vi­sion­ary lead­ers rem­i­nisced the ex­em­plary pe­riod of Sikh self-rule of Baba Banda Singh Ba­hadur and Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh.”

Notwith­stand­ing the pre­sent facile peace, we are steeped in the yearn­ing for Sikh sov­er­eignty and we do not think that the Sikh masses, as such, have been given a free and fair op­por­tu­nity to share their views about Sikh free­dom. In an in­di­rect man­ner, Sikh masses have ex­pressed over­whelm­ing sup­port in the past. We be­lieve that given an un­fet­tered and un­hin­dered op­por­tu­nity, the Sikhs will bounce back to not only up­hold Sikh free­dom but work hard and even die, to demon­strate to the world the type of sec­u­lar­ism, fair­ness, and equal­ity, prac­ticed by the Sikhs and as en­shrined in the Sikh ethos.  

WSN: No slo­gan can be trans­lated into re­al­ity with­out mass sup­port. Your or­ga­ni­za­tion does not have that kind of con­nect with the Sikh masses.

Kan­warpal Singh: Dal Khalsa be­lieves that our base with the Sikh masses has de­pended upon the scale of ac­tiv­i­ties of the or­ga­ni­za­tion from time to time. We have had to face pe­ri­ods of ban and ha­rass­ment.

The re­al­ity, a lit­tle less un­der­stood and de­lib­er­ately ig­nored, is that the idea of a sov­er­eign Sikh coun­try has never been very far from the Sikh mind. Sikhs take le­git­i­mate and true pride at hav­ing es­tab­lished an egal­i­tar­ian sov­er­eign rule in the past.

“We have built an un­der­stand­ing with like-minded eth­nic groups and strug­gling peo­ples, who like the Sikhs, seek the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. We are proud to be friends with Kash­miris, Na­gas, Ma­nipuris, and Tamils who all hold their na­tion­al­ism as the key to the sat­is­fac­tion of their right­ful as­pi­ra­tions.”

We have re­vived our move­ment for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and through it, to rekin­dle the spirit of free­dom of the Sikhs. We have no il­lu­sions that we are swim­ming against the tide.

WSN: Do you re­ally think that Sikhs like the no­tion of a Sikh state?

Kan­warpal Singh: Scratch be­neath the sur­face of any Sikh, of what­ever fol­low­ing, male or fe­male and you will find Sikh pride of be­ing “the sov­er­eign per­son of God”.  The reg­u­lar rep­e­ti­tion of the “Raj Karega Khalsa” litany in every Gur­d­wara –morn­ing and evening and in every Sikh con­gre­ga­tion is a re­it­er­a­tion of the re­solve for the es­tab­lish­ment of the Com­mon­wealth of the Khalsa.

Though it may not be re­flected in the po­lit­i­cal swing and tide of Pun­jab pol­i­tics, the deep sense of alien­ation among all Sikhs af­ter the at­tack on Dar­bar Sahib in June 1984, fol­lowed by the emo­tion that “we do not be­long to In­dia” and “In­dia is not our fa­ther­land” has cap­tured the minds of the ma­jor­ity of the Sikhs in the home­land, in the Di­as­pora within In­dia and the in­ter­na­tional Sikh Di­as­pora.

WSN: Has your lead­er­ship ever an­a­lyzed the per­for­mance of your or­ga­ni­za­tion over these 40 years?

Kan­warpal Singh: Frankly, we have an­a­lyzed our per­for­mance reg­u­larly over the last 20 years. This has re­sulted in many sov­er­eignty-re­lated pub­li­ca­tions, novel pro­grams and spe­cific in­ter­ven­tion in Pan­thic causes like the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar.

We launched our stu­dent wing the Sikh Youth of Pun­jab with the clear ob­jec­tive of re­ju­ve­nat­ing the Khalsa and pass­ing on the buck to the next gen­er­a­tion. We are proud to say that a large cross-sec­tion of the Dal Khalsa lead­er­ship is young.  Through every baby-step, we have fur­thered the agenda of Sikh free­dom and sov­er­eignty.

“We would like to tell In­dia and the world to un­der­stand that, “A Sikh is ei­ther a sov­er­eign or a rebel. There is no other choice.””

WSN: Apart from up­hold­ing the slo­gan of sep­a­ratism, what would you rate as your most sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions?

Kan­warpal Singh: The first gi­gan­tic pub­lic protest of Dal Khalsa was to seek the re­lease of Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale who had been il­le­gally de­tained in 1982. Dal Khalsa sees it­self as the co-in­her­i­tor of the legacy of this hero, who re­ju­ve­nated the Khalsa and fought the In­dian state tooth and nail.  

Dal Khalsa pub­lished the first di­rec­tory of mar­tyrs who died fight­ing along with Sant Jar­nail Singh dur­ing the Indo-Sikh Bat­tle of June 1984 in Am­rit­sar. We cam­paigned to bust the myth that Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale was alive.  Dal Khalsa played a stel­lar role in push­ing the Akali Dal lead­er­ship to counter the op­po­si­tion of the gov­ern­ment and set-up a memo­r­ial for June 1984 mar­tyrs within Dar­bar Sahib Com­plex. The to­tal shut­down in Am­rit­sar on 6 June every year since the last few years has been a huge suc­cess lead­ing to peo­ple’s par­tic­i­pa­tion.

To fur­ther our agenda and mis­sion, we have made ef­fec­tive use of de­mo­c­ra­tic meth­ods of protests –from street sit-ins, ral­lies to sem­i­nars and con­ven­tions. Since the last decade or more, we are the only Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tion in the home­land to de­nounce the 26 Jan­u­ary In­dian Re­pub­lic Day and 15 Au­gust In­dian In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions call­ing them anti-Sikh and urg­ing peo­ple of Pun­jab to boy­cott as these days sym­bol­ize In­di­a’s im­pe­ri­al­is­tic hold over the Pun­jab.

We have built an un­der­stand­ing with like-minded eth­nic groups and strug­gling peo­ples, who like the Sikhs, seek the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion.  We are proud to be friends with Kash­miris, Na­gas, Ma­nipuris, and Tamils who all hold their na­tion­al­ism as the key to the sat­is­fac­tion of their right­ful as­pi­ra­tions.

WSN: What is your agenda un­der the pre­sent sit­u­a­tion when the In­dian state has emerged stronger and more cen­tral­ized as com­pared to the eight­ies?

Kan­warpal Singh: Un­doubt­edly, In­dia is more pow­er­ful than ever be­fore. It is a world power with a gi­gan­tic mar­ket po­ten­tial and a tow­er­ing im­age of be­ing a non-vi­o­lent and peace­ful coun­try. On the other hand, it has a huge trust deficit with its peo­ples, par­tic­u­larly the mi­nori­ties, Dal­its and re­gional iden­ti­ties.

We want that mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties, mi­nori­ties and re­gional iden­ti­ties come to­gether and unit­edly de­feat the pe­jo­ra­tive and ma­jori­tar­ian de­sign to foist Hindu hege­mony.  In­dia must be made an­swer­able to the world com­mu­nity.

WSN: At the po­lit­i­cal level, the dom­i­nant po­lit­i­cal dis­course is get­ting dom­i­nated by pseudo-na­tion­al­ism that is anti-mi­nori­ties. How you place your agenda in this frame­work?

Kan­warpal Singh: In In­dia and world­wide, parochial­ism is gain­ing ground to the detri­ment of in­clu­sive­ness and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism. This is a dan­ger­ous trend which has led to ha­tred to­wards many, es­pe­cially Mus­lims and Sikhs, even in de­vel­oped coun­tries.

We be­lieve that our agenda based on the all-en­com­pass­ing tol­er­ant ap­proach and call for Sar­bat da Bhala -wel­fare for all, of Sikhism will be the prin­ci­ples on which our fight for state­hood would be based.

WSN: How are you go­ing about con­nect­ing with the peo­ple?

Kan­warpal Singh: Per­son to per­son con­tact in vil­lages, stu­dent to stu­dent con­tact in col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. We have a rock-solid base of peo­ple who have op­posed the state and are ever-will­ing to join our en­deav­ors, now and in fu­ture.  

We will ex­pand our ground to in­clude other com­mu­ni­ties liv­ing in Pun­jab per­suad­ing them to be part of the strug­gle for all Pun­jabis.

WSN: Your or­ga­ni­za­tion takes up hardly any is­sue that di­rectly con­cerns the peo­ple?

Kan­warpal Singh: I agree that we have not taken up many is­sues that di­rectly con­cern the day to day lives of peo­ple.  We are aware of our lim­i­ta­tions of fi­nance and man­power. Some­one has to rise above daily hap­pen­ings and look at the big­ger pic­ture. How­ever, I must add that when the cases of sac­ri­lege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 came up, Dal Khalsa was in the fore­front.

Given the pre­sent sit­u­a­tion in the state, we will soon take up key con­cerns of peo­ple like pre­ven­tion of drug abuse, con­sol­i­da­tion of affin­ity with Dal­its, pro­tec­tion of nat­ural re­sources and spread of ba­sic and higher ed­u­ca­tion in the Pun­jab.

WSN: The is­sue of ref­er­en­dum 2020 has sur­faced in the Sikh Di­as­pora po­lit­i­cal dis­course. How­ever, it is not the is­sue with the Sikhs in Pun­jab. Your com­ment?

Kan­warpal Singh: The talk of ref­er­en­dum per se is cred­i­ble. The flip­side is that there is a lack of clar­ity on the con­duct of such non-bind­ing ref­er­en­dum only in the Di­as­pora with no such ac­tiv­ity in home­land Pun­jab. There­fore, it car­ries a huge bag­gage of doubt about its prac­ti­cal pos­si­bil­ity and im­pact.  Dal Khalsa de­sires that some­day soon, un­der the aegis of the United Na­tions, a sov­er­eignty ref­er­en­dum be con­ducted in Pun­jab.

WSN: Do you think that peo­ple rais­ing such is­sues on be­half of the Sikhs should re­turn to Pun­jab to mo­bi­lize them?

Kan­warpal Singh: Who­ever is con­vinced about the pos­si­bil­ity of peace­ful tran­si­tion of power through self-de­ter­mi­na­tion must ac­knowl­edge that such an ex­er­cise has to hap­pen in the home­land of the Sikhs -the Pun­jab. If they can man­age to em­power the peo­ple of Pun­jab from for­eign shores, it is praise­wor­thy, but to fos­ter a move­ment on the ground, par­tic­i­pa­tion in Pun­jab is im­per­a­tive.  

WSN: There are Sikhs out­side Pun­jab, and their is­sues are dif­fer­ent, not Khal­is­tan or ref­er­en­dum.

Kan­warpal Singh: We re­al­ize that. We also know that ref­er­en­dum is not an is­sue for them. We only want to say that in case a ref­er­en­dum takes place un­der the pa­tron­age of the United Na­tions, even they will get an op­por­tu­nity to have their say. It is al­ways to be borne in mind that Sikhs in the Di­as­pora al­ways look to­wards Am­rit­sar for suc­cor and sup­port. Be it the Sikhs in Shil­long, Delhi or even Canada, UK and the US, they all look up to Pun­jab for res­o­lu­tion of re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal con­flicts in ex­actly the same was as na­tion­al­i­ties of other coun­tries liv­ing away from their home­land do. The su­premacy of the Akal Takht Sahib and the var­i­ous trans-na­tional bod­ies of the Sikhs is not lost on them. When­ever a global plan for Sikh des­tiny will be pre­pared and im­ple­mented, the in­ter­ests of all Sikhs, every­where will be watched and pro­tected.

Though to many peo­ple, it ap­pears that the Di­as­pora Sikhs will stay away from an ex­er­cise like a ref­er­en­dum, given a free and fair op­por­tu­nity, we be­lieve, that the re­sults may be alarm­ing and sur­pris­ing to many. If Gu­jaratis liv­ing in Mum­bai, can­not for­get their Des Gu­jarat, surely the Sikhs be­yond Pun­jab al­ways itch to be part of their roots –Des Pun­jab.

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WSN: What would you ap­peal to In­dia in the pre­sent cir­cum­stances?

Kan­warpal Singh: Peo­ple can­not be forced to stay to­gether us­ing force, re­pres­sion and anti-peo­ple laws. In­dia must al­low a full play of democ­racy, re­spect in­ter­na­tional in­stru­ments of peace, UN con­ven­tions, covenants, and treaties and fol­low com­mon­wealth coun­tries like Canada and UK by al­low­ing peace­ful and de­mo­c­ra­tic res­o­lu­tion of po­lit­i­cal con­flicts. It will do In­dia and the world good to un­der­stand that, “A Sikh is ei­ther a sov­er­eign or a rebel. There is no other choice.”