All you need to know about Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale

Tensions erupted in Jammu on Thursday when a Sikh youth was killed and some others injured as police and youths clashed over the removal of a poster of Sikh extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. 

Here's all you need to know about Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale:

Who was Bhindranwale?
Bhindranwale was a leader of the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh religious authority and a political revolutionary in the early to mid 1980s.

Why is Bhindranwale so controversial?
Bhindranwale pioneered the demand for the independent Sikh nation of Khalistan. Though Bhindranwale himself never claimed he supported such a state, he made several statements which implied his support.

What is the Khalistan movement?
The Khalistan movement was a religious-political movement within Sikh groups for the creation of a separate state of Khalistan. From the late 1970s, it assumed a militant face. The Akali Dal indirectly supported the movement and created a charter of demands. Though the resolution did not explicitly call for a separate country, it envisioned transfer of territory to the Punjab as well as considerable devolution of powers of the Centre on the states. But it was one Jagjit Singh Chauhan who first supported the idea of an independent Sikh country.

How was Bhindranwale connected to this?
Chauhan was said to be in constant touch with Bhindranwale, and the former held some radical ideas of a separate Sikh state. Chauhan declared himself president of the "Republic of Khalistan", named a Cabinet, and issued Khalistan "passports", "postage stamps" and "Khalistan dollars".

How did Bhindranwale become politically influential?
Bhindranwale was initially supported by the Congress during the late 1970s. The Congress backed Bhindranwale to weaken the Akali Dal in Punjab and split the Sikh vote. The Congress supported the candidates backed by Bhindranwale in the 1978 SGPC elections. The Congress leader (and ex-President of India) Giani Zail Singh allegedly financed the initial meetings of the separatist organization Dal Khalsa. The association of Bhindranwale with the Congress increased his influence and stature in politics.

How did the Khalistan movement gain momentum?
Bhindranwale and his supporters increasingly came to be associated with acts of violence. In the early 1980s there were a series of murders in Punjab. In 1981, a journalist and Congressman named Lala Jagat Narayan was found murdered, allegedly at the behest of Bhindranwale's men. Narayan had been advocating against the use of Punjabi in Hindi schools in Punjab and the acceptance of Hindi instead of Punjabi by Hindus living in Punjab.
Bhindranwale had earlier been a suspect in the murder of the Nirankari leader Gurbachan Singh, who had been killed on 24 April 1980.

The Punjab government arrested Bhindranwale but later released him for lack of evidence. By this time, the Akali Dal which had been considering Bhindranwale a Congress agent, began to make common cause with him. This might have irrevocably changed Bhindranwale's equation with the Congress and Indira Gandhi.

The Akali Dal and Bhindranwale launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha in August 1982. It called for the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution (which contained several demands for greater devolution of powers to the state and lessening of government influence). 

PM Indira Gandhi however viewed the document as a secessionist one, and took an aggressive stand. Agitations of the Morcha were violently suppressed by the police. Over 30,000 Sikhs were arrested.The violent acts of Bhindranwale's supporters continued with murders and bombings in Punjab. Bhindranwale's influence meant it was difficult to even arrest these people.

What was Operation Blue Star?
In June 1984, Bhindranwale and his armed supporters took refuge inside the Amritsar Harmandir Sahib Complex, which housed the Golden Temple. Negotiators failed to convince Bhindranwale to abandon the hideout. Then PM Indira Gandhi ordered a military operation to evacuate the militants holed up inside the temple.

Beginning June 1, the army extensively moved into Punjab. After cutting off the media telecasts, water and electricity, and bringing the state to a halt, the army fought pitched battles with Sikh extremists in several parts of Punjab. Finally, it attacked the Harmandir Sahib Complex on June 5. Between 42 to 74 other locations, most of them gurudwaras, were also attacked.

By June 7, the army had defeated the militants and gained control of the temple complex. By June 10, the operation was over. Bhindranwale was killed in the operation.

The army's operation eventually led to the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Army Chief  Arun Shridhar Vaidya. The assassination of Indira Gandhi in turn led to an anti-Sikh pogrom, where around 3000 Sikhs were killed. In 1986 there was another operation at the Golden Temple complex, but most of the militants managed to escape. While Operation Blue Star brought condemnation for Ms Gandhi, it elevated Bhindranwale to the status of a martyr in the eyes of many Sikh bodies. However, the Khalistan movement subsided over the next two decades. 

In 2003, SGPC conferred the status of martyr to the dead leader.

But over last few years, isolated voices have again started to surface demanding the formation of separate Khalistan.  Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann has raised the demand for a separate Sikh homeland.in particular has gone on record to say, "Khalistan is our (Sikhs) right,"  Mann said his demand for a separate Sikh homeland was not "unconstitutional".

The clashes in Jammu and some sporadic violence in the Golden Temple shows even after two decades Bhindranwale remains an emotional figure for the Sikh people at large. While Punjab is firmly rooted in the Indian mainstream and a full blown secessionist movement is highly unlikely, latent strains of Sikh nationalism cascading into such sporadic violence in the future also cannot be ruled out.