Sikh leaders defend ‘peaceful’ separatist vote

Australian Sikh leaders reject concerns raised by the Indian government about next month’s Khalistan vote.

Amar Singh, founder of Turbans4Australia, said there was growing support among Australian Sikhs for the creation of a separate state in India. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Australian Sikh leaders have ­declared a January 29 referendum in Melbourne will be a peaceful vote in support of the right to ­“religious and cultural” freedom for millions of Sikhs around the world.

Three influential local Sikhs have described the vote as a significant step towards self-determination for their community in India and Australia, and claim that faced with growing support for the separatist cause the Indian government has attempted to undermine the referendum.

A poster promoting the pro-Khalistan campaign by Australia's Sikh community.

Amar Singh, who runs Sikh charitable organisation Turbans4Australia, said there was growing support among Australian Sikhs for the creation of a separate state in India.

“There are those in the community who are in support of self-determination for Sikhs worldwide, it is not just Australia or Melbourne,” he told The Weekend Australian. “All over Australia you will have sections supporting self-determination for Sikhs based on the decades of suffering of our people and the thousands and thousands killed by fake police ­encounters and torture.

“Our self-determination is a basic human right that exists for every citizen and in every country. Self-determination and the rights of Sikhs, the minority, are what we are supporting through and through. As Sikhs, we condemn any sort of violence, but the right of self-determination is supported pretty much through the community.”

Melbourne Sikhs on January 29 will vote in the Khalistan referendum, part of a global vote to generate support for the creation of a separatist state in India.

In recent months, the separatist movement in Australia’s Sikh community has experienced a surge in support, with Khalistan flags displayed at last month’s taxpayer-funded Humanity

Khalistan supporters waved flags at the Sikh community's Humanity Walk in Melbourne on November 19.

Walk and posters using controversial slogans and imagery displayed at Sikh temples throughout Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs.

Some posters featured the ­assassins of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and slogans such as “the last battle to kill Indian-­Hindutva system responsible for Sikh genocide”. The rise in Sikh separatism has come amid ­increased tensions within sections of the Indian community, particularly in Melbourne, over the issue of a Khalistan state in India.

Gurvinder Singh, national ­director of global humanitarian and advocacy charity organisation United Sikhs, said the vote in Melbourne would be peaceful.

“The fundamental principle of a democratic country is the freedom it allows for you to practise your faith and provide an avenue for your voice to be heard in a peaceful manner,” he said.

“That power, the power of a vote, is exactly what this referendum allows the community to engage in. If there is any interference or unrest it will be caused by those seeking to malign, target or defame the Sikh community.

“Just like we exercise our right in our local and national elections, we will exercise our right to allow our voice to matter, our voice to count, our voice to be tabulated. And this ability to freely exercise our rights is a major reason for us escaping tyranny and seeking refuge in Australia.”

Gurvinder Singh said the ­Indian government had a record of interfering in the Sikh religion, affairs and institutions.

“It is not only the physical persecution leading to a genocide of the Sikhs, it is basically the ­religious, institutional, and cultural persecution as well,” he said.

Harkirat Singh, also a volunteer at United Sikhs, said the Sikh community in Australia still suffered from the events of the 1980s in India.

“Every Sikh, one way or ­another, is affected by the genocide that happened around 1984,” he said. “So I think that sentiment resonates in every Sikh mind that we need self-determination for Sikhs. There is a strong sentiment when we go into the community about self-determination, and the human rights violations make that sentiment strong.”

Amar Singh said the Sikh self-determination movement was not “anti-Hindu” but was opposing what he described as the growing “right-wing extremism” in India.

“The overall Hindu community we work really well with,” he said. “We have good family friends, business partners … The average Sikh community and the Hindu community get on very well. It is the far-right-wing ­extremism that promotes hatred among the wider Indian diaspora that is the challenge here.

“Self-determination is the right for us to have our language, our identity, our religion accepted. Khalistan might be a political statement, but we’re not spokesmen of Khalistan.”