page_title: History of Sikhism
section_title: Operation Blue Star and Anti-Sikh Riots
hierarchical_section_title: History of Sikhism / After Indian Independence (1947 CE – present) / Punjab Insurgency (1981–1995) / Operation Blue Star and Anti-Sikh Riots
caption_attribution_description: English: Manmohan Singh, current prime minister of India.
context_page_description: The Sikhism came into existence after repeated invasion of barbaric muslim invaders upon hindu community. The elder son of every hindu family was nominated and was represented as Sardar and had protected their family and community from the Muslims goons and their tortures. Sikhism was coined by Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He was the first Guru of the fifteenth century in the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The religious practices were formalised by Guru Gobind Singh Ji on 13 April 1699. The latter baptised five persons from different parts of India and had different social backgrounds to form Khalsa. The first five, Pure Ones, then baptised Gobind Singh ji into the Khalsa fold. This gives the order of Khalsa, a history of around 300 years.
  The history of Sikhism is closely associated with the history of Punjab and the socio-political situation in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent in the 16th century. From the rule of India by the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Sikhism came into conflict with Mughal laws, because they were affecting political successions of Mughals while cherishing saints from Islam.
context_section_description: Communal tensions arose again in the late 1970s, fueled by Sikh claims of discrimination and marginalization by the secularist dominated Indian National Congress ruling party and the "dictatorial" tactics adopted the then Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.  Frank argues that Gandhi's assumption of emergency powers in 1975 resulted in the weakening of the "legitimate and impartial machinery of government" and her increasing "paranoia" of opposing political groups led her to instigate a  "despotic policy of playing castes, religions and political groups against each other for political advantage." As a reaction against these actions came the emergence of the Sikh leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who vocalised Sikh sentiment for justice. This accelerated Punjab into a state of communal violence.  Gandhi's 1984 action to remove Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale led to desecration of the Golden Temple in Operation Blue Star and ultimately led to Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards and led to the Sarbat Khalsa advocating the creation of a Sikh homeland, Khalistan. This resulted in an explosion of violence against the Sikh community in the Anti Sikh Riots which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Sikhs throughout India; Khushwant Singh described the actions as being a Sikh pogrom in which he "felt like a refugee in my country. In fact, I felt like a Jew in Nazi Germany." Since 1984, relations between Sikhs and Hindus have reached a rapprochement helped by growing economic prosperity; however in 2002 the claims of the popular right-wing Hindu organisation the RSS, that "Sikhs are Hindus" angered Sikh sensibilities. Many Sikhs still are campaigning for justice for victims of the violence and the political and economic needs of the Punjab espoused in the Khalistan movement.
caption: Manmohan Singh became the first Sikh Prime Minister of India.
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