Myth and Reality of the Sikh Militancy in Punjab

Contents Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Rise of Sikh militancy. 3. Darbar Sahib complex amidst militancy and terrorism. 4. The Akali Dal factions in between militant and democratic politics. 5. Contemporary perceptions of rise and fall of the militancy. 6. Epilogue legitimizing militants. Bibliography. Newspapers/periodicals. This publication Myth and Reality of the Sikh Militancy covering a period (1978 to 1992) is an objective study of significant events such as Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale's rise and his dharma parchar morcha violent clash between Sant Nirankaris and the adherents of Sant Bhindranwale and the Akhand Kirtani Jatha on 13 April 1978 and the politics of the Akali BJP coalition government launching of the dharma yudh by the Akalis (1982) and their confrontation with the Delhi Sarkar emergence of communal violence and the Khalistani agenda the Operation Blue Star (1984) and the Operation Black Thunder (1988) the politics of Sarbat Khalsas and the rise of the terrorist movement collapse of the civil rule and resumption of democratic politics (1992) etc. All through this period the political social and religious leaders and activists irrespective of their party affiliations intelligentsia and media barons and journalists played multiple but many a times contradictory roles. The book describes that with a few exceptions the role of the persons as well as institutions involved invariably changed from moderate to extremist and from extremist to moderate or from communal to secular or vice versa. 279 pp.