The origins of the rebellion in the Punjab

Abstract

At the beginning of June, the Indian government used 70,000 troops to put down rebellion in the Punjab. At the height of the operation, tanks, artillery and hundreds of commandos engaged in 3 days and nights of warfare to gain control of the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion, which had been heavily fortified by the leaders of the rebellion. In the taking of the Golden Temple more than 100 soldiers, 350 pilgrims and 350 rebels lost their lives - amongst them Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale the most prominent leader of the rebellion. The Punjab is India's most advanced State. New technologies and capitalist relations have transformed agricultural productivity to the extent that the State now produces over fifty percent of the national marketed surplus of both wheat and rice. But the rebellion raised economic demands alongside those of religious identity – in a land claimed as a model of the success of modern Western technology were reborn the Middle Ages with their springtime of superstitions, prejudices, aggressiveness, religious witch-hunt'. Whilst reporting the rebellion for Business India, Bharat Bhushan was able to interview the main leaders of the Akali Dal, the political party expressing many Sikh and Punjabi demands, including Bhindranwale. Here he analyses the main strands in the agitation, showing how its economic demands are primarily those of rich capitalist farmers but how popular support was ensured by an alliance with the religious identity of the whole Sikh community.