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The Atlantic: The Killing in Canada Shows What India Has Become

Mirzali Khan

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The government in New Delhi may well be the sort that will do anything to silence dissent.

By Daniel Block

On September 18, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood before his country’s Parliament and leveled a dramatic charge: Ottawa had “credible evidence” that the Indian government had assassinated a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. The citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, had been gunned down outside the Sikh temple where he served as president. Trudeau declared the killing “an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty” and “contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open, and democratic societies conduct themselves.”

The prime minister’s claim made headlines around the planet, but it shouldn’t have been altogether surprising. Nijjar was a prominent activist who called for Sikhs—a religious group mostly concentrated in northern India—to break away from New Delhi and form an independent nation. As a result, New Delhi had labeled him a terrorist. The Indian government has denied involvement in the killing, but under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has become illiberal at home and bellicose abroad, such that assassinations on foreign soil are no longer an unimaginable part of its agenda. New Delhi, in other words, could well be a government that will do anything to silence dissidents.

Nijjar is not the first Canadian whom India has labeled a terrorist, and he is hardly the first to support Sikh secession. During the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, Sikh insurgents in northern India waged a violent campaign to establish an independent Sikh nation, called Khalistan, and many Sikhs in Canada supported them by raising money and promoting the movement’s message in Canadian temples. Some Canadian Sikhs helped separatist cadres travel to Pakistan, where they received financial and military help. And in 1985, Talwinder Singh Parmar—a Sikh Canadian—orchestrated the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The plane exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 passengers and crew members in a plane attack deadlier than any the world would see until September 11, 2001.

Parmar was a terrorist, and experts believe that the Khalistani movement, with all its bloodshed, was unpopular among Indian Sikhs. But New Delhi was no less vicious. India responded to the Sikh insurgency with unremitting violence that killed thousands of civilians. At one point, separatists took shelter in the country’s Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site, and the Indian government sent in the military, killing scores of people and damaging the building. Two Sikhs then assassinated India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, which in turn prompted an anti-Sikh pogrom. Pamar himself was shot by police when he traveled to India after the plane bombing.

Nijjar, then, wouldn’t even be the first Canadian to be killed by Indian state actors. But his fate feels discontinuous with this history. The Indian government accused Nijjar of plotting attacks on its soil, but he denied these claims and was never extradited. The Sikh insurgency came to an end more than two decades ago. If India is behind Nijjar’s killing, its actions don’t reflect fears of Sikh secession so much as India’s transformation into an illiberal state where the government has elevated one religion—Hinduism—at the expense of all others, and where policy makers tolerate little dissent.

Since Modi came to power in 2014, violence against India’s minorities has dramatically increased, and New Delhi has moved to strip many non-Hindus of protections. The country revoked the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir—India’s only Muslim-majority state—and split the entity in half. It passed a law that could deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship, and it has done conspicuously little to stop the killing of members of tribal minorities in India’s northeast.

So far, Sikhs have been spared the worst ethnonationalist measures. But this week’s incident suggests that they are no longer as exempt, and the reasons are not hard to fathom. Sikh farmers played a major role in forcing Modi to withdraw his agricultural-reform bills in 2021, one of his few political defeats. The prime minister may worry that, as his Hindu-nationalist project becomes more dominant, Sikhs could throw more obstacles in its path—or rekindle a separatist insurgency. He may have decided that the time has come to wage an open battle against the religion. But if he thought that doing so would preempt calls for secession, he miscalculated: Sikh activists across the world have already responded to Nijjar’s death with protests, some of them calling for the creation of Khalistan.

The killing has also antagonized Canada. But Ottawa’s anger is unlikely to trouble New Delhi. India has prohibited Jagmeet Singh—a Sikh Canadian politician and an outspoken defender of Sikh rights—from entering the country. (Singh now leads Canada’s third-largest political party.) India’s foreign minister has accused critics of the Modi government of colonialism and said that outsiders have no right to question India’s behavior. And India’s main Hindu-nationalist organization, to which Modi belongs, has called for the creation of Akhand Bharat: a greater India encompassing all or parts of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. India unveiled a new Parliament building in May that featured a mural of Akhand Bharat. Three countries lodged complaints in response.

So far, Washington has professed to be “deeply concerned” by Trudeau’s allegations but has issued no serious rebuke to India, at least in public. In fact, according to The Washington Post, Trudeau originally asked the United States and its other closest allies to jointly announce the Canadian findings, but was rebuffed. (The Canadian government denied the Post’s report.)

The silence might seem logical: The United States sees India as an essential partner in its competition with China, so it does not want to alienate New Delhi. But American policy makers don’t just refrain from criticizing India. They praise the country’s politics and repeatedly declare that New Delhi is a natural partner for Washington. They invited Modi to address a joint session of Congress, where the prime minister crowned India the “mother of democracy,” its ambitions guided by the notion of “one Earth, one family, one future.”

Trudeau’s claim, if true, should remind the United States that India is not, in fact, a natural friend. The Indian government is trying to create not a great, peaceful democracy but an avowedly Hindu power that dominates South Asia. It may work with America to constrain China, but that is because challenging Beijing is in India’s interests, not because India supports the West.


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The government in New Delhi may well be the sort that will do anything to silence dissent.

By Daniel Block

On September 18, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood before his country’s Parliament and leveled a dramatic charge: Ottawa had “credible evidence” that the Indian government had assassinated a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. The citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, had been gunned down outside the Sikh temple where he served as president. Trudeau declared the killing “an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty” and “contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open, and democratic societies conduct themselves.”

The prime minister’s claim made headlines around the planet, but it shouldn’t have been altogether surprising. Nijjar was a prominent activist who called for Sikhs—a religious group mostly concentrated in northern India—to break away from New Delhi and form an independent nation. As a result, New Delhi had labeled him a terrorist. The Indian government has denied involvement in the killing, but under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has become illiberal at home and bellicose abroad, such that assassinations on foreign soil are no longer an unimaginable part of its agenda. New Delhi, in other words, could well be a government that will do anything to silence dissidents.

Nijjar is not the first Canadian whom India has labeled a terrorist, and he is hardly the first to support Sikh secession. During the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, Sikh insurgents in northern India waged a violent campaign to establish an independent Sikh nation, called Khalistan, and many Sikhs in Canada supported them by raising money and promoting the movement’s message in Canadian temples. Some Canadian Sikhs helped separatist cadres travel to Pakistan, where they received financial and military help. And in 1985, Talwinder Singh Parmar—a Sikh Canadian—orchestrated the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The plane exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 passengers and crew members in a plane attack deadlier than any the world would see until September 11, 2001.

Parmar was a terrorist, and experts believe that the Khalistani movement, with all its bloodshed, was unpopular among Indian Sikhs. But New Delhi was no less vicious. India responded to the Sikh insurgency with unremitting violence that killed thousands of civilians. At one point, separatists took shelter in the country’s Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site, and the Indian government sent in the military, killing scores of people and damaging the building. Two Sikhs then assassinated India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, which in turn prompted an anti-Sikh pogrom. Pamar himself was shot by police when he traveled to India after the plane bombing.

Nijjar, then, wouldn’t even be the first Canadian to be killed by Indian state actors. But his fate feels discontinuous with this history. The Indian government accused Nijjar of plotting attacks on its soil, but he denied these claims and was never extradited. The Sikh insurgency came to an end more than two decades ago. If India is behind Nijjar’s killing, its actions don’t reflect fears of Sikh secession so much as India’s transformation into an illiberal state where the government has elevated one religion—Hinduism—at the expense of all others, and where policy makers tolerate little dissent.

Since Modi came to power in 2014, violence against India’s minorities has dramatically increased, and New Delhi has moved to strip many non-Hindus of protections. The country revoked the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir—India’s only Muslim-majority state—and split the entity in half. It passed a law that could deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship, and it has done conspicuously little to stop the killing of members of tribal minorities in India’s northeast.

So far, Sikhs have been spared the worst ethnonationalist measures. But this week’s incident suggests that they are no longer as exempt, and the reasons are not hard to fathom. Sikh farmers played a major role in forcing Modi to withdraw his agricultural-reform bills in 2021, one of his few political defeats. The prime minister may worry that, as his Hindu-nationalist project becomes more dominant, Sikhs could throw more obstacles in its path—or rekindle a separatist insurgency. He may have decided that the time has come to wage an open battle against the religion. But if he thought that doing so would preempt calls for secession, he miscalculated: Sikh activists across the world have already responded to Nijjar’s death with protests, some of them calling for the creation of Khalistan.

The killing has also antagonized Canada. But Ottawa’s anger is unlikely to trouble New Delhi. India has prohibited Jagmeet Singh—a Sikh Canadian politician and an outspoken defender of Sikh rights—from entering the country. (Singh now leads Canada’s third-largest political party.) India’s foreign minister has accused critics of the Modi government of colonialism and said that outsiders have no right to question India’s behavior. And India’s main Hindu-nationalist organization, to which Modi belongs, has called for the creation of Akhand Bharat: a greater India encompassing all or parts of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. India unveiled a new Parliament building in May that featured a mural of Akhand Bharat. Three countries lodged complaints in response.

So far, Washington has professed to be “deeply concerned” by Trudeau’s allegations but has issued no serious rebuke to India, at least in public. In fact, according to The Washington Post, Trudeau originally asked the United States and its other closest allies to jointly announce the Canadian findings, but was rebuffed. (The Canadian government denied the Post’s report.)

The silence might seem logical: The United States sees India as an essential partner in its competition with China, so it does not want to alienate New Delhi. But American policy makers don’t just refrain from criticizing India. They praise the country’s politics and repeatedly declare that New Delhi is a natural partner for Washington. They invited Modi to address a joint session of Congress, where the prime minister crowned India the “mother of democracy,” its ambitions guided by the notion of “one Earth, one family, one future.”

Trudeau’s claim, if true, should remind the United States that India is not, in fact, a natural friend. The Indian government is trying to create not a great, peaceful democracy but an avowedly Hindu power that dominates South Asia. It may work with America to constrain China, but that is because challenging Beijing is in India’s interests, not because India supports the West.


@Maula Jatt @PakSarZameen47 @Menace2Society @Pakstallion @Vapnope @Areesh @DESERT FIGHTER @Desert Fox 1 @N.Siddiqui @Norwegian @TNT @Imad.Khan @Dalit @ziaulislam @EternalMortal @lastofthepatriots @WarKa DaNG @Warking @Talwar e Pakistan @WinterFangs @kingQamaR @Menace2Society @Indus Pakistan @Ghazwa-e-Hind @Norwegian @PakFactor @akramishaqkhan @Zornix @pakpride00090 @Abid123 @Goritoes @SecularNationalist @PakistaniandProud @PAKISTANFOREVER @Dual Wielder @Great Janjua @ahaider97 @PakFactor @Sayfullah @SaadH @villageidiot @Olympus81@Mobius 1 @General Dong @Genghis khan1 @alphapak @RealNapster @Kharral @Mobius 1 @Goenitz @Muhammad Saftain Anjum @AA_ @Mobius 1 @Great Janjua @The Accountant @PakSword @villageidiot @Kharral @SaadH @Goenitz @PakFactor @Tamerlane @ARMalik @Khan_21 @Yousafzai_M @NaqsheYaar @NooriNuth @SaadH @Kharral @AA_ @SaadH @Tamerlane @villageidiot @waz @PakSword @Mugen @Tamerlane @PakAlp @HerbertPervert @Path-Finder @Tamerlane @Drexluddin Khan Spiveyzai @AlKardai @waz @Areesh @hatehs @Path-Finder @HerbertPervert @Dr. Strangelove @Sayfullah @Clutch @Bleek @mangochutney @FuturePAF @Cash GK @Black.Mamba @SD 10 @ThunderCat
What a story. This coming from a race that entirely wiped out aborigin race to survive. Now worried about what India has become. Hypocrisy must be turning in its grave if it is already dead.
 
Propping up India will come back to bite the western countries in the arse big time, more so than trading with China. Hindutva ideology has no grace nor honor, plus it carries a perennial chip on its shoulders for being dominated by external entities for more than two millennia. It will settle scores with every bit of insidious subterfuge as any scorned woman.
 
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Must be said - shortsighted decisions caused it.

All thanks to America and the Nato obsession with china

West never learns.
 
What a story. This coming from a race that entirely wiped out aborigin race to survive. Now worried about what India has become. Hypocrisy must be turning in its grave if it is already dead.

Why is it that you guys only remember the natives when it suits your narrative? 99% of the time you Indians are polishing Anglo-Saxon boots and praising them.

Propping up India will come back to bite the western countries in the arse big time, more so than trading with China. Hindutva ideology has no grace nor honor, plus it carries a perennial chip on its shoulders for being dominated by external entities for more than two millennia. It will settle scores with every bit of insidious subterfuge as any scorned woman.

There is only one country that is overly obsessed with China. That is the United States of America.
 
Propping up India will come back to bite the western countries in the arse big time, more so than trading with China. Hindutva ideology has no grace nor honor, plus it carries a perennial chip on its shoulders for being dominated by external entities for more than two millennia. It will settle scores with every bit of insidious subterfuge as any scorned woman.


EXACTLY, I couldn't put it better myself

Hindutva ideology has NO GRACE OR HONOUR and carries a perennial chip on its shoulder for being dominated so much, this is where the delusions of grandeur come from


This is what JINNAH picked up on

It's what we as South Asians understand and what the world is begin to learn
 
EXACTLY, I couldn't put it better myself

Hindutva ideology has NO GRACE OR HONOUR and carries a perennial chip on its shoulder for being dominated so much, this is where the delusions of grandeur come from


This is what JINNAH picked up on

It's what we as South Asians understand and what the world is begin to learn

You are not going to convince the Anglo-Saxons with the Hindutva argument. The Anglo-Saxons don't give a hoot about Indian beliefs. The Anglo-Saxons only care about their interests. Right now India is their favorite puppy. Israel and Britain have a played a vital role in convincing the rest that India is crucial to their needs.

There is not a single country in the world that has received such perks like India from the US. I don't even have to explain this to you. This is not because the Americans love the Indians. This is because the Americans are going to extract every last favor out of the Indians. China is not an easy job. China is colossal. Something the US has never faced before. The United States knows this extremely well.
 
You are not going to convince the Anglo-Saxons with the Hindutva argument. The Anglo-Saxons don't give a hoot about Indian beliefs. The Anglo-Saxons only care about their interests. Right now India is their favorite puppy. Israel and Britain have a played a vital role in convincing the rest that India is crucial to their needs.

There is not a single country in the world that has received such perks like India from the US. I don't even have to explain this to you. This is not because the Americans love the Indians. This is because the Americans are going to extract every last favor out of the Indians. China is not an easy job. China is colossal. Something the US has never faced before. The United States knows this extremely well.
If the favour that the US is going to extract from India is common cause to both US and India, then India has no problem with doing a little bit of favour.
 
If the favour that the US is going to extract from India is common cause to both US and India, then India has no problem with doing a little bit of favour.

You can't deliver on that front. China will mincemeat India. Besides you are going to be waging a two front war at a minimum. Papa America is trying to remove Pakistan out of the equation, but even the Pakistani generals aren't that dumb. For the time being it is a temporary honeymoon. This honeymoon between the Pakistani generals and the Americans can end even before we bat an eye lid.
 
You can't deliver on that front. China will mincemeat India. Besides you are going to be waging a two front war at a minimum. Papa America is trying to remove Pakistan out of the equation, but even the Pakistani generals aren't that dumb. For the time being it is a temporary honeymoon. This honeymoon between the Pakistani generals and the Americans can end even before we bat an eye lid.
Conditions were already communicated when we entered the agreement with the US. If India were to change its front, another front should not exist at all. Right now we are dealing with the half front that is India's internal enemies (the recent event in Canada is part of that). Pakistan's turn will come at a later stage, after this 1 and a half front is taken care of, the US is free to extract whatever favour they can from India.
 
What a story. This coming from a race that entirely wiped out aborigin race to survive. Now worried about what India has become. Hypocrisy must be turning in its grave if it is already dead.
Chindus will call for Akhund Bharat and invading AJK on an odd day and then pull shameless victim card on an even day

What exactly are Chindus doing with their settler colonialism in Kashmir, may I ask?
 




View attachment 955482
View attachment 955483

Totally irrelevant to the topic at hand. Gossip at best.

Conditions were already communicated when we entered the agreement with the US. If India were to change its front, another front should not exist at all. Right now we are dealing with the half front that is India's internal enemies (the recent event in Canada is part of that). Pakistan's turn will come at a later stage, after this 1 and a half front is taken care of, the US is free to extract whatever favour they can from India.

We will see. If you are in the US camp Pakistan belong in the China camp. We will confront India in a two front war. You make your plans. We will make ours.
 
double agent india will eventually have to pick sides and be found out .Plus the US will never allowed another country to rises. and challenge them in the future. Examples Russia and China. So Enjoy your short lived special position USA has ordained on you Indians. your anti china policy is abound to fail you will fall to the ground with a big bump. And face the consequences from China and angry west!!!
 

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