The President of Khalistan: Ironic life of a man who launched Khalistan in the West

When you watch Khalistanis line up for a referendum in Canada or attack Indian embassies in the US and the UK, think of a doctor from Hoshiarpur in Punjab who took Khalistan to foreign countries in the seventies, much before Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale lodged himself in the Golden Temple and waged a war on India.

Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan, or Daaktar Saab, as he was called by fellow Khalistanis, announced the birth of Khalistan in an advertisement he placed in The New York Times in 1971. "We have decided to rise and proclaim to the world that we are an undivided nation prepared to fight till the bitter end for an independent Sikh homeland in India," he declared in the ad, and anointed himself the first president of Khalistan with his own council to boot, the Khalistan National Council. Chauhan could spot an opportunity in the Western countries that tilted towards Pakistan and against India for Indira Gandhi's pro-USSR leanings. The seed of today's virulent Khalistani sentiment in the West was thus sown by Chauhan who got encouragement from several politicians in the US.

Chauhan's government in exile

A doctor by profession, Chauhan took to politics, becoming an MLA and later the finance minister of Punjab. After losing an election, he left Punjab for the UK in 1971 to establish a Sikh government in exile. The same year he visited Nankana Sahib in Pakistan to get ISI support on the invitation of its dictator, Gen. Yahya Khan. He was among the first Khalistani leaders to hob-nob with the ISI. A few years later, he met then Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He once told an interviewer that Bhutto said to him, "Sardarji, you have the keys to Nankana Sahib. Come there, we'll help you and make it the capital of Khalistan. Start the movement from here." Chauhan focused on promoting Khalistan in Western countries and Pakistan would later find many more people in Punjab to carry out its agenda.

As the President of Khalistan, he printed letterheads and symbolic passports, postage stamps and currency too (the Khalistani dollar) for his 'government'. This was Chauhan's way to bestow an 'official' status on his idea of Khalistan. Occasionally, Sikhs in Western countries would buy these items out of curiosity.

Chauhan not only popularised the idea of Khalistan among Western Sikhs but also tried to add to their numbers by getting Indian SIkhs asylum in Western countries. "At that time it was widely believed, both in Canada and Punjab, that most of the so-called seekers of political asylum (including a full Boeing 747 load which landed in Toronto) were directly or indirectly sponsored by Jagjit Singh Chauhan’s set-up," writes GBS Sidhu in his book 'The Khalistan Conspiracy'. "There could not have been a more effective way of increasing the number of pro-Khalistan residents in Canada. To justify their claim of persecution by the Indian government for their political views, those asylum seekers had to necessarily get involved in pro-Khalistan activities."

Chauhan came back to India in 1977 and left before Indira Gandhi returned to power two years later, to come again in 1989. "Remarkably, the Rajiv Gandhi government allowed Chauhan to enter India in 1989, hoist the Khalistan flag at Anandpur Sahib, and return to the UK," Sidhu writes in his book. "It was only after his return to the UK that his Indian passport was cancelled on 24 April 1989 by the Indian high commission. Later on, the Indian government protested when the same Chauhan was allowed to enter the US using the invalid passport." American politicians would have him travel to the US even on his invalid Indian passport.

Though Chauhan did not get much traction among Sikhs in the West, he was able to create an outsized persona for himself among Khalistanis in Punjab.

Once an associate of Bhindranwale wrote to him, appealing for help from abroad: "Doctor Sahib, you are a very wise and far-thinking person and now utilising those energies of yours, please try to get maximum support and help from the friendly nations and international community in general."

"That letter may have produced some money, but not much else. It was Operation Blue Star which brought Jagjit Singh Chauhan to prominence," write Mark Tully and Satish Jacob in their book 'Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle'. "After the assault on the Akal Takht he threatened Mrs Gandhi and her family a number of times. In a broadcast by the BBC's Radio 4 he 'prophesied' that she would be killed, a prophecy which was seen as a threat. Although Radio 4 cannot be heard in India, the government sponsored a series of demonstrations against our office in Delhi, and showed the demonstrations on Doordarshan television. This brought Chauhan and his activities to the notice of millions of Sikhs who had never heard of him before."

Chauhan raised money from Sikhs in Western countries and also tried to create a foothold for himself in the global diplomatic space but failed. His singular achievement was to popularise the idea of Khalistan in the Sikh diaspora.

The ironic twist in Chauhan's life

In his later years, Chauhan mellowed down and reevaluated the whole Khalistani project. He condemned the violence committed by Khalistani terrorists and believed Indira Gandhi and the intelligence agencies were responsible for the Khalistani terror in Punjab. He praised the BJP and thought it could find some solution to the problem. "The BJP will be realistic. I know the BJP people. They're honest and nationalistic. It's like Nehru and Gandhi. They were not good for Sikhs but at least they had stature. You could talk to them. You can talk to Vajpayee," he had said in an interview in 1993 when the Khalistani movement was dying down in Punjab.

Chauhan also turned against Pakistan and blamed it for using Sikhs to take revenge on India for the creation of Bangladesh. He remembered in the interview the warning he had got during his meeting with Bhutto in a New York hotel in the early seventies. "In between, I wanted to go to the toilet," he told the interviewer. "One of his officers followed me into the toilet and said, 'Sardarji, you are from the Jalandhar area. My father also came from there. Your face reminds me of my father. So I want to caution you not to listen to these people. Eh tuhanun kharab karange (They will exploit you)."

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government permitted him to come back to India, pardoning his Khalistani activities. After returning to Punjab, Chauhan said he would fight democratically for Khalistan and launched a political party. He died in his native village in Hoshiarpur in 2007.

From leaving Punjab to find support in the West and hob-nob with Pakistan for creation of Khalistan to getting disillusioned with the idea and returning to Punjab, Chauhan's life had come full circle. But the idea of Khalistan he launched in the West did not die down. What's happening in Canada today can be traced back to the advertisement Chauhan had placed in The New York Times in 1971.