DIASPORA INVOLVEMENT IN INSURGENCIES: INSIGHTS FROM THE KHALISTAN AND TAMIL EELAM MOVEMENTS

This article exposits and contrasts the roles of two diasporas in ethnic conflict waged in their homelands, namely the Sikh diaspora's involvement in the Punjab insurgency in north India and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora's role in Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgency. It draws out the various similarities and distinctions between the two in their use of technology, means of mobilization and identity production, and the geographical and political reach of their institutional arrangements. The article argues that the varying means by which these diasporas came into being affected the ways in which they mobilized and the positions they espoused towards homeland politics. It finds that the abilities of the two diasporas to contribute to events “back home” differed in part because of the scope of their respective institutional arrangements.

Notes

1. This essay is less interested in problematizing “diaspora” as a stable object of inquiry in general, or examining South Asian diasporas in particular. See for example, Deepika Bahri and Mary Vasudeva Between the Lines: South Asians and Postcoloniality (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996); Arjun Appadurai, “Disjuncture and Difference in Theory,” Culture and Society, Vol. 7, pp. 295–310. R. Radhakrishnan, Diasporic Mediations: Between Home and Location (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).

2. See inter alia Robin Cohen, “Diasporas and the nation-state,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 507–20; Verne A. Dusenberry, “A Sikh Diaspora?” in Peter Van der Veer (eds) Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), pp. 17–42); Rohan Gunaratna, “International and Regional Implications of the Sri Lankan Tamil Insurgency” (2 December 1998), www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid = 57 [accessed 30 August, 2003]; Darshan Singh Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood (London: UCL Press, 1999); Khachig Tololyan, “Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment,” in Diaspora, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1996), pp. 3–26; Peter Van der Veer, “Introduction,” in Peter Van der Veer (eds) Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995) pp. 1–16); See Oivind Fuglerut, Life on the Outside: The Tamil Diaspora and Long-Distance Nationalism (London: Pluto Press, 1999); R. Cheran, The Sixth Genre: Memory, History and the Tamil Diaspora Imagination (Colombo: Marga Institute, 2002); Sarah Wayland, “Ethnonationalist networks and transnational opportunities: the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora,” Review of International Studies, Vol. 30 (2004), pp. 405–26.

3. See inter alia Dan Horowitz, “Diasporas and Communal Conflicts in Divided Societies: The Case of Palestine Under the British Mandate,” in Gabriel Sheffer (ed), Modern Diasporas in International Politics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986); Charles King and Neil J. Melvin, “Diaspora Politics: Ethnic Linkages, Foreign Policy, and Security in Eurasia,” International Security, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Winter 1999/2000), pp. 108–38; Yossi Shain, “The Role of Diasporas in Conflict Perpetuation or Resolution,” SAIS Review, Vol. XXII, No. 2 (Summer–Fall 2002); Yossi Shain and Martin Sherman, “Dynamics of disintegration: diaspora, succession and the paradox of nation-states,” Nations and Nationalism Vol. 4, No. 3 (1998), pp. 321–46; Gabriel Sheffer, “Ethno-National Diasporas and Security,” Survival, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring 1994), pp. 60–79; Gabriel Sheffer, “Ethnic Diasporas: A Threat to Their Hosts?” in Myron Weiner (ed.) International Migration and Security (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), pp. 263–85; Gabriel Sheffer (ed.) Modern Diasporas in International Politics (London: St. Martin's Press, 1986); Myron Weiner, “Security, Stability, and International Migration,” International Security, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Winter 1992/93), pp. 91–126; Daniel Byman, Peter Chalk, Bruce Hoffman, William Grey Rosenau, and David Brannan, Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements (Santa Monica: RAND, 2001); Brian Nichiporuk, The Security Dynamics of Demographic Factors (Santa Monica: RAND, 2000).

4. This history is not intended to be comprehensive. Additional sources are provided throughout. This is only intended to provide a thoroughly unfamiliar reader with some sense of the movement and its consequences.

5. Rajiv A. Kapur, Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith (London: Allen & Unwin, 1986); Harjot S. Oberoi, “Ritual to Counter Ritual: Rethinking the Hindu–Sikh Question, 1884–1915,” in Joseph T. O'Connell et al. (eds), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Centre for Asian Studies, 1988); N. Gerald Barrier and Verne Dusenbery (eds) The Sikh Diaspora: Migration and Experience Beyond Punjab (Colombia, MO: South Asia Books, 1989). Brian Keith Axel, The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh “Diaspora” (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001); Cynthia Kepply Mahmood, Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).

6. The story of Sikh nationalism must be seen in the context of the concurrent Hindu nationalist project, which attempted to absorb Sikhs into the fold of Hinduism. Sikhs nationalists rejected the Hindu nationalist claim that Sikhs are Hindus and sought to establish clear boundaries of identity through inter alia the development of new Sikh rituals (e.g., for birth, marriage, death) and the mobilization of the legal system to attain legitimacy for these new rituals (e.g., the Sikh Marriage Act). A thorough discussion of this phenomenon is well beyond the scope of this work. The salient point is that as a result of myriad religio-political identity movements in the sub-continent, a number of Sikh political entrepreneurs had begun formalizing the demand for Sikh sovereignty well before the 1980s. For comprehensive accounts of this complex and highly contested process, the reader should consult Kapur (1986); Harjot Oberoi (1988) and Harjot S. Oberoi, Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994).

7. See for example Kapur (1987); Oberoi (1988); Barrier and Dusenberry (1989); Axel; Mahmood.

8. In particular, many analysts both within India and without contend that Giani Zail Singh (who eventually became the President of India in 1982) developed Bhindranwale as a foil to the Akali government to diminish the ability of the Akalis to challenge the electoral authority of the Congress party in Punjab. See Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Bluestar and After (New Delhi: Vision Books, 1984). For a more detailed account of this miscalculated strategy of Indira Gandhi's Congress Party, see M. Tully and S. Jacobsh, Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle (New Delhi: Rupa, 1985); Hamish Telford, “The Political Economy of Punjab: Creating Space for Sikh Militancy,”Asian Survey, Vol. 32, No. 11 (November 1992); Kapur; Yogendra K. Malik, “The Akali party and Sikh militancy: move for greater autonomy or secessionism in Punjab?”Asian Survey, Vol. 26, No. 3 (March 1996), pp. 345–62.

9. For a comprehensive account of Operation Bluestar, see LT. Gen. K.S. Brar, Operation Blue Star: The True Story (New Delhi: UBSPD, 1993).

10. Giorgio Shani, “Beyond Khalistan? The Sikh Diaspora and the International Order,” (New Orleans: paper presented as part of the panel on Communal Conflict and Self-Determination Movements in the Local-Global Nexus, International Studies Association Annual Convention, March 27, 2002), http://www.isanet.org/noarchive/shani.html#_ftn14 [accessed September 2003].

11. Ranjit K. Pachnanda, Terrorism and Response to Terrorist Threat (New Delhi: UBS, 2002), pp. 98–99, 100–103, 104–119. Also see “Sikh Separatists,” Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol.17 (7 March 2003), www.janes.com [accessed 7 March, 2004].

12. The most recent estimate of 17 Million is from Axel, p. 9.

13. See Axel, Shani, Barrier and Dusenbery; Parminder Bhachu, Twice Migrants: East African Sikh Settles in Britain (New York: Tavistock, 1985); Darshan Singh Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood (London: UCL Press, 1999); Harry Goulbourne, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Post-Imperial Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

14. Tatla, p. 43.

15. Oberoi, 1988, p. 27.

16. Ibid.

17. Shiromani Akali Dal (henceforth the Akali Dal) has been the most prominent Sikh political organization. It was formed (albeit under a different name) on 14 December 1920 at the Akal Takht, within the Golden Temple complex at Amritsar. The leader of the Akali Dal is called a “Jathedar.” Since its inception, it has controlled the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (Central Gurdwara Management Committee, or SGPC). Between 1930 and 1940, the Akali Dal struggled for communal Sikh rights. In 1946 it launched agitation for an independent, sovereign Sikh State but obviously failed to achieve this goal. In subsequent decades, some of the voting block of the Akali Dal was ceded to the Congress party. The Akali Dal launched two agitations for the formation of a Punjabi-speaking province, Punjabi Subah, in 1955 and 1960. The Akali Dal also supported the movement for Khalistan between 1980 and 1992. By the early 1990s, the Akali Dal had fragmented into a number of groups that argued for varying degrees of sovereignty and/or integration within federal India. For more details see Kuldip Kaur, Akali Dal in Punjab Politics: Splits and Mergers (New Delhi: Deep & Deep, 1999). For the full text of this proclamation, see Oberoi, 1988, p. 37.

18. Sihra, 1985, p. 55; cited in Oberoi, 1988, p. 39.

19. Shani, 2002, drawing from Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London/New York: Verso, 1993).

20. Tatla, p. 63.

21. Outside of India, these structures may be commissioned as gurdwaras or they may be renovated civic buildings or churches. In locations where the community members cannot sustain or fund the construction of a permanent gurdwara, they may rent a school gymnasium for the sangat. The history and location of gurdwaras reflect the dispersal pattern of the Sikh diaspora. For example, the oldest gurdwara was established in 1908 in Canada, but they are most numerous in the U.K. where there are at least 202 (Tatla, pp. 73–4).

22. For a more thorough description of this process, see Louis E. Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the “Game of Love,” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

23. Goulbourne, p. 161; Tatla, pp. 73–4.

24. This claim has been repeatedly made by various Indian intelligence and law enforcement agencies. For example, this issue was raised during a recent meeting of the Indo–US Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism and Law Enforcement attended by the author.

25. See Bruce La Brack, “The New Patrons: Sikhs Overseas,” in N. Gerald Barrier and Verne Dusenbery (eds), (New Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1989).

26. These important historical gurdwaras include Nankana Sahib in Sheikhupura District, Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, a modest structure billed as the birthplace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Gujranwala, and Dera Sahib in Lahore. These sites comprise Sikh pilgrimage destinations throughout the year coincident with important events within the Sikh calendar, usually birth and death anniversaries of key Sikh gurus.

27. The author attended one such Gurpurab in Nankana Sahib in November of 1995.

28. Based on fieldwork in November 1995.

29. Goulbourne, p. 159.

30. See Goulbourne; Tatla; Pettigrew; Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol. 17 (2003).

31. As a result of the U.S.-led global war on terrorism and the new strategic partnership between the U.S. and India, several such groups have been proscribed as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” in the U.S. Other states have also adopted similar measures.

32. Tatla, p. 71. For an early analysis of the Punjabi press and its challenges in the United Kingdom, Darshan Singh Tatla and Gurharpal Singh, “The Punjabi Press,” New Community, Vol. 15, No. 2 (January 1989), pp. 171–84.

33. One means of doing has been the establishment of academic chairs of Sikh studies. While these chairs were funded by the communities to further Sikhism on a broad spectrum of academic fronts, these communities have come to feel betrayed by the types of knowledge being produced by these chairs. All three chairs have come under attack and the professors in them have been deemed, by many in the communities, to be apostate Sikhs. For an interesting account of one such program, see Gurrinder Singh Mann “Sikh Studies and the Sikh Educational Heritage” & “Teaching the Sikh Tradition: A Course at Columbia,” in John Hawley, John Stratton Hawley and Gurinder Singh Mann (eds.),Studying the Sikhs: Issues for North America (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993).

34. See Goulbourne.

35. Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs:Vol. 2, 1839–1988 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1966, re-issued 1991), p. 310.

36. Goulbourne. See also Axel, pp. 4–6.

37. Goulbourne. Also see Pettigrew.

38. Goulbourne.

39. Darshan Singh Tatla, “The Punjab Crisis and Sikh Mobilization in Britain,” in Rohit Barot (ed.), Religion and Ethnicity: Minorities and Social Change in the Metropolis (Kampe, Netherlands: Kok Pharos, 1993), p. 96. Also Ram Narayan Kumar, The Sikh Unrest and the Indian State: Politics, Personalities and Historical Retrospective (New Delhi: Ajanta, 1997) and Pettigrew.

40. Goulbourne.

41. inter alia Kapur; Tully and Jacob; Brar; and Pettigrew.

42. Pettigrew.

43. Goulbourne, p. 137. Also see Pettigrew.

44. Goulbourne; Kapur; Tully and Jacobs; Pettigrew.

45. Ibid.

46. Goulbourne, p. 152.

47. See inter alia Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). Axel; Mahmood; Pettigrew.

48. Verne A. Dusenbery, “A Sikh Diaspora? Contested Identities and Constructed Realities” in Peter van der Veer (ed.) Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), pp. 17–42. See also Mehar Singh Chaddah, Are Sikhs A Nation? (New Delhi: Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, 1982).

49. Pettigrew.

50. Obviously this query is well beyond the scope of this work. However this question is thoroughly explored in the yet-unpublished dissertation of the other. Louis Fenech (personal communication, March 2004) makes another excellent point about the mutually constitutive natures of the narratives embodied by these various commodities. Fenech argues that many of the paintings that one encounters in museums and gurdwaras are in fact derived from passages in Sundari and Bijai Singh. These images have also formed the basis of a series of statues that can be found in a village in the Punjab. According to Fenech, these statues have become a site of spectacle which has given this village a newfound popularity in the Punjab.

51. There was no coherent political structure uniting the entirety of the island even during the periods of colonization under the Portuguese (beginning in 1505) and later under the Dutch (beginning in 1656). Rather, there were a number of fragmented Sinhalese Buddhist kingdoms scattered throughout the island, centered in Kotte in the southwest and in Kandy in the central highlands; and a predominantly Hindu Tamil Kingdom in the north of the island, centered in Jaffna. Helena Whall, “Assessing the Sri Lanka Peace Process” (London: Paper for the Political Studies Association–UK 50th Conference, 10–13 April 2000).

52. This history is in no way intended to be comprehensive. A multi-optic account is well beyond the scope of this analysis. For further details, the reader may consult a number of sources, inter alia: Devanesan Nesiah, “The claim to self-determination: a Sri Lankan Tamil perspective,” South Asia, Vol. 10, No. 1 (March 2001), pp. 55–71; Asia Foundation. Focus on Sri Lanka (The Asia Foundation, 2001); Manik De Silva, “Sri Lanka's Civil War,” Current History, Vol. 98, No. 632 (December, 1999), pp. 428–32; Manoj Joshi, “On the razor's edge: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Vol. 19 (January/March 1996), pp. 19–42; Sumantra Bose, States, Nations, Sovereignty: Sri Lanka, India and the Tamil Eelam Movement (New Delhi: Sage, 1994); Kenneth Bush, “Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka,” Conflict Quarterly, Vol. 10 (Spring 1990), pp. 41–58; Robert N. Kearney, “Tension and Conflict in Sri Lanka,” Current History, Vol. 85 (March 1986), pp. 109–12.

53. Ibid.

54. See Joshi.

55. Whall; Joshi.

56. See Peter Chalk, “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's Internal Organization and Operations: A Preliminary Analysis,” A Canadian Security Intelligence Service Publication (17 March 2000), http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/comment/com77_e.html [accessed July 3, 2003]. See also Daniel Byman et al, Trends in Outside Support for Insurgent Movements (Santa Monica: RAND, 2001); Zahabia Adamaly, Ana Cuter, Shyama Veketeswar, “Lessons from Sri Lanka: Communities and Conflict: An overview of a symposium held on June 13, 2000 in New York City” (New York: the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and the Asia Society, 13 June 2000), www.asiasource.org/asip/sri_lanka.pdf [accessed 30 November 2004]; “A World of Exiles,” The Economist (2 January 2003), http://www. economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id = 1511765 [accessed 2 September 2004].

57. See “A World of Exiles.”

58. Adamaly et al.

59. For a much more nuanced exposition of the various waves of Sri Lankan Tamil emigrants and their political relationships, see Rohan Gunaratna, “Sri Lanka: Feeding the Tamil Tigers,” in Karen Ballentine and Jake Sherman (eds), Political Economy of Armed Conflict: Beyond Greed and Grievance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003).

60. Rohan Gunaratna (2 December 1998); Chalk (2000) claims that the LTTE had cells in at least 54 countries as of winter 1999.

61. Rohan Gunaratna, “Bankrupting the Terror Business,” Jane's Intelligence Review, Vol. 12, No. 8 (1 August 2000). There are several other such organizations. For example, see Byman et al (2001); Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol. 15 (2002). www.janes.com [accessed 7 March 2004]; Philippe Le Billon et al., “Controlling Resource Flows to Civil Wars: A Review and Analysis of Current Policies and Legal Instruments” Background Paper for the International Peace Academy “Economic Agendas in Civil Wars” Project Conference Policies and Practices for Regulating Resource Flows to Armed Conflicts, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy, 20–24 May 2002), /www.ipacademy.org/PDF_Reports/ controlling_resource_flows.pdf, [accessed July 4, 2003].

62. Ibid.

63. See Joshi; Le Billon et al; Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol. 15 (2002).

64. Chalk, 2000; Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol. 15 (2002); Valpy Fitzgerald, “Global Financial Information, Compliance Incentives and Conflict Funding,” Paper presented to the International Conference on “Globalization and Self-Determination Movements” hosted by Pomona College, 21–22 January 2003. http://www.politics.pomona.edu/globalization/HTML/ Valpy%20Fitzgerald.doc [accessed 4 July 2003].

65. Chalk, 2000.

66. Chalk, 2002.

67. Author interviews with Sri Lankan military, intelligence and police personnel in the fall of 2002 as well as with analysts within the United States Embassy in Colombo.

68. Anthony Davis, “Asia, Tamil Tiger International,” Jane's Intelligence Review, Vol. 8, Issue 10 (1 October 1996).

69. See India Express, “U.S. denies any information about LTTE indulging in drug trafficking” (3 March 2001) http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/ world/20010303-0.html [accessed 29 August 2003].

70. “International Law Enforcement Cooperation Fights Narcoterror: Drug enforcement agency official testifies before Senate committee,” Statements of DEA Intelligence Chief, Steven W. Casteel (20 May 2003), usinfo.org/wf-archive/2003/030520/epf219.htm, [accessed 9 December 2004].

71. Ibid.

72. Gunaratna (2 December 1998).

73. Le Billon et al.

74. Byman et al, p. 44.

75. Chalk, 2000.

76. Davis, Anthony; Byman et al, pp. 43–4.

77. Byman, 2001, p. 45.

78. Gunaratna (2 December 1998).

79. Ibid.

80. See inter alia Byman et al; Gunaratne (2 December 1998), Chalk, 2000.

81. See Byman et al; Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism, Vol. 15 (2002).

82. Author interviews in Sri Lanka in November 2002.

83. This situation was very frustrating to Sri Lankan security official who were frustrated that the LTTE could continue with these activities. They expressed concern that should the talks break down, the LTTE would be in a much better position to stage attacks from newly established theatres of operation. Author interviews in Sri Lanka in November 2002.

84. Comments made by Neil DeVotta, at a lecture at Center for Strategic and International Studies (14 February 2003).

85. This is in distinct contrast to diasporan Hindu nationalism which has been organized globally under the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The VHIP in contrast has been able to overcome local differences and political opportunities to establish a global strategy. See Bidisha Biswas, “Nationalism by Proxy: A Comparison of Social Movements Among Diaspora Sikhs and Hindus,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 10 (2004), pp. 269–95.

86. This discussion borrows heavily from Biswas's 2004 comparison of the diasporan Sikh and Hindu nationalism.