Therefore, Khalsa as a concept is much older, broader and more importantly, deeply central for the Sikh community.
History of The Term Khalistan
According to scholar of comparative religion Giorgio Shani, the term Khalistan was coined in March 1940 by Dr Vir Singh Bhatti in a pamphlet titled ‘Khalistan’ which made the case for a separate Sikh homeland in response to the Muslim League’s Lahore Resolution. Politically, Bhatti’s appeal was to Sikhs who were not represented by either the Indian National Congress or the Akali Dal.
The term ‘Khalistan’ came to be tied closely with the insurgency of the 1980s, though scholars say that its connotations changed with time.
Author Amandeep Sandhu told The Quint in an earlier interview, that Khalistan and the idea of a Sikh homeland, has meant different things at different points of time and not all of them can be labelled as ‘separatist’.
For instance, as Sandhu points out, for sections of younger Punjabis in the diaspora, “The idea of…