India’s Strategies against Separatism in Assam, Punjab, and Kashmir, 1984–1994

Abstract

This chapter investigates three movements that took place within half a decade of each other — Assam (1985–1992), Punjab (1984–1993), and Jammu and Kashmir (henceforth Kashmir, 1989–1994). It traces how these movements represent the three “hotbed” regions of ethno-national separatism in India. Muslim and Sikh nationalism in Kashmir and Punjab dominated regional, national, and even international headlines for years. The Northeast, meanwhile, has proved problematic for India to placate for decades, and Assam is the central state in the region. The chapter focuses on these cases because of the two basic clusters of secessionist movements in India: immediately after independence, and in the late 1970s through the 1980s. It then zooms in the most populous state in the Northeast of India region — Assam. It characterizes Assam as the “heart of this region” and considers it an apposite window to understand the secessionist conflict in the restive Northeast. Ultimately, the chapter elaborates on the interaction between the Indian state and Sikh nationalists in the 1980s as well as the crisis in Kashmir, set off by a fraudulent election in 1987, which pushed Kashmiri nationalists to launch a secessionist struggle.