Politics of Sikh Identity and Its Fundamentalist Assertion

First it was the British who aimed to create a distinct Sikh identity, while the Singh Sabha movement sought to create Sikh 'Khalsa' identity by distinguishing it from Hindu. The Sikh political leadership in the early years of the 20th century was ambivalent in deciding who was a 'Sikh'. It was Bhindranwala and the militants in his wake, who by their construction of a singular religious identity, attempted to transform a heterogeneous Sikh community into a 'congregation'. While the latter project failed, the ambivalence of identity, however, continues in the policies of the Akali Party.