230 Part III: South Asia
storing their weapons. The raid, with
loss of life on both sides, was seen as a
desecration of the holiest Sikh temple.
In vengeance, on October 31, 1984,
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was
assassinated by her Sikh guards. This
prompted anti-Sikh riots in which
3,000 Sikhs lost their lives. These un-
fortunate outcomes largely ended the
Khalistan movement.
The Sikhs are perhaps India’s
most visible and prosperous minority,
thanks to their coherent faith, their
distinctive symbols of identity, their
cultural values of diligence, discipline,
and loyalty, and their aptitude in busi-
ness, administration, and agriculture.
Though they are only 2 percent of the
population of India, and Punjab is the
fourth smallest state, it is one of the
most prosperous with the highest lit-
eracy rate and average life expectancy
(Jetly 2008). Yet, this coherent iden-
tity, at least from the outside looking
in, masks significant inequality with-
in. Despite Sikhism’s core beliefs in
equality before God symbolized in
shared meals, the old caste hierarchy
continues to divide upper- and lower-
ranking Sikhs. The Jat Sikhs are
clearly the elite; they control all the
Sikh organizations like gurdwaras,
schools, and political parties (Ram
2007). Although thousands of Scheduled Caste groups converted to Sikhism in
order to escape the disabilities of Hindu caste society, many feel that Jat Sikhs
treat them as badly in the gurdwaras as they do in their farmlands, where they
have been forced to live in separate settlements away from the main Sikh com-
munity. They are not allowed to cremate their dead in the main cremation
grounds and must establish separate gurdwaras, which are often in dispute
between Sikhs of Scheduled Caste background, such as Balmikis (sweepers),
and the Jat Sikhs. These caste-like groups among the Sikhs also do not inter-
marry; in matrimonial ads in Indian newspapers, Jat Sikhs specify they will
consider only other Jat Sikhs. This lingering casteism is not unique to Sikhism
(it is also a social fact among Muslims and Christians in India), but it accountsMaharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sher-i-Punjab, “Lion
of the Punjab,” unified many small Sikh and
Muslim states into a Sikh Empire that lasted
from his coronation in 1801 to 1849, when it
was absorbed into British India. Ranjit Singh
also possessed a famous diamond, the Koh-i-
Noor, which had a much longer and fascinating
history of its own, and now belongs to Queen
Elizabeth II.