In-Depth Coverage of Issues Concerning the Global Sikh Community Including Self-Determination, Democracy, Human Rights, Civil Liberties, Antiracism, Religion, and South Asian Geopolitics
| DATE | EVENT |
| April 15, 1469 | The birth of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak, at village Talwandi (Punjab, India; now in Pakistan). |
| 1507 | Guru Nanak proclaims, 'there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim' and Sikhism is founded. |
| 1601 | Guru Arjan completes the compilation of the Adi Granth (or the Guru Granth). Construction on the Darbar Sahib (or Harmandir; now also known as the Golden Temple) in Amritsar is completed. |
| 1604 | The Adi Granth (or the Guru Granth) is installed at the Darbar Sahib (or Harmandir; now also known as the Golden Temple). |
| 1666 | Guru Tegh Bahadur founds the city of Amritsar. |
| April 13, 1699 | Sikhism's tenth Guru, Gobind Singh (1666-1708), innaugurates Sikhism's orthodox Khalsa order on Vaisakhi Day (marking the annual harvest season) at Anandpur Sahib (Punjab, India). |
| 1704 | Guru Gobind Singh releases a final edition of the Adi Granth and announces an end to the line of succession of personal Gurus to be replaced jointly by the Adi Granth and the Panth (the collective will of the entire Sikh community). |
| 1708 | Guru Gobind Singh is assassinated by Muslim enemies. |
| 1716 | Banda Bahadur and followers arrested, tortured and killed by the Mughals in Delhi. |
| 1738 | Jathedar (head priest) of the Darbar Sahib (or Harmandir; now also known as the Golden Temple), Mani Singh, is tortured to death by the Mughals. |
| 1762 | The Darbar Sahib (or Harmandir; now also known as the Golden Temple) in Amritsar is destroyed by Ahmad Shah Abdali. |
| 1783 | The Sikhs take Delhi for eight weeks. |
| 1799 | Ranjit Singh establishes a kingdom in the Punjab with its capital in Lahore (now in Pakistan) and borders extending from Kabul (now in Afghanistan) in the west to the river Sutlej in the east and from Ladakh (now in Kashmir, India) and Lhasa (now in Tibet) in the north to Rajasthan in the south. |
| 1839 | Ranjit Singh dies, triggering infighting amongst his heirs leading to the eventual fall of the kingdom. |
| 1845-46 | First Anglo-Sikh War. |
| 1848-49 | Second Anglo-Sikh War. |
| 1849 | Punjab becomes the last kingdom in India to be annexed by the British. |
| 1857 | Sikhs assist the British in supressing the Hindu/Moghul Mutiny. |
| 1873 | The first Singh Sabha is founded in Amritsar under the influence of the Sanatan Sikhs. |
| 1905 | Sikh attempts to regain control of gurdwaras from their mahants (hereditary custodians) result in the removal of images of Hindu gods from Darbar Sahib (also known as Harmandir or Golden Temple) in Amritsar, Punjab. |
| October 22, 1909 | India's British rulers pass the Anand Marriage Act, thereby reinforcing a distinct Sikh identity. |
| 1913 | Ghadar Party is founded in California by Sikh immigrants. |
| April 13, 1919 | Troops commanded by the British Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer fire 1,650 rounds on over 20,000 people, gathered to protest the Rowlatt Act. British official figures list 379 dead and 1200 wounded. Sikhs estimate much higher casualties. Rabindranth Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature (1913), renounces his knighthood (1915) in protest. Golden Temple's sarbrah (manager) Arur Singh receives much critique for honoring Dyer. |
| 1920 | Gurdwara Reform Movement (G.R.M.) is formally launched to regain control of gurdwaras from mahants (hereditary custodians). |
| 1921 | Over 100 Akalis are killed by the mahant's (hereditary custodian) hired thugs while participating in a morcha (mass campaign) to regain control of Nankana Sahib (Guru Nanak's birthplace). |
| 1925 | Gurdwara Reform Movement (G.R.M.) is concluded with the Sikhs regaining control of their major gurdwaras from mahants (hereditary custodians) via the passage of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, the formation of the Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.), an elected body responsible for the management of major Sikh gurdwaras. |
| August 9, 1928 | Teja Singh, co-founder of the the Bhasaur Singh Sabha and the Panch Khalsa Diwan, and his wife, Niranjan Kaur, are excommunicated by the Akal Takht for, among other things, excluding sahaj-dhari (unorthodox) Sikhs and removing the ragmala section from the Adi Granth. |
| 1931 | Left-wing Sikh activist Bhagat Singh is hanged at Lahore for terrorism. |
| April 25, 1935 | The Religious Advisory Committee, consisting of Kahn Singh Nabha, Jodh Singh, Teja Singh, Ganga Singh and Mohan Singh, passes a resolution stating, "In Europe and American countries, where the other religious groups have chairs in their places of worship, there is no impropriety to sit on the chairs in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib provided Guru Granth Sahib is installed at a higher stage." |
| February 3, 1945 | The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee releases an official Sikh Rahit Maryada document. |
| 1946 | The Akali Dal floats the idea of an independent Sikhistan or Khalistan but is unable to gain the attention of the departing British. |
| August 15, 1947 | British India's independence from Britain is accompanied by its partition into the countries known today as India and Pakistan. Lahore goes to Pakistan, Amritsar to India. |
| 1948 | Patiala and other princely states of the Punjab are amalgamated to form the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (P.E.P.S.U.) with a Sikh majority. |
| 1949 | Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.) releases it's first authorized version of the Sikh Rehat Maryada (S.R.M.) or code of conduct. |
| 1956 | P.E.P.S.U. in merged in with the Punjab. |
| 1963 | Damdama Sahib becomes the fifth to be added to the list of Sikh takhts (seats of authority). |
| 1966 | The Indian state of Punjab is reconstituted along linguistic lines based on flawed census figures after carving out Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, representing allegedly Hindi-speaking areas. |
| 1969 | Former finance minister of Punjab and medical doctor Jagjit Singh Chauhan proclaims the 'Sovereign Republic of Khalistan.' |
| 1969 | Darshan Singh Pheruman fasts to death to secure the award of Chandigarh to Punjab. |
| January 1970 | Fateh Singh threatens a fast resulting in the award of Chandigarh to Punjab in exchange for the transfer of two 'Hindi speaking' (Hindu majority) areas (Fazilka and Abohar) from Punjab to Haryana. However, the deal is stalemated as neither side shows a willingness to implement its part. |
| October 16-17, 1973 | Anandpur Sahib Resolution (A.S.R.) is authored. |
| August, 1977 | Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) takes over as head of the Dam Dami Taksal (Sikh seminary) and launches amrit parchar (Sikh baptism campaign). |
| April 13, 1978 | Thirteen Sikhs belonging to the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and the Damdami Takhsal perish in clashes with a gathering of the Sant Nirankari Sikhs in Amritsar when they interrupt the proceedings to protest against negative language employed against the Adi Granth and the Sikh Gurus. |
| June 10, 1978 | A hukamnama (order or edict of excommunication) is pronounced from the Akal Takht (Amritsar, Punjab) against Sikhism's Sant Nirankari sect. |
| October 28-29, 1978 | The 18th All India Akali Conference of the Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.) held in Ludhiana (Punjab, India) adopts a softer version of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution (A.S.R.). |
| September, 1979 | The Akali Dal (the primary Sikh political party) splits into two factions, one led by Harchand Singh Longowal with support from Prakash Singh Badal, and the other led by Jagdev Singh Talwandi with support from Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.). |
| April 24, 1980 | Gurbachan Singh, the leader of Sikhism's Nirankari sect, is assassinated while on his way to the mission headquarters at the Nirankari Colony in north Delhi, a result of the sixth and final attempt on his life. |
| August, 1980 | Jagdev Singh Talwandi is expelled from the Akali Dal (the primary Sikh political party) for "anti-party activities" including collusion with the Congress (I), the political party in power at the federal level. |
| March 20, 1981 | The flag of the 'New Republic of Khalistan' is hoisted at Anandpur Sahib (Punjab, India). |
| September, 1981 | New Delhi receives a list of forty-five demands from the Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.). |
| September 9, 1981 | Jagat Narain, proprietor of the Hind Samachar group of newspapers, is assassinated on the Grand Trunk Road near village Adian, while traveling home from Ludhiana in his car. |
| September 20, 1981 | Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) surrenders to police at Chowk Mehta (district Amritsar). He is arrested and jailed. |
| September 29, 1981 | An Indian Airlines plane flying from Srinagar to Delhi is hijacked to Lahore by five members of the Dal Khalsa, including Gajinder Singh and Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib. The hijackers' demands include Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale)'s release from jail and $500,000. |
| October 15, 1981 | Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) is released from jail. |
| October 16, 1981 | The first round of talks between New Delhi and the Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.). The list of forty-five demands has been replaced with a list of fifteen demands. The top demand is the unconditional release of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. |
| November 26, 1981 | The second round of talks between New Delhi and the Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.). The list of forty-five demands has been replaced with a list of fifteen demands. The top demand is the unconditional release of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. |
| March 18, 1982 | Kuldip Singh Samra enters courtroom 4 at Osgoode Hall, armed with a revolver, and commits a double murder and two attempted murders after a judge rules against him in a disputed election at the Shiromani Sikh Society (gurdwara) at 269 Pape Avenue in Toronto. He flees the building and the country. A Canada-wide warrant is issued for Samra, who is charged with two counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is eventually arrested in India in 1990. Although Canada refuses India's request to exchange Samra for Talwinder Singh Parmar, who is wanted in India, Samra is eventually extradited to Canada in 1992. |
| April 5, 1982 | The third round of talks between New Delhi and the Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.). The Akalis unilaterally announce that the talks had failed. |
| April 8, 1982 | The Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.) launches the Nahar Roko Morcha, an entrenchment/agitation aimed at obstructing work on the Yamuna Sutlej Link (Y.S.L.). |
| April 26, 1982 | Two severed heads of cows are found hanging at two Hindu temples at Amritsar. (Cows are sacred to Hindus.) The Dal Khalsa issues a statement claiming responsibility. |
| May 1, 1982 | India bans the Dal Khalsa and the National Council of Khalistan. The Dal Khalsa had been formed as a counterweight to the Akali Dal in 1978 with the support of Zail Singh, then a senior cabinet minister in the Indira Gandhi-led Congress (I) government in New Delhi. |
| June 27, 1982 | Joginder Singh Sant, the propaganda secretary of the Nirankari Mandal, is shot and injured at Dhabuji (district Amritsar). Amrik Singh, Bhindranwale's right-hand man and president of the All India Sikh Students Federation (A.I.S.S.F.) is implicated. |
| July 19, 1982 | Bhindranwale launches a morcha to protest Amrik Singh's arrest. |
| July 20, 1982 | Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) moves into Room 47 at Guru Nanak Niwas, located at the periphery of the Darbar Sahib complex (a.k.a. the Golden Temple) in Amritsar (Punjab, India). |
| August 4, 1982 | The Akali Dal launches the Dharam Yudh Morcha (religious war). An Indian Airlines flight from Delhi to Srinagar with 126 passengers on board is hijacked to Lahore by a Sikh. The plane lands in Amritsar after Lahore refuses permission to land. The hijacker is arrested. |
| August 20, 1982 | An Indian Airlines Boeing 737 is hijacked while on a flight from Bombay (now Mumbai) to New Delhi via Jodhpur (Rajasthan). The plane lands at Amritsar after Lahore refuses permission to land. The Sikh hijacker, who identifies himself as "Museebat" Singh, is shot dead by commandos during a shoot-out at the Amritsar airport. |
| September 11, 1982 | Thirty Akali Dal agitators are killed when the vehicle carrying them rams into a moving train at an unmanned railway crossing at Taran Taran. Bhindranwale implicates New Delhi. Longowal issues a statement supporting Bhindranwale's claim. |
| November 19, 1982 | The innaugural day of the Ninth Asiad (Asian Games) in New Delhi. The Akali Dal vows to protest. All Sikhs attempting to enter Delhi are searched and, in many cases, humiliated, especially in the state of Haryana. |
| January 19, 1983 | Gurcharan Singh Tohra resigns as president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.) in response to pressure from the Akali Dal president, Harchand Singh Longowal. |
| April 4, 1983 | The Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.) launches the Rasta Roko Morcha, an entrenchment/agitation aimed at obstructing road transportation in Punjab. |
| April 25, 1983 | Deputy Inspector General (D.I.G.) of Punjab Police, Avtar Singh Atwal, is assassinated at the entrance to the Darbar Sahib (Amritsar). |
| June 17, 1983 | The Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.) launches the Rail Roko Morcha, an entrenchment/agitation aimed at obstructing rail transportation in Punjab. |
| August 29, 1983 | The Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D.) launches the Kam Roko Morcha, an entrenchment/agitation aimed at obstructing work (i.e. a call for a general strike) in Punjab. |
| October 6, 1983 | Punjab's Congress (I) government, headed by Darbara Singh, is dismissed and replaced with President's rule, a euphemism for direct rule from New Delhi. |
| December 23, 1983 | Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) shifts from Guru Nanak Niwas to the Akal Takht, located at the core of the Darbar Sahib complex (a.k.a. the Golden Temple) in Amritsar (Punjab, India). |
| February 22, 1984 | Sumeet Singh 'Shammi,' a shaven Sikh with a Hindu wife and editor of the most widely read Punjabi monthly Preetlari is assassinated. |
| April 2, 1984 | Harbans Lal Khanna, a former M.L.A. and B.J.P.'s Amritsar district president, is shot dead along with his bodyguard. Eight people are killed and nine injured during the funeral procession the next day. |
| April 3, 1984 | Vishwa Nath Tiwari, a Hindu professor of Punjabi with a Sikh wife, is assassinated. |
| April 13, 1984 | Longowal and Bhindranwale groups each publish Vaisakhi pamphlets accusing the other of betraying the Sikh Panth. |
| April 14, 1984 | Bhindranwale's close associate Surinder Singh Sodhi is assassinated. The alleged assassin is killed immediately. Bhindranwale publicly takes credit. The assassin's accomplice, Baljit Kaur, is tortured and killed. Her mangled body is found in a gunny sack three days later near village Walla in district Amritsar. |
| May 12, 1984 | Ramesh Chandra, who succeeded his father Jagat Narain as proprietor of the Hind Samachar group of newspapers, is assassinated in his office at Jalandhar (Punjab). |
| June ?, 1984 | The June 1984 issue (Serial Number 153) of an Indian Army bulletin called Baatcheet refers to amrit-dhari (initiated) Sikhs as "terrorists." |
| June 6, 1984 | The Indian Army enters Darbar Sahib (Amritsar) to expunge Sikh militants from its premises resulting in the deaths of hundreds including Jarnail Singh Brar (Bhindranwale) (1947-1984), Lt.-Gen. Shahbeg Singh, and president of the All India Sikh Students Federation (A.I.S.S.F.), Amrik Singh. The action is labelled Operation Bluestar. |
| June 7, 1984 | About 500 soldiers belonging to the 9th Battalion of the Sikh Regiment stationed at Ganganagar (Rajasthan) mutiny upon hearing reports about Operation Bluestar. Smaller revolts involving Sikh soldiers are reported at Ramgarh (Bihar), Alwar (Rajasthan) Jammu, Thane and Pune (both in Maharashtra). Mutineers at Ramgarh shoot and kill their commander, Brigadier S.C. Puri. |
| July 10, 1984 | Government of India's White Paper on the Punjab Agitation is released and receives a lukewarm reception from independent critics in India. |
| October 31, 1984 | India's prime minister, Indira Gandhi, is assassinated by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikh members of her security staff. Beant Singh is shot and killed by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police shortly afterward. 5,000 die in anti-Sikh pogroms led by members of Indira Gandhi's Congress party and aided by the complicity of local security forces. 1,809 men are arrested for the crimes but later released on bail. The twenty years that follow bring only ten convictions, none of which punish those who actually led the pogroms. |
| December, 1984 | The Congress party led by Indira Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi, campaigns on the issue of India's territorial integrity. Campaign posters depict Sikhs in uniform shooting at Indira Gandhi and pose questions such as "Why should you feel uncomfortable riding in a taxi driven by a taxi driver who belongs to another state [i.e. a Sikh from the state of Punjab]?" While campaigning in Rajiv Gandhi's constituency, supporters employ the following slogan against his opponent and Sikh sister-in-law Maneka: "Beti hai Sardar ki, Qaum hai gaddar ki" (She is the daughter of a Sikh, She belongs to a race of traitors). |
| May, 1985 | The F.B.I. claims to have foiled assassination attempts on Bhajan Lal and Rajiv Gandhi. |
| June 23, 1985 | Air India Flight 182 (Kanishka) downed off the coast of Ireland, killing 329. Inderjit Singh Reyat eventually pleads guilty to building the fatal bomb. |
| July 24, 1985 | Harchand Singh Longowal and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sign a Memorandum of Settlement awarding, among other things, Chandigarh to Punjab. |
| August 20, 1985 | Harchand Singh Longowal is assassinated while speaking at a gurdwara (Sikh place of worship). |
| September 25, 1985 | Akali Dal wins elections in Punjab. Surjit Singh Barnala becomes chief minister with a sweeping majority (73 out of 117 seats). |
| 1986 | The (Justice) Bains Committee secures the release of over 2,000 Sikhs in detention for alleged militant activities. |
| January 22, 1986 | Control of Darbar Sahib is returned to the S.G.P.C. |
| January 26, 1986 | Khalistan, an independent Sikh state, is proclaimed amidst a Sarbat Khalsa gathering (a large gathering of Sikhs, figuratively representing the entire Sikh community) at Darbar Sahib (Amritsar). A Panthic Committee is charged with the leadership of Khalistan. |
| April, 1986 | "Sikh militants" attempt to assassinate Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala. |
| April 29, 1986 | The Panthic Committee announces the "Declaration of Independence of Khalistan" from the Darbar Sahib (Amritsar, Punjab). The Committee consists of Gurbachan Singh Manochahal (first among equals), Dhanna Singh, Wasson Singh Zaffarwal, Arur Singh, and Gurdev Singh Usmanwala. |
| April 30, 1986 | Operation Black Thunder I is conducted to purge armed Sikh militants from the Darbar Sahib (Amritsar, Punjab). The operation fails to capture a single Sikh militant. |
| May 25, 1986 | Punjab's planning minister and a member of the moderate Akali Dal political party, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, is shot and seriously injured while visiting the vancouver area to attend a family wedding. Four members of the International Sikh Youth Federation (I.S.Y.F.), including Jaspal Singh Atwal, are convicted and awarded twenty-year sentences. Atwal had earlier been charged and acquitted in the case involving the severe beating of Canadian politician Ujjal Singh Dosanjh who had voiced moderate views on the situation in Punjab. The charges are stayed after it is revealed that C.S.I.S. falsified an affidavit to obtain a wiretap warrant against one of the suspects. Sidhu and his gunman Nachhattar Singh are shot dead in Moga, Punjab on April 27, 1991. |
| May 31, 1986 | A conspiracy to blow up an Air India plane leaving New York on this date is unearthed at Montreal and two members of the Babbar Khalsa are convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| June 14, 1986 | Seven members of the Babbar Khalsa International (B.K.I.) allegedly on their way to India to blow up the Indian Parliament are arrested in London, England, tried in Canada, and acquitted for lack of evidence. |
| August, 1986 | Retired General Arun Shridhar Vaidya, who was India's Chief of Army Staff during Operation Bluestar, is assassinated near his home in Pune. The Khalistan Commando Force assumes responsibility. |
| October 2, 1986 | Karamjit Singh attempts to assassinate India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's birth commemoration at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. |
| October 3, 1986 | Julio F. Ribeiro, Punjab's director general of police (D.G.P.), is shot at and slightly wounded in an assassination attempt. |
| May 11, 1987 | The Akali Dal government headed by Surjit Singh Barnala is dismissed. President's rule is imposed via Governor Siddharth Shankar Ray. |
| October 10, 1987 | The Panthic Committee establishes the Council of Khalistan and names Gurmit Singh Aulakh as its Washington, D.C.-based president. |
| March 4, 1988 | The Jodhpur detainees, including Jasbir Singh Rode, arrested during Operation Blue Star, are released. Rode is appointed jathedar [head-priest] of the Akal Takht (Amritsar, Punjab). |
| May 11-18, 1988 | Operation Black Thunder II is conducted to expunge armed Sikh militants from the Darbar Sahib (Amritsar). According to K.P.S. Gill, the Khalistan movement never recovered from this "loss of the Golden Temple [a.k.a. Darbar Sahib] and the gurdwaras as [a] shield and sanction" (Knights of Falsehood, p. 100.). When the dust settles, the original Panthic Committee has splintered into three factions led by Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, and Sohan Singh Boparai respectively. The Zaffarwal faction names Jagjit Singh Chauhan as its representative abroad via a competing Council of Khalistan office based in London, England. The Boparai faction comes to be represented abroad by the Washington, D.C.-based Khalistan Affairs Center (founded in 1991 by Harpal Singh Cheema and Pritpal Singh and eventually run by Amarjit Singh) and the Vancouver-based Charhdi Kala weekly newspaper (Cheema and Daljit Singh Bittu). |
| April 21, 1988 | K.P.S. Gill is appointed Director General of Police (D.G.P.) for Punjab. |
| July 12, 1988 | Labh Singh, head of the Khalistan Commando Force (K.C.F.), is killed in "an exchange of fire with the police." (Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 29, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| January 6, 1989 | Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh are hanged for their roles in Indira Gandhi's assassination. |
| February 5, 1989 | Rajinder Kaur, daughter of Tara Singh and former member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament, is gunned down by unidentified assassins. |
| August, 1989 | 122 kilometers of fencing is erected along the 533 kilometer border between Punjab and Pakistan. |
| November, 1989 | Then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi orders the release of a) Simranjit Singh Mann, president of the United Akali Dal, b) Harminder Singh Sandhu, president of the All India Sikh Students Federation (A.I.S.S.F.), and c) Atindar Pal Singh. Mann is elected to parliament. |
| December 6, 1989 | V.P. Singh takes over as prime minister. Harminder Singh Sandhu, president of the All India Students Federation (A.I.S.S.F.), declares Khalistan as the exclusive goal of the A.I.S.S.F. (Indian Express and Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 40, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| January, 1990 | Harminder Singh Sandhu, president of the All India Sikh Students Federation (A.I.S.S.F.), is assassinated. |
| March 15, 1990 | The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is granted approval to have turbaned Sikhs join its ranks. |
| May 14, 1990 | Assassination attempt on Gurcharan Singh Tohra, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.), while his car is travelling on the Ludhiana-Patiala highway near village Pahwa. Tohra, ex-M.L.A. H.S. Rajia, and a gunman are injured. The driver is killed on the spot. Rajia succumbs to injuries in hospital. (Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 47, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| June, 1990 | Former Punjab finance minister Balwant Singh is assassinated in Chandigarh. |
| June 21, 1990 | Narasimha Rao of the Congress party takes over as prime minister riding a sympathy vote following Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by Sri Lankan Tamil separatist militants. |
| December 18, 1990 | K.P.S. Gill is transferred to New Delhi consequent to demands by Sikh militant groups for him to be removed from Punjab. (Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 64, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| May 28, 1991 | Gurmit Singh Aulakh, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Khalistan, addresses the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., arguably the largest and most prestigious press club in the world. |
| June, 1991 | Punjab elections are cancelled. |
| August, 1991 | Punjab's former director general of police (D.G.P.), Julio Ribeiro, is shot in an attempted assassination while walking with his wife in a suburb of Romania's capital. |
| October, 1991 | Romanian charge d'affaires in New Delhi, Liviu Radu, is kidnapped. The kidnappers demand the release of three Sikhs facing the death sentence for their role in Gen. A.S. Vaidya's 1986 assassination. |
| November 11, 1991 | Director General of Police (D.G.P.), K.P.S. Gill, is transferred back to Punjab as D.G.P. |
| February, 1992 | Beant Singh of the Congress party become chief minister of Punjab following elections boycotted by the Akali parties. |
| August 9, 1992 | Sukhdev Singh Babbar, chief of Babbar Khalsa International (B.K.I.), is "killed in an encounter with the police." (Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 64, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| May 27, 1992 | M.L. Manchanda, director of the All India Radio (A.I.R.) station in Patiala, Punjab, was abducted by members of the militant organization Babbar Khalsa. They demanded that electronic media adhere to a code of conduct, which included broadcasting in the local language of Punjabi rather than Hindi. Negotiations for Manchanda's release broke down after the government failed to meet the deadline set for complying with Babbar Khalsa's demands. Manchanda's children appealed to the militants in vain. On May 27, the militants beheaded the journalist and put his severed head on display at a chowk in Patiala. |
| May 27, 1992 | Gurdial Singh Babbar, a Babbar Khalsa International (B.K.I.) leader, is "killed in an encounter with security forces at village Rataul in Tarn Taran." (Faultlines, May 1999, vol. 1.1, p. 65, New Delhi: Institute of Conflict Management.) |
| December 25, 1992 | Gurdev Singh Kaunke, acting jathedar (head-priest) of the Akal Takht is arrested from his home and subsequently "disappeared." |
| January 24, 1993 | Gurmit Singh Aulakh and Paramjit Singh Ajrawat, president and member respectively of the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Khalistan, sign the covenant of Khalistan's admission into the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (U.N.P.O.) at the U.N.P.O. General Assembly in the Hague, Netherlands. |
| June 27, 1994 | Pashaura Singh apologizes for and receives tankhah [religious punishment] for "objectionable" contents in his Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Text and Meaning of the Adi Granth," supervised by W.H. McLeod. |
| February 27, 1995 | Jaswant Singh Khalra calls a press conference in Amritsar (Punjab) and appeals to the public to "hold the police chief K.P.S. Gill and chief minister Beant Singh" responsible if anything happens to him. |
| August 31, 1995 | Punjab's chief minister, Beant Singh, is assassinated. B.K.I. claims responsibility. Harcharan Singh Brar takes over as chief minister. |
| September 6, 1995 | Jaswant Singh Khalra disappears while washing his car outside his home in Amritsar (Punjab). |
| April 20, 1998 | Ranjit Singh, jathedar (head-priest) of the Akal Takht (Amritsar, Punjab, India), issues a hukamnama (edict) declaring langar (community meal) partaken of while being seated on benches and chairs as apostasy. |
| July 25, 1998 | Ranjit Singh, jathedar (head-priest) of the Akal Takht (Amritsar, Punjab, India), excommunicates Tara Singh Hayer and others who criticize the April 20, 1998 edict. |
| November 18, 1998 | Tara Singh Hayer, 64, founder of the Indo-Canadian Times (founded in 1978, the oldest and largest Punjabi-language weekly in Canada) and an outspoken critic of Sikh militancy, is shot dead in the garage of his Surrey, B.C. residence as he is transferring himself from his car into the wheelchair he had been using since an assassination attempt on August 28, 1988 left him partially paralyzed. In 1988 he was excommunicated by a Sikh high priest in Amritsar, India, in an edict that also forbade all Sikhs from buying or reading the Indo-Canadian Times. Hayer was a recipient of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award. |
| April 13, 1999 |
To mark the tercentenary of the birth of the Khalsa, the Anandpur Sahib Foundation headed by Shiromani Akali Dal president and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal awards the Order of Nishan-e-Khalsa to 80 most prominent Sikhs of the century.
Legendary heroes: Bhagat Singh, Ajit Singh, Gurdit Singh, Sohan Singh Bhakna.
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| March 20, 2000 | 35 Sikhs are massacred in Chattisinghpora (Jammu and Kashmir, India) on the eve of U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to India. |
| 2002 | Jagjit Singh Chauhan and Wassan Singh Zaffarwal return to Punjab after years of exile. |
| April 1, 2003 | Gurmit Singh Aulakh retires as president of the Washington-D.C.-based Council of Khalistan. No one steps forward to take over. |
| August 11, 2005 | Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar resign as Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs and Chairman, Rural Development Board (Delhi) respectively in response to the Congress government's Action Taken Report in response to the Nanavati Commission Report on the 1984 Sikh massacres in Delhi and elsewhere. |