Akhand Bharat: Lok Sabha Elections and the Future of Hindutva

The BJP is not merely focussed on India’s electoral cycles; it is transforming the political structure and culture of the entire region as a whole.

Prabjot Singh | @panth_punjab

Over recent weeks, there has been an intensity of activity and excitement within online Sikh spaces revolving around India’s upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While there are valuable conversations to be had about the prospects and limitations of Sikh electoral participation, a much broader discussion needs to be had about the long-term political landscape in Punjab and the various political forces that are creating a unique set of threats and opportunities today. Only by grappling with these questions can we meaningfully strategize our way forward.

Since 2014, the entire South Asian subcontinent has been dramatically reshaped in the BJP’s vision of Hindutva. Despite a number of valiant moments of Sikh mobilization, Sikh political aspirations have not successfully been harnessed into a sustainable movement with long-term vision or the necessary collective leadership to navigate through the tectonic shifts that are simultaneously taking place domestically within the subcontinent as well as the broader global context the region sits within. 

The BJP’s election in 2014 marked a pivotal moment. Ten years on, as the fascist juggernaut is set to clinch a third term, we must reflect on BJP’s vision for the future and where Punjab lies in its political imagination. The key thing for Sikh naujawan to grasp today is that the BJP is not merely focussed on India’s electoral cycles; it is transforming the political structure and culture of the entire region as a whole. Steadily advancing towards its goal of establishing an Akhand Bharat (united India) as a Hindu rashtra (nation), the BJP-RSS combine aims to fully integrate the entire territory of India where its vision has historically faced the most resistance: Kashmir, Punjab, the Northeast and other internal dissident populations. 

Kashmir provides a stark example of the BJP’s strategy. The Indian state neutralized resistance and moderate forces by discrediting and fragmenting their leadership in order to cannibalize the region as a whole. Stripping Kashmir of its special constitutional status, the region was broken into three separate administrative units. This was achieved primarily by polarizing populations while fragmenting and discrediting each local political force individually, thereby ensuring that no central opposition could mount an effective resistance to the BJP’s dictats in 2019. A similar strategy was tested in Punjab during a dry run in March 2023.

Similarly, the BJP made a concerted effort to gain a foothold in West Bengal which had steadily been governed by the local CPI(M) for decades without pause. Manipulating local politics and engineering disaffection with regional parties, the BJP effectively transformed the CPM’s devout party cadre into a massive support bloc for a resurgent BJP that has steadily increased its vote share in recent years. The BJP’s ability to dismantle the decades-long dynasty in West Bengal and convert a left-wing political movement into the engine of a far right force should raise concern and question for those committed to radical Panthic politics in Punjab as well.

This will most clearly be seen in the upcoming electoral results as the BJP seeks to drastically increase its vote share in Punjab while fragmenting the Sikh political space into multiple different power centres. 

Polarizing and Fragmenting Punjab: Consummating Akhand Bharat 

The BJP has had its eye on Punjab politics and Sikh resistance for decades since the late 1990s. Figures like the former RSS head, Rulda Singh, and UK-based Jasdev Rai have been believed to be playing roles as government interlocutors, specifically tasked with approaching panthic Sikh figures in the diaspora to convince them to return to the Indian mainstream–a task which has met some success after a number of former Sikh activists gradually returned to India with problematic ties with Indian intelligence. While these efforts saw some mild success in some disillusioned sections, they were also met with harsh resistance including armed opposition by Sikh jujharoo jathebandiyan in recent years. Rulda Singh was himself assassinated in 2009.

More broadly, the BJP has been steadily employing multiple strategies to increase its foothold in Punjab’s political landscape. While artificially polarizing local populations along various ethnic lines (Dalit vs Jatt, Christian vs Sikh, Hindu vs Sikh), the Indian establishment has been fragmenting Punjab’s political and Panthic leadership through psyops, coercion and different incentives. This was most clearly seen in the numerous splits within the Akali Dal, with many splinter groups clearly aligned with the BJP including Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Jagir Kaur (the latter which very narrowly lost a bid to takeover the SGPC internally). These tactics have sought to render political leadership in Punjab completely ineffective by creating numerous inconsequential splinter groups–luring each away from their parent party with various promises of patronage or threats of jail sentences. 

The BJP’s approach to Punjab and Sikh resistance therefore simultaneously involves co-option, assimilation and elimination. Unlike its overtly violent stance towards Muslims and Christians, the BJP has tried to absorb Sikhs into its fold in order to neutralize the threat of Sikh calls for Khalistan without engaging in direct conflict head on. This is clear in a number of examples which seek to actively co-opt the rhetoric and narrative of Panthic politics and grievances by BJP-influenced factions like Dhindsa, Jagir Kaur, and others. 

By monopolizing the Panthic space through friendly partners, the BJP seeks to undercut and fragment the Sikh electoral base while effectively co-opting voices of resistance and radical politics at the same time. This is clear in the induction of outspoken “Panthic” faces directly into the BJP-RSS in the recent past, including former members of a faction of the Sikh Students’ Federation, the Dhumma-aligned Damdami Taksal, and former MP Rajdev Singh Khalsa. During his tenure as Malwa chief of the RSS, Rajdev clearly outlined his organization’s political vision for Punjab–unseating the Badal Akali Dal from the political scene with a seemingly Panthic narrative of Sikh raj which sees no distinction or contradiction between Sant Jarnail Singh jee and the RSS. 

Along these lines, the BJP and BJP-aligned affiliates have accepted Sikh grievances in India including recognition of 1984 as a genocide (although describing it as a crime committed by the “Congress party”), calling for the release of Sikh political prisoners, advocating for the end of the diaspora “black list” years ago, and symbolic gestures like declaring “Veer Bal Divas”. 

The string of assassinations seen in 2023, demonstrates an acceleration of this process and that BJP-governed India will forcefully eliminate those who do not comply with these efforts or continue to pose a challenge to those building inroads. The assassination of prominent Sikh figures around the world underscores the lengths to which the BJP will go to neutralize its opposition and those opposed to the co-option of Sikh leadership. 

Panthic Response and Leadership Today

Sikh naujawan must understand that the BJP is not simply worried about India’s electoral cycle. It is obviously aiming to win as many seats as possible but the BJP-RSS combine is not an electoral party like others–saddled with a short-sighted focus on each individual election and whether it will hang on to its power. The BJP is confidently in the driving seat of the region’s politics and is more focussed on transforming the political structure and culture of the entire region once and for all; steadily advancing towards its goal of an Akhand Bharat and Hindu Rashtra. 

It is imperative then, that those committed to building a sovereign Sikh future engage in a holistic analysis of our political conditions without immediately rushing behind each political fad. The BJP's strategies must be understood not as isolated events but as part of a broader trend towards an Akhand Bharat. Sikh naujawan must resist being co-opted into the Indian mainstream and focus on strengthening sovereign Panthic power–the base from which Sikh political power expands to establish halemi raj.

The future of Panthic politics lies in grassroots mobilization and independent Sikh institutions–not par-adheen (subordinated) institutions created and controlled by the Indian state. While conversations must be had about our strategic interactions with external political structures, we will always remain vulnerable to the political headwinds of any state if we tie our destiny solely to flawed mechanisms of state power. 

The Guru Khalsa Panth and Sikh sangat must develop the internal infrastructure necessary to build a sustainable political movement with long-term vision and collective leadership, rooted in Sikh sidhant (principles) and a critical understanding of our current political landscape. By doing so, the Sikh sangarsh can effectively navigate the challenges posed by the BJP's Hindutva project and collectively advance towards the establishment of a sovereign Khalistan.

The Guru Khalsa Panth plays a central role within the wider Sikh sangat, as it is the Khalsa that is Guru-roop (collectively the form of the Guru) itself. The Khalsa anchors its sovereign authority in the patshahi bestowed upon it by the Guru, manifesting this sovereignty in the world through the institutions of the Sarbat Khalsa and Sri Akaal Takhat Sahib–not a political party subordinate to the Indian state. 

Staying firm to the Khalsa’s tradition of sutantar vicharna (remaining independent) and the steadfast commitment to be sovereign or resist (baagi ja badshah), these qualities can be seen throughout history in Misl Shaheedan, the early Akali Dal, and Sikh jujharoo jathebandiyan in recent times. These organizations refused the enticement of subordinated political power (subedari) and instead, maintained their primary loyalty to building and protecting the Khalsa’s sovereignty and mobilizing this power to establish raj. 

This sovereignty has always been rooted in the institutions of the Khalsa itself rather than relying upon the dominant political structures of the time. From the base of sangat and decentralizing jathay (units) to the governance of Sri Akaal Takhat and Sarbat Khalsa, the Khalsa builds its own power then expands outwards to establish halemi raj as an external political structure.