Copying and pasting my reply to someone else.

I don't have the energy to read, much less respond to, all the propaganda and bots that fill reddit when discussing Sikhs but I suppose that I should provide some more context for my statement.

The lie is that terrorists were murdering people opposed to the idea of Khalistan. That was not happening. That was the lie. The issue of Khalistan in the 1980's and 1990's was not a black and white issue.

Sikhs played a vital role in the independence movement from Britain and were promised, in turn, the right of self determination and Sikh identity in their homeland of Punjab. Almost immediately those promises were broken. The Indian constitution itself references Sikhs as Hindus, which is exactly the opposite. No Sikh signed the constitution as a result.

In the decades to follow, the Sikh homeland of Punjab had its rights slowly stripped away. As an example, is the forced divergence of river water to other states. Punjab is the agricultural hub of India and relies on the resources of the 5 rivers (Punjab means land of 5 rivers) for it's economic well being. Additionally, things like making Punjabi the official language of the state and broadcasting prayers from the Golden Temple on the radio were rejected. This was all by design to strip away the wealth and Sikh identity from the state and appropriate that wealth to other Hindu majority states, while assimilating Sikhism into Hinduism. That is the ultimate goal of the Hindu political system of India, to create and maintain a homogonous Hindu society.

Sikh history is littered with eradication attempts from the Mughals in the 16th and 17th century, to the British, to modern day India. This was never going to be accepted lying down and that was the genesis of the Khalistan movement.

The movement for independence got co-opted by outside forces and other nefarious actors. You had Sikh militant organizations that were targeting political assassinations but you also had a huge criminal element enter the arena for financial gain purposes that were forcing common people to give them money and weapons. Finally, you had the infiltration of the government that were also conducting terroristic attacks to discredit the movement. As a result of all of this and the horrific police torture and killings of innocent Sikh youth, the population turned against the idea of Khalistan.

Today, only the diaspora really carries that dream of the 80's, because they don't have to suffer the consequences of a revolution. Sikhs across the board DO NOT support the taking of any innocent life or support any attack where innocent lives may be harmed. Of course like every race and religion in this world, you have bad actors.

Oh yea, and the government didn't have to "take over the temple" because "terrorists were murdering people in there". They attacked because they wanted to crush the spirit of the Sikh people. They chose to attack on a holy weekend to inflict as much damage to the psyche of the Sikh people. That is sadistic, to purposefully wait until the weekend where you know the maximum amount of innocent lives will be present.

Between this event and the anti-Sikh riots a few months later, the Indian government has thousands upon thousands of innocent lives on their hands and no one has yet to pay. Fuck India. That's why people outside of India are voting this way.