Punjab

After the Punjabi suba movement, led by the Akali Dal (founded in 1920 as the political wing of the Sikhs), Punjab became a Punjabi-speaking state in 1966, when Haryana and parts of Himachal were separated.

But the Akalis' hold on power stayed precarious: they won only by forming coalitions. In 1973, they passed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which asked for regional autonomy and greater powers for the states, and asserted Sikh identity. Most saw it as a demand for federalism, but some later used it to call for a separate Sikh nation, Khalistan.

In the early 1980s, leadership passed from moderate Akalis to armed extremists, who made the Golden Temple in Amritsar their headquarters. Violence spread.

In June 1984, the army entered the Golden Temple to remove the militants. This was Operation Blue Star. It succeeded militarily, but damaged the holiest Sikh shrine and deeply hurt Sikh sentiments.

On 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Terrible anti-Sikh violence followed in Delhi and elsewhere: over two thousand Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone. The guilty were not quickly punished; cases dragged on for decades.

In July 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Punjab Accord with the moderate Akali leader Harchand Singh Longowal. It promised, among other things, to transfer Chandigarh to Punjab, set up a commission on the boundary with Haryana, a tribunal on sharing the Ravi–Beas waters, and compensation for victims of militancy.

Peace did not come at once: militancy continued, and in the 1992 elections only about 24 per cent of voters turned out. By the mid-1990s militancy ended, and the 1997 election restored normal politics.