Word: akali
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...comes to industrial development, claim the Sikhs, the government consistently slights them. Sikh moderates would be appeased by an increase in state power; a small radical minority, however, is determined to fight for an entirely separate state called Khalistan. So far, more than 100,000 Sikhs, known as the Akali Dal (Action Party) "Sacrifice Squad,"' have sworn to lay down their lives in the present struggle...
Gandhi has declared that she is ready and willing to negotiate with the dissidents. But the two most powerful Sikh leaders, both hiding out within the Golden Temple, scoff at such claims. While deploring the recent terrorism, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, 51, the moderate president of the Akali, remains convinced that the government has been increasing tension rather than soothing it. "If anyone is to blame for the terrorists' presence," he told TIME, "it is the central government." His more fanatical colleague, Militant Fundamentalist Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 36, voices a common suspicion that Gandhi is exploiting the friction...
...between Sikhs and Hindus, and it is spreading. Three bombs have already exploded in Delhi, and last week, in Punjab's neighboring state of Haryana, Hindu mobs began storming Sikh-owned shops. With neither side giving way, tensions seem sure to mount. In the ominous words of senior Akali Leader Prakash Singh Badal, "The central government has already taken the Punjab problem to the point of no return...