In early March, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was seen in rainbow colours dancing with the Indian protection minister within the celebrations of the Indian competition of Holi in New Delhi. She was in New Delhi, speaking about provide chains,  selling ladies’s empowerment and signing MOUs on semiconductor cooperation. 

From protection to semiconductors and ladies empowerment, the U.S.-India partnership at the moment runs the gamut. Recently, it was even reported that U.S. intelligence was essential for India to thwart Chinese troops at its border.  

The celebrations, the agreements signed and the intel shared signaled that the connection was robust and evolving from the dated “South Asia” silo to the Indo-Pacific realm.  

As if a state was starting to get jealous of the bonhomie between the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia and India, a ghost of the Cold-War period was revived to play spoilsport.  

Earlier this week, members of the Khalistani militant group, a violent separatist group banned in a number of nations, attacked the Indian consulates in San Francisco and the excessive fee in London. And not lengthy prior, members of the identical motion had been protesting close to the Indian consulate in Brisbane, Australia. 

The South Asia paradigm, thought-about accomplished and dusted, is showing to come back again to life — reviving the prism the place terrorism and drug commerce took heart stage and a false equivalency is drawn between democracies, communist nations and navy dictatorships within the area.   

And notably, the violence isn’t restricted to Indian consular missions. Innocent members of the Indian diaspora, principally Hindus and their locations of worship have been focused by the militant group.  

Samir Kalra, director of the Hindu American Foundation, commented that “these latest attacks are an escalation of related incidents we have witnessed over the past year. There have been at least three incidents of vandalism carried out against Hindus by supporters of the Khalistan separatist movement. Hindu temples in New York City, in Canada, and in Australia have all been targeted.”  

Who are these militants and why are they vandalizing Indian authorities property and attacking harmless bystanders within the West?  

The Khalistan motion is a separatist motion for an unbiased Sikh state carved out of India. Throughout the 1980’s the group engaged in violence not simply in India however all through the world. The motion was linked to the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight from Toronto to Mumbai that left 329 lifeless and the failed bombing of one other Air India flight in Tokyo on the identical day. As a results of clashes with the authorities and police within the northern state of Punjab and different elements of India, over the course of 15 years, greater than 25,000 Sikhs died.  

Fortunately, the motion misplaced steam in India by the early Nineteen Nineties. Since then, whereas there was the occasional incident, there has not been a coordinated marketing campaign in opposition to the Indian state as we witness with the latest incidents and over the previous couple of years.  

Several esteemed students have instructed the motion was not an natural one borne out of authentic issues of discrimination or ostracization by the Indian state however one that’s a part of the Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence group’s “bleeding India by a thousand cuts” doctrine.   

The Indian-Pakistan battle dates again to the partition of the 2 nations and their independence from the British. The two have been at loggerheads ever since they usually’ve fought a number of wars. Pakistan, a state that’s one-third of India by land space and one-sixth by population and principally ruled by navy generals and corrupt leaders, had a persistent sense of insecurity vis-a-vis its neighbor with a billion-plus population and a historical past of steady democratic governance. This translated to it arming itself with nuclear weapons, sheltering the Taliban in Afghanistan and allegedly supporting separatist components such because the Khalistani movement. Over the years, coverage papers such because the one printed by the Hudson Institute have added credence to that argument.  

Whether or not a state akin to Pakistan or a non-state actor was shaman-ing these ghosts from the 80s, it’s excessive time Western nations did an exorcism ridding of those devils of the previous. If not, the “Hawaii to the Himalayas” partnership shall be distracted and hijacked by these nefarious actors.    

Moreover, simply Monday, we appeared again on the Iraq battle that began over 20 years ago. Its lasting influence on American civil society and the lives and households it destroyed is usually neglected and underestimated in comparison with the money lost. One of the immigrant teams that had been not directly impacted by the battle was the Sikh group. Several harmless Sikhs had been verbally and bodily abused and even killed in racist attacks.  

A revival of this separatist motion, significantly on American soil won’t solely act as an obstacle to capitalizing the momentum within the U.S.-India relationship however will have an effect on the lives of harmless Hindus and Sikhs via elevated othering, ostracization and even abuses within the Western world.  

In order to maintain the partnership on monitor and keep peace and concord within the States, the Biden administration ought to crack down on these separatist components swiftly and with out a lot noise.  

Akhil Ramesh is a fellow with the Pacific Forum. He has labored with governments, danger consulting companies and suppose tanks within the United States and India. Follow him on Twitter: Akhil_oldsoul.