Introduction

Abstract

Operation Blue Star marked a sudden break with the conventional form of politics in Punjab: the violent defence of the Golden Temple by militant Sikhs was met with an overwhelming response from the Indian Army. But within a year, Rajiv Gandhi, the new Congress leader, was able to engineer a settlement which appeared to have established the status quo ante 1984 and met the Sikhs’ political demands. As events were to demonstrate, the symbolism of the Rajiv—Longowal Accord, in fact as far the centre was concerned, was intended to reestablish the norms of hegemonic control. When from the middle of 1986 the centre decided not to implement key provisions of the Accord, hegemonic control increasingly gave way to violent control as the principal strategy for managing the ‘Punjab problem’.