In yet another episode of Harvard University caving to extremists to escape their outrage, it removed an article from its quarterly magazine Harvard International Review (HIR) simply because it critiqued Khalistani secessionism. The article titled “A Thorn in the Maple: How the Khalistan Question is Reshaping India-Canada Relations”, was published on HIR’s website on 15th February 2025. However, on 26th February, the HIR pulled the critical piece following a barrage of complaints from pro-Khalistan Sikh readers, including one by Harvard’s Sikh chaplain.
What the now-withdrawn Harvard article discussed and why it offended the Khalistanis
In her article, Zyna Dhillon, a Staff Writer and Associate Editor at HIR argued that the Khalistani separatist movement lacked broader support as she wrote, “Much of the support for the Khalistan movement today comes from a growing segment of Canada’s Sikh diaspora. Note, however, that this support comes from only a minority of Canadian Sikhs, and while “there are many supporters of Khalistan in Canada, they do not represent the [Canadian] Sikh community as a whole.”
Although it is a known fact that most of the key Khalistani separatists have terror links including the slain Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose assassination resulted in an Indo-Canada diplomatic spat, Dhillon’s article presents more of a timeline of the rise of the Khalistani ‘movement’, how Canada became a safe haven for these anti-India elements due to Liberal Party’s vote-bank politics rather than supporting India’s stand or that of Canada.
The article makes mention of the bombing of Air India flight 182 also known as the Kanishka Bombing of 1985 by Khalistani terrorists which resulted in the loss of 329 lives, attacks on the Indian High Commission in Canada, and how Khalistanis have been staging anti-India protests and attacking Hindu temples across Canada.
Not to forget, Nijjar, who was apparently killed in a gang war, was a wanted terrorist in India. There were multiple requests for his extradition by the Government of India, but Canada denied those requests. On 18th June 2023, he was killed outside a Gurdwara, where he served as president, in Surrey, BC. The same Gurdwara held a memorial for four Khalistani terrorists, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, the main accused in Canada’s deadliest terror attack—the Kanishka Bombing of 1985.
The Harvard Crimson reported that HIR editors Sydney C. Black and Elizabeth R. Place issued a statement saying that the article in question is “temporarily” withdrawn and that its author has been asked to make “necessary edits.”
“When we receive complaints about a published article, we review both the article and the critique. If we determine that any criticism may have merit, we temporarily remove the article from our website, to facilitate further research and a more detailed review,” Black and Place wrote adding that Dhillon’s article did not meet their standards for neutrality and was rather “opinionated style of journalism”.
In their email to Dhillon, the Harvard International Review editors-in-chief asked her to make two edits: removing Indian government statistics on deaths caused by Sikh militants, and adding a sentence confirming whether Khalistan supporters had harassed Indian diplomats in Canada.
However, Zyna Dhillon refused to remove any part of the article or add more context to it as asked by the HIR editors in their email. In a statement, Dhillon said that making the alterations asked by the HIR editors to her article including the statement that “India defines terrorism broadly” — would have “actively pandered to the pro-Khalistan critics of the article.”
On 22nd February, the article was removed after Harpreet Singh, a Sikh chaplain at Harvard filed a four-page complaint with Harvard International Review alleging that Dhillon’s article presented uncorroborated data from the Indian government and downplaying global and Punjabi support for Khalistan. Singh labelled Dhillon’s argument as “a dangerous equivalency” that conflated “all Khalistan activism with ‘terrorism’.
Notably, in her now-removed article, Dhillon mentioned that according to the Indian government, 11,694 citizens and 1,784 security personnel lost their lives in terrorist attacks by Sikh militants during the Khalistan insurgency. To back this, Dhillon linked a Times of India report from 2015 which reported these figures based on an RTI response by the Indian Home Ministry to a Meerut-based activist.
Besides, there is ample evidence confirming that Khalistani extremists including Sikhs for Justice founder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun harassed Indian diplomats, and threatened them in 2023 during their protests outside the Indian consulate in Ottawa against Nijjar’s killing. They had also demanded the shutting down of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa. Moreover, Khalistani posters calling for the assassination of Indian Diplomats also emerged in Delta, Canada in September 2023.
Harvard chaplain Harpreet Singh, Sikh Coalition and its pro-Khalistani proclivities
Harpreet Singh serves as one of the chaplains at Harvard University and also a co-chair on the executive board of the US-based organisation Sikh Coalition. It is interesting to note that the Sikh Coalition receives funds from the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The OSF is an organisation of George Soros, who had earlier declared war on nationalists and nationalism, including Prime Minister Modi.
While the Sikh Coalition claims that it “does not take an institutional position on Khalistan, but firmly believes that all people have a right to free speech and to lawfully advocate for their beliefs”, the Sikh Coalition has long been backing pro-Khalistan elements. This was also seen during the Farmers Protest against the Modi government’s three farm laws in 2020. The co-founder of Sikh Coalition Simran Jeet Singh who is a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations of George Soros has on many occasions targeted the Indian government.
Back in 2023, Simran Jeet Singh in a TIME magazine article accused the Modi government of ‘abusing’ fundamental human rights and imposing severe restrictions on the citizens including freedom of assembly and freedom of expression to nab Khalistani extremist Amritpal Singh whom he called a ‘Sikh activist’ fighting drugs menace in Punjab.
In addition, despite the fact that Khalistan extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun repeatedly issues threats to cause bomb blasts in India, the Sikh Coalition sees Pannun as just another ‘law-abiding’ Sikh citizen of the USA and advocates for protecting his ‘rights’.
Harvard’s capitulation to radical voices though disturbing, is not surprising
As Zyna Dhillon refused to make changes in her article, contending that the changes the HIR editors wanted her to make would have pandered to the offended Khalistanis and diluted her intent, the Harvard International Review, instead of backing the author decided to genuflect before the Khalistani extremists and removed the article. Harvard’s knee-jerk to Khalistan pressure has outraged many on social media. While Dhillon’s article remains accessible through archives, its erasure from HIR’s official platform demonstrates that all it takes to muzzle neutral voices presenting facts, is a slew of complaints from extremists masquerading as ‘activists’ and their pressure tactics.
It, however, is not surprising that Harvard is pandering to Khalistani extremists given it has a history of sympathising with Islamic extremists. Back in 2023, during a congressional hearing, Harvard’s then-president Claudine Gay could not muster a straightforward “yes” when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated university policy. Instead, Gay served up a word salad of ‘context’, making the varsity’s Jewish students wonder if their safety was of any importance to her. The backlash compelled Gay to backpedal with a belated apology that seemed more like damage control than genuine realisation. However, she later resigned amid mounting criticism.
Back then, a massive outrage had erupted over Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus, prompting many billionaires and philanthropists to halt donations to the varsity.
Fast forward to 2025, Havard is against prioritising placation over principles just because some Khalistan sympathisers are crying foul. Contrary to the assertions of those offended, Dhillon’s article simply detailed the Khalistani separatist movement’s bloody history of terrorism, attacks on Hindu temples, anti-India activities and how the Liberal Party’s appeasement politics has soured the Indo-Canada ties. Instead of standing by Dhillon’s reasoned critique, Harvard caved into pressure, citing nebulous ‘neutrality’ standards that somehow don’t apply when an extremist faction gets loud. Apparently, Harvard has a penchant to duck and cover instead of defending principles and freedom of expression when faced with anything; be it pro-Khalistan pushback or antisemitism, that might ruffle radical feathers.
Back in 2023, Harvard could not condemn calls for Jewish genocide without hemming and hawing and now the HIR cannot handle a takedown of Khalistani secessionism which has a violent, anti-India and anti-Hindu history.
