India’s relations with its immediate neighbors—Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh—have often been marked by tensions since its inception. The country has also experienced fluctuating diplomatic ties with nations farther afield, such as Canada and the United States. Relations with the U.S. were occasionally strained, but such periods were short-lived and quickly thawed. This was also the case with Canada until 2023, when the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a leader of the Khalistan movement, on Canadian soil plunged India-Canada relations to unprecedented lows.

The turbulent history between India and Canada dates back to 1974, when India’s first nuclear test prompted Canada to accuse India of misusing fissionable material from the CIRUS atomic reactor it had provided in 1954, leading to a freeze in nuclear cooperation. Although tensions gradually eased, they have never reached the severity seen today.

A persistent source of contention between the two countries has been the Sikh-led Khalistan movement. Canada is home to around 800,000 Sikhs, the largest Sikh population outside of India, and this has fueled friction, especially since the 1980s when the Khalistan movement gained momentum. In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar to suppress the separatist movement, resulting in thousands of Sikh deaths. Later that year, two Sikh bodyguards assassinated Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi........

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