India's Blocking of Sikh Biopic *Satluj* Sparks Public Screenings

*Satluj*, a biopic about activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, was denied a theatrical certification and removed from the streaming platform Zee5 two days after its July online release. The platform posted a brief Instagram note blaming “current developments.” In response, Sikh communities across Punjab organized open-air screenings in temple courtyards, village streets and private homes, and circulated bootleg copies via WhatsApp and YouTube. The village of Bandala in Amritsar district hosted a night-time showing that drew farmers, women and children, illustrating a rare, collective pushback against the Hindu-nationalist government’s censorship.

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Khalra, a former bank clerk, documented alleged extrajudicial killings by Punjab police during the 1990s insurgency. Using municipal and crematorium records, he compiled a list of roughly 2,000 youths he said were killed in Amritsar district and argued that the statewide death toll could be as high as 25,000. A 1995 disappearance led to his murder; a trial court later convicted six police officers for the abduction and killing. Human-rights lawyer Sarabjit Singh Verka notes that police sometimes operated under a “bullet for bullet” policy, extorting families for ransom—sometimes demanding amounts equivalent to $12,000—and staging fake shootouts to hide evidence.

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Jagmohan Singh Raju, general secretary of the ruling BJP in Punjab, said authorities feared the film could revive Sikh separatist sentiment, especially amid heightened tensions with overseas Sikh diaspora groups. He cautioned that a single film would not instantly radicalize audiences but could “seep into the mind” over time. Film journalist Anna M.M. Vetticad observed that the government treats historical narratives like *Satluj* as potential security risks.

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Human-rights lawyer Sarabjit Singh Verka argues that the state’s reluctance to address past excesses persists, and that a truth-and-reconciliation commission was never established. Sociologist Sanjay Srivastava (SOAS University of London) describes the public screenings as “rare defiance” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda. In Bandala, resident Ranjit Singh Babbar recounted his father’s 1990 detention, forced ransom payment, and extrajudicial killing, noting that the government never issued a death certificate.

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• “Some police officers on trial confessed to me in private that they were allowed to kill militants who had killed two or more people,” — Sarabjit Singh Verka, human rights lawyer

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• “The government never issued his death certificate. We couldn't even do his funeral rites. Police killed him and threw his body into a river.” — Sponsor Message Babbar

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