Timeline of tensions: How India-Canada relations soured

Tensions between the two countries were brewing long before the latest diplomatic spat.

In an escalation of the ongoing diplomatic row between India and Canada over what the latter describes as a “campaign of violence” against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil, Ottawa expelled Indian high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, alongside five other Indian diplomats on Monday.

It is the latest development in a dispute initially triggered by the murder of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada in June 2023.

In a tit-for-tat move, India’s foreign ministry said New Delhi would expel six Canadian diplomats – including the acting high commissioner – and gave them until Saturday to leave the country.

But diplomatic tensions between India and Canada started before Nijjar’s killing. Here is a timeline of events leading up to the latest developments.

During a visit to India, Trudeau attended a formal dinner hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi. Canadian media said the purpose of Trudeau’s visit was to smooth diplomatic and trade relations with India after brewing tensions over what India perceived as support for Sikh separatism – namely, the Khalistan movement – in the Canadian diaspora.

Khalistan is the name of the proposed state envisioned by some Sikhs in a movement that emerged in India in the 1970s and early 1980s. While the original movement mostly died away, it has seen some resurgence among diasporic Sikh communities in Europe and North America, especially Canada, where 771,790 Sikhs live as of the 2021 census. Canada has the largest Sikh population outside of India’s Punjab.

The controversy over Trudeau’s dinner with the Canadian High Commissioner centred around Jaspal Singh Atwal, a