Abstract- This paper analyzes how Naxalite magazines responded to the rise of Sikh insurgency, as well as the political transformations of the SGPC and the Shiromani Akali Dal, during 1984 and 1993. It focuses on the archives of two Punjabi magazines in particular—Surkh Rekha and Parchand. While situating these magazines in the political milieus of different Naxalite factions, I will analyze their operational and strategic utility in mobilizing a popular left opinion against an emergent struggle for Khalistan. In order to theorize the Naxalites’ fraught relationship with federalist politics, I will engage the following questions: What were the political affiliations of these magazines? Were all magazines equally trenchant in their criticisms of the political demand for Khalistan? And what kinds of visual cultures (political cartoons, photographs of “martyrs” and so on) were cultivated in their pages?

Keywords: Naxalite Movement, Punjabi print cultures, Sikh Insurgency, Akali Politics and the SGPC, Communism in Punjab