Crossword Genius

Potentate supporting American state's Sikh centre? (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

amritsar

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'centre?' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'potentate supporting american state's sikh' is the wordplay.
'potentate' becomes 'tsar' (I've seen this before).
'supporting' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'state's sikh' becomes 'mri' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a'+'mri'='amri'
'tsar' put after 'amri' is 'AMRITSAR'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for amritsar that I've seen before include "Punjab city, centre of Sikh faith" , "Eastern city" , "Holy city of Sikhism" , "Indian city, centre of the Sikh faith" , "Site of the Sikh Golden Temple" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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