Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards on 31th of August 1984 shook India to the core. But the events that followed would leave a permanent mark on the nation’s collective consciousness.
In the days immediately following Mrs Gandhi’s death, there was a mass reprisal against Sikhs. Tens of thousands of Sikh men were pulled out of buses and trains, slaughtered on the streets, in their homes and in their workplace; an estimated 10-17,000 men died in three days.
Uncounted thousands more went into some form of hiding. Many Sikh men cut their hair and took off their turbans to hide their ethnicity. It was years before the Sikkh community would regain its collective confidence to repossess the streets of Delhi again.
Widows’ colony
In the west Delhi suburb of Hari Nagar, children play on the dusty roadside and women haggle with the vegetable vendors. From the outside, the ramshackle buildings look like an ordinary middle class Delhi housing complex. But inside, it’s soon apparent that the inhabitants of the small apartments are all part of a community of grief. These are the widows of 1984.
There are a few men around, but it’s mostly a community of women mourning lost generations of their men folk.
Nanki’s memories
Nanki Kaur is in her early fifties, but the deep lines in her face make her look much older. Many of the flats in Hari Nagar have garlanded photos on the wall – Nanki Kaur prefers to keep her photos locked away in a suitcase underneath her bed. They bring back too many memories.
“My husband went to work that day. Like any other day he went to open up his shop. But he returned when he saw the whole market was closed because of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. We thought we were safe at home, but soon we heard the news about the mobs that were burning down houses.”
Mrs. Kaur’s brother-in-law was killed by a mob the day after Mrs Gandhi’s assassination. When another angry mob came to where the Kaurs lived, her husband tried to escape by climbing up to the roof. Mrs. Kaur’s last memory of her husband is of him being dragged away by shouting people – many of whom she recognized as neighbours.
They set him on fire and burnt him alive.
“When I think about what has happened it still makes be cry. Both brothers from the same family were killed. It’s only me and my children and grandchildren now”
Kangana’s memories
In this community everyone knows what it feels like to lose a husband, brother, uncle or grandfather. A few floors down is Kangana Kaur. She was eight years old when a mob broke into their home.
“My grandmother tried to stop them. She even begged them to take her instead of my dad. But they took my dad and brothers outside and killed them. My grandmother was brutally beaten up, but she survived”
The memory is decades old, but the pain is fresh and her tears still hot. She lost her father and her uncles, but the women who were left behind in the family also lost who they had once been.
“We use to have three shops; my family did well for themselves. We had a lot of property, but that was all taken from us. Today we have to live with our whole family in this small apartment in this old building. We worked hard, but now we have nothing”
The stories of Nanki amd Kangana can be echoed in every flat in Hari Nagar.
Nanki Kaur reported the names of the people she’d recognized in the mob, and a couple of them were arrested, but then they simply disappeared from view. It’s been nearly three decades since the mass killings, but not a single person has been convicted for any of the crimes that were committed against the Sikkh community.
Perhaps it’s this thought more than the photos on the wall that makes it such a trial for the families in Hari Nagar to get through each new day.
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Lets face it, even though India is a supposed to be a democracy it is not! It is a Hindu State where minorities are oppressed. Nehru / Gandhi family planned it well. The tensions in South Asia are all the kirpa of Nehru and Gandhi and their hatred towards Muslims and deceiving ability to use the Sikhs.
In the Hindu State of India, anyone who speaks up for the rights of minorities are declared as anti-nationalist or better yet terrorists, and those who commit crimes in name of Hindutava (aka BJPs etc) and commit crimes in oppressing minorities (aka Congress etc) are supposed to be Ideal Indians. Ideal Indians my a**.
All culprits will be given their dues in the Court of the ONE Supreme Being.
hindus are cowards terrorists they can only kill there fellow citizens as they killed raped and burned 3000 muslims in gujrat and cheif minister of gujrat mr modi one one coward has be come hero for there ugly cowards.
Rnw knows well how to divide nations in terms of religion and ethnicity. Congratulations to an Indian-Devi of South Asia Wired, for poking the wounds and dividing India!
Well, the guilty are still roaming free and not yet punished. Its not dividing a country but asking for JUSTICE !
The Hindus say the Sikhs should forget, that no matter how many thousands of rapes and murders in the most groutesqe manner werre commited Sikhs should be proud to be Indian. NO Sikh anywhere in the globe feels proud to be indian, how can they? This did not start in 84, theres long history of discrimination oF Sikhs in India. AND the Indian PM? No sikh has EVER takin him seriously
This was the reward for sikhs, which sikhs got from their Hindu brothers. They were massacred by muslims, when they were driven out of Pakistan because they called India their home. Then they were massacred by their Hindu brothers in their own home. What a shame on India and Hindus, who participated in this Sikh genocide. Shame on India....Thuuu. Waheguru bless these strong widows, who have lost every thing and who are alive and living this ordeal day in and day out.
Sikhs have to be always aware of their status in India after these lessons. Don't forget it ever, it can happen again.
It is so very unforutnate that so many Sikhs were brutally killed and shame on India that no justice was served. The hindu criminals, media, beaurocrats, politicians, police and Judiciary together engineered the massacre of innocent Sikhs all over India. Everyone was part of it. It is so unfrtunate that India did not learn from it. In 2002, same Hindu killing machine went on to massacre Muslims in Gujrat and then the killings of Christians started in Chattisgarh. Minorties are not safe in India. I hope the western world starts looking at India in the right perspective.
Yes, Muslims and Sikhs killing Hindus is alright, because they are minorities, but Hindus should not fight back!
yes, fight back if you have the courage to do it,and if your opponent is also armed as well. This is not what the hindus did. They burnt innocent people. They dare not go near the sikhs who were armed and protecting the gurudwaras. Just look into the history of sikhs how they protected the hindu women and children from moghul invaders. Just remember the myrterdom of Guru Arjun and Sri guru Teg Bahadur Ji. I don't have to say any more. I can only say, shame on hindus who did it and also shame on those congress leader, who instigated it.
''The Terrorism in Punjab before/after the Operation Bluestar and 1984 Delhi riots, had a very severe effect on Punjabi Hindus. Punjabi Hindus were specifically targeted by members of terrorist groups like Babbar Khalsa etc. There were numerous instances of mass murders like bombing public buses, engineering colleges (Thapar College) etc. in which Hindus were specifically targeted. A very conservative estimate says that 65% of the people who died in terrorism related violence in Punjab were Hindus. Many Punjabi Hindus left Punjab during that period and settled in Haryana and Delhi. In 1987, 32 Hindus were pulled out of the bus and shot, near Lalru in Punjab by Sikh militants. According to Human Rights Watch "In the beginning on the 1980s, Sikh separatists in Punjab committed serious human rights abuses, including the massacre of civilians, attacks upon non-Sikhs in the state, and indiscriminate bomb attacks in crowded places. It also created a rift between Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs, which have always lived in harmony and peace. But since the decline of Khalistan movement, both communities are again living with cordial relations.''http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_Punjab
The terms/words we use limit the sphere and implications of the events for which they are used. These were not riots, as the attacks had genocidal tendencies and intentions, which have been reaffirmed by rediscovery of mass graves of Hondh-Chillar and Pataudi in Haryana. It is also not right to limit these events to Delhi also as Sikhs were slaughtered throughout India, no doubt the Delhi was epicenter of Genocide.
The Sikh riots were very unfortunate and tragic! Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards, for revenging Operation Blue Star on 6 June 1984 to flush out the Sikh militants hiding in the Golden Temple.The militants were responsible for killing thousands of Hindus during the militancy days in Punjab!The Hindus were massacred in cold blood, in their homes, offices, buses, places of worship, in rural as well as urban areas on the command from the Sikh leader hiding in the Golden Temple. RNW should post the whole story that was the root cause of this unfortunate Sikh riots! There are countless Hindus widows too, and some families were just finished in cold blood..
The author of above comment has freedom of expression and I do not want to interfere in that but I want to clarify that it tends to give mischievous information. Even, Indian Army's Top Rank officer S. K. Sinha, who was bye-passed to promote General A. K. Vaidya to the rank of Chief of Army Staff of Inida, said that Indian army was invader to the Golden Temple and the Sikh warriors who defended the Temple were using their right to self defense.
There was no mass killings of Hindus by Sikhs, it is wrong to say that "The Hindus were massacred in cold blood, in their homes, offices, buses, places of worship, in rural as well as urban areas on the command from the Sikh leader hiding in the Golden Temple", as the whole area remains under tight cordon of India's armed forces for months.
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