84 Riots
What happened to thousands of Sikhs in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, sits uneasy on our national conscience. Even so many years after that bloodbath we have not looked it in the eye, politically, socially or culturally
What I bring about here does not attempt to ‘brutally’ depict the brutal killings. Nor is it a passionate encounter of mine with the situation.
Twenty one years ago, for three days, armed mobs had a free run - killing Sikh men, destroying their properties, molesting their women and assaulting their children.
It was the biggest massacre faced by independent India. When one section of the community was trying to survive the terror, the other section of the community seemed to be reliving the trauma of Partition.
In the days following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, mobs of Hindus angry at the assassination of Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards killed over two thousand Sikh men, women, and children and burned and looted hundreds of Sikh homes, businesses, and places of worship. The largest amount of innocent deaths occurred in the capital itself.
There is a large amount of evidence that clearly suggests that the riots were already planned and that not only did government leaders plan and supply the mobs, but also led them and actively participated in the looting, burning, and killing.
THE FACTS
It is said that there are always three sides to story - yours, the opposition’s and the right one. And yet, the biggest snug in the equation is that the assassination may not have been prepared by those two Sikhs in the background, at all. Another possibility was completely ignored. On the 31’st October, 1984 Indira was shooting for her life documentary, by a French director and in that ‘shot’ had to be shown as an active woman – run over a sly wall. For accurate visual depiction she was asked by Sonia Gandhi * (the fact yet remains to be verified) to remove her bulletproof vest and was in the following moments, shot dead. The newspapers have it. As such all people moving out of the country were barred from the privilege and yet miraculously ‘The French Man’ went his way.
When I tell about hundreds of houses being burnt or the lives claimed, the facts here, at the present are immaterial. Apparently, 2000 less in the population here or anywhere doesn’t make a slightest of difference.
However there are things that interested me into this. A case that I might consider out of hundreds. My mother’s. It still brings tears in her eyes.
CASE STUDY
1’st November 1984, Kanpur
Things had taken a faster course than expected. It was known that Gandhi’s assassination was bound to cause a hefty turmoil, but my Daddy (my granddad) wasn’t to know that till that morning. The bloody morning.
As he went down the house gates that morning, an almost -fatally wounded Sikh came running into the house gates, begging for help and shelter, trailed by a hungry mob. Daddy couldn’t refuse. No one would. But under the circumstances…
Once inside the locked gate channels, the two were momentarily safe. But the mob was violent and things didn’t seem right. Without any hesitation, the people started stoning the house. The mob asked for the ‘fugitive’, the prey they did not get to feast upon. Three terrible hours later, they burned two weight loaders carrying animal feed. Everybody inside the house was terribly scared. They had to be. The suffocation, all for the flames, called for everybody to move to the terrace, which was a good five flights up. Everybody stayed low, the kids and the adults, for hours at stretch, without food or water. People below had no intentions to leave. The stoning and the burning continued and they tried to break open the channels. But with the lucky intervention of some Hindu neighbors, things were saved. The night couldn’t be spent there, in the ultimate desperation. Thus leaving aside the males, everybody descended down ‘five- floor height’ straight fall, into a helping neighbor’s house with the help of nothing but ropes. The determined mob, by then had started damaging the house by vague ‘hitting and breaking things’. My mother and hers, the children were taken to a friend’s house, where they spent the next six days, for a curfew had been imposed, later next day. The males stayed low in the house during that stretch.
A week later, when the curfew was lifted there had been a family – reunion, but the events that had taken place in the preceding week have been deeply etched in the family.
When I had first learnt about this from my mother, I was deeply moved and was agitated and now when I see things, I marvel at the thousands who have faced this. Not only in the 84, the partition in 47, the Gujarat riots, strife in Tamil Nadu and the north-east… It goes on endlessly.
Now assuming you have read what could possibly be a pile of crap for all, if I say something like - “Where are we going people? Can’t we stop this? “, you’ll definitely regret reading this. So I don’t want to end on a stupid ‘patriotic and humanly note’. One can rightly accept that these politicians can easily maneuver the masses. Simply put – It can not be prevented.
I cannot even think of an adequate and justified punishment for these brutes.
And here, amidst utter confusion and a self – induced grief, I conclude my write – up.
What I bring about here does not attempt to ‘brutally’ depict the brutal killings. Nor is it a passionate encounter of mine with the situation.
Twenty one years ago, for three days, armed mobs had a free run - killing Sikh men, destroying their properties, molesting their women and assaulting their children.
It was the biggest massacre faced by independent India. When one section of the community was trying to survive the terror, the other section of the community seemed to be reliving the trauma of Partition.
In the days following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, mobs of Hindus angry at the assassination of Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards killed over two thousand Sikh men, women, and children and burned and looted hundreds of Sikh homes, businesses, and places of worship. The largest amount of innocent deaths occurred in the capital itself.
There is a large amount of evidence that clearly suggests that the riots were already planned and that not only did government leaders plan and supply the mobs, but also led them and actively participated in the looting, burning, and killing.
THE FACTS
It is said that there are always three sides to story - yours, the opposition’s and the right one. And yet, the biggest snug in the equation is that the assassination may not have been prepared by those two Sikhs in the background, at all. Another possibility was completely ignored. On the 31’st October, 1984 Indira was shooting for her life documentary, by a French director and in that ‘shot’ had to be shown as an active woman – run over a sly wall. For accurate visual depiction she was asked by Sonia Gandhi * (the fact yet remains to be verified) to remove her bulletproof vest and was in the following moments, shot dead. The newspapers have it. As such all people moving out of the country were barred from the privilege and yet miraculously ‘The French Man’ went his way.
When I tell about hundreds of houses being burnt or the lives claimed, the facts here, at the present are immaterial. Apparently, 2000 less in the population here or anywhere doesn’t make a slightest of difference.
However there are things that interested me into this. A case that I might consider out of hundreds. My mother’s. It still brings tears in her eyes.
CASE STUDY
1’st November 1984, Kanpur
Things had taken a faster course than expected. It was known that Gandhi’s assassination was bound to cause a hefty turmoil, but my Daddy (my granddad) wasn’t to know that till that morning. The bloody morning.
As he went down the house gates that morning, an almost -fatally wounded Sikh came running into the house gates, begging for help and shelter, trailed by a hungry mob. Daddy couldn’t refuse. No one would. But under the circumstances…
Once inside the locked gate channels, the two were momentarily safe. But the mob was violent and things didn’t seem right. Without any hesitation, the people started stoning the house. The mob asked for the ‘fugitive’, the prey they did not get to feast upon. Three terrible hours later, they burned two weight loaders carrying animal feed. Everybody inside the house was terribly scared. They had to be. The suffocation, all for the flames, called for everybody to move to the terrace, which was a good five flights up. Everybody stayed low, the kids and the adults, for hours at stretch, without food or water. People below had no intentions to leave. The stoning and the burning continued and they tried to break open the channels. But with the lucky intervention of some Hindu neighbors, things were saved. The night couldn’t be spent there, in the ultimate desperation. Thus leaving aside the males, everybody descended down ‘five- floor height’ straight fall, into a helping neighbor’s house with the help of nothing but ropes. The determined mob, by then had started damaging the house by vague ‘hitting and breaking things’. My mother and hers, the children were taken to a friend’s house, where they spent the next six days, for a curfew had been imposed, later next day. The males stayed low in the house during that stretch.
A week later, when the curfew was lifted there had been a family – reunion, but the events that had taken place in the preceding week have been deeply etched in the family.
When I had first learnt about this from my mother, I was deeply moved and was agitated and now when I see things, I marvel at the thousands who have faced this. Not only in the 84, the partition in 47, the Gujarat riots, strife in Tamil Nadu and the north-east… It goes on endlessly.
Now assuming you have read what could possibly be a pile of crap for all, if I say something like - “Where are we going people? Can’t we stop this? “, you’ll definitely regret reading this. So I don’t want to end on a stupid ‘patriotic and humanly note’. One can rightly accept that these politicians can easily maneuver the masses. Simply put – It can not be prevented.
I cannot even think of an adequate and justified punishment for these brutes.
And here, amidst utter confusion and a self – induced grief, I conclude my write – up.
posted by Half Moon Fletcher at 10:43 AM
3 Comments:
hmm.. a pretty good article. brings out the impact of the carnage on th lives of those who were affected... however i feel that you could have delved into the actual history of events and brought out your views on them also...
nevertheless.. i am sure your english teacher must be pretty satisfied with a writer like u.
Hey,
As I got to the end of your post, I could feel the simple, banal statement “Where are we going people? Can’t we stop this?” I bet everyone who was associated with war has the same question on their lips. I for one, do not regret reading.
Like you, I think it’s a wonder that we have been born after these troubled times, and can learn valuable lessons from these incidents – when the beast inside man has risen.
My mother too tells me stories of these times… how Indira Gandhi was worshipped all over.India. I remember visiting the Indra gandhi’s museum some 5 years back.
I am a hindu… I think Its sad that hindus didn’t realise that the whole of Sikh community couldn’t have been astoundingly united, each one, woman, child or man, playing their own part in the killing.
Surabhi
The senseless violence of the mob,
Who come to kill, who come to rob.
The faceless strangers, the angry lot,
Why the hatred, even they know not!
Yet they take away,
What no one can give,
Never thinking how,
The others will live!
Till yesterday, they were sane,
Just like you, and just like me,
Yet, today they come,
And kill without enmity ??
They burn, they loot,
They shout, they hoot!
Why it happens, when it does,
Can anyone explain the root!!
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