1984 Anti Sikh Carnage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Sikh_Riots

I was around 5 years at that time. All I remember of the time is standing on the roof of the house in Hari Nagar and seeing flames at a distance which I faintly remember were of buses from the Depot being burned. I was real scared.

I realised it much later what exactly happened during the 84 Carnage. It would be a mockery to call it riots since it was a mayhem with thousands of Sikh in Delhi and around the country being killled mercilessly. Cut to pieces, burned alived by tying tyres in their neck, rape of the females and what not.

This is again in the news with Nanavati Commission report being tabled in the Parliament. I wonder why did Manmohan Singh let Jagdish Tytler into his cabinet. Almost anyone and everyone knows that Tytler, HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, et al had blood of innocent Sikhs on their hands. What was more disgusting was to read today about sikh supporters coming out in support of Tytler and saying he is so peaceloving and would never harm a person. Not sure how much they were paid but they showed money can buy anything.

Personally, I have never been able to forget that and the fact that Congress was behind the massacre. Have heard that 'Time is the best healer' but somehow I can never make myself forget that dark period.

Somehow whenever I hear of that period, my eyes get numb for a moment. A couple of news clips I remember:


1. A newly married Sikh couple had their 1st wedding anniversary the day Mrs Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. The lady had prepared kheer for her husband who scolded her for celebrating the anniversary when the PM has been assassinated. The lady says in a matter of hours, some goondas barged and killed her husband. The tumbler of kheer was lying intact her husband's body.

2. Justic Phoolka who had been representing these people saying 'Most of us who had scooters in 1984 now have swanky cars, but life for them it has degressed'.

3. All you have to do is to visit Tilak Vihar, one of the settlement colonies and you would come across people who lost their husbands, sons or family members or sometimes the entire family. You can see the look of helplessness on their faces. I wonder where is the DSGPC which is so cash rich ? Why does it not do anything for them ? We have failed them. That is too bad.


A link to go thorugh may be:
http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/

Some excerpts from the above link

1. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/18.html
Block 32 of Trilokpuri was then a colony of poor Sikhs. About 320 people were massacred in the confines of a small gully about 300-400 yards long. There were houses on either side and the street was littered with bodies. Dark are the images that haunt Bedi. "It was concentrated in a very, very small area. There was nothing on the street but body parts, hair, clothes … People were shrieking … And there was an all-pervading stink of decaying flesh. We were literally walking on our toes to avoid stepping on some body."

"There was a polio-inflicted woman who was sitting stunned at the doorway of a house. She was beyond tears, beyond any feelings. She had sat there for a one and a half day. Just watching. Watching the senseless and gruesome killing. Mercifully, she was spared."

2. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/21.htm
We decided to return to Chandigarh immediately after the riots, travelling in the cockpit of an Indian Airlines plane.

3. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/18.html
"In 1947, they took refuge across the border. But 20 years ago, which border could they cross? Where could they hide? We had become outcasts in our own country," exclaims Shyama.

Many Sikh families cut off their sons' hair to shield them

"We somehow managed to escape and hid in a Hindu household for five days. My younger brother was not so lucky. All his belongings were burnt along with his turban. He spent a night at the Nigambodh Ghat (a cremation ground) amongst burning bodies," recalls Singh.

"But our community does not know how to give up. Hume mitti me mila diya tha aur hum phir se sona ban kar dikha diye hai (we were razed to the ground, but we have fought back). We are the strength of this nation and will always be," says Shyama with much pride and satisfaction.

4. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/15.html
It's all about what you chose to build. When a community starts building up a defence mechanism it automatically creates known and unknown enemies. But when it arms itself with a positive attitude and rebuilds itself from and beyond the debris, it creates a space for itself. A bigger and better space than ever existed. That is the Sikh community then. Not a ghetto that an injured minority huddles into usually, but a robust part of the mainstream again.

This lesson was learnt by not only an individual, but an entire community together. Each Sikh has contributed to this positive attitude. And that is why they are winning, not whining.

5. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/16.html
"My favorite subject was history and I studied till 10th grade after which I had to quit studying due to financial pressures at home. I really wanted to study further, but I couldn't. Today if my father was living, I would have been still studying," says Gurpal.

6. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/11.html
MENTION the 1984 anti-Sikh riots to these women and an air of silence envelopes them. They live in isolated worlds of poverty and tragedy, but are inextricably joined by one event - their husbands were massacred in that burst of violence 20 years ago.

7. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/3.html
BLOCK number 32 of Trilokpuri till the riots was a mix of lower class Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. But the riots changed the colony overnight. Block number 32 is now a colony of just Hindus and Muslims.

8. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/17.html
TYRES were put around them till their waist and lit with petrol. They were the best means as it is impossible to take one's body out of burning tyres.

In nearby Kanpur the situation was worse. Hundreds of Sardars were pulled out from the narrow lanes of Gumti area and set to fire in front of their shrieking women and yelling kids.
Two thousand Sikhs were butchered in three days. "When a mighty tree falls, the earth is bound to shake" - came the famous explanation from Rajiv Gandhi.

9. http://info.indiatimes.com/1984/1.html
When schools reopened, it was a strange sight. Quite a few of my friends seemed different. Boys who had studied and played with us with colourful turbans had chopped off their hair to escape death.

10. http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=75904
Women, children and a handful of wounded Sikhs, hiding under dead bodies since Thursday night, were rescued by reporters around 6.30 pm on Friday 6. They were emotionless. They had no tears left to shed.

A three-year-old girl, stepping over the bodies of her father, three brothers and countless others lying in the street, clung helplessly to a reporter, pleading for help. ‘‘Please take me home,’’ she said.

A Sikh youth, his slashed stomach patched up with a turban, crawled out from under the dead bodies and collapsed in the arms of the reporters.