Aradhya Jain

S173DHS13

MA History

1984 Anti-Sikh Riots

India has been the cradle of religious pluralism for centuries. The Indian Constitution
guarantees religious freedom, mandates the government treat all religions equally,
however, the tension between the right to freedom of expression and the desire among
many people to prohibit blasphemous or so called religiously hurtful speech (or expression)
has become a focal point of conflict between religious groups and free thinkers. India as a
country is sensitive to all topics related to religion or community and when intensified,
these issues escalate to violence. Riotsinvolve people representing at least two different
religious communities mobilised against each other and carrying the feelings of hostility,
emotional fury, exploitation, social discrimination and social neglect; trying to supress each
other through the use of violence over the minority community. Some groups resort to
accepting or inviting help from state machineries in the process of violence incurrence. The
research and studies on riots of any sort teaches us that if attempted, there did stand a
chance to subdue or overpower the riot-making factories, who are consciously waiting for
the arrival of one reason to propagate violence across the region. Similarly here we’ll try to
analyse the pogroms of Sikh riots. The dispersed Sikh community urged to term the
atrocities against their brethren back in India as a ‘genocide’ and not limiting it to amere
‘riot’.

1984 was a year of great violence in Punjab state, the homeland of India’s Sikhs. The
assassination of Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on 31st October 1984, by two of her Sikh
security guards, led to violent attacks on the Sikh community and their properties in Delhi
and other parts of the country.

The attempt made here in the presentation, aims at trying to look into the life incidents of
the families who were victimised. Between October 31 and November 3, 1984, over 8,000
people from the Sikh community were murdered in riotsaided and abetted by members of
India’s government and the Congress Party. The Delhi city police was said to have looked
on passively as rioters murdered and raped Sikhs. Despite the massive casualties and
witnesses, very few people were persecuted for their role in the riots. Insensitivity of the
issue on behalf of the government is the prime cause.The minority status of the community
was deemed the most probable reason behind the thought of shutting the community down
through ruthless killing.As a result of these riots, hundreds of Sikhs had to leave their
homes and take refuge in relief camps or in other safer places. Many Sikh families lost their
male members and suffered great hardships including and not limited to emotional trauma
and heavy financial loss.Big mobs armed with weapons attacked the houses of Sikhs; male
members were assaulted and beaten mercilessly; many of them were burnt alive or cut into
pieces. Many dead bodies were removed in vehicles and it is alleged that they were thrown
into river Yamuna. Large number of shops and Sikh business establishments were looted
and more often than not burnt. Many taxi stands and taxis were also put to flame mainly
because the Sikh community dominated these businesses. A major part of the generation
was left father-less and its fate was left alone for the widowed mothers to decide.

For my research, the focus of the study will be the East Delhi region of Trilokpuri.
Trilokpuri is a resettlement colony created by Smt. Indira Gandhi to house people. These
people comprised of all those displaced by the slum ‘clearances’ that the Congress
government spearheaded during the Emergency under the direction of Jagmohan and
Sanjay Gandhi. Many of the Muslims in Trilokpuri were resettled there when the Turkman
Gate bastis were violently cleared. As John Dayal and Ajoy Bose wrote in their book, ‘Delhi
Under the Emergency’, these resettlement colonies weren’t model neighbourhoods with
neat plots, drainage, water supply, schools, playgrounds, parks and electricity as Sanjay
Gandhi had previouslyclaimed: the area was nothing but a tract of empty land where
people literally bulldozed out of their slums were dumped.

The memory of the intense riot is still raw and emotional in the hearts of these people.
Nanavati Commission, newspaper articles andpersonal accounts have been the primary
source of material to understand the severity of such a brutal situation. On the eve of the
riot,the mobs were armed with weapons, kerosene, petrol and other inflammable material.
They also had copies of the voters list to identify Sikh homes. In Block 32 of Trilokpuri,
there was a huge pile of burning bodies and the same pattern was followed all over Delhi.
The women lost the sole bread earners of their families.The young generation that was
there to witness the loss of their loved ones resorted to drug abuse in order to cope with
the trauma. The lack of educational institutions was an added baggage and the region is still
undergoing academic rehabilitation to bring the youth back to educational streams.

The incident influenced the region of Trilokpuri a lot. The inhabitants of block 32 have
reduced to merely 50 families. Most of the families have shifted to the ghettos of Tilak Vihar
or have gone back to Punjab or to the regions they originally belonged from. Post 1984
riots, there was an increase in number of population in the Muslim and Hindu community.
Trilokpuri also saw another communal clash between the two communities on the eve of
Diwali 2017. We must realise that what was done to the Sikhs can at any moment be done
to any community. More often than not, the spark for such horrible violent atrocities is
created by a bunch of powerful politicians who, for some vested interest or other, decide to
make a scapegoat of any identifiable group in the country. Lower caste and so called
untouchable people have repeatedly been made victims of mass murder, rape and arson in
rural areas.  The most frightening part of all this is the realization that the survivors can
return to a semblance of normalcy and everyday patterns of living when the generalised
sense of fear has been transferred upon another community. Now it is the Muslims who live
in anguish and anger, subject to everyday forms of humiliation and fear for their lives
during the riots. 

Referenes :

1) Justice Nanavati Commission of Inquiry (1984 Anti-Sikh Riots)

2) Wayback Machine Internet Archive

3) BBC News Archives

4)EPW :Victims, Neighbours, and Watan-Survivors of Anti-Sikh Carnage of 1984 by Uma

Chakravarti