Below: Prof Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Sardar Bhagat Singh, Martyr. [Photo by Sukant Singh Chandan.]
1984
30 Yrs Later, Independent & Contemporaneous Report on 1984 Pogroms is Still Banned in India
AMANINDER PAL SHARMA
In February 1985, a book "Who are the guilty?" detailing accounts of the victims of anti-Sikh pogroms was banned in Punjab, which was then under 'President's Rule'.
30 years on, the ban on the only available documented account of Sikh survivors is yet to be lifted.
In November 1984, just two weeks after the Sikh carnage, the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) and People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) had jointly published the book based on the accounts of a dozen victims' families who narrated the involvement of then Congress leaders in the killings.
A month later, the book was translated into Punjabi by the Association For Democratic Rights (AFDR).
In February 1985, AFDR brought out the second edition of the book, incorporating even more chilling details of the victims' atrocities.
This time, the book was immediately banned in Punjab, which was then under the 'President's Rule', and Professor Jagmohan Singh, its publisher, was charged under Section 121 of the IPC for waging war against the nation.
Jagmohan Singh, retired as head of computer science department in PAU, was then the general secretary of AFDR, Punjab unit.
He is a nephew of Sardar Bhagat Singh, the great national hero and martyr of India's Struggle for Independence.
Even though charges against him were later dropped, Jagmohan Singh said he was still unsure whether the ban on the book had been lifted.
The "Organized killing of Sikhs", as the 1984 massacres are now known today, largely subsided on November 3, 1984, and in less than two weeks, teams of PUDR and PUCL had gathered accounts of victims and released a report on November 18 which was later turned into a book.
"The book also had accounts of the Hindu families who had rescued Sikh families in their respective localities," said Jagmohan Singh, who had published its Punjabi version from Patiala.
He said people of Punjab had maintained calm after the mass murders in Delhi and other parts of the country.
"Fear of communal polarization did persist. Publication of the book in Punjabi was an attempt to dispel notion that the entire Hindu community had spontaneously organized itself against Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination," he added.
He said banning of the second edition came as a surprise for the democratic society, given the fact that it had detailed reports of how Hindu families in Delhi came out in open to rescue their Sikh neighbours.
"Even after 30 years, it is still beyond our imagination how the report, which highlighted compassion by the majority community towards the minor one, threatened the security of the nation. It was a repressive measure," Jagmohan Singh said.
Another person, also named Jagmohan Singh, who was in 1984 active in Patiala unit of AFDR, claimed that a large number of copies were seized from a Jalandhar press and these were still locked at "maalkhana" (storage) of a Jalandhar police station.
TO READ THE BANNED BOOK, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
[Article, courtesy: Times of India. Edited for sikhchic.com]
February 5, 2014