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1984: Perspective & 25th Anniversary Wrap-Up

by I.J. SINGH

 

 

This is the final, wrap-up piece in sikhchic.com's "1984 & I' series which was presented to you through the 12 months of 2009 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the crimes of Indira Gandhi, the Indian Government and its representatives in 1984.  

 

 

The events of 1984 are etched in our bones.  I won't dwell on them in any detail. 

To put them in perspective, in January 2009 sikhchic.com started a whole series of remembrances, personal anecdotes, experiences and reflections, opinions and analyses, even on how to move forward, by a variety of Sikhs and non-Sikhs. 

But it became much more than that; readers across the globe posted 93 contributions over the year. The pieces covered the gamut - from what happened, the failure of India's governmental institutions, the lamentable state of justice and the absence of meaningful compensation and redress.

It is time to wrap up this phase at this time but not to end it. I am sure every June and November readers will continue to exhume and revisit the events of 1984, and that's as it should be. There are lessons in it that are not to be ignored.

For over half a millennium, the history of Punjab has been inseparably intertwined with that of Sikhs.  One defines the other.

Twentieth century Punjab has witnessed, shaped and lived three momentous, even defining, times; their larger impact has redefined the nation that is India and its sense of self.

First was the reform movement in the 1920's that freed the gurdwaras from British control - a struggle in which many, many were martyred or spent time in jail.  This titanic struggle shook the British Empire to its core, but remained a model of non-violence to the end.  It taught a lesson or two on the meaning of non-violence even to Mahatma Gandhi who later became the apostle of such a model of resistance to tyranny. This influenced and shaped India's struggle for independence from the British. For Sikhs, it also gave birth to the Singh Sabha Movement, the leader of reform in Sikh society, and the Shiromini Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee that held promise of self governance. 

The year 1947 saw the emergence of two free nations out of the subcontinent - India and Pakistan. But the birth wasn't painless.  There was a massive transfer of populations across a line drawn in the sand that divided real people, families and communities.  It created more refugees than in Europe after the Second World War. The numbers massacred during those days - estimated in millions - remain uncounted and undocumented even today, 60 years later.

Then there were the years of, what are euphemistically dubbed, the troubled days and decade of the 1980's in Punjab. 

In the 1980's, as many astute observers of the scene have documented, mostly governmental intransigence transformed a manageable politico-economic dispute between Punjab and the Indian government into a virtual civil war that brought India to the brink of fragmentation. 

Twenty-five years ago in June 1984, the Indian government launched a full scale army attack against the premier Sikh place of worship (The Golden Temple, Amritsar) and 40 other gurdwaras across Punjab.  The date was the Martyrdom Day of Guru Arjan and all gurdwaras in India, particularly the Harmandar at Amritsar were teeming with devotees. Punjab was hermetically sealed by the government.  Rumors abounded but no news filtered out on the number killed or maimed. In a dramatic feat of propaganda, Sikhs were painted as terrorists across the globe. 

Those days of infamy have never been carefully and completely documented or explored.

Less than five months later, within hours of the killing of Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, mobs of looters and killers descended all over Delhi and simultaneously at many cities across India.  They carried lists of Sikh owned houses and businesses, guns and weapons to kill and kerosene to burn. 

Remember that these were pre-Google days; addresses and lists could not be instantly downloaded; weapons and ammunition required licenses and kerosene was rationed. Thousands were killed within three days; the army was not deployed, the police stayed on the sides or even abetted the mayhem. Credible witnesses have attested that some leaders of the ruling political party led these mobs. Three days later violence across India stopped as suddenly as it had begun as if at the command of an unseen Commander.

Ten Inquiry Commissions and 25 years later, five people have been convicted.  It is as if thousands of Sikhs mysteriously self-destructed. It was not a riot but a murderous spree - a pogrom and attempted genocide against the Sikhs.

Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, standing in India's parliament, took a bold and most heartening step.  He apologized to the nation for this carnage. The apology, though long delayed, is indeed welcome. But apologies don't come easy to governments. It reminds me that during the Second World War the United States, uncertain of the loyalty of its citizens of Japanese ancestry, interned over 120,000 of them in camps.  The U.S. government recognized its failings against its own citizens ...  but only 60 years later. 

T.S. Eliot comes to mind:

"After such knowledge what forgiveness?"  Think now

History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors

And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions.

Guides us by vanities."  

In India, atonement and justice still wait.  Many victims - families of those who were massacred - of the carnage of the 1980's survive.  Neither the Indian government has owned up to its responsibility for them, nor have the many Sikh charitable organizations stepped up to the plate in full measure. The institutions of justice have only brought shame to their own moniker.

We need to see the issue as one of many gruesome injustices that have dotted recent human history.  Admittedly, some were on a much larger scale than the killing and demonizing of Sikhs in India 25 years ago that continued for a decade:  the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War and became a cause of the international community; like the genocide of the Armenians at the beginning of the last century; just like apartheid that once defined a regime in South Africa; and like the killings in Rwanda in the 1990's. And so on ...

Governments must not treat their own citizens thus or else it places in question their right to govern. The quarter century neglect has made it a cause that every Indian - nay, every person from across the globe - must embrace.

Justice should no longer remain the cause of the Sikhs alone and need not remain an isolated endeavor.  I acknowledge here some of the many non-Sikh voices - Ram Narayan Kumar, Justice Tarkunde, Manushi magazine and its editors, Amnesty International, and many others, that have joined our cause for justice.

Think of the survivors of the 1984 carnage.  These are the ones with courage.  Words must fail; that is why there are so many words here today, including mine.  A song wildly popular in the Sikh diaspora goes: "Many speak of courage, speaking cannot give it; Stand as the Khalsa, strong as steel ...."

I salute them.  We must not fail them.

A Latin proverb reminds us that "Hidden valour is as bad as cowardice."   I am confident that from an unbiased, open and honest inquiry neither the Indian government not the Sikh leadership of the time will emerge unscathed or smelling like a rose.  Today, courage demands openness, transparency, honesty and accountability.

Although I have been away from India for almost half a century and am no longer its citizen, I think of Thomas Jefferson who said, "I weep for my country when I reflect that God is just."

Of our duty, Guru Granth reminds us, "Purza purza kutt maray kabhoo na chhaday khayt." 

That tells us: "Never let the story die."

 

ijsingh99@gmail.com

December 31, 2009 

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