By: Muhammad Shoaib Khan
After partition in subcontinent, two nations got independence one was Pakistan and other was India. With independence and Partition the larger, western, portion of Punjab was allocated to Pakistan, now a Muslim state. In the violent upheavals that followed, hundreds of thousands of Punjabis were killed, and millions fled from one part of the province to the other. The Sikh community was split down the middle, over 40 per cent went to India after partition. Several Sikh refugees settled in Indian Punjab.
On a number of occasions Sikh community in India was alleged for anti-nationalist approach, hence there rights were not given by Indian state. The resistance within Sikh community was persistently increased that resulted in start of movement in support of Sikhs in India, resulted in demand for an independent state named as Khalistan. India tried to crush that movement by force and termed it as separatist’s movement. This movement took violent turn and led to ‘Operation Bluestar’ of June 1984, which saw the Indian army storm the Golden Temple and holiest of Sikh shrines, during the operation, the entire population of Punjab was put under siege. 10,000 pilgrims and 1300 workers were trapped inside the Golden Temple. A virtual massacre of Sikhs was carried out and the Akal Takht was reduced to rubble. The Indian army suffered 700 deaths with hundreds injured. As a result of the operation on October 31, 1984, the Sikh body guards shot dead the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There was massive destruction of Sikh property and at least 2,150 Sikhs, mainly males, were killed in Delhi and over 600 in other parts of India. The army took over after three days, but the killings created deep and lasting bitterness and resentment among Sikhs, not only in India but also abroad.
Operation Blue Star was the codename of a military operation carried out by Indian security forces between 1 and 10 June 1984 in order to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the Golden Temple, the holiest site for Sikhs located in Amritsar, Punjab, India. The decision to launch the operation rested with the erstwhile Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi who had already authorized military preparation for a confrontation at the temple complex 18 months prior according to the then-Vice Chief of the Army Staff, S. K. Sinha. In July 1982, Harchand Singh Longowal, the president of the Sikh political party Shiromani Akali Dal, had invited Bhindranwale to take up residence in the Golden Temple to evade arrest by government authorities.
Indian army had allowed thousands of pilgrims and protestors to enter temple complex on 3rd June 1984 and prevented them from leaving and imposed curfew on the same day. Eyewitnesses alleged that on 6th June after fighting had stopped Indian military executed detainees who had their arms tied behind their backs, and fired on men and women who had heeded the announcements of the military to evacuate. Military action in temple complex was criticized by Sikhs worldwide, who interpreted it as an assault on the Sikh religion. Many Sikh soldiers in the army deserted their units, several Sikhs resigned from civil administrative office and returned awards received from Indian government. Five months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in an act of revenge by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. Public outcry over Gandhi’s death led to a state organized pogrom leading to the killing of more than 3,000-17,000 Sikhs across India, in the ensuing 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The alleged assassination of Indira Gandhi triggered backlash against Sikhs across India. According to Amnesty International, “Thousands of innocent Sikhs were burned alive, women raped, men’s hair and beard cut, Gurdwaras set on fire and entire families murdered”. According to the 2005 Nanavati commission. “The systematic nature of attacks whereby men were beaten before being burnt alive”. Even the renowned politician and writer Khushwant Singh returned the Padma Bhushan award. According to him, many Sikhs who have nothing to do with the assassination of Mrs Gandhi were burnt alive. He said, “I was taken away to the Swedish embassy and you felt a refugee in your own homeland”.
Following the installation of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister of India in 1984, an agreement was signed (the Punjab Accord) with the leader of the Akali Dal under which Chandigarh was made the exclusive capital of the state of Punjab and the issue of the river water was to be decided by a commission. It was also agreed that Sikhs’ control of their religious affairs was to be expedited and fresh investments were promised for Punjab. These measures did not go far enough for many Sikhs, and shortly after the signing of the accord the leader of the Akali Dal was assassinated.
Though Khalistan movement lost momentum in the latter half of 1990s and early 2000s, the country-wide anti-Sikh riots in 1984 left a lot of bitterness between Hindus and Sikhs that left deep sense of injustice in their wake. Various commissions were set up since 1984 to investigate riots by the government but there was no move to punish the perpetrators of the violence or even to prosecute cases against them. The late 1980s and 1990s saw several commissions being set up by the government without any substantive movement forward or any concrete steps towards restoring justice being taken.
Political stalemate continued into the 2000s, preventing any action being taken against the perpetrators of the riots. Despite repeated recommendations by several official committees set up in the last three decades, there has been no move by the government to prosecute the political leaders involved directly in instigating the mobs to violence or for their role in the rioting. Similarly, there has been complete silence on the part of the government when it came down to taking action against the policemen indicted for their role and complicity during the riots. The repeated instances of inaction by the government has left a feeling of injustice among many Sikhs to this day.
In Sikhs’ collective memory of 1984, deaths by army action in June and those by genocidal mob violence in November constitute two ends of the same arc of killings. The two cannot be separated and, therefore, remain indelibly linked to the memory of Operation Blue Star, which is seen as the trigger both for the killings and for later disappearances, killings in custody and deaths by ‘encounters’ during the military operations against the armed Sikh opposition movement after the events of 1984.
From 1978 to 1992, Sikhs living overseas campaigned extensively for a separate homeland Khalistan. Talks with Bhindranwale failed as every time Indira’s government backed out to support the Hindus. Bhindranwale made Akal Takht as his command in the headquarters with his armed men to protect Guru Granth Sahib. The demand for a Sikh nation became popularized after this genocidal event in history of Sikh community
The writer is political and media analyst who writes regularly on international political issues. Feedback can be given at m.shoaib_khan
