Abstract
This chapter traverses the watershed events of 1984 that presented Kaur, Jaijee, and Bains the choice to recognize their privilege and no longer accept that which they couldn’t immediately change.
While most accounts of Punjab’s conflict begin with 1984, this book closes with that year. To relay the events that jolted the Sikh sense of self, the three main protagonists are joined by various voices as the two timelines running through the earlier chapters converge in the cauldron of this terrible year.
Though June 1984’s fierce firefight between the militants and the Indian Army was in Amritsar, 1984 was indelibly experienced across Punjab. Sikhs, particularly in traumatized rural Punjab, were overcome with sentiments of betrayal and alienation.
The chapter then travels outside Punjab, from where Punjab’s history is most often written: in November 1984, Indira Gandhi was shot dead, reportedly by her Sikh bodyguards. Anti-Sikh pogroms, radiating out from the capital city of New Delhi, claimed thousands of lives. The political currency of the November 1984 carnage then won Gandhi’s son and the Congress Party a landslide election victory, unmatched since.
The immediate effect on the Sikh psyche was unmistakable: the year 1984 was an end and a beginning.
Life can only be understood backwards;
but it must be lived forwards.
:Søren Kierkegaard:
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Notes
- 1.
“[T]he last one on May 26, 1984, a few days before the start of actual operations,” writes Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 2nd ed. (New Delhi: Uncommon Books, 1996), 395.
- 2.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs, Volume II; 1839–2004 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 349.
- 3.
See, for example, Harminder Kaur, Blue Star over Amritsar: The Real Story of June 1984 (New Delhi: Corporate Vision, 2006).
- 4.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 349
- 5.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 350.
- 6.
See, for example, Tavleen Singh, “Terrorists in the Temple,” in The Punjab Story (New Delhi: Roli Books, 1985).
- 7.
See, Iqbal Singh, Punjab Under Siege: A Critical Analysis (New York: Allen, McMillan, and Enderson, 1985), 69.
- 8.
See, Chap. 7.
- 9.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 335–36; see also Chap. 9, n. 55.
- 10.
See, for example, Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew, Soft Target (Toronto, Canada: Lorimer, 1989), 129–30.
- 11.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 352–53.
- 12.
Kaur, Blue Star over Amritsar, 8.
- 13.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 356–57.
- 14.
Government of India, “White Paper on the Punjab Agitation, a Summary” (New Delhi: Government of India Press, 1984), 105–9.
- 15.
“All telephone and telex lines are cut. … There are no newspapers, no trains , no buses—not even a bullock cart can move.” Mary Anne Weaver, “India reels as siege of Sikhs’ holiest shrine comes to an end,” The Christian Science Monitor, June 8, 1984.
- 16.
See, N.D. Pancholi et al., Report to the Nation: Oppression in Punjab, U.S. ed. (Ohio: Sikh Religious and Education Trust, 1986), 66. This report was first published in India in 1985 and immediately banned by the Rajiv Gandhi government, which also charged the authors with sedition.
- 17.
G.K.C. Reddy, ed., Army Action in Punjab: Prelude and Aftermath (New Delhi: Samata Era, 1984), 49.
- 18.
“Bhaiyee” is a common and often pejorative Punjabi usage for migrant labor, especially from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
- 19.
See, Ram Narayan Kumar, “The Ghalughara: Operation Blue Star: A Retrospect,” The Sikh Review 48, no. 6 (June 2000): 30–36.
- 20.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 362.
- 21.
See, for example, Lt. Gen. J.S. Aurora, “Assault on the Golden Temple Complex,” in The Punjab Story (New Delhi: Roli Books, 1985), 91–137, 100.
- 22.
See, Amrik Singh, Dharmi Faujis and the Blue-star Operation (Chandigarh: Spokesman Trust, 2003).
- 23.
Brahma Chellaney eyewitness testimony, published in Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Bluestar & After (New Delhi: Vision Books, 1984), 162.
- 24.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 358.
- 25.
See, Iqbal Singh, Punjab Under Siege, 73. Quoting Gobind Thukral, “The Infant Terrorists,” India Today, September 30, 1984, 25.
- 26.
See, for example, Subhash Kirpekar, “Operation Bluestar: An Eyewitness Account,” in The Punjab Story, 113.
- 27.
See, for example, Kirpekar, “Operation Bluestar,” 114. “The disposal of corpses posed a great problem. So much so that seven truck cleaners behind my hotel were rounded up one morning and threatened with dire consequences if they did not do as ordered. But they stubbornly refused. So the scouts then went to contact some sweepers. They too refused. But when offered liquor and the lure of owning whatever was found on the corpse, be it [a] gold chain or ring or cash, goes the story, they agreed. Some of them have made tiny fortunes in the bargain.”
- 28.
See, Kaur, Blue Star over Amritsar, 46–47.
- 29.
Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 404.
- 30.
38 (Eric Silver, “Golden Temple Sikhs surrender,” The Guardian, June 7, 1984); 42 (Government of India, “White Paper on the Punjab Agitation”), 74 (Inderjit Singh Jaijee, Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984–1998 (Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 2002), 34).
- 31.
See, Jaijee, Politics of Genocide, 64.
- 32.
Originally published by The Diplomat, June 3, 2016, www.thediplomat.com: Mallika Kaur, “Blue Star Over Patiala.”
- 33.
“Truth on Trial—in India,” The New York Times, October 23, 1984.
- 34.
Satish Jacob and Mark Tully, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle (New Delhi: Rupa, 1985), 203.
- 35.
Kirpal Dhillon, Time Present and Time Past: Memoirs of a Top Cop (New Delhi, Penguin: 2013), 231–32.
- 36.
“The government media and almost entirely communally biased Hindu press did its utmost to justify the action, extol the heroism of the army for doing an unpleasant job with professional skill and vilify Bhindranwale and his associates in language unworthy of an allegedly free press,” writes Khushwant Singh. To further discredit the vanquished leader, rumors about Bhindranwale’s death were circulated by the media—including of him having been killed by his own ranks, and of him having had committed suicide . Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 361.
- 37.
See, for example, The Tribune Bureau, “Big Haul of Arms, Diamonds,” The Tribune, June 13, 1984.
- 38.
For example, “There was a harem of village girls for the pleasure of [Bhindranwale’s] brainwashed brigade. Some of these girls are said to be pregnant now.” Kirpekar, “Operation Bluestar,” 20.
- 39.
See, Aurora, “Assault on the Golden Temple Complex,” 97.
- 40.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 354.
- 41.
On his unique contributions caring for the poor and sick and society’s castaways, see, Patwant Singh and Harinder Kaur Sekhon, Garland Around my Neck: The Story of Puran Singh of Pingalwara (New Delhi; London: UBS Publishers’ Distributors, 2001).
- 42.
An Indian Army circular described amritdhari Sikhs as dangerous extremists, who must be immediately reported. “The Punjab Situation,” Baat Cheet, Serial No. 153, July 1984.
- 43.
See, for example, Harnik Deol, Religion and Nationalism in India (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 108–9.
- 44.
Former civil services officer Sangat Singh writes: “The author’s enquiries in end-1984 revealed that during the first four to six weeks of Operation Woodrose about 100,000 youth had been taken into custody, and many of them were not heard of again: and about 20,000 belonging to third generation after independence escaped to Pakistan,” The Sikhs in History, 408.
- 45.
See, 1984 Living History Project, Ajeet Cour interview, http://www.1984livinghistory.org/2014/10/16/ajeet-caur/.
- 46.
Khushwant Singh, History of the Sikhs II, 364.
- 47.
Kashmeri and McAndrew, Soft Target, 49.
- 48.
Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 404.
- 49.
The Tribune Bureau, “Foreign Hand Proved: Rao,” The Tribune, June 28, 1984.
- 50.
Nicholas Watt, “UK advised India on 1984 Golden Temple attack, William Hague confirms,” The Guardian, February 4, 2014.
- 51.
See Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 416–17. “The omen of her imminent death weighed on Indira … That was uppermost in her mind when she spoke of her violent death at the public meeting at Bhubaneshwar on October 29.”
- 52.
See Ram Narayan Kumar, “The Ghalughara,” 30–36.
- 53.
U.N.I., “Demonstrations Against B.B.C.,” The Tribune, June 23, 1984.
- 54.
Joyce J. M. Pettigrew, The Sikhs of the Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerilla Violence (London: Zed Books, 1995), 8.
- 55.
Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 421.
- 56.
Manoj Mitta and H.S. Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage and its Aftermath (New Delhi: Lotus Collection, an imprint of Roli Books, 2007), 9–10.
- 57.
Jaspreet Singh, “Thomas Bernhard in New Delhi,” India Ink, The New York Times, July 22, 2013.
- 58.
See, for example, Yudhvir Rana, “Why Nobody Noticed Amitabh Bachchan Spewing Venom in India,” Times of India, October 21, 2011.
- 59.
Ivan Fera, “The Enemy Within,” Illustrated Weekly of India, December 23, 1984, 16.
- 60.
The dominant community in Haryana.
- 61.
On rapes of young, old, pregnant, infirm, in Delhi 1984, see Madhu Kishwar, “Gangster Rule: The Massacre of the Sikhs” Manushi 5, no. 1 (November–December 1984): 10–32.
- 62.
See, for example, Mitta and Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi, 219.
- 63.
See, for example, Uma Chakravarti, “The Law as Feminist Horizon: Challenging Impunity, Pursuing Justice,” in Landscapes of Fear: Understanding Impunity in India, Patrick Hoenig and Navsharan Singh eds. (New Delhi: Zubaan, 2014), 254–55. See, also, Kishwar, “Gangster Rule.”
- 64.
See, for example, Mitta and Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi, 67–68.
- 65.
Ivan Fera, “The Enemy Within,” 16.
- 66.
Rahul Bedi, “84 Closure Is a Long Shot,” The Tribune, December 6, 2018.
- 67.
See, A. Singh (pseudonym), “The Massacres of 1984,” on file with author.
- 68.
People’s Union for Democratic Rights and People’s Union for Civil Liberties, “Who Are the Guilty?,” November 1984, 14.
- 69.
See, for example, Jaijee, Politics of Genocide, 76; Betwa Sharma, “Investigation of 1984 Sikh Massacre Continues in India,” India Ink, The New York Times, April 11, 2013.
- 70.
Amitav Ghosh, “The Ghosts of Mrs. Gandhi,” The New Yorker, July 17, 1995.
- 71.
Mitta and Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi, 208.
- 72.
People’s Union for Democratic Rights and People’s Union for Civil Liberties, “Who Are the Guilty?,” names 16 Congress politicians, 13 police officers, and 198 others, accused by survivors and witnesses of the pogroms.
- 73.
Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History, 420.
- 74.
Sangat Singh, 415.
- 75.
See, for example, “Indira Gandhi’s Assassination,” The Week, November 11–17, 1984, published in The Best of The Week (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002).
- 76.
See, 1984 Living History Project, Ajeet Cour interview, http://www.1984livinghistory.org/2014/10/16/ajeet-caur/.
- 77.
Singh, “Thomas Bernhard in New Delhi.”
- 78.
See, for example, Harji Malik, “The Politics of Alienation,” in Punjab: the Fatal Miscalculation, Patwant Singh and Harji Malik, eds. (New Delhi: Patwant Singh, 1985), 50.
- 79.
Uma Chakravarti and Nandita Haksar, The Delhi Riots: Three Days in the Life of a Nation (New Delhi: Lancer International, 1987), 26.
- 80.
Mitta and Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi, 123.
- 81.
Tully & Jacob, 7; Joginder Singh, “Sikhs in Independent India,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sikhs Studies, Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech eds. (Oxford University Press, 2014), 91.
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Kaur, M. (2019). Ten Thousand Pairs of Shoes. In: Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24674-7_10
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