By Jagtaran Singh
“In Delhi alone more than 3000 Sikhs were burnt alive in the most gruesome manner. With the Delhi Police playing a most shameful passive role.”
-- Ved Marwah, former Delhi Police Commissioner, Director General of the National Security Guard, and Governor of Manipur, Mizoram, and Jharkhand.
On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated. It was announced to the world that her Sikh bodyguards were the perpetrators of the crime; soon after, the killings, rapes, and looting began, not ending until three days later. On November 9, Rajiv Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, addressed a rally at the Boat Club, famously commenting on the violence, death, and rape in the Indian capital with the casual remark, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.”
Interestingly enough, when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Maharashtrian Hindu, the earth didn’t tremble for all Maharashtrian Hindus. In fact, when Rajiv Gandhi himself was killed, there were no riots breaking out against Hindu Tamils either.
In Delhi, for nearly three days following the assassination, organized and systematic killings of Sikhs took place. Numerous government initiated commissions have noted the role of Congress (ruling party) politicians, and the police in passively allowing the killings and rapes to take place and even actively encouraging them. Those who led the mobs often had lists of ration card holders, enabling them to seek out Sikh households to subject to terror.
In spite of appeals made to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, the army was not called in to stop the pogroms for three days, at which point the Home Minister, Narsimha Rao, famously noted: “Now it is enough.” BBC Reporters Mark Tully and Satish Jacob note that, while Rao and Gandhi allowed for three days of killing, burning, raping, and looting Sikhs to pass before calling in the army, they made sure to call the army into Punjab. This was, of course, out of concern that Sikhs may react violently against Hindus in retaliation for the killing of Sikhs by Hindu mobs in Delhi. As it turned out, nothing of the sort took place in Punjab.
O.P. Dwivedi, a Delhi Additional District and Session Judge wrote in judgement of one of the few convictions of the pogroms, “This genocide would not have been possible but for the inaction and connivance of the police.... Police did not try to prevent arson or murders, nor were they willing to take any action against the guilty.”
Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide as any act committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by, inter alia, killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group.
During the pogroms, mobs were found to have been supplied with voters lists, indicating where Sikhs lived, along with tires, kerosene, and weapons used to burn, beat, maim and kill Sikhs. Politicians were seen encouraging the violence if not participating in it themselves. Manoj Mitta, senior editor of the times of India, and author of the book “When a Tree Shook Delhi,” notes that the police actually stopped Sikhs from defending themselves, confiscated their weapons, and returned them to the mobs. Some Sikhs were even charged with assault as they defended their families from arsonists.
Rahul Bedi, journalist for the Indian Express, writes in the book “The Assassination & After,” “The engineered Holocaust needed at least a day to get organised. And there is enough evidence available to indicate complicity in the overall plot, complicity of the Congress – I, complicity of the police, and complicity of the local administrators.”
Interestingly enough, despite all this evidence, there are many who balk at the idea of admitting that the violence of November 1984 constitutes genocide. The Indian judiciary, noted journalists and academics, and many others (non Sikhs) readily admit to this. It seems that those who refuse to, are those who are afraid of letting the world see India for what it really is – an egregious offender of human rights. Sikhs are not alone in their plight. Christians, Muslims, and many others have suffered and continue to suffer from human rights abuses in India. In 2002, near identical pogroms took place against Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat, with all the telltale signs of genocide. Though the number of casualties was lower in number, it remains a stark reminder of India’s record on human rights.
Let me be clear: as a proud Canadian, I realize that economic growth is an important part of our country’s future – of which India is and should be an integral part. I am in no way suggesting that Canada rethink its plans to conduct business with India. But as Canadians, we should also remember that we have a proud history of standing up for human rights – even when it may not be particularly palatable to our business partners.
Anything less would simply be, well, un-Canadian.
Jagtaran Singh is currently a law student at McGill University, and serves on the board of directors of the Darfur Sudan Peace Network.
http://www.inter-alia.ca/
“In Delhi alone more than 3000 Sikhs were burnt alive in the most gruesome manner. With the Delhi Police playing a most shameful passive role.”
-- Ved Marwah, former Delhi Police Commissioner, Director General of the National Security Guard, and Governor of Manipur, Mizoram, and Jharkhand.
On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated. It was announced to the world that her Sikh bodyguards were the perpetrators of the crime; soon after, the killings, rapes, and looting began, not ending until three days later. On November 9, Rajiv Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, addressed a rally at the Boat Club, famously commenting on the violence, death, and rape in the Indian capital with the casual remark, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.”
Interestingly enough, when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Maharashtrian Hindu, the earth didn’t tremble for all Maharashtrian Hindus. In fact, when Rajiv Gandhi himself was killed, there were no riots breaking out against Hindu Tamils either.
In Delhi, for nearly three days following the assassination, organized and systematic killings of Sikhs took place. Numerous government initiated commissions have noted the role of Congress (ruling party) politicians, and the police in passively allowing the killings and rapes to take place and even actively encouraging them. Those who led the mobs often had lists of ration card holders, enabling them to seek out Sikh households to subject to terror.
In spite of appeals made to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, the army was not called in to stop the pogroms for three days, at which point the Home Minister, Narsimha Rao, famously noted: “Now it is enough.” BBC Reporters Mark Tully and Satish Jacob note that, while Rao and Gandhi allowed for three days of killing, burning, raping, and looting Sikhs to pass before calling in the army, they made sure to call the army into Punjab. This was, of course, out of concern that Sikhs may react violently against Hindus in retaliation for the killing of Sikhs by Hindu mobs in Delhi. As it turned out, nothing of the sort took place in Punjab.
O.P. Dwivedi, a Delhi Additional District and Session Judge wrote in judgement of one of the few convictions of the pogroms, “This genocide would not have been possible but for the inaction and connivance of the police.... Police did not try to prevent arson or murders, nor were they willing to take any action against the guilty.”
Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines genocide as any act committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by, inter alia, killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group.
During the pogroms, mobs were found to have been supplied with voters lists, indicating where Sikhs lived, along with tires, kerosene, and weapons used to burn, beat, maim and kill Sikhs. Politicians were seen encouraging the violence if not participating in it themselves. Manoj Mitta, senior editor of the times of India, and author of the book “When a Tree Shook Delhi,” notes that the police actually stopped Sikhs from defending themselves, confiscated their weapons, and returned them to the mobs. Some Sikhs were even charged with assault as they defended their families from arsonists.
Rahul Bedi, journalist for the Indian Express, writes in the book “The Assassination & After,” “The engineered Holocaust needed at least a day to get organised. And there is enough evidence available to indicate complicity in the overall plot, complicity of the Congress – I, complicity of the police, and complicity of the local administrators.”
Interestingly enough, despite all this evidence, there are many who balk at the idea of admitting that the violence of November 1984 constitutes genocide. The Indian judiciary, noted journalists and academics, and many others (non Sikhs) readily admit to this. It seems that those who refuse to, are those who are afraid of letting the world see India for what it really is – an egregious offender of human rights. Sikhs are not alone in their plight. Christians, Muslims, and many others have suffered and continue to suffer from human rights abuses in India. In 2002, near identical pogroms took place against Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat, with all the telltale signs of genocide. Though the number of casualties was lower in number, it remains a stark reminder of India’s record on human rights.
Let me be clear: as a proud Canadian, I realize that economic growth is an important part of our country’s future – of which India is and should be an integral part. I am in no way suggesting that Canada rethink its plans to conduct business with India. But as Canadians, we should also remember that we have a proud history of standing up for human rights – even when it may not be particularly palatable to our business partners.
Anything less would simply be, well, un-Canadian.
Jagtaran Singh is currently a law student at McGill University, and serves on the board of directors of the Darfur Sudan Peace Network.
http://www.inter-alia.ca/
