In No­vem­ber 1984, when the en­tire po­lice ma­chin­ery ei­ther be­came mute spec­ta­tors or sided with the po­lit­i­cal and bu­reau­cratic lead­er­ship in Delhi and other parts, few men stood tall and did not bother to toe the line. One such po­lice of­fi­cer was Maxwell Pereira who was in­stru­men­tal in sav­ing his­toric Gur­d­wara Sis­gang Sahib from be­ing torched by lumpens. WSN pays a trib­ute to the brav­ery and in­tegrity of Maxwell Pereira. 

When­ever a Sikh passes through the Darya­ganj po­lice sta­tion, the po­lice posts at Sul­tan­puri, Mon­golpuri and Nan­gloi, his blood boils re­call­ing how the po­lice per­son­nel dis­armed the very few Sikhs who had li­censed weapons or had 3 feet long Kir­pans and other tra­di­tional weaponry. We can­not help but re­call that the po­lice told lies af­ter lies to cheat the Sikhs and then in ca­hoots with the lumpens al­lowed Sikh homes to be looted and burnt, Sikh men to be killed and Sikh women to be as­saulted.

It is not that they did not know their duty. They were fol­low­ing a holier than thou at­ti­tude. They were fol­low­ing un­writ­ten or­ders from “the top”. But one man stood up. He showed that it was em­i­nently pos­si­ble to save the Sikhs’ live and prop­erty.

The sit­u­a­tion was ex­plo­sive by the time Maxwell Pereira, the num­ber two po­lice of­fi­cer of the north Delhi dis­trict, reached Sis Ganj Gur­d­wara on the morn­ing of 1 No­vem­ber 1984.

He found that about 200 Sikhs had de­scended on the road, and dis­play­ing naked swords and spears in the fa­mous Chandni Chowk mar­ket. The provo­ca­tion ob­vi­ously was the mobs clos­ing in on the Gur­d­wara from both di­rec­tions, shout­ing ag­gres­sive slo­gans.

“ When Pereira saw that his warn­ing to the crowd to dis­perse had lit­tle ef­fect, he took the next log­i­cal step. Pereira or­dered fir­ing. He got his men to open fire on the mis­cre­ants who were loot­ing a shoe shop owned by Sikhs.”

Un­like his coun­ter­parts in other parts of Delhi, Pereira did not dis­arm the Sikhs and leave them at the mercy of the mobs. In­stead, he per­suaded them to go in­side the Gur­d­wara by promis­ing to pro­vide them se­cu­rity. He kept his word and dealt with the mob sternly de­spite hav­ing a mea­gre force at his com­mand.

To be sure, it took a lot of courage and in­ge­nu­ity to do so. Once he got the Sikhs to go in­doors, the mobs from both di­rec­tions were em­bold­ened to pelt stones with greater vigour. All that Pereira and his men could do in re­turn was threaten to fire with their re­volvers. In a gritty dis­play of polic­ing, they man­aged to keep the crowd at a safe dis­tance from the Gur­d­wara till a small re­in­force­ment came along with tear smoke am­mu­ni­tion.

The tear gas fir­ing that en­sued helped the po­lice chase the crowd away from the Gur­d­wara on the Chandni Chowk road in both di­rec­tions. The team that had chased the crowd right up to Town Hall re­ported to Pareira on the wire­less that some of the mis­cre­ants, hav­ing been pre­vented from at­tack­ing Sis Ganj Gur­d­wara, had turned their at­ten­tion to shops owned by Sikhs. The mob in­dulged in loot­ing and ar­son.

“This res­olute and firm stand of Shri Pereira had an in­stant im­pact and the mob dis­persed. There­after, there was no se­ri­ous in­ci­dent (in that area) dur­ing the en­tire pe­riod of ri­ots. This in­ci­dent proves be­yond doubt that where the po­lice of­fi­cers showed the strength and the de­ter­mi­na­tion to check the ri­ots, they could be re­ally ef­fec­tive with lit­tle force too.”

Kusum Lata Mit­tal, bu­reau­crat, in her de­part­men­tal en­quiry re­port.

On rush­ing to the fresh flash­point, Pereira saw that a Sikh-owned shop, Am­rit Watch Com­pany, had al­ready been set on fire. He warned the crowd to dis­perse. It had lit­tle ef­fect. That is when Pereira took the next log­i­cal step to en­force law and or­der, some­thing that no other of­fi­cer did any­where in Delhi on 1 No­vem­ber, the first and worst day of the car­nage.

Pereira or­dered fir­ing. He got his men to open fire on the mis­cre­ants who were loot­ing a shoe shop owned by Sikhs. Con­sta­ble Shiv Prashan of Kot­wali po­lice sta­tion opened fire on his or­der. Shiv Prashan fired three rounds, shoot­ing one of the loot­ers dead in full view of the ri­ot­ers. Dri­ving home the rule of law, Pereira an­nounced then and there, a re­ward of Rs 200 to the con­sta­ble, mak­ing sure the re­ward was heard by every­one as he an­nounced it on a loud-hailer. The fir­ing and the re­ward had the de­sired and ex­pected ef­fect. Sis Ganj Gur­d­wara was saved as the mobs melted away.

An ad­min­is­tra­tive in­quiry con­ducted by re­tired bu­reau­crat, Kusum Lata Mit­tal, rightly con­cluded, “This res­olute and firm stand of Shri Pereira had an in­stant im­pact and the mob dis­persed. There­after, there was no se­ri­ous in­ci­dent (in that area) dur­ing the en­tire pe­riod of ri­ots. This in­ci­dent proves be­yond doubt that where the po­lice of­fi­cers showed the strength and the de­ter­mi­na­tion to check the ri­ots, they could be re­ally ef­fec­tive with lit­tle force too.”

There was un­for­tu­nately no such res­olute and firm ac­tion in the face of a sim­i­lar threat to Rakab Ganj Gur­d­wara, the other holy shrine for Sikhs in Delhi, around the same time. Po­lice Com­mis­sioner Sub­hash Tan­don, and Ad­di­tional Com­mis­sioner Gau­tam Kaul, de­spite be­ing su­pe­rior in rank, showed none of Pereira’s will to check the break­down of law and or­der. They did not even cane the mob, let alone re­sort­ing to tear gas or fir­ing.

Em­bold­ened by the po­lice’s ob­vi­ous re­luc­tance to take any ac­tion against mis­cre­ants, the mob at Rakab Ganj Gur­d­wara laid siege to it for at least five hours, in­dulging in var­i­ous forms of vi­o­lence. It pelted stones at the Sikhs in­side the Gur­d­wara. It flung burn­ing rags doused with petrol. Jump­ing over the com­pound wall, it trans­gressed into the Gur­d­wara again and again. On one oc­ca­sion, it tried to break the Gur­d­wara’s main door and when that proved too strong to break, it set the door on fire. On an­other oc­ca­sion, the mob at­tacked an em­ploy­ee’s house in­side the com­plex and set it on fire. In what was the worst of all its crimes on the spot, the mob killed two Sikhs.

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There are plenty of sto­ries of po­lice com­plic­ity in the car­nage of No­vem­ber 1984. Those of po­lice sav­ing Sikhs are few and far be­tween. There­fore, thank you of­fi­cer and gen­tle­man Maxwell Pereira.