June evokes in­tense feel­ings and emo­tions for Sikhs in­side In­dia and glob­ally, rep­re­sent­ing the mod­ern Sikh geno­cide month of June 1984. UK based Sikh ac­tivist -Jagdeesh Singh pre­sents this re­flec­tion of events of June 1984 and how In­dia and other na­tions, in­clud­ing the United Na­tions chose to turn a blind eye. Even to­day. WSN pre­sents this as part one of a two-part se­ries on how the move­ment of ex­pres­sion of Sikh anger and the eu­lo­gi­sa­tion and con­cep­tu­al­i­sa­tion of Sikh free­dom has un­folded over the last 34 years.

1984 served as a ma­jor spring­board for the spark­ing of a global wave of jus­tice and free­dom strug­gle that Sikhs in­side Pan­jaab and In­dia and across the world have shared. 

To­day on June 4, the Sikh peo­ple in Pan­jaab and glob­ally, are mark­ing the 34th an­niver­sary of the dev­as­tat­ing, geno­ci­dal on­slaught by the In­dian state in June 1984, which took the form of a full-scale, war-like mil­i­tary on­slaught on Am­rit­sar and across the en­tirety of East Pan­jaab.  Over 80 Gur­d­waras across Pan­jaab were at­tacked by the In­dian army, and the en­tire Pan­jaab was sealed off from the world as the bru­tal­i­ties and geno­cide was meted out over a 30-day pe­riod. The cen­tre-piece of this grand mil­i­tary on­slaught (‘Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar’), was the 150,000 In­dian army per­son­nel at­tack on Ha­ri­mandir Sahib (Am­rit­sar) – the sym­bolic cen­tre-point of Pan­jaab. 

The hor­rific acts of mass dis­ap­pear­ances, mass killings and mass cre­ma­tions of tens of thou­sands of Pan­jaabi civil­ians that fol­lowed over the years (ev­i­dence un­cov­ered by Jaswant Singh Khalra and oth­ers in the years that fol­lowed), com­bined with the de­struc­tion with tank-bom­bard­ment and high cal­i­bre mil­i­tary hard­ware on Dar­bar Sahib and the Sikh Ref­er­ence Li­brary and, si­mul­ta­ne­ous, mini-at­tacks on 80 other Gur­d­waras across Pan­jaab. The grue­some de­tail of this, as re­vealed by the wit­ness ac­counts of sur­vivors and un­der­cover jour­nal­ist, is widely doc­u­mented in an ever-ex­pan­sive body of ma­te­r­ial.

“The 150,000 In­dian army troops with tanks, he­li­copter gun­ships and other mil­i­tary hard­ware, went to war on Pan­jaab.”

The mass slaugh­ter of over 1,000 civil­ians in­side Dar­bar Sahib alone within the space of 1-7 June 1984, rep­re­sents one of mod­ern his­to­ry’s most hor­rific crimes against hu­man­ity; as too does the whole-scale on­slaught on the vil­lages and cities of Pan­jaab dur­ing that same pe­riod. The grue­some and de­lib­er­ate mass mur­der of men, women and chil­dren, through or­ches­trated acts of di­rect bru­tal­ity by In­dian troops and their com­man­ders war­rant global at­ten­tion. De­spite In­di­a’s sys­tem­atic re­moval of all In­dian and non-In­dian jour­nal­ists from Pan­jaab, dar­ing jour­nal­ists like Brahma Chel­laney man­aged to re­main out­side the net. His di­rect re­port­ing of events in Ha­ri­man­der Sahib as they took place, made UK news head­lines.

His re­ports de­scribed Sikh males be­ing forced to sit in a line in the hot sun, with their tur­bans re­moved and used to tie their hands, and then each be­ing killed by a shot to the head. This is but a glimpse of what took place. What more re­mains hid­den?

“Ninety-eight four cer­tainly glob­alised the Sikh agenda; it gal­vanised global Sikh opin­ion and cre­ated deep feel­ings of an­guish, dis­sent and re­sis­tance against the In­dian state.”

But for the ac­counts given by sur­vivors, much of the vol­ume and in­ten­sity of these bru­tal­i­ties would re­main con­cealed. Pan­jaab was turned into a sealed con­cen­tra­tion camp through­out June 1984, to give the In­dian es­tab­lish­ment and its army the free­dom to carry out its mil­i­tary of­fen­sive. There was no ac­count­abil­ity and in­de­pen­dent me­dia mon­i­tor­ing al­lowed. In­dia was lit­er­ally go­ing to a war on de­fence­less Pan­jaab.

In­deed, in June 1984, the en­tirety of Pan­jaab was sealed off, tele­phone and satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tions cut off, all me­dia jour­nal­ists rounded up (In­dian and for­eign) and taken out­side. The 150,000 In­dian army troops with tanks, he­li­copter gun­ships and other mil­i­tary hard­ware, went to war on Pan­jaab; killing, shoot­ing, ar­rest­ing, de­tain­ing and dis­ap­pear­ing the peo­ple of Pan­jaab. The In­ter­na­tional Red Cross was barred from en­ter­ing as this 30-day one-sided war was con­ducted. In fact, of­fi­cially, the In­ter­na­tional Red Cross has never been able to go to Pun­jab these 34 years!

“The global, in­ter­na­tional es­tab­lish­ment, Britain, Canada, USA, Ger­many, knew of what was go­ing on in 1984 and be­yond, yet they sat by in a squea­mish si­lence.”

Amnesty In­ter­na­tional is per­haps the only or­gan­i­sa­tion which is not let­ting the case die out and is con­tin­u­ing its cam­paign against the per­pe­tra­tors of June 1984 and No­vem­ber 1984.

Sadly, global po­lit­i­cal and me­dia opin­ion, has as­sisted the In­dian state, in hid­ing this crime against hu­man­ity from world knowl­edge and scrutiny. In­deed, the UK gov­ern­ment, like Is­rael and Rus­sia, was pro­vid­ing mil­i­tary ad­vice and moral sup­port to the In­dian state through­out this grue­some episode. The British in­volve­ment has been re­vealed through the ex­po­sure of top se­cret of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tions be­tween the In­dian and British gov­ern­ment prior to and dur­ing June 1984.

Just as pro­found and in­deli­ble, was the heroic re­sis­tance put up against the In­dian army on­slaught over 1-7 June 1984, by the 100 or so Sikh com­bat­ants, led by Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale who took up po­si­tions within the sov­er­eign Dar­bar Sahib (Am­rit­sar) to vig­or­ously fend off the In­dian at­tack. Out­num­bered, out­gunned, out-tanked: this was an enor­mously pow­er­ful and un­prece­dented re­sis­tance from a group of ded­i­cated per­sons against the armed might of the 5th largest army of the world. The sheer hero­ism and sym­bol­ism of this bat­tle to pro­tect and up­hold the sov­er­eignty of Dar­bar Sahib from the en­croach­ing In­dian armed in­va­sion, is un­prece­dented in mod­ern and past his­tory.

“The sheer hero­ism and sym­bol­ism of this bat­tle to pro­tect and up­hold the sov­er­eignty of Dar­bar Sahib from the en­croach­ing In­dian armed in­va­sion, is un­prece­dented in mod­ern and past his­tory.”

For a group of 100 to take on a force 150,000 reg­u­lar sol­diers, with tanks and he­li­copter gun­ships with the full au­thor­ity and back­ing of a mega-sized state; in an in­tense bat­tle over 7-days. There is no equal to it any­where, across mod­ern world-his­tory. The po­lit­i­cal and re­li­gious sym­bol­ism of this is enor­mous; with no equiv­a­lent in the events of any other state or na­tion around the world. We can­not but be in­spired by it and add it as an­other golden chap­ter in our in­tense and vi­brant his­tory.  

June 1984 was the start of a two-phased geno­cide on the Sikh pop­u­la­tion in­side the In­dian state over the year of 1984. The sec­ond part took place in No­vem­ber 1984 in Delhi -the In­dian cap­i­tal, no less, and other ma­jor cities, in the form of a 4-day state or­gan­ised pub­lic mur­der spree of Sikh men, women and chil­dren. Both these dou­ble-geno­cides, were equally bru­tal, state or­gan­ised, and de­signed to give the in­creas­ingly em­bold­ened and buoy­ant Sikhs a fa­tal sledge-ham­mer blow.

The chill­ing, bit­ing de­tails of 1984 – June and No­vem­ber, rep­re­sent a very ob­vi­ous mod­ern-day geno­cide and crime against hu­man­ity. Trag­i­cally and para­dox­i­cally, whereas the killing of 20 or so civil­ians in a Syr­ian hos­pi­tal by Russ­ian mil­i­tary bom­bard­ment or the killing of 20 Pales­tin­ian pro­test­ers by Is­raeli troops, im­me­di­ately hits global news head­lines and is im­me­di­ately treated as a crime against hu­man­ity by the UN Hu­man Rights Com­mis­sion; the far more colos­sal events of June 1984, have been ig­nored. Hu­man rights atroc­i­ties in Pan­jaab and by the In­dian state, clearly do not qual­ify for in­ter­na­tional ac­tion, do they?

In No­vem­ber 1984, im­me­di­ately af­ter the as­sas­si­na­tion of the In­dian Prime Min­is­ter Mrs In­dira Gandhi, on the morn­ing of 31st Oc­to­ber 1984, in re­sponse to the dev­as­ta­tion of June 1984; the In­dian lead­er­ship un­leashed a fur­ther bout of geno­cide – within 5-months. Whilst, global heads of states cer­e­mo­ni­ously gath­ered for the fu­neral of the In­dian PM on one side of Dheli, Sikhs were be­ing burned by or­gan­ised mobs with tyres and kerosene oil all over the other side of Dheli. The In­dian po­lice and gov­ern­ment were ac­tively fa­cil­i­tat­ing this act of mass mur­der on the pub­lic streets of the In­dian cap­i­tal. There was de­lib­er­ate in­ac­tion by the Dheli po­lice, the In­dian gov­ern­ment and law and or­der au­thor­ity. Even the Dheli hos­pi­tals were un­will­ing to as­sist half-burnt Sikhs who sought med­ical as­sis­tance and pro­tec­tion.

“Whereas the killing of 20 or so civil­ians in a Syr­ian hos­pi­tal by Russ­ian mil­i­tary bom­bard­ment or the killing of 20 Pales­tin­ian pro­test­ers by Is­raeli troops, im­me­di­ately hits global news head­lines and is im­me­di­ately treated as a crime against hu­man­ity by the UN Hu­man Rights Com­mis­sion; the far more colos­sal events of June 1984, have been hith­erto ig­nored.”

Just as in June 1984 in­side Pan­jaab, the In­dian state had gone to war a sec­ond time on Sikhs re­sid­ing in Dheli and other ma­jor cities.  

The global, in­ter­na­tional es­tab­lish­ment, Britain, Canada, USA, Ger­many, knew of what was go­ing on, but sat by in a squea­mish si­lence; not wish­ing to of­fend their close trad­ing and mil­i­tary part­ner In­dia. No­body has chal­lenged In­dia in 1984 and nor there­after, on its mul­ti­ple and griev­ous hu­man rights atroc­i­ties of that year. In the eyes of fel­low states, In­dia is im­mune.

Added to this, there has been an en­dur­ing cruel in­ter­na­tional me­dia si­lence over 1984 and the drip-drip geno­cide and re­pres­sion which has con­tin­ued there­after in Pan­jaab and be­yond – Kash­mir, Ma­nipur, Gu­jarat, etc. In the grossly one-sided mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the me­dia and in­ter­na­tional dis­course; the poorly equipped, un­skilled and rus­tic Sikhs al­ways ended up as be­ing the ‘ter­ror­ists’ and the ‘world’s largest democ­ra­cy’ In­dia al­ways ended up as the de­fender of ‘law and or­der’. This was the heav­ily slanted me­dia and po­lit­i­cal global nar­ra­tive, hand-in-hand. World gov­ern­ments lapped up this con­ve­nient, dis­torted me­dia nar­ra­tive. In­dia is too big, too im­por­tant – com­mer­cially and mil­i­tar­ily to be an­noyed with ques­tions about its hu­man rights.  

June 1984 and be­yond, def­i­nitely brought to the fore of the Sikh mind, the al­ready rot­ten, an­tag­o­nised re­la­tion­ship be­tween the en­gulf­ing, over­bear­ing In­dian state and the 20 mil­lion Sikh pop­u­la­tion homed in their his­toric, in­dige­nous ter­ri­tory of Pan­jaab (a for­mer in­de­pen­dent sov­er­eign state, no less than a 100 years ago). Ar­guably, the two-pronged 1984 geno­cide, was the In­dian es­tab­lish­men­t’s at­tempt at a fi­nal so­lu­tion to the en­dur­ing and surg­ing Sikh prob­lem since the out­set of the In­dian state in 1947.

“The UK gov­ern­ment, like Is­rael and Rus­sia, was pro­vid­ing mil­i­tary ad­vice and moral sup­port to the In­dian state through­out this grue­some episode.”

The rest­less, avid Sikhs were per­ceived by the hos­tile In­dian es­tab­lish­ment, to have caused con­tin­u­ous ten­sion, ar­gu­ment and ag­i­ta­tion against the cen­tral­is­ing, uni­fy­ing, sin­gu­lar­is­ing In­dian state. The Sikhs as­ser­tion of be­ing a na­tion in their right, their claims for full au­ton­omy (short of in­de­pen­dence) within a con­fed­eral In­dian union of self-de­ter­min­ing au­tonomous states (with free­dom to se­cede), and their re­fusal to con­form to a ‘Hindi, Hindu, Hin­dus­tan’ sin­gle mega-In­dia: had in­vari­ably caused much ag­gra­va­tion to the In­dian rul­ing mind-set. 

Ninety-eight four cer­tainly glob­alised the Sikh agenda, to the ex­tent that it gal­vanised global Sikh opin­ion and cre­ated deep feel­ings of an­guish, dis­sent and re­sis­tance against the In­dian state.

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‘Khal­is­tan Zind­abaad’, be­came the new evoca­tive slo­gan, across Pan­jaab, the UK, Canada, USA and Ger­many, where Sikhs lived in size­able num­bers. How the slo­gan has pro­gressed over the years and decades is an­other story in the next part of this se­ries.