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1984 Anti-Sikh Riots

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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots
    Posted: 14-Aug-2006 at 12:02
As most of you SE Asia board regular users have noticed, the board has been going slow over the past couple of days, so I've decided to get it running again by writing about the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots.
 
 
 
THE ANTI-SIKH RIOTS

The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots took place in India after the assasination of Indira Gandhi On October 31, 1984. Then, she was the Prime Minister of India, and was killed by two Sikhs who were avenging on the aftermath of Operation Bluestar (the destruction of the holiest temple in the Sikh religion)

The next four days were horrific. It was said that nearly 3000 Sikhs were massacred in systematic pogroms planned and led by Congress. The most affected regions were neighborhoods in Delhi. The riots were a key antagonist in the subsequent Punjab insurgency.
On November 1, 1984, a huge mob from the suburbs of Delhi descended on various localities where the Sikh were mainly concentrated. They carried iron rods, knives, clubs, and combustible material, including kerosene. They had voters' lists of houses and business establishments belonging to the Sikhs. People began to swarm into Sikh homes, ripping the occupants to pieces, chopping off the heads of children, raping women, tying Sikh men to tyres set aflame with kerosene, burning down the houses and shops after ransacking them. They stopped buses and trains, in and out of Delhi, pulling out Sikh passengers to be lynched or doused with kerosene and burnt. (account is based on the report released in the House of Commons, Britian on May 25th 2004)
 
 
Numerous commissions have been setup to investigate the riots, however, many of the primary accused were acquitted or never charge-sheeted. Ten commissions and committees have till now inquired into the riots.
 
 
Quotes related to Riots:

  • I felt like a refugee in my country. In fact, I felt like a Jew in Nazi Germany. (Khushwant Singh)
  • Criminally led hoodlums killed Sikhs, looted or burnt homes and properties while the police twiddled their thumbs. (India Today, November 15, 1984)
  • I was told,You appoint another committee to identify the people but HKL Bhagat is not involved. (Advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka, who fought for justice for the sikhs)

    source: wikipedia
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  Quote Digvijay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Aug-2006 at 14:20
Jay,
   This was definetely one of the darkest periods in the modern history of India.
 
   When I read about what happened to innocent Sikh families it still makes my blood boil.

    What is sad is that police were controlled by the political establishment i.e Cong (I) to remain mute spectators or in some cases to be the perpetrators themselves.

-Digs
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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14-Aug-2006 at 23:37
I couldn't agree with you more, Digs. My condolences go to the Sikh people who were killed, raped, tortured, or were the victim's family. I have one thing I need to solve though: why did Indira Ganhdi order Operation Bluestar, military assault on the Harimandir, the holiest temple in the Sikh religion?
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  Quote TeldeInduz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Aug-2006 at 07:37
I've often wondered why the Gujerat riots happened myself.. But as it's the Sikh thread, I guess the answer must be Khalistan, which seems to be more ow profile now.
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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Aug-2006 at 13:54
Yes, the Khalistan movement and the violence it entailed claimed the lives of a total of 11,694 civilians between 1981-1993, including 7,139 Sikhs, or so says Wikipedia.
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  Quote malizai_ Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Aug-2006 at 19:40

So exactly who comitted these atrocities against the sikhs?

The current primeminister is a sikh, so everything seems to be back on track.

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  Quote Master_Blaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Aug-2006 at 22:24
The anti-Sikh riots were a government pogram anchored by vigilantes of the Hindu right. These Hindu extremists were also responsible for the anti-Muslim rights in Gujurat in 2002 and the anti-untouchable and anti-Christian violence which occurs regularly there.
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  Quote Omar al Hashim Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Aug-2006 at 23:03
Good thread Jay
why did Indira Ganhdi order Operation Bluestar, military assault on the Harimandir, the holiest temple in the Sikh religion?

I don't know, but I also would like to know the answer.


Edited by Omar al Hashim - 15-Aug-2006 at 23:03
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  Quote jayeshks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Aug-2006 at 09:18
Operation bluestar was launched in response to Bhindrenwala and his group turning the Golden Temple complex into a garrisoned fort.  His group was also blamed for a  wave of violence  in the region against local Hindus.  The government called him a terrorist, his supporters called him a visionary who 'awakened' the Sikh psyche from Hindu imposed servitude.  Either way, the govt. walked right into his plot by making him a  martyr and strengthening his cause.  Notably, the general in charge of leading the assault  on the temple was also a Sikh.
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  Quote TeldeInduz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Aug-2006 at 09:46
Possible motives.
 
Indira Gandhi and the Motive for Army Action

Among the catalysts for Operation Blue Star, the newspaper cited a planned 'campaign of non-cooperation with the Government, starting Sunday [June 3].' The paper added, 'This, it is feared, could lead to the blockage of supplies of grain, water and electric power to the rest of India.'

The paper also stated that the goals of the armed movement, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, were 'unclear' and that 'Bhindranwale may settle only for amnesty for the many crimes committed by the extremists.'

The Home Secretary, M.M.K. Wali, was quoted as prophesizing, '[Operation Blue Star] will break the back of the terrorist movement.' The paper also reported that Wali 'predicted that the country at large, including most Sikhs, would applaud the action.' Wali, and by extension New Delhi, couldn't have been more off target. Sikh reaction to New Delhi's attack on their holiest shrine was overwhelmingly negative. It took India more than a decade to snuff the resulting armed movement for Sikh autonomy.

On June 8, after major action had ceased, Indira Gandhi was reported as saying, 'it might still be difficult to reach a negotiated settlement.' The paper noted, 'Mrs. Gandhi's statement suggested that she might be preparing to adopt a tough line in future talks with [the Sikhs].'

The following paragraph, quoted from The New York Times, is a textbook illustration of Mrs. Gandhi's cunning: Months ago, she said, the smashing of the terrorist movement might have made it easier to reach a negotiated settlement. But now, she said, if the moderates 'were aware of what was happening and did nothing to stop it, the situation is completely changed.'

Indira Gandhi was reported as saying of Bhindranwale, 'there had been nothing religious in his preachings.' However, as retired Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora aptly pointed out in a report by James M. Markham, 'only last month Mrs. Gandhi's son Rajiv had praised him [Bhindranwale] as a man of religion.'

A piece by James Traub further lambasted Gandhi, 'The root of India's problem is that Mrs. Gandhi seems unable to accept the legitimacy of any opposition: Compromise is foreign to her nature.'

An editorial referring to Gandhi's 'credibility problem' hammered the final nail into her integrity coffin: 'the Prime Minister appears to disdain conciliation.'
 


Edited by TeldeInduz - 16-Aug-2006 at 09:47
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  Quote Digvijay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 01:14
Originally posted by Master_Blaster

The anti-Sikh riots were a government pogram anchored by vigilantes of the Hindu right. These Hindu extremists were also responsible for the anti-Muslim rights in Gujurat in 2002 and the anti-untouchable and anti-Christian violence which occurs regularly there.


Nonsense!

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  Quote Master_Blaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 16:46

Originally posted by Digvijay

Originally posted by Master_Blaster

The anti-Sikh riots were a government pogram anchored by vigilantes of the Hindu right. These Hindu extremists were also responsible for the anti-Muslim rights in Gujurat in 2002 and the anti-untouchable and anti-Christian violence which occurs regularly there.
Nonsense!

Are you you denying that the government of India was complicit in the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, the anti-Muslim riots in 2002, and the numerous anti-Christian slayings which occur throughout India even today? Are you denying that Hindu extremist groups such as the Shiva Sena, RSS, and VHP, do not exist and propogate the establishment of a Hindu only nation in India? Are you also denying that the previous government of India, the BJP, was wholly comprised of anti-Muslim neoconservative Hindus who did not make an effort to stop the killings of Muslims in Gujurat 2002 by extremist Hindu groups?

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  Quote Master_Blaster Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 16:49
The Sikhs were killed in 1984 and throughout the 1980s and early part of the 1990s for the same reason that the Muslims were butched in Bombay during 1992-1993, and again in Gujurat in 2002.
 
The Hindu nationalists (read: neoconservative Hindus or extremist Hindus) want the establishment of a Hindu-only state in India. They have an inferiority complex and cannot come to grips with the fact that for 1,000 years, largely Hindu India was ruled by foreigners - first the Muslim Turks and then the Christian British. Now, they have c
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  Quote Digvijay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 17:04
Originally posted by Master_Blaster

The Sikhs were killed in 1984 and throughout the 1980s and early part of the 1990s for the same reason that the Muslims were butched in Bombay during 1992-1993, and again in Gujurat in 2002.

No. Get your facts right. In 1984, Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi was assasinated by two of her Sikh body-guards. This led to the riots of 1984. BJP was a non entity in 1984.

Bombay riots of 1992-93 happened because muslim extremists blasted multiple bombs in Bombay which resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent Hindus.

Gujarat riots took place because muslim terrorists TORCHED 50 Hindu women and children in a train in Gujarat.

There is not even a single riot in India that has EVER BEEN started by Hindus. Each and every riot is started by Muslims by killing Hindus.

Originally posted by Master_Blaster


The Hindu nationalists (read: neoconservative Hindus or extremist Hindus) want the establishment of a Hindu-only state in India. They have an inferiority complex and cannot come to grips with the fact that for 1,000 years, largely Hindu India was ruled by foreigners - first the Muslim Turks and then the Christian British. Now, they havec



Hindus do not worry about muslims and never have in the past either. It is only your madarsas which teach you that muslims ruled over India for 1000 years.  This is utter bollocks.  For some enlightenment read this:

http://hindurajput.blogspot.com/#Rajputs_and_Invasions_of_India


Edited by Digvijay - 17-Aug-2006 at 17:05
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  Quote Jay. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 21:31
Master Blaster, I don't know if you have noticed but you posted the same comment three times. Maybe a mod can delete two of them?
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  Quote Anujkhamar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 02:21
An engineering report has said that the train seelf-ignited or something simlar, and was not torched. I have seen another report that says some muslims were harrassing thetrain but never lit it.

The Gujaratis back then rioted because they THOUGHT muslims killed innocents in the train. Although dispicable, this form of retaliation i would expect from any nation. Wouold there not be hate crimes in England if muslims torched a train (or so they thought)?
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  Quote malizai_ Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 05:21
Originally posted by Anujkhamar

An engineering report has said that the train seelf-ignited or something simlar, and was not torched. I have seen another report that says some muslims were harrassing thetrain but never lit it.

The Gujaratis back then rioted because they THOUGHT muslims killed innocents in the train. Although dispicable, this form of retaliation i would expect from any nation. Wouold there not be hate crimes in England if muslims torched a train (or so they thought)?
 
With all due respect, i dont want to seem to be splitting hairs. But I dont think the use of the term Gujratis is accurate in the given context. Since a large section of Gujratis are muslims themselves. The term used should be hindu extremists, rather than the Gujrati community.
 
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  Quote Anujkhamar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 05:39
But those that rioted weren't only hindu extremists. They were people who also had thouhgt that enough was enough. Perhaps even the families of those who died. And besides, its not as if muslims then didnt turn around and fight back.

The fact of the matter is both muslims and hindus were involved in the fighting, it was only hindus that started it (themselves believing that muslims had first started it).
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  Quote malizai_ Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 05:44
Ok, so was it hindus vs muslims or was it gujratis vs muslims?
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  Quote Digvijay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 05:55
Originally posted by malizai_

Ok, so was it hindus vs muslims or was it gujratis vs muslims?


What matters is who started the riot. In India no riot ever has been started by Hindus. Every time it is started by Muslims. Facts:

a) 50 Hindu women and children were burnt in a train in Gujarat by Muslim terrorists.

b) Retaliatory riots started.

Now it is different issue wether govt could have controlled the situation better. I believe it could have.

-Digs
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