The horrors of 1984 SUNDAY 11 | FEBRUARY 2018

IN NOVEMBER 1984, A WAVE OF BRUTAL, UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE AGAINST THE SIKHS SWEPT THROUGH THE NATION, LEAVING THOUSANDS DEAD, BUTCHERED, BURNT, WIDOWED, RAPED AND HOMELESS. AUTHOR PAV SINGH INVESTIGATES THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MASSACRE IN HIS NEW BOOK

One of the darkest chapters in the history of India is the 1984 massacre — a wave of brutal, unprecedented violence against the Sikhs that swept through the nation, leaving thousands dead, burnt, butchered, widowed, raped, homeless. Author Pav Singh too was one of those affected. Feeling deeply for the cause, his new book investigates the truth behind the gruesome year.

The violence following Indira Gandhi’s assassination prompted him to go deeper in the story around 1984 that unfolded in India. “My family only survived due to the goodwill of their Hindu neighbours who in an act of impeccable courage hid them in their homes. But for many years I was perplexed as to why the events of November 1984, where 8,000 Indian citizens (half in Delhi) were slaughtered in four days in the world’s largest democracy, had not been acknowledged in the same light as other crimes against humanity of similar scale — like the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 in Bosnia. Internationally recognised as genocide, the authorities also ensured that the killers of 8,000 Muslims were brought to justice there,” he says, adding, “Over the years it slowly dawned on me that the official newspeak of the anti-Sikh ‘riot’ that had taken hold in the public mind, by its minimising tone had trivialised the series of mass crimes that had taken place and damaged the pursuit for justice. To challenge this I set about collecting the many harrowing testimonies of the survivors to the atrocities.”

To his surprise, this characterisation of the carnage as a ‘riot’ did not match up to the reality and led him to record the historical event. “I recorded what took place in November 1984 across Northern India as accurately as I could. These were a series of organised genocidal massacres, pogroms and mass rapes — and when seen in its entirety, it amounts to genocide. Yet 33 years on, for the innocents of November 1984, there remains a deafening silence, a lack of concern or consideration of the nature of the violence, which has allowed the guilty to evade justice. This remains a spectacular failure that needs to be investigated. How could the orchestrators of modern India’s worst crime against humanity have got away with mass murder?”

He began his research with a logical mindset, in a chronological order. “Based on the chronology of events, hour by hour, I was able to show that the violence and rapes, far from appearing as natural outbursts of anger at the assassination of a much-loved Prime Minister, were controlled explosions, planned and executed following a series of meetings held on the night of October 31 and the morning of November 1 by some members of the ruling Congress Party, including sitting MPs and police officers to finalise the plan of attack,” he says, adding, “What I found shocking was the evidence from a number of sources, including from a former Congress party Petroleum secretary, that the violence was planned months in advance and would have taken place even if Indira Gandhi had remained alive.”

He goes on to say, “The central government’s decision not to call out the army immediately ensured the mobs reigned supreme until thousands had been butchered and burnt. Rape and killing-by-incineration were to become the central elements of the violence. The local police were on hand to ensure the operation ran smoothly and in many areas confiscated licensed firearms so that the Sikhs were left at the mercy of murderous mobs. Lists of Sikh homes and businesses were distributed to the death squads ensuring the opera-

1984: INDIA’S GUILTY SECRET by PAV SINGH `395, pp 266 Rupa Publications

(Above) Survivors, mainly women of all ages who had become victims of mass genocidal rape and their children found some safety in the camps. Many families were resettled together in The Widow Colony in West Delhi where they tried to rebuild their lives; (Left) Author Pav Singh

Thirty-three years on, there remains a deafening silence, a lack of concern or consideration of the nature of the violence, which has allowed the guilty to evade justice. This remains a spectacular failure that needs to be investigated. How could the orchestrators of modern India’s worst crime against humanity have got away with mass murder?