10 MANUSHI

THE communal riots that followedIndira Gandhi’s tragic death onOctober 31 were like the sudden

eruption of a gigantic volcano. The ferocityof the explosion took by surprise both thevictimised community and the communityin whose name the ferocious campaign oflooting, arson, killing, burning, rape andmolestation took place.

Most observers agree that the violencebegan as random attacks on individualSikh men who were pounced upon in publicplaces, on public transport and on thestreets on October 31. The events of thisday may have been passed of as aspontaneous outburst of anger at theassassination of Indira Gandhi by two Sikhmembers of her security guard. But whathappened over the next three days makesit impossible to dismiss those events asspontaneous expressions of outrage.

The series of attacks on Sikh homes,gurudwaras and commercialestablishments which began on November1 seems to have been the work of organisedhoodlums who collected large mobs forthe looting and killing spree. Very broadlyspeaking, the attacks can be placed in threecategories,

(a) Looting and killing in middle andupper middle class localities, such asLajpat Nagar, Jangpura, Defence Colony,

Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh, PatelNagar, Safdarjung Enclave and PunjabiBagh. Here, houses, gurudwaras andshops were looted and burnt, and a largenumber of vehicles, including buses,trucks, cars and scooters were set ablaze.Some people were injured and otherskilled.But, on the whole, relatively fewerlives were lost in middle class colonies.

(b) The systematic slaughter and rapethat accompanied looting, arson andburning in the resettlement colonies, slumsand villages around the city. Most of thedeath occurred in areas like Trilokpuri,Kalyanpuri, Mangolpuri, Sultanpuri, NandNagri, Palam village, Shakurpur, Gamri.Rows of houses and huts were burnt downand hundreds of men and young boyswere beaten, stabbed and burnt to deathwhile many women were abducted andraped. A large number of persons are stillreported missing by their families. Housesand gurudwaras were looted and burntdown.

(c) Sikh men and boys were attackedin the streets, trains, buses, markets andworkplaces, and many of them brutallymurdered, some of them burnt alive orthrown out of trains. Others escaped withinjuries, more or less serious. This kind ofattacking seems to have been done atrandom -any man who looked visibly Sikhwas made a target.

Most of the observations in this articleare based on several taperecordedinterviews with men and women from sometrans-Yamuna colonies, especially

Trilokpuri. These were among the worsthit areas in Delhi. Some other observationsare based on what I saw happening in ourneighbourhood, Lajpat Nagar, and onconversations with our neighbours as wellas with friends living in different middleclass colonies in the city. The pattern ofmurder and arson was similar in most partsof Delhi, in as farflung places as Palamvillage, Mangolpuri, Kalyanpuri, andBhogal. However, the intensity of violencewas far more severe in poorer resettlementcolonies than in middle class areas.

Among The Worst HitTrilokpuri is one of those resettlement

colonies which were brought intoexistence during the emergency, whenSanjay Gandhi spearheaded slum clearancedrives in Delhi. Thousands of familieswere forcibly evicted from slums andunauthorised colonies in the city. Theywere transported to areas several milesaway from the city proper, and wereresettled there. Each evicted family wassupposed to be given a small plotmeasuring 25 square yards, and in somecases also a loan to build a house. Thuswere founded these colonies of the citypoor who had been evicted from the slumsand pavement dwellings where they earlierlived.

Even though, at that time, many peoplesaw the evictions as cruelty inflicted onthe city poor, the Congress (I) was able toconvert the resettlement colonies into solidsupport bases and vote banks, becausethe evicted families slowly began to feel

Gangster Rule—The Massacre Of The Sikhs

MADHU K1SHWAR

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

that their status had been considerablyboosted since each of them now owned apiece of land and a pukka house, insteadof living as formerly in unauthorisedstructures in slums. Many of the riotvictims interviewed, who were amongst theoriginal recipients of land, mentioned thatthey were very grateful to Indira Gandhiand to her party for this favour.

However, many of those who weregiven plots of land sold them off, becausethe resettlement colonies are very far awayfrom the city proper, where most poorpeople have to come daily to earn a living.Many lower middle class families boughtplots of land from the original allottees.Thus, today, the social composition ofthese colonies provides a rich mixture. Forinstance, in Trilokpuri, one finds NorthIndians and South Indians, Hindus,Christians and Sikhs all living cheek byjowl.

The occupations range from pettyshopkeeping to business to domesticservice to low level governmentemployment to rickshaw pulling, scooterdriving, peddling and artisanry. In normaltimes, there seems to be a good amount ofintermingling and friendly feeling betweenneighbours of different communities, evenamong those who speak differentlanguages. Yet the feelings about high andlow status are also pronounced.

Among Trilokpuri Sikhs, too, there aresignificant variations. A large number ofthem, especially those most severelyaffected by the riots, are known as LabanaSikhs. These are not Punjabi Sikhs. Theyare migrants from Sikligarh in Sind, nowpart of Pakistan. They speak either Hindior their own dialect, which is distinctlydifferent from Punjabi. The traditionaloccupation of the community is weavingstring cots and pounding rice. Few of themen still perform these jobs. Most of themhave switched over to other occupations.A number of them drive scooters and pullrickshaws. Some work as porters atdifferent railway stations. Others havetaken to working as mechanics, carpentersand construction workers. A few have

been to Gulf countries as skilled labourers.Even though they do not call

themselves Mazhabi Sikhs, they areconsidered low caste by other Sikhs.Makhan Bai of Trilokpuri summed up thedistinction aptly. Referring to urban basedSikhs, most of whom are involved incommerce, she said : “Punjabi Sikhs areSeths. We Labana Sikhs are labourers.Traditionally, we are charpai makers.”

Differences are visible even amongstthe Labana Sikhs in this colony. Thosewho have entered some of the neweroccupations such as scooter driving ormechanical repair work are relatively belteroff. They have pukka houses and theirown plots of land. They are an upwardly

Trilokpuri. The Labana Sikh communityseems to have very little connection withPunjab politics. Many of them aretraditional Congress (I) supporters. Thatis one reason why they, like most Sikhs inDelhi, were taken totally unawares by theattack.

Initial ResistanceFar more than 400 people were

murdered in Trilokpuri alone. The largestnumber of deaths has so far been reportedfrom the two blocks of Trilokpuri wherethe Labana Sikhs were concentrated. Thisis how Gubar Singh, a resident of block 30,Trilokpuri, describes the events ofNovember 1 : “My house was the first tobe burnt in Trilokpuri. I work for a tailor’s

Systematic selective destruction —Sikh houses & vehicles destroyed and burnt

mobile community. Many of them owntelevision sets, taperecorders and othersuch consumer items. However, those whowere not able to move into these newoccupations are much poorer. Some ofthem live in huts constructed illegally inopen spaces which are meant to be parks.

Labana Sikhs live together in clustersin blocks 30 and 32 of Trilokpuri. There arealso some families scattered in otherblocks.Labana Sikhs have a separate smallgurudwara of their own. There is also abig gurudwara adjoining the main road in

shop. I bring the material from the shopevery morning and stitch the garments athome. On the 31st, when I was on my wayback from the shop, I heard rumours thatIndira Gandhi had died. But no onestopped me or tried to hurt me. I neverimagined that such a thing could happento me. None of us was really prepared forwhat happened the next day.

“At about 10 a.m. on November 1, weheard a lot of noise and shouting. Weclimbed on the roofs of our houses to seewhat was happening. We saw smoke rising

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from Noida colony and then we smelthuman flesh burning. In the meantime, weheard people say that the mob, having setfire to the main gurudwara, was nowcoming to burn our Labana Sikhgurudwara. So we rushed and gottogether whatever weapons we had, andtried to save the gurudwara. But evenwhen the gurudwara was attacked, wethought there would be fighting for a shortwhile, and then the police would come andstop it. We never thought things wouldgo so far. There has been no atmosphereof conflict between Hindus and Sikhs inTrilokpuri.

“Several men from our block went andhid in other lanes nearby. So we were notmore than 500 men left to defend the wholeblock as well as the gurudwara. About 50of us stood on each side of the streets inour block. The attackers came in a mobabout 4,000 strong, and began an attackon the gurudwara. They were armed withlathis. They began throwing bricks andstones at us. We also stoned them. See,my fingers are cut with throwing bricks.Many of us got hurt. Heads were split open.The attackers far outnumbered us.Gradually, we had to give up. Theyadvanced and we began to retreat into ourhouses. They set fire to the gurudwara.

Defenders Scattered“Then they began to attack our houses.

We ran from one house to another, tryingto save ourselves. They broke into eachhouse and carried away all ourpossessions on thelas. There were aboutfour policemen watching this lootingcampaign. They told us to put down ourswords and not to worry. They said:‘Nothing will happen to you.’ Then theywent away and left us to be killed.”

Sajan Singh from block 32 adds thatthe attackers had three guns. The policekept telling the Sikhs to go into theirhouses and assuring them that peacewould be restored. “We believed the policeand we went in. That is how they got uskilled.” He accuses the SHO of the area,one Tyagi, of having actively encouragedthe attackers. Many others of the area also

testify that they heard Tyagi tell theattackers: “You have three days to kill them.Do your job well. Do not leave a singleman alive, otherwise I will have to suffer.”

Once the attempt at group defence wasbroken down, they were in a much morevulnerable position. Each man randesperately to find for himself a hidingplace from the mob. Gulzar Singh continuedhis narrative:”By the evening of the 1st,some peace was restored. The attackersleft. They threatened that they would returnthe next day and would take away thewomen. Several men died on the 1st. Abouthalf a dozen died in my presence. Theattackers hit them wilh lathis and khurpis.They also managed to snatch some of ourkirpans and stabbed some of us withthem. When they were looting and burningmy house, they laid hands on me. Theyburnt part of my hair and cut part of itbefore I managed to break free.

Seeking Hiding Places“I saved myself by hiding in my

brother’s house which is in a Hindu street.For one day and two nights, my brotherand I hid under a double bed. On the 2nd,a group of men came and began to searcheach house for Sardars. My wife says threemen were caught and killed in theneighbouring house. The attackers turnedeveryone out of the house and searchedit. We were hiding behind boxes and bagsunder the bed. They kicked the boxes andthought there was no one there. Anotherminute and we would have been finished.

“On the 3rd, the military came and mywife told them to rescue us. That is howwe reached the relief camp. One of mybrothers was found by the attackers andkilled on the 2nd. They threw him downfrom the roof of his house and broke hisspine. Then they burnt him alive. Manywomen were molested and abducted. I sawa jeepload of women being carried awayto village Chilla in the presence of theirfamilies.”

Most others who survived had beenthrough similar experiences. The attackerswould kill every Sikh male in sight, wouldleave for a while, but would return again

to search Sikh houses and neighbours’houses to finish off those men who werestill in hiding.

Sajan Singh, who works as a porter atNizamuddin railway station, and lives inblock 32, Trilokpuri, was also a victim ofthe clashes. He saved himself by hiding inhis house, in a small aperture wherecowdung cakes used to be stored for fuel.The attackers came in repeated waves intohis house and looted everything theycould find. He says he had Rs 12,000 incash, a television set, a radio, ataperecorder, utensils, eight quilts,blankets and other household goods,many of which were being stored up asdowries for his four daughters. At night,the attackers came with torches to searchfor men who were still hiding. Sajan gothis children to bring him a pair of scissorsand a stick. He cut off his long hair andbeard while he was hiding under thecowdung cakes. Then, he says : “Whenthe next wave came, I picked up a stickand mingled with the mob. All night, Ishouted anti Sikh slogans like ‘Kill theSardars.’ That is how I saved myself. At 6a.m., I somehow managed to slip away andcame to Nizamuddin railway station. There,the other porters gave me shelter andconsoled me. I did not know what hadbefallen my family. On the 6th, I came toFarash Bazar relief camp and found themthere. My sister has been raped. The otherwomen and children are safe.”

Many of these one sided battlescontinued for hours on end. The womanneighbour of a victimised family inShakurpur described the attack : “The mobcame here on 31st night, and the fightingcontinued till the 2nd. The terror began onthe 31st. The attackers began by stoppingvehicles to check if there were Sikhs inthem. Electricity failed in this area, in thehouses as well as on the streets. Theextreme darkness at night heightened theterror. The attacks on houses andgurudwaras started around 9.30 a.m. onthe 1st. They came and started stoningthe house of our neighbour, SantokhSingh. The family stayed quiet inside the

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

house. The crowd wanted to enter thehouse but was hesitant, afraid of possibleresistance. People are generally afraid ofSikhs, you know. Finally, one of the mentried to break into the house. The men ofthe family hit him with a sword and hishand got slightly cut. This frightened thecrowd and they retreated for a while.Then they slowly collected more menand returned. Now they were about a1,000 men. They dragged some furnitureand wood that was lying in SantokhSingh’s courtyard, piled it up around thehouse, and set the house on fire. Then,the four men of the family came out withswords in their hands The attackersimmediately ran away. They did not wantto take any risk. They were armed onlywith lathis and kerosene. But they soonadvanced again and started stoning thehouse from all sides. The house was nowburning. The four men of the family ranfor their lives. One went to the house of aneighbour who cut his hair, gave himshelter and later smuggled him out ofthe colony. The youngest son waspounced upon on the road, hit withlathis and burnt to death. Another son ismissing. Most probably, he wasmurdered by the same group. We do notknow what happened to him. After sometime the police came and took away theold father and the women to a camp.They have not yet arrested anyone.”

So murderous were the attacksthroughout the city that most of the menwho fell into the hands of the mob did notsurvive. The number of injured men wasvery small in comparison to the numberskilled. Many others were less fortunate.One old man, Gurcharan Singh, also fromblock 32, lost all the three young men ofhis family. He had only one son, agedabout 17, and two nephews, aged 20 and22. All four men stayed in hiding for twodays and one night. Finally, the door ofthe house was broken open. The four menhad already clipped their beards and cutoff their long hair. They came out andpleaded to be spared now that they werelike Hindus. But the rioters caught hold of

the three young men, threw them on theirown string beds, covered them withmattresses and quilts, then pouredkerosene over them and set them on fire inGurcharan Singh’s presence. GurcharanSingh was beaten up. He and his agedwife, who is a TB patient, are in the reliefcamp, despairing over the loss of theirthree sons, and destitute.

Deliberate, Unhurried MurderSquads

Most people in Trilokpuri said thoughtheir immediate neighbours were notamongst the attackers, a fair number ofrioters were from other parts of the samecolony. They identified these men as

observed to be far higher than the numberkilled. The nature of the attack confirmsthat there was a deliberale plan to kill asmany Sikh men as possible, hence nothingwas left to chance. That also explains whyin almost all cases, after hitting or stabbing,the victims were doused with kerosene orpetrol and burnt, so as to leave nopossibility of their surviving.

Between October 31 and November 4,more than 2,500 men were murdered indifferent parts of Delhi, according toseveral careful unofficial estimates.

What Happened To WomenThere have been very few cases of

women being killed except when they gottrapped in houses which were set on fire.Almost all the women intervieweddescribed how men and young boys werespecial targets. They were dragged out ofthe houses, attacked with stones and rods,and set on fire. In Trilokpuri, many womensaid that once the attack on individualhomes started, the attackers did not allowany women to remain inside their ownhomes. The attackers wanted to preventthe women from helping the men to hideor providing assistance to those who werein hiding. Throughout this period, manyof the women were on the streets.

When women tried to protect the menof their families, they were given a few,blows and forcibly separated from, themen. Even when they clung to men, tryingto save them, they were hardly everattacked the way men were. I have notyet heard of a case of a woman beingassaulted and then burnt to death by themob. However, many women were injuredwhen they tried to intervene and protectthe men, or in the course of molestationand rape. A number of women and girlsalso died when the gangs burnt downtheir houses while they remained inside.

This is somewhat unusual. Forinstance, when dalits in villages are burntand attacked, women are prominent amongthe victims. When I asked why the killingwas so selective, I got a uniform answerfrom most people interviewed : “Theywanted to wipe out the men so that families

Some of the widowed women at Shivpuripolice station camp

chamars, sansis, Musalmans and gujjars.The last named had been speciallybrought in for the attack that morning fromChilla, an adjoining village, they said.

Many eyewitnesses confirm that theattackers were not so much a frenzied mobas a set of men who had a task to performand went about it in an unhurried manner,as if certain that they need not fearintervention by the police or anyone else.When their initial attacks were repulsed,they retired temporarily but returned againand again in waves until they had doneexactly what they meant to do -killed themen and boys, raped women, lootedproperty and burnt houses.

This is noteworthy because inordinary, more spontaneous riots, thenumber of people injured is usually

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would be left without earning members.Also, now they need not fear retaliationeven if we have to go back and live in thesame colony.” Though this may notprovide a complete explanation, the effecthas been exactly that which the womendescribe.

In many cases, families tried to saveadolescent and little boys by dressingthem up as girls and tying their hair in loosehanging plaits. Sometimes, neighbourspointed out these disguised boys to theattackers. When such boys were caught,they were, pounced upon by the crowdand set on fire. However, a few, especiallyvery young ones, did manage to escapedeath by assuming this guise.

Sukhpal Singh is one of the few olderboys of Trilokpuri who was able to escapeby dressing as a girl even though he is 15years old. His family lives in block 19 buton that fateful morning, his parents senthim to his sister’s house in block 30because they felt he would be safer in thelatter area where Sikhs lived together in alarge cluster. Sukhpal’s brother-in-lawsought shelter in a Sikh house but he wasturned out. The mob caught him on thesecond floor of a house, threw him downand burnt him alive. Sukhpal Singh’s sisterdressed him up in girl’s clothes and braidedhis long hair like that of a girl. Somehow,he managed to escape attention anddiscovery.

In most camps, there is adisproportionately large number of womenand children. Among boys, most of thosewho managed to escape were little ones.According to figures collected by NagrikEkta Manch volunteer Jaya Jaitley, out ofabout 539 families housed in Farash Bazarcamp, there are 210 widows. Families whichhave lost all adult male members are theones most afraid of going back to thecolonies where they formerly lived. Mostdo not want to go back even to claim theirplots of land, and would rather be settledelsewhere.

Even though most women were notbrutally murdered as were men, they weresubjected to other forms of torture, terror

and humiliation. This part of the story alsomakes familiar reading for anyone who hasgone through accounts of riots, communalclashes and wars.

Gurdip Kaur, a 45 year old woman fromblock 32, Trilokpuri, told a typical story.

hiding behind me. They tore my clothesand stripped me naked in front of my son.When these young boys began to rapeme, my son began to cry and said: ‘Elderbrothers, don’t do this. She is like yourmother just as she is my mother.’ But theyraped me right there, in front of my son, inmy own house. They were young boys,maybe eight of them. When one of themraped me, I said : ‘My child, never mind.Do what you like. But remember, I havegiven birth to children. This child cameinto the world by this same path.’

“After they had taken my honour, theyleft. I took my son out with me and madehim sit among the women but they cameand dragged him away. They took him tothe street corner, hit him with lathis,sprinkled kerosene over him, and burnthim alive.I tried to save him but they struckme with knives and broke my arm. At thattime, I was completely naked, i hadmanaged to get hold of an old sheet whichI had wrapped around myself. If I had hadeven one piece of clothing on my body, Iwould have gone and thrown myself overmy son and tried to save him. I would havedone anything to save at least one youngman of my family. Not one of the four isleft.”

According to her, hardly any womanin her neighbourhood was spared thehumiliation she underwent. She said evennine to 10 year old girls were raped. Shewas an eyewitness to many such rapes.The attackers first emptied the houses ofmen who were burnt alive. After that, theydragged the women inside the ransackedhouses and gang raped them.Not manywomen would openly admit this factbecause, as Gurdip Kaur says : “Theunmarried girls will have to stay unmarriedall their lives if they admit that they havebeen dishonoured. No one would marrysuch a girl.” Therefore, most families donot openly acknowledge the fact.

This led me to ask Gurdip Kaur whyshe had come forward to narrate herexperience. I also asked whether shewanted me to publish her statement. Shecategorically said she wanted her

Sukhpal Singh

Her husband and three SONS were brutallymurdered in front of her. Her husband usedto run a small shop in the locality. Hereldest son, Bhajan Singh, worked in therailway station, the second in a radio repairshop and the third as a scooter driver. Shesays : “On the morning of November 1,when Indira Mata’s body was brought toTin Murti, everyone was watching thetelevision. Since 8 a.m., they were showingthe homage being paid to her dead body.At about noon, my children said: ‘Mother,please make some food. We are hungry.’ Ihad not cooked that day and I told them :‘Son, everyone is mourning. She was ourmother, too. She helped us to settle here.So I don’t feel like lighting the fire today.’SOON after this, the attack started. Threeof the men ran out and were set on fire.My youngest son stayed in the house withme. He shaved off his beard and cut hishair. But they came into the house. Thoseyoung boys, 14 and 16 year olds, began todrag my son out even though he was

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

statement to be published : “Those womenin whose homes there is one or moresurviving men cannot make a publicstatement because they will bedishonouring those men. I have no one left(meaning no male member). My daughterhas also been widowed. She has twochildren. My daughter-in-law, who hasthree children, has also beenwidowed.Another daughter-in-law wasmarried only one and a half months agoand has also been widowed. I have nothingleft. That is why I want to give mystatement.”

In fact, many other families whose adultmen had all been killed similarly felt thatthere was “no one left in the family.” Attimes, when people said that all theirchildren (bachey) had been killed, they wereactually referring only to their sons. I hadto specifically enquire about survivingdaughters, whose lives were not countedin the same way.

Indra Bai narrates : “At about 4 p.m.,after they had murdered all the Sikh menthey could get hold of in our block, theyasked the women to come out of thehouses. They said : ‘Now your men aredead. Come out and sit together or else wewill kill you too.’

“We women all huddled together andthey offered us some water. As we weredrinking water, they began dragging offwhichever girl they liked. Each girl wastaken away by a gang of 10 or 12 boys,many of them in their teens. They wouldtake her to the nearby masjid, gang rapeher, and send her back after a few hours.Some never returned. Those who returnedwere in a pitiable condition and without astitch of clothing. One young girl said 15men had climbed on her.”

Gurdip Kaur and many other womenfrom Trilokpuri whom I interviewed atBalasaheb gurudwara and at Farash Bazarcamp also talked about several women whohad been abducted by gangsters and takento Chilla village which is dominated bygujjars, some of whom are alleged to haveled the attacking gangs. On November 3,the military brought some of these women

back from Chilla. But many of them wereuntraceable at the time I interviewed thesefamilies. They were very worried that thesewomen had either been murdered or werestill being held captive.

Rajjo Bai, another old woman from thesame neighbourhood, who had soughtshelter in Balasabeb gurudwara inAshram, had a similar tale to tell. Two ofher sons were killed in her presence. Onewho was hiding in a hut is still missing. Allthree sons were rickshaw pullers. She gotseparated from her two daughters-in-lawwho were probably abducted. Thedaughters-in-law were found much laterat the Farash Bazar camp but Rajjo’s 24year old daughter, who had had to be leftbehind in the house because she wasdisabled, could not be traced.

Nanki Bai, also from Trilokpuri wasdistraught when she asked us to look forher daughter, Koshala Bai, who had beensnatched away from her. She says : “Allnight, the attacks continued. My husbandwas hiding in a trunk. They dragged himout and cut him to pieces. Another 16 yearold boy was killed in front of my eyes. Hewas carrying a small child in his arms. They

My son came in the way and they hit himwith a sword. He lost his finger. I couldnot even look at his hand. I just wrapped itIN my veil.

“They took Koshala to the masjid. Idon’t know what happened to her. At about4 a.m., when we were driven out of thecolony, she called out to me from the roofof the masjid. She was screaming to me :‘Mummy, mujhe le chal, mujhe le chal,Mummy.’ (take me with you). But howcould Mummy take her ? They beat herbecause she called to me. I don’t knowwhere she is now.”

Later, I met Koshala in the Farash Bazarcamp and told her that her mother was inBalasaheb gurudwara. She confirmed hermother’s account and added that herfather’s eyes had been gouged out beforehe was killed. But she did not say that shehad been raped. She merely said : “Theyslapped me and beat me and struck me witha knife. They tore up my clothes.”

The rapists made no distinctionbetween old and young women. In NandNagri, an 80 year old women informed asocial worker that she had been raped. InTrilokpuri, several cases were reported ofold women who were gang raped in frontof their family members. As in all suchsituations, the major purpose of theserapes seems to have been to inflicthumiliation and to destroy the victims’morale even more completely.

Manchi Devi, about 55, says she wasgang raped. Four men of her family,including her son-in-law and her nephew,were murdered. “When I tried to interveneto save the children, several of those mengrabbed me. Some tore my clothes, someclimbed on top of me. What can I tell you,sister ? Some raped me, some bit me allover my body, and some tore off myclothes. All this happened around 11p.m.in my own house. I don’t know how manymen there were. The whole house was fullof them. About a dozen raped me. Afterthat, they caught hold of some young girlsoutside. My old husband and one nineyear old son are the only ones left in myfamily.Whom shall I depend on in my old

Babybaikilled the child too.

“We women were forced to come outof our houses and sit in a group outside. Iwas trying to hide my daughter. I put achild in her lap and dishevelled her hair sothat she would look older. But finally oneof our own neighbours pointed her out tothese men. They began to drag her away.We tried to save her. I pleaded with them.

— M

adhu

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age ? What can this nine year old do?”Most of these rapes took place while

the bodies of the husbands, sons orbrothers of these women were stillsmouldering in their presence,and theirhomes had thus been converted intocremation grounds. Baby Bai, a youngbride, aged around 20, was also gangraped. She was married barely a year ago.Her husband was a rickshaw puller, andsometimes worked as a scooter driver.

She says : “There were six members inour family. The three men, my husband andmy two brothers-in-law, were murdered.Now only three women are left. Our housewas attacked at about 4 p.m. and thefighting continued until next morning. Myhusband was first beaten and then burntto death, I was sitting and crying when abig group of men came and dragged meaway. Thay took me to the nearby huts infront of block 32, and raped me. They toreoff all my clothes. They bit and scratchedme. They took me at 10 p.m. and releasedme at about 3 a.m. When I came back, Iwas absolutely naked, just as one is whenone comes out of the mother’s womb.They took away all my jewellery-ear rings,a gold chain, bangles, nose ring andanklets. They left without giving meanything to cover myself. On the road, Ifound someone’s old sheet. I wrappedmyself in it and walked up to Chilla village.There, I borrowed some clothes from myrelatives.”

Pyari Bai, aged about 70, has also lostall the male members of her family-threesons, a grandson, two sons-in-law and twonephews. Most of the men in her familyused to weave string beds for a living andone was a rickshaw puller. Her daughter-in-law, who is several months’ pregnant,was dragged inside the house and raped.Pyari Bai too says that not even oldwomen or little girls were spared.

Even though it was widely known thatthese attacks had been going on unabatedsince November 1, the government neitherprovided the victims with any physicalprotection nor made any arrangements forthem to be evacuated until much after theworst was over.

Women SilencedMost of the women, especially those

who had some surviving male members intheir family, were not willing to say theyhad been raped although most of themdid talk about women in general havingbeen abducted and raped. They werepressured into staying silent about theirpersonal experience not merely by thethreat of social ostracism within their owncommunity such as being abandoned byhusbands or not finding husbands ifunmarried; other outside pressures playedan important role, too.

Gurdip Kaur narrated how the rapedwomen in Farash Bazar camp wereprevented from even getting a routinemedical examination and registering acomplaint. A few women did come forwardto get cases registered. Some of thedoctors of the medical relief team alsoconfirmed that several such women hadcome to them, but since rape cases areconsidered medico-legal cases for whichspecial evidentiary procedures have to befollowed, the women had to be referred toa hospital by the governmentadministration doctor who was posted atthe camp. This, however, did not happen.

Gurdip Kaur said: “Most of the womenwho went to register a case were young,unmarried women. Four of them were sentinto the doctor’s room. I was asked to waitoutside. The women who went inside wereintimidated by those in charge and werewarned not to undergo the medical

examination. They were told that handswould be shoved up their vaginas andmuch else would be done to them. They,being young, inexperienced women, gotfrightened,and did not insist on a medicalexamination.” Gurdip Kaur regrets that shewas not allowed to be with them andencourage them. Hence no case wasregistered.

Gurdip Kaur says she heard that H.K.L.Bhagat was coming to Farash Bazar camp.She tried to give him her statement butshe could not meet him.

The physical violence that thesewomen experienced is going to be buriedin their hearts as their own “shame.”Several men of their community who wereliving in the camp talked to me of these“dis-honoured” women, who had beenforced to do a “wrong action” and whoselives were now worthless. Thus, it seemsto me very unlikely that they will be treatedeven by their own community with anymeasure of the sympathy andunderstanding that the male victims ofviolence received.

Women Left DestituteIn Trilokpuri, very few Sikh women

work for a wage. Thus, the families are leftwith no male members and are also withoutwage earners. Widowed women constitutethe most vulnerable group amongst thesurviving victims of the carnage. Many ofthem are illiterate or barely literate. Fewhave any skills at all. Very few have everworked outside the house. Most of the

Pyari Bai with her daughters-in-law

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women have several young children so thatgoing out of the house for long hours toearn a living may not be feasible.

Thakari Bai, who is in her earlytwenties, is typical of such women. Herhusband worked as a coolie at the railwaystation and earned more than Rs 50 a day.She has three daughters, aged sevenyears, three years, and two months. Oneof them is disabled and retarded. In tears,she told us that her three brothers-in-law,who managed to survive by cutting theirhair and hiding, now do not wish tosupport her. Already, they and their familieshave begun to ill treat her and quarrel withher, because they fear that she and herdaughters will become a burden on them.She says her widowed mother, who livesin a Rajasthan village, is very poor. Hermother works as a labourer and often hasnot enough to eat. So Thakari Bai doesnot know where she will go if the reliefcamp forces her out without some meansof livelihood and accommodation beingprovided to her.

Several relief workers reported thatfierce tensions had sprung up betweendaughters-in-law and mothers-in-law overthe question of who should receive the Rsl0,000 promised by government ascompensation for a dead man who was theson of one woman and husband of theother. Given the fact that neither wives normothers have any independent sources ofincome and all can only look forward todestitution, the conflict appears to beinevitable.

One Way BattleMuch has been made of the so called

provocation offered by Sikhs who cameout with swords and kirpans, as at theTrilokpuri gurudwara. But all availableeyewitness accounts confirm that swords,if used at all, were used as a desperatemeasure of self defence, when no otherhelp was available. Either the police wasnot present or if it was present it wasplaying the role of passive onlooker oractive abettor.

We would also do well to remember thatthe Indian Penal Code gives citizens the

right to use weapons in private selfdefence of their lives and property againstillegal attack, and specifically lays downthat if in the course of such defence, eveninnocent people happen to get killed, thepersons engaged in self defence are notculpable for the deaths.

Moreover, in many places, no defencewhatsoever was offered, yet gurudwarasand homes did not escape destruction. Forinstance, Vasan Singh of East Vinod Nagar,another trans Yamuna colony, describedhow his neighbourhood was attacked. Hesaid that on November 1, at about 10 a.m.,truckloads of men from nearby villageswere on their way to Delhi. They wereshouting anti Sikh slogans. Some of themcame down the highway and burnt the

set afloat, ever since Bhindranwale’sterrorist squads shot into prominence,about the “enormous supplies” of armsthat have been accumulated by the Sikhcommunity, the facts that came to light fromthe accounts of the four days of violenceare quite contrary to most popularprejudices. Very few Sikhs had any armsto speak of. Even the major gurudwarasin Delhi which were strongly suspected ofbeing arsenals, had to give in to theattackers without much of a fight. Therewere hardly any non Sikhs among thosekilled.How And Why Did It Happen ?

An explanation frequently offered forthe massacres is that anger andresentment against the Sikhs had been

A Sikh family in Paharganj whose house is being stoned by the mob taking refugeon the rooftop while some neighbours watch

gurudwara which is near the main road.None of the Sikhs in the colony dared goto the defence of the gurudwara. Thepolice was present at this time, butremained inactive. The mob next went tothe house of Niranjan Singh, a postmaster.They beat up the family, burnt the house,and burnt several members of the familyincluding children.

Vasan Singh goes on : “We went andhid in the house of a Hindu neighbour.Every Sikh ran and sought shelter in Hinduhomes but very few could save their lives.”

Despite all the rumours that have been

brewing ever since Bhindranwale’s gangbegan the indiscriminate murder of Hindusin Punjab, in pursuance of their demandfor Khalistan, a separate nation state forSikhs, which might involve a forcible massexodus of Hindus from Punjab, similar tothat which took place from various areaswhen Pakistan came into existence.

There is no denying that the manner inwhich the demand for Khalistan was beingpursued in the last two years or so hadcreated a good deal of resentment againstBhindranwale among Hindus both inPunjab and outside. But the fact that one

—Bh

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small gang of terrorists who happened tobe Sikhs killed some Hindus and Sikhs inPunjab is no reason for thousands ofSikhs all over India who had nothing to dowith the Punjab killings to be massacred.

Today, there seems to be a widespreadbelief, based on the desire to justify therecent riots, that Bhindranwale and his menkilled Hindus only. But the fact which is,and ought to be, well known, is thatBhindranwale’s men killed Sikhs whoopposed them with even greater fervourthan they did Hindus. In fact, Bhindranwalebegan, as do most terrorist groups, byhitting out at those members of his owncommunity who opposed him. This wasdone with the intention of terrorising hisown community into silent submission. Yetthis fact is meticulously ignored becauseit does not help fan the fires ofcommunalism.

Further, the sudden eruption ofviolence against Sikhs seems quite out ofproportion to and inexplicable by the extentof anger amongst Hindus. It is noteworthythat throughout the period when Sikhs,Nirankaris and Hindus were being killed inPunjab, there had been no retaliationwhatsoever against Sikhs in Delhi or inother states. Even when some sections ofthe Akalis organised fairly aggressiveprocessions in Delhi, no political group orset of Hindu militants reacted with violenceor even as much as tried to obstruct theprocessions and rallies. The only clashesthat occurred were with the police and theadministrative machinery. There were noattacks on gurudwaras or even on thehomes of prominent Sikh or Akali leaders.It is even more noteworthy that in Punjab,apart from select killings by small organisedgangs of terrorists, there were nocommunal riots throughout theBhindranwale period.

Hindus and Sikhs do not have a longhistory or tradition of conflict. The twocommunities not only share a common pastand, a common culture but even today,most Sikh families have Hindu relativesbecause it used to be a common practicefor some Hindu parents in certain areas of

Punjab to dedicate one son to the guru asa Sikh.

Even today, marriages between Sikhsand Hindus are considered a normalpractice. Many Hindus routinely visitgurudwaras and read the Granth Sahebwith much devotion. The fact that allPunjabis use the word mona to indicateeither a Hindu or a clean shaven Sikhshows that no rigid distinctions have beenset up by the people of the twocommunities between themselves.

Many have tried to justify the violenceby asserting that Sikhs “provoked” anattack on themselves by celebrating IndiraGandhi’s death. They are supposed tohave distributed sweets at home andchampagne abroad as soon as they gotthe news.

During these days, I have methundreds of people who talkauthoritatively about the distribution ofsweets by Sikhs in celebration of IndiraGandhi’s death, but when questioned, notone of them could say that he or she sawthis happen.

However, the most important point weneed to remember is what Dharma Kumarsaid in her article in the Times of India : “Ifall the sweets in India had been distributed-that would not have justified the burningalive of one single Sikh.”

Nevertheless, there is very littleevidence that, barring a few stray cases,Sikhs in general “rejoiced” at Mrs Gandhi’sdeath. For instance, the reality behind therumour that Sikh students of Khalsacollege, Delhi university, danced thebhangra is a fairly typical example of howfacts are distorted beyond recognition inan attempt to provide some kind ofjustification for the terror and killings.These students had been practisingbhangra every day on their college lawnfor over a month prior to Mrs Gandhi’sdeath. They were preparing the dance asan item for the forthcoming winter festivalsthat are held in every college. On October31, they were practising as usual andstopped as soon as they got the news.

A friend tried to investigate the source

of another rumour that a wealthy Sikh familyin Janakpuri had distributed sweets anddry fruit soon after Mrs Gandhi’s death.They discovered that there had indeedbeen some distribution of sweets. This wasdone in honour of the coming Gurpurab.Traditionally, about 10 days before GuruNanak’s birthday, which fell on November8 this year, prabhat pheris are organisedin each area, and it is customary for familiesto entertain the pheri participants withsweets and other refreshments.

Surely, it was not only Sikhs who couldbe accused of not cancelling a routine ritualcelebration such as this one after theyheard of Mrs Gandhi’s death. The night ofthe 31st, when I was walking down themain road in our locality, I saw a weddingprocession marching along in full pompand show, complete with band music,dancing and lights. Nobody showed anyconcern that this Hindu weddingprocession was going through the normalritual.

In our own neighbourhood, where atleast half the families are Sikh, I saw nosign of celebration or distribution ofsweets. In fact, even on the morning ofthe 31st, when the news of theassassination came, I was really surprisedto see everyone, both Hindu and Sikh,going about their business without anyapparent sign of grief or frenzy. No one Italked to cried or broke down whendiscussing the news even though mostpeople felt sad that her life had ended sotragically.

Other rumour mongers point to the factthat many Sikhs did not celebrate Diwalithis year because they were mourning thearmy operation and the killing ofBhindranwale and other Sikhs in thegolden temple in June. This is cited asproof that they are “antinational” andhence it is assumed that they must haverejoiced at Mrs Gandhi’s death.

First, it is not true that no Sikhcelebrated Diwali. Some of the victimsmentioned that new clothes and utensilsbought by them for Diwali were destroyedin the attacks on their homes. Further, the

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argument itself is based on bizarre logic ofthe kind that our government very oftenuses. It is made out that anyone who doesnot support every action and policy of thegovernment automatically becomes anenemy of the nation. This way of thinkingis based on authoritarian ideology whichseeks to deny the people the right to differwith the rulers and the light to mourn thetragic consequences of the rulers actions.

Another thing that is held against theSikhs is that they felt outraged at the entryof the army into the Golden Temple. To saythat all those who felt grieved at thedesecration of the Temple were desirousof Indira Gandhi’s assassination is a bizarrefalsehood. Many of those who wereattacked, beaten and murdered werelongstanding supporters of the Congress(I). Many men in relief camps talked abouthow they had worked for the Congress (I)party in previous elections. In some of theburnt down houses, I saw pictures of IndiraGandhi still hanging on the walls. Herpictures also adorn the walls of many Sikhhomes in our neighbourhood, and continueto do so even after the riots.

More important is the fact that the groupof Sikhs who bore the main brunt ofviolence were those living in resettlementcolonies. This group had very littleconnection with Punjab extremist politics.In fact, many of them have no connectionat all with Punjab.

The most popular of all justificationsoffered is that the violence was the resultof mob fury at the brutal assassination ofIndia’s foremost leader at the hands of twoSikhs.

As far as the theory of people’s frenziedoutrage at Indira Gandhi’s death isconcerned, one would have been compelledto take it seriously had the riots remainedsporadic, unorganised and spontaneous.From the information so far available inDelhi, one is left in no doubt that the wholeaffair was masterminded and wellorganised, and that the killers and lootersseemed to be pretty confident that no harmwould come to them. They seemed to be in

no hurry. They came, went back, cameagain and again. Each time, they returnedwith reinforcements.

Those who saw the mobs did not getthe impression of a group of people angryor in anguish but of a bunch of hoodlumswho seemed to be having a good time, funand games. On November 1, I confrontedone mob in Lajpat Nagar. Around noon,when we heard that the local gurudwarahad been set on fire, three of us womenrushed to the spot and tried to persuadethe neighbours to help extinguish the fire.At once, we were surrounded by hostilemen while women jeered at and abused usfrom a distance. One or two women evencame up and called us names for being soshameless as to argue with men on thestreets. At the same time, a crowd of about200 men came, shouting slogans aboutrevenge. Looking at them laughing,jeering, catcalling, one did not get theimpression of any grief whatsoever. All onesaw was a hoodlum’s delight indemonstrating his power. The jeering mobtold us that if we did not keep quiet andget lost, they would throw us into the fire.

The fact that all over the city theattacks started simultaneously and thepattern of violence was identical indicatesthat this was no spontaneous outburst.Victims from different parts of the city say

that the first organised attacks in residentialareas began between 9 and 10a.m. onNovember 1. Almost everywhere, theattackers came armed with lathis, a fewknives and kerosene. There seem to havebeen few instances of the use of revolversto kill. Almost everywhere, males weresingled out and slaughtered. A fairlystandard method of killing was adoptedall over the city and in fact, in almost allthe towns where riots took place. Thevictim would be stunned with lathi blowsor stabbed. Kerosene or petrol or dieselwould then be poured over him and hewould be set on fire while he was still alive.Very few of the burn victims seem to havesurvived.

An eyewitness account of some of thehappenings outside AIIMS gives us a clueabout the genesis of the murderous slogan: “Khun ka badla khun se Ienge” (We willavenge blood with blood) that was chantedby the groups of killers throughout Delhi,beginning on October 31 : “I was outsideAIIMS between 1.30 and 5 p.m. on October31. There was a large crowd gathered therebut it had no resemblance to a frenziedmob. At about 2 p.m., two truck loads ofmen from neighbouring villages werebrought to AIIMS. They dismounted fromthe trucks in a calm and orderly fashion.They behaved like soldiers waiting fororders.

Not grief but goondaism. Arson and looting of Sikh shops onDeshbandhu Gupta Marg

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“The trucks were followed by a tempofull of lathis and iron rods. There were nomen in the tempo besides the driver. Atabout 3 p.m., a Congress corporator fromthe trans Yamuna area addressed thegathering. Later information has confirmedthat he is one of those who mastermindedthe riots in the trans Yamuna area. He gavea fiery speech. There was a lot of dramaand slogan shouting during his speech.He was the first to raise the slogan : khunka badla khun se lenge.’ From thatmoment, it became a popular chant. Thefirst victim of their wrath was a Sikh SHOfrom Vinay Nagar police station who cameto the hospital on his motor bike. He wasattacked with rods and was rescued withdifficulty by senior police officers. This,in my view, was the first attack on a Sikh inDelhi, and it was instigated when the mobtook their cue from the Congress leader.From the AIIMS this gang soon went indifferent directions-towards NaorojiNagar, INA market, Yusuf Sarai and SouthExtension. They began to stop all vehiclesdriven by Sikhs. They beat up the Sikhsand burnt the vehicles. Some Sikhs wereburnt to death. Sikh shops in these areaswere looted and burnt.”

A vast number of investigative reportsin newspapers and victims’ accounts havepointed out that high officials of theCongress (I) masterminded the wholeoperation. They rounded up antisocialelements from their constituencies. Theseelements routinely receive Congress (I)patronage. On this occasion, they wereincited to kill, rape, loot and burn, and wereassured that no one would interfere withthem.

The populous resettlement coloniesand the UP and Haryana villages aroundDelhi have been meticulously cultivatedas vote banks and political bases by theCongress (I) throughout the last decade.It is from these areas that truckloads ofmen are routinely mobilised for Congress(I) rallies and processions. Theseprofessional processionists have becomehabituated to hiring out their services tothe ruling party. The gang leaders are on

the regular payroll of the party. That is howCongress (I) leaders could, in a matter ofhours, mobilise thousands of hoodlumsfor the orgy of violence which theyorganised. Among the most activeparticipants in the gangs were youngboys, many in their early teens, who caneasily be mobilised.

It is significant that reports confirm thatjats, gujjars, scheduled caste men and poorMuslims constituted the bulk of theattacking mobs. This identical pattern hasbeen reported from areas of Delhi that aremany kilometres apart.

Many victims have alleged thatCongress (I) men used voters’ lists andration shop records to supply the attackerswith addresses of Sikh families in eachlocality. So pre-planned was the wholeoperation that the attackers not only hadprior knowledge of which houses andshops belonged to Sikhs but also seem tohave known which Sikh houseowners hadHindu tenants and which’ Hindu house-owners had Sikh tenants. Such houseswere handled differently from thoseinhabited by Sikhs only. Instead of thewhole house being burnt, only the Sikhswere killed and their possessions lootedso that the Hindus in the house were leftunscathed.

Many prominent leaders have beennamed in several newspapers as having

instigated riots. The PUCL-PUDRinvestigative report “Who Are The Guilty”mentions H K.L. Bhagat, Minister of Statefor Information and Broadcasting; SajjanKumar,Congress (I) MP from Monpolpuri,who is reported to have paid Rs 100 and abottle of liquor to each man involved inthe killings; Lalit Maken, Congress (I) tradeunion leader and metropolitan councillor,who is also alleged to have paid Rs 100and a bottle of liquor to rioters, and whowas seen actively instigating arsonists;Dharam Das Shastri, Congress (I) MP fromKarol Bagh; Jagdish Tytler,Congress (I)MP; Dr.Ashok Kumar, member of themunicipal corporation, Kalyanpuri;Jagdish Chandra Tokas, member of themunicipal corporation; Ishwar Singh,corporator; Faiz Mohammad, YouthCongress (I) leader; Satbir Sirgh of theYouth Congress (I), and many others,along with the lower level local Congress(I) ruffians and hoodlums, as having ledmany of the mobs.

In Naoroji Nagar market, an eyewitnesssaw the Youth Congress (I) office bearer,Pravin Sharma, stand in front of a Sikhshop and personally direct the lootingoperation. Young boys from the nearbyhutments were invited to take whateverthey wanted from the shop. Thisdistribution continued for at least an hour.Perhaps this is the Congress (I) way of

A widow with her baby in Farash Bazar camp

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implementing their version of socialism. Infact, some Trilokpuri residents reportedthat they were invited to join the lootingoperations which were christened the“Garibi Hatao” campaign.

The way party stalwarts chose to paytribute to Mrs Gandhi and mourn her deathduring those four days brought outblatantly what the ruling party has beenreduced to. Many of the leaders behavedas though they were leaders of a gangrather than prominent members of anational political party. It was as thoughtheir chief gang leader had been killed andthey wanted to terrorise those who theyimagined constituted a threatening rivalgang. Since there was really no rival gangat hand, they substituted for it all Sikhswith long hair and beards. These men, theydecided, were a threat to their beingconsidered the top gangsters, soterrorising the former would show who stillhad real power. A popular explanation ofprominent Congressmen’s involvementthat we heard was “Takat ajma rahe thay”(They were testing out and proving theirstrength).

Neighbourhood Help AndDefence Efforts

One of the most positive things thathappened during those dark days in Delhiwas the spontaneous emergence ofdefence and peace committees in mostcolonies and marketplaces. Hindus,Muslims, Sikhs and other communitiesjointly organised to defend theirneighbourhoods from attack by outsiders.In many colonies, potential trouble makerswere chased away and active resistancewas offered to the mobs who tried to enterthe areas. Men barricaded the streets andpatrolled the neighbourhoods all night.

During the days and nights when thegovernment machinery voluntarily choseto become defunct, people organisedthemselves irrespective of caste or religion.These committees seem to have been moreeffective in areas inhabited by relativelybetter off and more organised communitieswho had more resources at their command.In the very poor areas, where people have

been dumped together in appallingconditions, and the communities are notas well organised internally, people couldnot organise effective self defence.

In all areas, however, there werenumerous instances of immediateneighbours, who were non Sikhs,sheltering Sikhs. For instance, SurinderKaur of Trilokpuri described how herfamily was saved by a Hindu neighbour.She locked her son inside the house andcame out with her daughter. The attackersthrew hundreds of bricks at her house andbroke everything. The neighbours cameand saved them even under such riskycircumstances. One neighbour stood infront of the door to prevent the housebeing broken open.

In most places where the residents werepredominantly non Sikhs with a smallsprinkling of Sikh houses, after the initialsurprise attack on the first day, Hindus andMuslims did organise to protect the Sikhs.Many families narrated how they weregiven shelter by neighbours who tookgreat risks in doing so. Even in Trilokpuri,the damage to Sikh life and property wasmuch greater where they wereconcentrated together, as in blocks 30 and32, than where they lived interspersed withpeople of other communities.

Shan Kaur of Shahdara was givenshelter by Musalmans who escorted herand her children to a place of safety. AHindu family in Shakurpur saved threefamilies by hiding them, masking theiridentity and helping them to run away inrickshaws. In many cases, after Sikh menwere killed or forced to flee to save theirlives, women and children continued tostay with their neighbours.

A Sikh family which had recentlyshifted to a middle class colony, DilshadGarden, beyond the Yamuna, said thateven though there were many killings,burnings and lootings all around, theywere kept in a protective cocoon by theirneighbours who brought them everythingthey needed so as to save them from havingto step out of the house. When the citywas facing severe shortage of milk, they

had more than enough. Many Hindufamilies also kept in safe custody thevaluables such as cars, jewellery, cash,videos and other expensive itemsbelonging to their Sikh friends andneighbours.

Mahinder Kaur narrates how some ofthe Muslim neighbours from her mother’slocality came to rescue her and herbrother’s family from another colony. Sheherself lives in Nand Nagri with herhusband and three children but had goneto visit her brother at Yamuna Vihar. Therewere three men, two women and fivechildren in the house on the 1st when, atabout 9 a.m., a mob of about 500 came andbegan to stone the house. The familylocked themselves in, and hid. Theirneighbours, in an attempt to save them,told the mob that the house was emptysince the Sikh family had escaped theprevious night. The mob went ahead andburnt the nearby gurudwara as well asdozens of Sikh homes in the locality. Someof their neighbours then came to talk tothem and advised them to escape sincethe mob had gone away for a while. Theywere afraid to travel along the roads whilethe mob was still on the rampage. But theneighbours clearly told them that theywould not shelter the Sikh men. So theydecided to stay hidden together in theirhouse. At 3 a.m., however, a group ofMuslim men came to their house to rescuethem. These were neighbours of MahinderKaur’s mother who lives in Jafrabad, atrans Yamuna village which has apredominantly Muslim population. Thesemen had brought several burkahs withthem. The three Sikh men and the two boyswere dressed in women’s clothes, coveredwith burkahs and taken to Jafrabad wherethey remained safely till the relief campscame into existence. Had they not beenrescued at that juncture it would havemeant certain death because the mobreturned at 5 p.m., broke open the doorand searched the house to see if anyonewas hiding. They looted some of the stuffbut were dissuaded by the neighboursfrom setting fire to the house. Mahinder

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Kaur says the Muslims of that locality hadsimilarly rescued dozens of Sikh men andkept them in their houses for several days.

The Help Offered Was NotEnough

However, in many cases, theneighbours were not willing to take therisk involved. In many cases, the familiesinitially gave shelter, but as soon as themob began to approach, the Sikhs,especially the men, were asked to leave onthe plea that the sheltering family wouldotherwise be placed in danger. Thisamounted to handing over these men formurder to the mobs because once theycame out, with the mob all around, therewas no possibility of escape.

After attacking and killing all the Sikhmen they could lay their hands on, the mobleft and came back again in hordes andinsisted on searching every house,including those of people of othercommunities, to see if any Sikhs had takenrefuge there. Anyone they found hidingwas slaughtered. Sometimes, they brokedown the roofs of victims’ houses toensure that people hiding inside would becrushed to death.

The fact that people of differentcommunities did come to the rescue of Sikhneighbours was perhaps the only hopefulsign in an otherwise nightmarish situation.Yet the help offered was not enough.While many helped neighbours to hide andescape surreptitiously, not enough Hindusor others came forward in an organisedway and openly resisted mob fury.

There is evidence that wherever evena small number of determined individualscame forward, they were able to stop evenbig mobs from running amok. For instance,in Yusuf Sarai market, which is only abouta furlong away from AIIMS, from wherethe killing spread on the 3lst, the localshopkeepers organised very braveresistance. A mob came and set fire to thegurmlwara. They were about to attack Sikhshops next. The Hindu shopkeepers cameand lay down in front of the shops andtold the mob they would have to burn thembefore they burnt the shops. Not a single

shop was burnt or looted in this area, thenor afterwards.

Similarly, a friend went and rescued aSikh colleague from his house in a riotaffected neighbourhood in broad daylighton November 1, and brought him to hisown house on his motorbike. Some of theneighbours threw stones at them but didnot proceed to further violence when thisfailed to intimidate the rescuer.Even in ahighly disturbed area like Punjabi Bagh,an old woman and a 60 year old mansuccessfully prevented a mob from settingfire to a house. A couple of rioters threwpetrol balls into the house but the rescuersmobilised help from the locality toextinguish the fire, and persuaded the mobto leave.

In rare cases, those non Sikhs who triedto come forward and remonstrate with themob did get beaten up, some few wereeven killed. But on the whole, those whostood their ground were able to save thatparticular situation.

Many neighbours allowed Sikh womento seek refuge but refused to shelter men.Somti Bai of Trilokpuri says she and herfamily hid in the house of a local politicalleader. While he kept assuring her that herthree sons were safe in the house, hesubsequently turned them out of thehouse, which was as good as handingthem over to the mob, which was on therampage all around. All three sons werekilled. Somti’s sister-in-law was raped. Hertwo sisters were kidnapped and releasedonly after three days had passed.

Another horrible but typical exampleof callous cowardliness of neighbours wasreported by an eyewitness in ShankarGarden, a middle class colony newlyestablished in West Delhi. A mob attackeda Sikh house, pulled out an old man andset his clothes on fire. He ran into thehouse of a neighbour who helped him getoff the clothes and extinguish the fire. Butthe mob soon began to pelt this housewith stones. The family there folded theirhands before the elderly Sikh and askedhim to leave by the back door because theywere not ready to risk further attack. As

soon as the Sikh emerged, the mobencircled him. They seemed to be in nohurry for they spent about 20 minutescollecting stones. They then formed a circleround him and began stoning him to death.At this, his young son came running outof the house to save his father, who wasby then half dead. The mob immediatelypounced on the son, tied his arms and legs,poured kerosene on him and burnt him todeath.

This entire incident, from beginning toend, was watched by hundreds ofneighbours standing in their courtyardsor on roof tops, yet no one had the courageor humanity to intervene. The old man wascrying for water but no one came forwardeven to meet this need because theattackers stood around in threateningpostures.

Several such instances have beenreported where determined intervention byneighbours and onlookers could haveaverted killings. Not only did people failto intervene. They seem to have watchedwith the same mixture of fascination andrepulsion with which viewers watchviolence on the cinema screen.All For The Glory And Unity Of

The NationUnfortunately, an overwhelming

majority of people in Delhi seem to feelthat all the killings and arson were, in someway, justifiable. They believe this not justbecause they are possessed by the desirefor revenge for the murder of Indira Gandhibut because they have been convincedby years of vicious chauvinist propagandathat a purging operation was necessary inorder to “save the nation” and “keep thenation united.” The ruling party has madeitself the arch symbol of a so called unitednation. Its opponents are invariablyaccused of “weakening the nation” in theface of the dangers of the “foreign hand.”

Once such a chauvinist, nationalistfever infects the brains of people there islittle hope that rationality or humanity orlogic will prevail. The vision of the nationbegins to act as a monster devouring itsown people.

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The amazing thing is that many of thosewho witnessed with their own eyes suchsenseless murders, who may feel sorryabout their neighbours’ and friends’deaths, who may even have helped andsheltered Sikhs, in fact a majority of thepeople of Delhi, still continue to assertwith unabated vigour that the Sikhs hadto be “taught a lesson.” The bizarre logicor rather illogic behind this sentiment ismost difficult to challenge. As long aspeople thought in concrete terms of Sikhsthey knew personally, they felt that theseindividuals should be protected and thatattacks on them were regrettable. But themoment they began to think of themselvesas members of the Hindu community or asnationalist and patriotic Indians (these twowere usually seen as synonymous), theirability to see Sikhs as fellow human beingsseemed to vanish. The transition from“Santokh Singh, our neighbour andfriend” to “those Sikhs” was remarkablysudden, drastic and violent. Sikhs as Sikhswere “they” pilled against “us.” Sikhsbecame another species altogether, whoneeded to be sternly dealt with, perhapseven exterminated, for their “otherness.”

Amongst the majority of Hindus, whodid not join in the violence, thereunfortunately seems to be a distinctfeeling of pride that Hindus have finallyput fear in the hearts of a supposedlyaggressive community. At the same time,nobody wants to face the responsibilityfor the horrific deeds that were done inthe name of teaching this lesson. This isespecially so amongst middle class people.After asserting that the Sikhs had to begiven a fitting reply, people at once seekshelter behind the comforting reflectionthat it was “these lower caste” poor peoplewho did it, conveniently forgetting thatthe leaders who incited the mobs are fromtheir own class. They are also quick tocite instances of how, in their own way,they tried to help their neighbours. Thusthey betray a curious blend of pride in themob actions which were done in the nameof avenging Hindus, and shrinking fromtaking individual responsibility for thecarnage.

The Complex Quality Of ConcernAlso, in middle class colonies, other

factors than mere undiluted concern forneighbours seem to have been at work toget them to offer help to some of their closeneighbours. In the colonies of well offpeople, almost none of the local residentswere key participants in mob activity.Almost always, the attackers descendedfrom outside of the colony and wereperceived as belonging to the lower castesand classes, who were making use of theopportunity to loot and plunder. Manypeople perceived it as some sort of classwar.

Those middle and upper class colonieswhich adjoined villages and resettlementcolonies seem to have been worst affected.The residents, therefore, fell prey to thefear that the selective looting of SikhhouseS could spread to other houses. Iheard residents of some of the affluentcolonies say that the “nich jatis” had beeneyeing the growing prosperity of the richwith increasing resentment and hadgrabbed this occasion to acquire consumeritems that they could not otherwise hopeto get throughout their lives.

The fear that if an adjoining house wasburnt, the fire might spread or that theattackers might lose their sense ofdiscrimination and loot non Sikh housesas well, seems to have spurred many morepeople into organising mutual defence.

Sadly, there are also reported cases ofneighbours having helped the attackingmob to identify Sikh homes. A woman fromBabarpur alleges that “a local ration shopowner brought the attackers to our house.We know him very well. We always hadgood relations with him. But he and hisbrother betrayed us. The killers were menfrom the interior alleys of our locality. Theycame around noon on the 1st. My son hadbeen told to cut off his hair and had doneso the night before. He had kept vigil allnight with the other men of theneighbourhood. But the ration shop ownerrecognised him though his hair was cutand pointed him out, saying : ‘He is aSardar. Kill him.’ The killers poured

kerosene on him and on my husband andburnt them both to death.”

Yet it remains true that in most areas,immediate neighbours, on the whole,offered help, or at the very least, did notjoin the attackers. When local men joinedthe mob, or rejoiced with it, they wereusually not immediate neighbours of thevictims but were residents of a nearbyblock or street in the same locality.

Rumour As A WeaponEven while people helped their

neighbours and friends, ferocious rumourswere set afloat to discourage people fromoffering such help. In Trilokpuri, as wellas in other areas, several families who hadgiven shelter to Sikh women told meobnoxious and unbelievable stories aboutSikhs who were given shelter in Hinduhomes having butchered their benefactors.There was also the absurd story of abarber who cut the hair of a Sikh at thelatter’s request but received sword blowson his ears and in his stomach as a partinggift. Such rumours were and are rife inevery locality, from the affluent to thepoverty stricken.

Unfortunately, this kind ofrumourmongering goes on unabated evenafter the Sikhs have been subjected tosuch violence and terrorisation. During andafter the carnage, there have been severalrumours of how Sikhs have retaliated orare planning to retaliate, in and outsidePunjab. The stories about water poisoningand trainloads of massacred Hindus, whichran like wild fire through the city, have beenproved utterly baseless. But stories of howSikhs are planning to reavenge themselvesare still doing incalculable damage. Forinstance, a domestic servant in our localitytold us that the army had to be called intoher colony because the residents wereconvinced that the Hindus were inimminent danger of an attack by the Sikhswho had sought shelter in Balasahebgurudwara nearby. It was rumoured that9,000 Sikhs, equipped with all kinds ofarms, had gathered in the gurudwara andwere ready to retaliate. However, the realitywas that about 1,500 people, most of them

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women and children, in a pitiable condition,were living in the gurudwara relief camp.The rumour also gave rise to a disgustingdemand that the relief camp in thegurudwara be disbanded because Sikhswere congregated in large numbers there.

Thus these rumours have become notonly a way of justifying the monstroushappenings which have no realjustification, but also a weapon that is usedwith telling effect against the victims.Women Excluded From Defence

EffortsAll the killing, looting and burning was

organised by men. In some cases, after theinitial attack was over, women and childrenalso joined in picking up whatever theycould lay hands on by way of loot. AtPunjabi Bagh, for instance, men, womenand children from J. J. Colony, Madipur,came in swarms to claim their share ofbooty from the gurudwara and from somehouses. But the attacking mob wasexclusively composed of men.

The organised efforts at defence andpeacekeeping were also confined almostexclusively to men. Women weremeticulously kept out of these efforts inmost areas. Men, as usual, ran the wholeshow by themselves. On television, whenresidents were interviewed, some womensaid the role they played was that ofserving tea to the men who kept vigil allnight.

In our neighbourhood, Lajpat Nagar,the first initiative to call a meeting of theresidents was taken by the Residents’Association of the block, which is not avery active body in normal times. In thisassociation, as in all such bodies, womenare never approached to become evennominal members if there are any men inthe household. A widow without grownsons may be asked to pay a membershipfee in her own name, but will not beexpected to attend meetings or to take anactive interest in the doings or nondoingsof the association. Since I happen to beone of the few women who has no male“head of the household”, I was enrolledas a member in my own right.

Yet, though I approached the officebearers to find out if a meeting was beingcalled and to ensure that I was informedso that I could attend, neither I nor anyother woman was allowed to be part of theneighbourhood meetings anddeliberations. Men took for granted that itwas their job to defend the area. Womenwere expected to run inside their homes ifan attack occurred.

At night, young men patrolled thestreets, and made rather aggressiveenquiries of any women they saw walkingaround at a late hour. They were on theready with lathis, iron bars and otherweapons. The way they went about theirbusiness, it was difficult to distinguishthese night patrollers from trouble makers.In fact, in a few places, including parts ofLajpat Nagar, different patrolling partiesclashed with each other, mistaking eachother for hoodlums.

For many young men, this seemed anexciting opportunity to prove their filmiheroism. Some of them seemed to have agood time creating false alarms, spreading

rumours, running around with sticks androds at the slightest provocation-real orimagined. Observing the aggressivebehaviour of some of the young men inour locality, I had the uneasy feeling thattheir very presence on the road was likelyto spark off a clash, with or without reason.

Women in our locality and in mostother areas of the city, acted merely ascarriers of rumours that their sons,husbands and brothers brought in fromoutside. None of the men thought itnecessary to involve women in the effortat self defence nor were there any instancesof women taking the initiative to organisetheir own meetings to discuss what theyshould do in case of an emergency.

At the same time, in many Sikhhouseholds, because of the danger tomen’s lives, most of the outside choreshad to be performed by women. Withinmost homes, of course, women didparticipate in discussions as to what thefamily should do if something went wrong.But this was not allowed to happen at thecommunity level.

Women were, however, active in reliefwork. Students and teachers of women’scolleges in Delhi have been particularlyactive in organising relief teams. Even here,however, authorities in some colleges havetried to put hurdles in the students’ way.For instance, in Miranda House andUniversity Hostel for Women, rulesregarding visitors’ entry into the premisesand residents’ comings and goings havebeen made more stringent. Thus, womenstudents have even less freedom than inordinary times to go out of the premisesand this restricts their ability to be activein relief work. Girls have been repeatedlywarned against the supposed dangers ofrelief work. Residents of the UniversityHostel were even forbidden to join theDelhi University peace marches on thecampus.

The experience of these days againconfirmed the fact that people’spreconceptions seem to determine andinfluence their thinking much more thanthe reality of the situation and of their

Outside her wrecked home

— H

indu

stan

Tim

es

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

experience. For instance, whenevercommunities were attacked, men seemedquite incapable of defending their homesall by themselves. In most cases, womendid come forward to protect not only theirhomes and children but also the lives ofmen. Most of the men seem to have beenforced to flee to save their lives, leavingwomen to take care of the children, the oldand the home. This has been the standardexperience everywhere-in Assam, in Bihartribal movements, during the partition,during various riots and so on. Yet the mythholds powerful sway that men alone aredefenders of the community and thatwomen are incapable of performing thistask.

The powerful hold of this myth preventswomen from acquiring any say in keydecision making processes, even in thosewhich affect their lives as profoundly asthey do those of men.

The Role Of GovernmentMachinery

In one sense, this was not an unusualperiod. The entire government machineryseems to have lived up to its usual motto :“Do not move or do anything until there isa push and a kick from above.If you dosomething you are more likely to annoysomeone in power than if you do not doanything.”

This is summed up very aptly by N.K.Saxena, a senior police officer quoted inthe November 25 issue of ExpressMagazine : “I have no doubt that a goodfew police officers make dangerouscompromises because, according to theircalculations, the risk of their dismissal forfailure is not more than one percent, whiletheir being disgraced for doing their dutyseriously is over 50 percent.”

A striking example of this safe nondoingwas the way All India Radio handled thenews of Mrs Gandhi’s death. They werethe last to announce her death, and keptplaying their routine jazz and film musichours after BBC and several other foreignradio stations had announced the news andhad started broadcasting condolencemessages from different world leaders. It

was a typical display of mindless servilityand slavish self censorship, characteristicof the government owned media in India.

While the city burned, many seniorpoliticians, bureaucrats and police officersseem to have spent most of their timedancing attendance at Teen Murti housewhere Mrs Gandhi’s body lay, or preparingto receive foreign dignitaries for the grandfuneral. Others were busy helping tocoordinate the murder, rape and plunder.

Role Of PoliceAlmost everywhere in the city, the

police too seem to have performed a wellrehearsed role. Either they were absentfrom the scene and failed to make theirappearance despite repeated appeals fromaffected and concerned citizens or, if theywere present, they behaved at best like

between his going off duty and the nextman’s coming to replace him, there wouldbe an interval of at least 15 minutes, inwhich the job could be done. However,the ‘leader’ was not convinced and said:‘Look, we have the men now. We can’twait. Besides, we know you. Who knowswho the next fellow maybe?’ So saying, heput his arm around the policeman andwalked him down the road for a fewhundred yards, during which time the restof the miscreants set ‘ the gurudwaraablaze.”

The PUCL-PUDR report describessimilar experiences : “On November 1,when we toured the Lajpat Nagar area, wefound the police conspicuous by theirabsence, while Sikh shops were being seton fire and looted. Young people armed

amused spectators. In many cases, theyactively abetted the criminal acts, and insome cases, even participated in them.

A friend who witnessed the burning ofYusuf Sarai gurudwara described the roleof the police: “Between 3 and 4 p.m., onNovember 1, a local hoodlum came to thepoliceman on duty and said : ‘Please goaway from here, we want to burn thegurudwara.’ The policeman goodhumouredly replied : Wait for a while till Igo off duty. Then you can burn it. In fact,you should burn it.’ He assured him that

with swords, dappers, spears, steeltrishuls and iron rods were ruling theroads. The only sign of police presencewas a police jeep, which obstructed a peaceprocession brought out by a fewconcerned citizens. When the processionwas on its way to the Lajpat Nagar mainmarket, a police inspector from the vanstopped the procession and warned it notto proceed, reminding its members that thecity was under curfew and Section 144.When leaders of the procession wantedto know why the arsonists and rioters were

Policemen act as disinterested spectators

— S

tate

sman

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26 MANUSHI

not heing dispersed if curfew was on, hegave no reply and warned instead that theprocessionists could go to Lajpat Nagarmarket at their own risk.”

Even in our own locality, after thegurudwara was set on fire, the policemenlooked on with amusement as though itwere a tamasha and did nothing to stopthe hoodlums. When we tried to persuadelocal residents that we should try to putout the fire, the policemen accused us ofcreating a “disturbance” and tried to pushus away. Elsewhere, too, the same story istold.

Even for those who wish to believe thatthere were no explicit orders to this effectfrom high up police bosses, the role thatthe policemen at the lower levels playedwould still need to be explained. The leastone would have to say is that since thepolicemen knew that several Congress (I)men were fomenting the riots, they did notwant to take the responsibility of stoppingit lest they incur the wrath of their seniorofficers and the ruling party bosses.Hence they may have decided to adopt asafer course and do nothing obstructive.

However, since traditionally there is aclose link up between the politician cumruffian and the local police, even if therewere no explicit orders from above to thiseffect, the two are likely to have acted inunison. And since there was promise ofloot and plunder, the arsonists found readyallies among the police.Several peoplehave alleged that a substantial portion ofthe looted property was cornered bypolicemen.

Sardar Santokh Singh, who lives inShivpuri Extension, says : “No police cameto our rescue when we were attacked onNovember 2, even though the place wherewe live is a stone’s throw from the policestation.” No first information report (F.I.R)had been registered even though they,along with many others, came and soughtshelter in the police station after it wasconverted into a relief camp by thegovernment.

Several of the families I interviewed hadbeen denied protection and shelter when

they somehow managed to reach a policestation. For instance, Shan Kaur and herdaughter managed to reach the Seelampurpolice station after the male members oftheir family were murdered. But she saysthat the police threw them out and theythen sought refuge in the house of Hindurelatives. She says that in her colony somemurders took place right in front of thepolice station.

Sardar Mahinder Singh of ShankerNagar, who works as a granthi in agurudwara, describes how his family fared; “On November 3, at about 4.30 p.m., themilitary came and asked if people wantedto be taken to relief camps. So all thosewho were in hiding came out. Onetruckload left for the camp. Just as theothers were preparing to get into the nexttruck, the military drove it away empty,saying : ‘We have some urgent worknearby, so we will come back for you.’ Nosooner had the military left than the mobfired on the families who were nowstanding exposed on the street. OneSardar died. There was a stampede, withpeople rushing to hide and being pursued.My brother-in-law and my young son raninto the house and tried to hide. Theattackers pursued them and broke downthe door. The two of then climbed on theroof of a Hindu neighbour’s house but theywere dragged down and hit with lathis andbricks. Immediately, petrol was poured onthem and they were burnt alive. My wifetried to save them and got badly burnt.Everything in our house was lootedthough the neighbours somehow managedto save the house from being burnt.”

In Krishna Nagar, 12 members of afamily were burnt alive in their own housewithout any intervention by the policeeven though the police station is a fewyards away. One of the men tried to escapebut he was hit with iron rods and thrownback into the burning house. A woman tootried to escape but was already so badlyburnt that she died, soon after, in hospital.

There were instances, however, of thepolice coming to disarm Sikhs who tried toresist attackers, using whatever arms they

had. Thus police deprived them of theirlegal right to private self defence.Thoseactions to disarm Sikhs were among thevery few active interventions by the police,ostensibly to preserve law and order. MoreSikhs died as a consequence of this typeof police intervention than would have,had the police just kept away.

Bindo from Kalyanpuri says that theSHO of the area ordered the police to lootSikh houses. Those who resisted werearrested. Police raided Sikh housesinstead of protecting them. In other blocksin this colony, people alleged that the SHOhad accompanied the attacking mob andprovided them with diesel from police jeepsfor burning Sikh men alive.

Several cases have been reported ofHindus who had sheltered Sikhs havinggone to seek help from the police andhaving been told to hand over the Sikhsto the mobs. An eyewitness in Shakurpursays a Sikh man who was being pursuedby a mob attempted to save his life byclimbing into a police jeep. He was thrownby the police to the mob who killed him onthe spot.

An additional reason for police inactionin this instance is believed to be that Sikhpolicemen were deliberately immobilised.One version is that the Delhi police wereofficially informed of Mrs. Gandhi’s deathonly at 5 p.m. even though she had diedmuch before noon. The two DIGs spentthe whole night disarming that largeproportion of the Delhi police force whoare Sikhs. They were taken off duty. Evenin the army, some Sikh Soldiers are said tohave been disarmed.

Thus, not only was precious time lostwhich should have been spent keeping thecriminals in check, but also, Sikhpolicemen, who could have helped keepthe situation somewhat under control,were gotten rid of. Thus, in many respectsthe murderers, looters and arsonists had afree hand and could act with greaterassurance that no one would block theirway.

Frying Pan To Fire ?It seems we are fast reaching a state of

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

gangster police combined rule. After theassassination and riots, the governmentmade several announcements about itsplans to overhaul the prime minister’ssecurity force and also to open many morepolice stations in the city, and strengthenand expand the police force. This seemslike rubbing salt into our wounds.

It is a well known fact that not onlyduring these riots but in almost all othersimilar situations the police have citheractively assisted criminals or at the least,have turned a blind eye to their activities.One of the reasons for this is that thepolitical bosses who control the police arealso the ones who extend patronage toruffians and criminals. Most people arguethat what we need is a smaller but honestpolice force and non interference bypolitical leaders. How this can be achievednobody yet knows. At least, I have neverheard anything but pious sermons on thisissue, to which neither police norpoliticians feel the need to pay heed.

Expanding the police force by adding8,000 or more to the existing 32,000 in thecity, as the government has announced,without reorganising it and making itresponsible to the people residing in thelocal communities it is suppose to protect,is like adding to the problem rather thansolving it. It amounts to injecting morepoison into the social life of the country.

The Coming Of The ArmyThough the press, All India Radio and

Doordarshan reported that shoot at sightorders had been issued and the army hadbeen called in to enforce the curfew onNovember 1, following large scaleviolence, the troops in the field were notgiven firm and clear instructions to moveindependently to put down the riots. Thepolice and the civil administration failedto provide accurate information to thetroops deployed in the city, especiallyduring the crucial first few days.

There were hardly any instances duringthe few days of the riots of the army havingfired on mobs of attackers or having cometo the rescue of victims while they wereunder attack. Many officers in the field

seemed unsure of their orders and werereluctant to order their troops into actionwithout the concurrence of the police andcivil authorities, both of whom seemedreluctant to cede authority to act to themilitary. There seems to have been adeliberate plan to keep the army ineffectiveuntil the murderers and arsonists had donetheir job.

The coming of the army to maintainlaw and order in the city was welcomed byalmost everyone. Many even openlydeclared that they wanted military rule.This is indeed a sad comment on the stateof our society. People themselves aredemanding more and more militaryinterventions in the mistaken hope that the

Bangladesh, close neighbours. Bothcountries have had long spells of army rule,and in matters of corruption and disorder,are perhaps worse off. Yet the myth persiststhat the army can best perform the people’stask because we have not had as muchexposure to army rule as we have had toour police and politicians, except for a fewdays in times of crisis. Another face of armyrule is visible in certain border areas inIndia, where, for a long time, the army hasbeen doing exactly what the police isnotorious for doing in most parts of thecountry.The Nature Of Government Relief

Even though it is well known that keymembers of the Congress (I) party led and

army is “above politics” and hence willclean up thc corrupt administration.

The conduct of our politicians andbureaucrats is such that democracy hasunfortunately become synonymous withcorruption and ruffianism. Hence, toofrequently, the desire for a well orderedsociety seeks expression, tragically, in thedesire for army rule.

Is this because people see army ruleas rule by a caste apart from the rest of thepeople? Are they really as incorruptible assome of us hope?

We have the examples of Pakistan and

instigated the riots and much of thegovernmental machinery slavishlycollaborated with the rioters, the same crewhave now entrusted themselves with thetask of doing relief and rehabilitation work.The attitude displayed is that of piousbountifulness vis a vis the poor helplessvictims, as though some natural disasterhad befallen them.

It is tragic indeed that several petitionsand memoranda have to be submitted byconcerned citizens and organisations tothe very same authorities who are directlyor indirectly responsible for the massacre.

A family arriving at Shahdara relief camp

— In

dian

Exp

ress

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For instance, a letter signed by severalorganisations was sent to Rajiv Gandhiasking that special reliefs be made availablefor widows, and women who have lost allthe male members of their families. Therehave been similar requests for enhancingthe compensation money for each death.The whole tone of the letter is one ofasking a favour.

Whenever there have beendiscussions between voluntaryorganisations involved in relief and thegovernment representatives, the latterbehave as though they are bestowingcharity on a group of people who have norightful claim on government.

This attitude is evident also in the halfhearted and haphazard way relief campswere started by the government. FromNovember 4 onwards, as things began tocalm down, the army was assigned the taskof keeping peace in the city. People whohad been rendered houseless or felt too

provided by government, not to mentionmedical or other relief, such as blanketsand clothing, For the first few days, peoplefrom neighbouring areas, both Hindus andSikhs, brought food for the victims. Forinstance, in Farash Bazar camp, peoplefrom Jhilmil Colony organised a langar forthe victim families because thegovernment had not made any foodarrangements and many of the victims hadnot eaten for the days they had been inhiding.

Even when the government did beginto send in food and other supplies, it sentthem only to the 10 camps which the Delhiadministration chose to “recognise.”About 20 other camps, most of them setup in gurudwaras were not recognised bygovernment and therefore receivedscarcely any material help fromgovernment.

The Sikh community, with help fromvoluntary organisations, arranged food

formed in response to the situation, triedtheir best to fill the gap. They collecteddonations, food supplies, old clothes,medicines and other items. A few doctorsjoined these relief teams. In some camps,government machinery began to putobstacles in the path of voluntaryorganisations and insisted on issuingidentity cards to people before letting thementer the camps. However, this plan couldnot be implemented.

As the voluntary organisations beganto assess and grasp the magnitude of theproblem, government announced its plansto fold up the camps on the plea that thesituation had returned to “normal.”Government insisted that people return totheir “homes” so that the process ofrehabilitation could be expedited.

Many people whose houses had beencompletely destroyed were similarlypacked on to buses and sent off. MahinderKaur, whose flat in Nand Nagri had beencompletely looted and damaged, and whowas left with no source of income sinceher husband’s teashop and her knittingmachine were both destroyed, was forcedout of the camp in Shyamlal College,Shahdara. On November 11, a day beforethe university opened, she says, inmatesof this camp, which was one of the largestin Delhi, were forced out. When theymanifested reluctance, they were told : “Ifyou do not go you will be thrown out”(dhakke mar ke nikalenge). In Kalyanpuriand Shakurpur people are living in the opennear their wrecked homes.

It was around November 6 thatgovernment declared its intention ofwinding up the camps. This was the timewhen people were still coming into thecamps and most of those who were therecategorically stated that they would ratherdie than return to the areas where they hadseen their relatives slaughtered and wheredegradation had been heaped upon them.The common feeling is: ‘That place hasbecome a cremation ground for us.” Thosewho lived in somewhat safer localitiesreturned on their own without anyprodding from government. It is primarily

In the Farash Bazar relief camp

insecure in their own neighbourhoodsmoved into relief camps set up in differentparts of the city, some by government butmostly by gurudwara. As usual,government was slow and callous inmeeting with the demands of the situation.

In the early days, even though peoplewere dumped in police stations, collegesand school buildings that had been hastilyconverted into relief centres, food was not

and other supplies for these camps.Evenin the 10 recognised camps, however,government food supplies are so poorlydistributed and frequently inadequate sothat voluntary organisations have had tocontinue supplying food, clothing andother necessities such as blankets, soap,utensils, buckets, on a regular basis.

Several voluntary organisations suchas the Nagrik Ekta Manch, which was

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

the poorer families from resettlementcolonies where even local people andsome neighbours had joined in the lootingand killing, who are not prepared to goback.

In order to preempt any governmentmove to throw out vulnerable andshelterless people on to the streets, NagrikEkta Manch was forced to approach theHigh Court and demand that governmentbe disallowed from closing down thecamps until satisfactory arrangements weremade for the safety of the affected families.The High Court granted a stay order onNovember 16, and on November 19 madethe government give an assurance that nofurther evacuation would take placeagainst the will of the evacuees. However,by then, almost all the government runcamps had been emptied, except for theFarash Bazar camp.

The political considerations behind thedesire to evacuate people are obvious.First, as long as people stay together inthe camps, they remain visible as victimsof riots and of the collusion and failure ofgovernment machinery during this period.This is obviously too big anembarrassment with the elections roundthe corner. Second, as long as people livetogether, they inevitably have a certainmeasure of solidarity. This gives them arelatively stronger bargaining position indemanding compensation and relief. Third,ar long as they live together, it is easier forvoluntary agencies and concernedindividuals to monitor the compensationprocess and to make sure that the moneyactually reaches those for whom it is meantand is not misappropriated by thedisbursement agents or local leaders andhoodlums. Those families who were madeto go back when the camps folded are nowscattered and more completely at themercy of callous governmental machineryand of the Congress hoodlums who areplaying an active role in distributingcompensation money.

Fourth, those families who werecompelled to go back will be forced to maketheir homes habitable by removing the

wreckage and thus will be made to destroythe evidence of the carnage and loot.Government has not yet taken the troubleto begin collecting evidence on asystematic basis or even assessing thetotal economic damage caused toindividual families. Nor is there any hopeof such a process commencing.

Fifth, once people are back in theircolonies, they are likely to be intimidatedinto silence so that they do not follow upcriminal charges or give witness againstthe attackers. The problem is most acutefor the relatively poorer set of victims fromresettlement colonies. The bulk of peoplewho stayed in refugee camps for more thana few days came from these colonies. Mostbetter off people took shelter with friends,relatives, or in privately arranged places.Had there been any attempt bygovernment to record the statements ofthe victims while they were still in camps,it would have been far easier to gettestimony, as these people have beenfreely talking to press reporters and otherinvestigators. When I interviewed peoplein the camps, except for some women whohad been gang raped, not one personshowed any unwillingness to tell his orher story. They were willing to betaperecorded, photographed, and alsoopenly to identify all those whom theyknew to be abettors and perpetrators ofcrimes, however high up or powerful thesepeople were. Once forced to go back tothe areas where murderers and ruffians stillroam around freely, the victims are notlikely to be able to testify openly. Not thatany effort to record statements is likely tobe made by government at any point sincethe carnage was mostly government’s owndoing.

Very little has been done to curb theelements which were behind the riots. Ithas been reported that even when policehave been forced to make some show ofarrests and recovery of looted properly,most of the arrests were made on pettycharges which do not carry any seriouspenalty. A majority of arrests were madeunder section 107 of the penal code. A

person apprehended under this sectioncan at most be ordered to execute a bondfor keeping the peace and public trarquilityfor a period not exceeding one year.

Moreover, since Congress (I) leadersare known to have instigated the rioters,the hoodlums are assured of politicalprotection. In some cases, Congrcss (I)leaders have actually gone to policestations and insisted on their followersbeing immediately released. The bestknown example is that of Congress (I)leader, Dharam Das Shastri, who wasreported to have openly intimidated theSHO who had ordered the arrest of somecriminal rioters. Many of the leaders areknown to be doing the same, some of themthrough less visible pressures. Even thefew rioters who were arrested have beenreleased on bail within a day or two andare known to be openly intimidating thevictimised families in their areas.

Despite pressure from large sectionsof the public, government has not ordereda full enquiry into the origin of the riots. Infact, government is making a shamelessattempt to dismiss the violence as an itinevitable outburst of people’s naturalfrustration, grief and anger. The Congress(I) party has come back to fight the nextelection, posing as the arch defender ofnational unity. This has led severalprominent citizens to appoint anindependent enquiry commission to gointo the causes of the riots. But thequestion is how does a commission lackingany enforcement authority put thegovernment and the ruling party on publictrial for its criminal conduct.

Monetary CompensationThe amount of relief and compensation

promised is so low as to be absurd. Thegovernment has announced a Rs 10,000compensation for each person killed. Sincemost of those killed were mainbreadwinners of their families, the moneypromised is ridiculously inadequate.Whenpeople have tried to point out theinadequacy, government representativesdeclare that any larger amount would set a“bad precedent,” since victims of floods

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30 MANUSHI

and other natural disasters are given muchsmaller amounts. The procedures forgetting even this meagre sum are socumbersome that most people, particularlythe illiterate and the poor, have no hope ofever obtaining it. The most problematicprocedure is that a death has to be“proved.” Considering the circumstancesunder which people were murdered, burntto ashes and their remains lost amidst thewreckage, this is a cruel demand indeed.

The official figure for deaths in Delhiis set at about 600 whereas the actualnumber of deaths is likely to be much over2, 500. Government is trying its utmost notto have to pay for all the deaths because ifit acknowledges more claims this amountsto admitting the extent of the tragedy andof its own hypocrisy.

For damages to a house, thegovernment is paying about Rs 1,000. Theupper limit of compensation for propertyis Rs10,000.Even those who had everysingle item they owned burnt and theirhouse and vehicles destroyed cannot getmore than this. Even this meagre paymentis being made in the most dishonestmanner and many of the disbursementagents are taking bribes. Very, very few ofthose who filled out claim forms have beengiven the full amount of Rs 10,000.

For instance, in Farash Bazar camp,where people from Trilokpuri, who were

among the worst sufferers in Delhi, hadsought shelter, there were 243 death claims,515 house and property claims and 113injury claims. On November 19,government officials brought only 31cheques to be disbursed. Out of these,onewas for Rs 10,000, one for Rs 5, 000 and 29were for Rs 1,000 each. The people wereso angry that no one accepted thecheques and the officer was asked to goback. Similar or worse things have beenhappening in other areas.

In despair at government inactivity,some voluntary organisations and privatebusiness houses were impelled toundertake the task of repairing andrebuilding houses in some of the poorerareas, a task which government shouldhave undertaken as a priority.

When people were made to leave thecamps, they were supposed to be givenRs 50 and a week’s rations per family. Manydid not get even this paltry amount. Insome cases, people were so angry withthe government for its role in instigatingthe riots that when they reached the campsthey refused to eat food supplied by thegovernment or the ruling party. They wouldonly accept help from gurudwaras,voluntary agencies or local residents whohad spontaneously organised relief.

Thus, even though on paper several

lakhs of rupees will be shown to have beenspent in providing relief and rehabilitation,very little of even this amount is likely toreach the people whom it shouldreach.This will provide anotheropportunity to the bureaucracy and theCongress party to bungle andmisappropriate funds.

Ever since relief camps have beendisbanded, voluntary agencies have foundit more difficult to provide support andrelief because the victims are scatterednow. Relief workers have found thatbecause the colonies where most of thevictims live are places where the city poorare concentrated, the job of relief becomesmore difficult. Many poor families flock tothe volunteers and ask for help, eventhough they are not riot victims. If theyare denied what they ask, fresh groundsfor resentment and hostility against thesurvivors are created.

Most people feel that the little that isbeing done or promised by way of reliefand rehabilitation by the government isessentially a way of creating a favourableatmosphere for the ruling party in theforthcoming elections, and that as soonas the elections are over, all aid to thevictimised families will terminate.Considering the government’s past record,this apprehension is by no meansunjustified.

What Do We Do ?One’s first response to the

enormity of what has happened is to feela sense of absolute loss and despair. Eventhough the political instigation from withinthe ruling party played a very crucial rolewe cannot escape facing the fact that thepoison that erupted flows in the verybloodstream of our social and political life.This has frightful implicaticns. The mostsignificant is that we are beirg ruled by adeadly alliance of ruffians and politicians,and all other groups have abdicatedresponsibility.Equally frightening is thepassivity with which even the supposedlymost enlightened and educated of ourcitizens have accepted the massacre as aminor aberration in normal life. As the

Vidya, a widow, with her three children, and the fourth, a baby born on November 8in the relief camp

— M

adhu

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No.25NUMBER TWENTY FIVE, NOV.-DEC.1984

election fever heightens, those terribleevents are fast receding from everyone’sawareness.

However, if we do not learn and act ona few of the basic lessons that emerge soclearly from these tragic events, we willnot be able to avert still largercatastrophes.

We must realise that what was done tothe Sikhs can at any moment be done toany group of people. All it needs is a bunchof powerful politicians who, for somevested interest or other, decide to make ascapegoat of any identifiable group in thecountry. This has been done to Muslimsfor decades.

Lower caste and so called untouchablepeople have repeatedly been made victimsof mass murder, rape, arson, in rural areas.The pace of such attacks has escalated inrecent years. Such attacks by upper castelandlords and their hoodlums, with thecomplicity of police, have not arousedmuch public outrage. Violence seems tohave become so much a part of “normal”life that people’s sensibilities have beenbenumbed towards it.

Similarly, there is an old history ofdubbing every radical opposition to thegovernment as “Naxalite” or “antinational”and thus justifying extermination drivesagainst political opponents by the statemachinery and its hired hoodlums. Thistime, the Sikhs came to be chosen asspecial targets. Next, it could be virtuallyanyone.

We need to demand that :1. All those who are responsible for

the carnage be dealt with appropriately.The Congress (I) party and its chief officebearers who fomented violence and led thekillings should be put on open trial andappropriately punished. Additionally, theyshould be made to pay reparations bothfrom the party funds and from theirindividual wealth, for the heavy lootingand damage to homes and other propertyof Sikh families. They should also payheavy punitive fines for their criminalconduct, though of course no fines can

ever be a recompense for murder, rape,maiming and the other forms of terror thatthey unleashed.

2. A pension of Rs 500 a month shouldbe given by the government to each widowand mother of deceased men. Along withthis each child and dependent familymember should be given Rs 100 per monthtill such time as the child reaches the ageof 18.

3. The functioning of the various armsof the state machinery which activelyconnived with the arsonists or by theircriminal neglect let the arsonists have afree hand for more than four days shouldalso be subject to an independent inquest..This includes the police and the civiladministration.

Equally important is the long termneed to devise ways whereby the police

defence efforts which sprang up duringthose days of crisis which succeeded inpreventing the violence from spreading ona still larger scale. In manyneighbourhoods, Hindus, Muslims andSikhs patrolled together and kepthoodlums at bay, even at the height of theincitements to communal massacre. Weneed to have the courage to learn theappropriate lesson from this experiencenamely, that this form of self organisationhas a much greater potential for givinggenuine protection to citizens than thepolice has ever had.

We need to recognise the urgent needfor the people to take back for thecommunity the power that has beenappropriated by the ruffian-politiciancombine. We need to rebuild theinstitution of local self government. It isfutile to expect protection from the

and the administration can be madeaccountable directly to each localcommunity for what they do or fail to do.

4. Apart from curbing the arbitrarypowers of the police and administration,in which abuse is inherent, we need to learnfrom the strength that lies in eachcommunity organising itself for its owndefence and self determination. It has beenwidely acknowledged that more than thepolice or the army,it was the citizens’ self

“higher” authorities because this onlyends up rendering us powerless andservile.

We need to evolve newer forms of localself government at every level so that wedo not have to live with a crippling senseof dependence on a highly corrupt,authoritarian and centralised statemachinery.

5. It is equally important that womenbe actively involved in this process in

Victims at Kalyanpuri cooking collectively in an open space near their wreckedhomes

— H

indu

stan

Tim

es

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32 MANUSHI

substantial numbers. The active presenceof women in the community life has severaladvantages, one being that because oftheir relatively lesser capacity for and lackof a tradition of committing organisedviolence, the active presence of women onsuch comittees will make the atmospherefar less conducive to violence.

6. These riots have highlighted withgreat urgency the role that wrong, bad anddishonest information plays in breedinghatred, violence and injustice. This hasbeen true not only for these but for allcommunal riots. In the absence of goodhonest information, people are vulnerableto believing anything that is said withvigour and authority and repeated ahundred times.

Thus it becomes crucial to make honestinformation easily available and accessibleon a very large scale. This task cannot beleft to the government. It has to beundertaken by those who feel the need tobuild a more humane society. Prejudicesfeed on ignorance. We have to make amuch greater and more concerted effort tocollect systematically accurate and honestinformation, and to distribute it effectivelyin times of crisis and on a day to day basis.

7. These and other murderouscampaigns such as anti Muslim riots inmany parts of India, the ongoing repressionin areas such as Assam and Nagaland, thechronic massacres and terrorisation ofharijans, also highlight the inherentdangers in the kind of thinking that putsabstractisms above human life. The killingof Sikhs has been justified in the name ofnational unity just as Bhindranwalejustified killing of people —Sikhs andHindus —in the name of Sikhism or Sikhnationhood. Any ism, whether it issocialism, Gandhism, nationalism,Hinduism, or feminism, if it teaches us tokill, terrorise and subjugite human beingsfor some larger cause is a virtual deathtrap for people.

It also shows the danger of abstractionswhich hide human reality. People are oftenwilling to stand by their neighboursbecause they see them as individual human

People living in the open in Kalyanpuri, after their huts were destroyed

— In

dian

Exp

ress

beings but the moment people are seen asSikhs or Muslims or Hindus, stereotypicprejudices about communities take overand destroy the possibility of humanrelationships.

8. We need to combat the authoritarianthinking which permeates every aspect ofour social and political life- from the familyto the government. Any differences ofopinion are seen as signs of rebellion andare sought to be put down with a heavyhand. We need to build a culture oftolerance and respect for differences ofopinion, and an institutional frameworkwherein mutual cooperation is producedby common interests rather than bymilitary and police coercion or appeals toa mystic idol called the nation.

A key aspect of relying onauthoritarian thinking is the desire forsimplistic, dogmatic solutions to all socialproblems. For eximple, there is a demindfor more and more police and armyintervention as one violent episodefollows another. We need to remember thatat no time in history and in no part of theworld has the police or the army ever beenable to inculcate a sense of fellow feelingor respect for other members of society.Wherever the police play a very active,dominant role and have relatively unlimitedpowers, they operate as upholders of

rulers who are more authoritarian andunjust. Therefore, we need to find othernonauthoritarian ways of dealing withviolence, crime and differences of opinionamongst our people.

9. Even the hired murderous gangswere aware that if Hindus put themselvesin their way in a determined manner andsaid : “We won’t allow you to go aheadwith it”, they would have had to stop.Many Hindus did resist the murdererseven at tremendous personal risk. Bydoing this they not only saved Sikh livesbut also saved and asserted their ownhumanity.

This desire to be at peace with one’sown neighbours and feel a sense ofresponsibility for their well being and feelcalled upon to extend some help is one ofthe most hopeful things that has happenedand we need further to strengthen and buildupon it. This is something that does nothappen uniformly in every society.

However, at the height of the massacres,this impulse remained largely limited to someneighbours and immediate friends of theattacked minority, acting as individuals oras a family. This impulse has to be spreadso that our concern does not remainconfined to our neighbourhood, family andfriends. It has to gather strength from acommon purpose and effort to see to itthat these massacres are not repeated.

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