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Riots occur because of deindividuation, where people lose their identity and sense of self completely and are prone to performing acts which they would normally would never even think about doing.

 

The fact that they all happened to be in the same religious group would only accelerate deindividuation. And the fact that we were all in under one banner made it easier for them to see us all as enemies.

 

Actually, I think if the congress were to blame and if they were going around telling everyone to kill Sikhs, people would resist it (at least at first). It would then take time to create a motivation to perform horrible attrocities such as in riots. People cannot simply jump to that level of evil just like that (unless there is deindividuation), you need to slowly take them up the ladder step by step. It is unlikely that congress had much of a role in the riots, it just wouldn't be as quick. There is another phenomenon that explains the quick reaction by Hindus and that's deindividuation.

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation