1984 Anti-Sikh Pogrom It's Still A Matter Of Life & Death For Us

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

AND Evidence of how the Sikhs arise agaisn like the Phoenix...from the ashes..
http://epaper.hindustantimes.<wbr>com/ArticleText.aspx?article=<wbr>05_11_2009_003_002&kword=&<wbr>mode=1


<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="567"> <tbody><tr align="left"><td valign="middle">RISING FROM THE ASHES - I - Untying life's knots, tailor sells bricks & mortar dreams
</td> </tr> <tr align="left"> <td> </td> <td valign="middle"> IT HAS taken them a quarter of a century to pick up the lost threads since they were turned into refugees of the 1984 antiSikh violence -- in many cases twice after the Partition. But, some of them have gone beyond rebuilding their shattered lives at the places they had migrated to across Punjab and have scripted stories of success in the face of suffering. Theirs are the heart-warming tales of extraordinary resilience and enterprise.
Beginning today, Hindustan Times kicks off a series on the Sikh migrants who have risen from the ashes, literally. ( ) We picked up the pieces, improved our business and resettled in Bareilly. But then in 1984 our shops were burnt and looted by mobs HARBHAJAN SINGH
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

In December 1984, Harbhajan Singh didn't have a single penny in his pocket.
Today, his hands are full with housing projects and aid for the needy. From taking measurements at a garments shop to building homes, the 55-year-old who lost everything in the 1984 riots has stitched his life back together.
A partner in three housing colonies surrounding Patiala, Harbhajan is considered a big name in real estate circles in the town. But he still shudders thinking about the days he was forced to shift from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh after his shops were burnt down. It was as if the past had returned to haunt him. In 1947, his father, a landlord, was uprooted from Balani village in Gujarat district of west Punjab. "After the Partition, we reached Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and worked hard to set up a transport business.
But I was only two years old when my father died," recalls Harbhajan.
"We picked up the pieces, improved our business and resettled in Bareilly. But then in 1984 our shops were burnt and looted by mobs. In two days, our earnings and years of hard work was reduced to ashes."
"When I went back to Bareilly to take control of my property, I was threatened and shooed away by the locals," he says.
In December 1984, Harbhajan reached Ludhiana. But the city did not suit him. After a few weeks, he decided to shift to Patiala.
"The city seemed foreign to me. I had no money. Finally, I managed to get some help and took a small shop in Dharampura bazaar on rent," he says.
Harbhajan started stitching jeans at half the price than his competitors.
Slowly, his business picked up with people taking a liking to his clothes. Sticking to garments business till 1993, Harbhajan found his calling in real estate. And since then there has been no looking back.
"With the grace of almighty, business is fine," he says, refusing to divulge the annual turnover of his enterprise BH Properties, but opening his purse strings to help people.
Harbhajan has set up an old age home, a gym and 14 schools to teach Sikhism all over the city.
"There's no criteria for the inmates for old age home; persons from all religions are welcome," he says.
A home for orphans is his next dream along with many others that he decides to keep to his heart. '84 RIOTS ROB HARBHAJAN SINGH OF TRANSPORT BUSINESS, DILIGENCE, HARD WORK MAKE HIM DEVELOPER

 

[spnadmin]

People like this put me to shame. I am so up-lifted at the same time by reading about him. There is no stopping him now -- and he is not cold-hearted -- with a world of good works in his future. WoW!

 

[Satyaban]

Satyaban ji

If you have time then please read report on 1984 from the following site
The Anti-Sikh Pogrom of October 31 to November 4, 1984, in New Delhi - Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence

The above report is not from a sikh source and give you unbiased view why and what happened in 1984

"Violence begets violence"

I was offered a bit to read checked out most and here is what I think without knowing the divisions in Sikhi.

I think a division was inflamed in 1978 when the SAD, Sikhi's premier party was labeled separatist. Had not the gov't offered A Punjabi state with 60% of the residents speaking Punjabi but crossed the Sikhs when they were stigmatized with the separatist label which did not set well with the gov't supporters. So the gov't was wrong there.


I think it was wrong and a sacrilege to turn a house of worship into an armed fortress. I hold the fellow Sant B....... who was shot at on the roof. The Golden Temple's hostel was full of pilgrims I recall reading.

The action by the gov't on The Golden Temple was not an urgent necessity. Gandhi was wrong and misguided in her military action.

The killing of Gandhi by the Sikh security she had absolute faith in was wrong. They made providing for her safety their duty and they failed to uphold their dharma so beautifully illustrated in The Gita.

The ensuing mob rampage was led by congressmen to include maybe a Sikh. Adding this to the gov'ts slow action to stop the murders I hold the government responsible for the rampage and mayhem.

Peace
Satyaban

 

[spnadmin]

Satyaban ji

Thanks for your insgihts. Some accounts of Bhindranwale's death even argue that Indira Ghandi backed him into taking an extreme partisan stance in the first place, expected he would take a stand, but did not expect it to be as hard as it turned out to be.The political strategy aimed at compromising his loyalties and using him to root out separatist extremists in various political cells back-fired and then the disaster.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

<table align="right" border="0" width="300" height="250"><tbody><tr><td>
</td></tr></tbody></table> Tough TIMES DONT LAST...TOUGH PEOPLE DO !! and always Have...SIKHS are really TOUGH....

"Displacement" is a word that Ludhiana-based Harminder Singh Malik understands very well. He experienced its repercussions as a child when his family migrated from Mandi Bahauddin in Pakistan to New Delhi in post-Partition India. More than three-anda-half decades later during the 1984 riots, the family again had to leave their home and a flourishing business at Ambikapur in Madhya Pradesh (now in Chhattisgarh). Though Harminder was born two years after the "first" displacement, he grew up with its pain. "My mother says Partition was an accident...a horrendous accident.
One of her relatives was killed during Partition. We lost our garments business.
We had to leave our agricultural land. Everything was over in a snap," he says.
His father died young. The family shifted to Ambikapur.
He saw his mother slog to make ends meet. She would sew clothes for well-off families. It was at this point that Harminder learnt two basic lessons of life: dignity of labour and never-say-die attitude.
In his early teens, he too started pitching in to help the family financially. He forsake regular education after matriculation and helped his mother in her stitching work. He would earn during the day and study at night. Fortune favours the brave.
The family was able to establish a garments business in the town. It could have been a smooth sailing had their shop not been attacked in the riots.
Again, the spectre of "displacement" loomed; the killing of four persons in the area hurried their decision to relocate to Punjab.
"It was time for taking quick decisions. If we came to Punjab, I knew we would have to start from the scratch. But there was no way out. We decided to shift to Ludhiana. I thought Ludhiana is an industrial town and I would at least be able to earn something. Perhaps, I could take up a job," he shares.
The next few years were strewn with struggle.
Harminder had to marry off his younger sister. The hosiery business he had started did not click. But he remained unfazed. He remembered his mother's oft-repeated advice: "This too shall pass. Tough times don't last; tough people do."
In 1986, he started a plastic manufacturing unit, "Helly Plasto Work". He operated from a rented accommodation in Shimla Puri area. He could barely afford to employ any workers. At this juncture, the two basic lessons of life learnt early in childhood guided him.
He was determined to build up his business, even if it meant working 24x7.
For good eight years, it was a tireless struggle. Finally, in 1994, he owned a home and a factory that was slowly and steadily moving up the growth curve. Today, the annual turnover of "Helly Plasto Works" is around Rs 70 lakh.
"When I started my manufacturing unit in Ludhiana, I did not have any money to invest. I sold off my wife's gold bangles and also took some loan to pool in the money," he says. "Now I know that with the grace of Almighty, I can weather all storms. I would never flinch when it comes to hard work...we can build our destiny if we're determined enough," he adds. WRITE THOUGHTS Harminder is fond of writing.
"My life experiences find a distinct echo in my write-ups.
Thoughts often spill over to paper. We write about our cumulative experiences," he says. This state media convener of the BJP travelled across the country to research on the life of Guru Teg Bahadur.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.<wbr>com/ArticleText.aspx?article=<wbr>06_11_2009_001_009&kword=&<wbr>mode=1



<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="567"><tbody><tr align="left"> <td valign="bottom"> </td> <td valign="middle"> RISING FROM THE ASHES-II - `Tough times don't last, tough people do'
</td> </tr> <tr align="left"> <td> </td> <td valign="middle"> AFTER LOSING HOME, BUSINESS, MOTHER'S ADVICE SPURS HARMINDER TO ACTION.
TODAY, HE'S OWNER OF RS 70-LAKH PLASTIC UNIT IN LUDHIANA
</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

Satyaban ji

Thanks for your insgihts. Some accounts of Bhindranwale's death even argue that Indira Ghandi backed him into taking an extreme partisan stance in the first place, expected he would take a stand, but did not expect it to be as hard as it turned out to be.The political strategy aimed at compromising his loyalties and using him to root out separatist extremists in various political cells back-fired and then the disaster.

Narayn Ji,
One can "get on a Tiger and Ride it..BUT it gets TOUGH to get off !!
Tigers have a tendency to have a mind of their own...

Bhinaderawallah was one such " supposedly tame CAT" sponsored by Indira and Congress people like Zail Singh etc etc.as a counter balance to the Akalis ...DIVIDE the SIKHS and RULE THEM through PROXY.....BUT to their Surprise he turned into a WILD TIGER...and...IG found she couldnt ride him any longer..and decided to get him killed off/ finished off...hence the slippery slope towards OP. bluestar...which turned out to be Operation BLACK HOLE for HER as it sucked everybody IN..the Army, the Generals, the Bhinderawallahs and the Indiras and Zails...:advocate:

 

[spnadmin]

Gyani ji

Thanks for helping me along with the message. :welcome::welcome::welcome: I couldn't express it that well.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

Satyaban Ji..here is a view about Indira...from a HIndu writer...
DeccanHerald.com

Between the lines: Indira, the destroyer
By Kuldip Nayar

During Indira Gandhi's draconian rule the press, the judiciary and the bureaucracy compromised because of fear.

If all the sponsored publicity by the Congress-ruled Central and state governments could efface the stigma of mis-governance on Indira Gandhi's part, it would have happened long ago. After 25 years of her death, the same sources did not have to go over the exercise all over again with crores of rupees going down the drain. The effort failed because there was no introspection, no regret.

Indira Gandhi's cardinal sin was not the imposition of the emergency but the elimination of morality from politics. She rubbed off the thin line that differentiates right from wrong, moral from immoral. Her demolition of values was so thorough that the dividing line stays erased even today.
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Indira Gandhi was never happy with the press. Her first order was to gag it. The media has still not regained its equilibrium even after 34 years. It has now developed the quality to stay on the right side of every political party when in power. That is the reason why newspaper articles on her 25th death anniversary seldom mentioned her misdeeds either before the emergency or during the emergency. They were too laudatory even to shame the sycophants.

Mahatma Gandhi taught the nation to shed fear. Indira Gandhi recreated fear in the minds of people. Whether it was the press, the judiciary or the bureaucracy, they compromised because of fear. She decimated what was called the impartial bureaucracy. It caved in under pressure. Desire for self-preservation became the sole motivation for government servants' actions and behaviour. The fear generated by the mere threat made them pliable. They became a tool of tyranny in her hands.

Commitment re-defined

Indira Gandhi coined the word, commitment, long before the emergency to assess the loyalty of bureaucrats towards her. Some of them differed to say that their commitment was to the constitution of India. But they were either ignored at the time of promotion or sent to an unimportant position. This resulted in slow tracking of independent administrators, accustomed to note fearlessly on files.

The biggest damage she did in her 18-year-rule was to the institutions which her father, Nehru, had founded and nourished. She manoeuvred even parliament when she lost the majority in the Lok Sabha in the wake of the party's split.

Indira Gandhi used all methods to break those who opposed her. I wonder if she would get even a footnote in history. If at all she gets mentioned, it would be because of Operation Bluestar against the Sikh's Vatican, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. She has had the tanks roll in within the precincts of the gurdwara.

She paid a heavy price for it. Her Sikh bodyguards killed her to avenge the attack on the Golden Temple. But then the government's retaliation was criminal. It did not act in 1984 for three days during which 3,000 Sikhs were butchered in Delhi in broad day light. It is an irony that the Sikhs have recalled the killings this weak, the 25th anniversary of the massacre, when the Congress party, too, has held meetings and photo exhibitions to glorify Indira Gandhi.

Full article:
http://www.deccanherald.com/<wbr>content/34440/indira-<wbr>destroyer.html

 

[Satyaban]

Namaste

I thank everyone for their comments and additional information. I must caution I was asked for an unbiased opinion of the incident. I made no judgements of individuals including Indira Gandhi or Bhinaderawallah nor look at sect divisions.

I am surprised that no one has addressed the issue of arms in the Golden Temple which I thought I was quite critical of. That certainly had played a huge part in the events.
There is also silence relative to the duplicity of the two security men who rather than failed in their duty but in my eyes disgraced themselves by violating what they vowed to do by doing the opposite. It must have caused some hidden dishonor of Sikhs and I don't see how it furthered the Sikh cause, I don't think thinning the ranks was their intention for they to bore some responsibility for the murderous rampage.

Gyani ji: I don't recall venerating Indira Gandhi but thanks for the article.

Just some more opinion.

Peace
Satyaban

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

Satyaban Ji,
I didnt intend to imply that you venerated IG in any way..if i did inadvertantly..apologies.

A dear friend who i trust visited Amrtisar in 1982 - 2 years before the attack...and he saw CRP/BSF/PP every few steps along the way to darbar Sahib Complex...the Jawans were even inside the wayside coffee shops dhabbas...He also visited in 1983 and then in 1984 just before the attack...exact same security ...tight as a drum...HOW DID the weapons get inside ??

I beleive the entire weapons story is a GOI concoction. The Darbar sahib had only the Duly Licensed Fire Arms..103 303 pakkii rifle....Enfiled Rifles which were of Pre second War age..pre 1940's. The SIKHS have a TRADITION of SHASTARS KEEPING and darbar sahib Complex had always had weapons of this sort...and these were licensed.
The Militants had their own AK47's...how many..no one knows.
Either the weapons were not in the quantity as alleged..or they were duly smuggled in by the authorites so as to legitimise their slaughter of the innocents later on..PLANTED as the PP usually do in cases of FAKE ENCOUNTERS. Only these were planted on a bigger scale..Strictly my own opinion...
ALL the Eye wittness accounts..tell of the Unabated FIRING from OUTSIDE Darbar sahib Complex beginning 4 am aimed directly at Harmandar sahib by the CRPF/BSF etc unprovoked and incessant for 24 hours into the Complex without warning. Then the Tanks were sent in and faced stiff resistance...hence the use of Heavy Artillery !!

THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT ALWAYS IGNORED is that the GOI Forces SIMULTANEOUSLY ATTACKED OVER 52 Major GURDWARAS all over PUNJAB....BUT everyone knows that Bhinderawallaha dn his men were in ONLY Darbar Sahib Complex...so why the attacks on all other major Gurdwaras ?? and why the SILENCE on those attacks ?? Who was caught..with what weapons..how many Armed Forces personnel died in thsoe Gurdwaras ??? How many sikhs lkilled ?? These questions remain unanswered...

 

[Tejwant Singh]

When people want to be fair and balanced - unlike FAUX NEWS in the USA, at least they have good intentions. However, only good intentions without studying the facts in depth lead to self defeating prophecy. That is why Sikhi is based on questioning and studying in order to find answers sans any assumed presumptions.

Tejwant Singh

 

[spnadmin]

Narayn Ji,
One can "get on a Tiger and Ride it..BUT it gets TOUGH to get off !!
Tigers have a tendency to have a mind of their own...

Bhinaderawallah was one such " supposedly tame CAT" sponsored by Indira and Congress people like Zail Singh etc etc.as a counter balance to the Akalis ...DIVIDE the SIKHS and RULE THEM through PROXY.....BUT to their Surprise he turned into a WILD TIGER...and...IG found she couldnt ride him any longer..and decided to get him killed off/ finished off...hence the slippery slope towards OP. bluestar...which turned out to be Operation BLACK HOLE for HER as it sucked everybody IN..the Army, the Generals, the Bhinderawallahs and the Indiras and Zails...:advocate:

Let me add to the list of those sucked into the black hole which was completely one of her own creation. Also sucked into the black hole was all of India.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

http://www.hindustantimes.com

By Vir Sanghvi
November 08, 2009

The views expressed by the author are personal

--
Life can sometimes come full circle. On that fateful night in 1984 when the Indian Army seized control of the Golden Temple, I was part of a tiny minority who regarded the operation as a disaster.

I remember going for dinner that evening to the Indian Express penthouse at Nariman Point in Bombay to find my host Ramnath Goenka and his houseguest, Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia virtually whooping with delight. Neither of them was any kind of fan of Indira Gandhi's in normal circumstances, but that night they sang her praises.

Theirs were not isolated views. All over the country there was jubilation at the success of Operation Bluestar. News magazines wrote cover stories with all the gravitas and maturity of a Commando comic. On Doordarshan, General Brar was projected as the conqueror of the Golden Temple and discussed the operation with the swagger of General Eisenhower describing the success of D-Day.

Many of us are so guilty about the terrible violence of November 1984 that we have blanked out what went before.But I had my reservations. While it was then considered blasphemous to say anything bad about the Indian Army (and perhaps it still is), I thought the military had screwed up big time. The overconfidence of army commanders had led them to underestimate the opposition they would encounter in the temple and their hubris had cost the lives of hundreds of jawans. Worse still, they had taken tanks and Armed Personnel Carriers into the temple, destroying the Akal Takht and badly damaging the Harmandir Saheb.

All this was certain to hurt Sikhs and inflame sentiments. Now, to hide the extent of the army's ineptitude the government was telling lies (not a single bullet hit the Harmandir), covering up the avoidable casualties (the innocent pilgrims who were caught in the crossfire because the army decided to attack on a Sikh holy day), and overplaying the extent of the victory.

My view then, as today, was that first of all, we should think twice before using the army in such situations. (A few years later, the National Security Guard (NSG) was asked to clear the Golden Temple again in Operation Black Thunder and it did a clean surgical job.) Secondly, you should never unleash a media blitz that projects the Indian State as the conqueror of a holy shine. And thirdly, in the aftermath of Bluestar, we needed to assuage Sikh sentiments, not glory in some bogus victory.

Twenty-five years later, I have not changed my mind.

But I think everybody else has.
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In fact the truth is that as much of a disaster as the military operation was and as badly as government (and the popular media and the educated middle class) behaved in its aftermath, there was no alternative to Bluestar.

It was a mess. It was regrettable. But it was necessary.
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Full story:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/<wbr>News-Feed/viewsvirsanghvi/<wbr>Bluestar-was-too-little-too-<wbr>late/Article1-473992.aspx

 

[ac_marshall]

Respected Kanwardeep Singhji,
Many are not aware of the threats faced by Indian Tamils following the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi. My father had expired a week before and I was just returning to Bangalore with my mother and 3 year old sister from my father's native town in Tamil Nadu finishing his last rites. Looking at the registration plate of the car we were travelling it was waylaid at the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu Border by goons carrying "Congress Flags", choppers and daggers, we were extorted by the mobs at every 2 to 3 kilometers humiliated as traitors at every step. Our driver was a native of Karnataka who saved us at every step. What defence would a boy of 9 years of age (me), a little girl of 3 years of age (my sister) a middle aged woman and a senior citizen put against mobs of 50 members or higher each armed with daggers, choppers and litres of kerosene with burning torches? At the entry point of Bangalore, all of us were searched by Police. We were accused of carrying weapons while they found that there was a wheel spanner in the car. It was our driver who protected us everytime. Through out our path we saw arsons, tamil vegetable vendors being hit and banners saying "Finish the Tamil Traitors". The situation had just calmed down after a month and soon another horror started. This was the Cauvery Water dispute, another set of anti-tamil killings through out Karnataka. At school some of my classmates used to taunt me "LTTE" influenced by radical Kannada groups. Similar events sparked every time there was a politically fuelled inter-state issue.

Delhi's violence of 1984 was politically incited and given the colour of Sikh-Hindu Riots. Anti- Tamil Riots in Karnataka and some other states was also politically incited and given the title Kannada-Tamil Riots. It was a shift in agenda from Religion to Linguistic Group. The same thing today continues in Maharashtra against non-Marathis by Raj Tkackeray and his group.

The overall fact is that whether it is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Tamil, Punjabi or Bihari a weaker common man is always a soft target. This is the fact. If we have to curb this menace, we need to fight it out collectively respecting and honoring each other. I re-iterate the fact that it is not any community, any sect but the human society of common man struggling against tyrants.