1984 Delhi Sikh Genocide - Public Records

Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential.

Since the earliest organised societies, with taxation, disputes, and so on, records of some sort have been needed. In ancient Babylon records were kept in cuneiform writing on clay tablets. In the Inca empire of South America, which did not have writing, records were kept via an elaborate form of knots in cords, quipu, whose meaning has been lost.

In western Europe in the late Middle Ages public records included census records as well as records of birth, death, and marriage; an example is the 1086 Domesday Book of William the Conqueror. The details of royal marriage agreements, which were effectively international treaties, were also recorded. The United Kingdom Public Record Office Act, which formalised record-keeping by setting up the Public Record Office, was passed in 1838.

So we ask, where are the records highlighting Sikh genocide?

The 1984 Sikh genocide was horrific, however the hindu masses have collective amnesia (which is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage, disease, or psychological trauma) and have conveniently chosen to forget Sikh genocide, some deny it took place.

How can the human race preserve records from thousands of years ago but those from the 1984 Sikh genocide are conveniently misplaced or destroyed?

The genocide was conducted at the behest of the Congress party officials who instigated the masses.

Many ordinary Indians of different religious dispositions made significant efforts to hide and help Sikh families as outlined in affidavits of Sikh victims and have been active in seeking appropriate justice.

Why did the police destroy records? Some say officials destroyed records in police stations to save the accused.

'Kill a Sikh and forever more, God curses you.'

Hiding genocide against Sikhs is a crime against God and humanity

We Thank those who have taken the time and trouble to preserve records of Sikh genocide despite organised efforts to hide the truth.

Search for Justice

We have yet to understand how the survivors of the 1984 carnage have passed the years, characterized by impunity for the perpetrators. They vividly recall the horrors they survived:

"I cannot put in words how I feel when I remember the days of terror we had spent locked in our house in Bhajanpura, Delhi, after Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

But when the entire nation mourns the death of the former prime minister, I remember my friends who were burnt alive on the roads with burning tyres around their necks just because they were Sikhs."

One woman, who threatened self-immolation in 2003, expressed the persistence of her memories:

"People tell us to forget our tragedy and start life anew, but we have seen so much carnage, suffered the loss of friends and family members at the hands of our own countrymen that it is impossible to forget it."

When Barbara Crossette visited a widows colony of over 1000 survivors in Tilak Vihar in 1989, she found broken families wavering "between cold bitterness and emotional collapse." Their stories of carnage were overwhelming both in the extent of loss and brutality of death:

They tell how two men's hair… was tied together before they were set ablaze, and the taunts of killers that greeted the dying men's desparate attempt to douse the flames: "Don't they dance well!"

Crossette described families consumed with the impact on the children of the dead:

The women re-enact being told at knifepoint: "We will cut off your breasts and send them to Punjab! You have killed our mother, Indira!" Saduri Kaur, 60, who saw her three sons killed, leaving her 18 grandchildren, is consumed with anxiety that no one will marry her eight granddaughters because she has no money for dowries. She is barely able to keep them alive.

Prakash Kaur (in Tilak Vihar, Widow Colony), 63, lost her husband Ravinder Singh in the violence. She says nothing can compensate her loss.

Saduri Kaur could only afford to give her grandchildren a cup of tea for dinner. Ten years after the carnage, R. Devraj visited a widows' colony in light of a study done by the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) on children who lost their fathers in the pogroms.

Many women took government jobs after the carnage, becoming the primary breadwinners in the family, leaving their children unattended.

IWPC's study concluded that many of the children dropped out of school and engaged in petty crime, drugs, and gambling. Besides growing up without fathers, the manner in which their fathers were killed strongly impacted the children.

According to Rithambara Shastri of IWPC, "Apart from a deep-seated insecurity, the children bear a sense of fatalism and have developed the attitude that since life can be snuffed out so easily as happened with their fathers, uncles and brothers, there is little use in studying or building a future."

The study also found that survivors placed little faith in the Indian government or in the idea of justice.

After years of impunity for perpetrators of the carnage, survivors have expressed feelings of injustice and hopelessness. Prem Kaur, who lost her husband and son in the November carnage, and has appealed the High Court's acquittal of MP Sajjan Kumar, expressed her frustration at the Congress Party's nomination of Sajjan Kumar for elections:

"It's wrong he got a ticket. How can he be given a ticket?... What can one person do! I gave my statement against Sajjan Kumar in court. Nothing matters. What can one person like me do, what can I say?"

Despite these expressions, Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit stated at the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar that the survivors of the November 1984 massacres had been suitably rehabilitated and all of their demands met. Clearly a barefaced liar that doesn't speak for Sikhs...

We make the following records available for the sake of posterity.

Affidavits

Statements Of Witnesses

Police Records

Judgements

Analysis Of Judgements

List Of Persons Killed

Delhi Genocide Victims Map

Sikh Genocide Photo Gallery

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