WUNRN
INDIA - SIKH WIDOWS OF 1984 MASSACRE
- CALL FOR JUSTICE
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Widows of Sikh men massacred 25 years ago in the aftermath of Indira
Gandhi's assassination say
Here tiny
apartments are jammed together. Outside are open sewers. Inside, each apartment
consists of a 6-by-8-foot bedroom, 3-by-4-foot kitchen and 3-by-3-foot
bathroom.
None of
this is exceptional in
However,
there is one critical difference in this place: the complete absence of older
men.
The
government built the C-Block after 1984, when two Sikh bodyguards assassinated
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, prompting riots and murderous mobs to burn
houses, businesses and places of worship in Sikh communities across the
northern part of the country.
Sikh men,
easily identified by their turbans, were targeted and murdered. Some women were
killed, but many more were raped and left behind, along with their children.
The government built this Widow's Colony for them.
One
resident, Harsharan Kaur, 64, lost her husband and young son in riots in
Trilokpuri, a neighborhood in the western part of
She tells
the kind of story that is prevalent here.
"My
husband who ran a small motor mechanic shop was dragged out of the house,"
Kaur recently told Women's eNews in Punjabi, in her apartment. "A tire was
put around his neck, his hands tied and then the tire was lit. The event came
like whirlwind and destroyed everything I had."
She did
get some compensation from the government, about $2,000
But what
she and others in the colony say they truly desire is justice.
Many of them used to live comfortably on the middle- or upper- incomes of their male relatives.
While they have struggled to put their lives back
together after the trauma of the killings, they have lost their chief
breadwinners.
The jobs they have found teaching, providing domestic
help, working for the group that administers affairs in the colony haven't
reclaimed their former ways of life.
Meanwhile, the perpetrators have gone free.
Since
November, 1984, when the first commission was created, 10 official commissions
have been set up to investigate the carnage.
Aside from
some minor convictions, residents here say not a single politician, police
officer or anyone else has been convicted.
Many
residents of the Widow's Colony say that such a systematic attack on one
community is not possible without the support of the government. They point to
the refusal of police in 1984 to register initial complaints and suspect that
public officials have destroyed evidence.
In March,
2009, the country's Central Bureau of Investigation cleared Jagdish Tytler, a
ruling party candidate at the time of the riots who victims allege helped
instigate a crowd in
In
September, the Congress government announced a package of Rs 715 crore (about
$143 million U.S. dollars), which has yet to be disbursed.
Meanwhile,
the absence of an entire generation of men in the Widow's Colony serves as a
constant reminder of what occurred 25 years ago.
"My
son was just 4 years old when the riots happened. But even then it had a deep
impact on him," said Gursharan Banga, 50. "After the riots he used to
say that he will become a terrorist when he grows up, so that he kills the
people who murdered his father."
Under her care,
however, her son's life did not turn out that way. She is today proud of the
fact that her son is working for a multinational Internet technology company.
Such stories, however, are as rare as winning a million dollars on a TV quiz show.
What was
supposed to be a safe refuge is riddled with crime, prostitution and addiction.
Every
resident here seems to have a harrowing tale to tell a visiting journalist. And
most end with a request for money or help.
"I
was just 7 years old when the riots happened," said 32-year-old Sarabjeet
Singh, who says he overcame drug addiction a few years ago. "My mother
tells me that I wasn't able to talk coherently for a long time after that. I
started stammering and became very quiet."
Singh, who
used to live in Trilokpuri with his family, says he saw his father, a mechanic
who owned his own shop, get pulled by his hair, dragged outside the house and
set ablaze before his very eyes.
He and his
mother, Harsharan Kaur, 56, somehow managed to escape the rioters and later
ended up at the Widow's Colony. His mother works as a domestic helper.
"The
anger that I feel for the murderers of my father and uncle can never be
compensated with money," said Singh. "My life is totally destroyed.
Today I drive an auto rickshaw to earn a living."
Pappi
Kaur, 55, lives in the Widow's Colony with her aging aunt.
"We
were residents of Trilokpuri before the riots and led a fairly good life,"
she said. "After the riots I was offered a job by the government, but the
pay was so miniscule that there was no point traveling so far for it."
Instead,
she makes a little money tutoring school children.
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