As Sikh Genocide And The Sikh Massacre

Attack on the heart of Sikhism, the militaristic and political values over the lives of the innocent shook the entire Sikh religion to its knees. In June 1984, rising tension between the Damdami Taksal led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwal and Indian Army, lead to an assault on the Golden Temple located in Amritsar, where the nationalist group was headquartered. Lasting ten days, the Operation and overall fighting left the death toll to an estimated of 490. The damage to the Golden Temple complex and Sikh community was catastrophic. Battles in the surrounding areas, in the streets where innocents where kept and the involvement of tanks made for the operation to be very chaotic and horrific. In the months following the operation, Indira Gandhi,

to whitewash Sikhs who do not attend religious practices, do not believe in the culture that much, and everything about their heritage is fading away.

Genocide is the destruction of an ethnic, racial, or religious group. The most famous genocide, conducted by the Germans, is the extermination of the Jewish population known as the Holocaust. There are other genocides such as the Armenian or Darfur genocide, but the Holocaust is the one talked about and studied the most around the world today. Museums exist in Washington D.C, Los Angeles, and parts of Europe that focus primarily on this dark time in history. Vast amounts of books, movies, and documents concentrate on the Holocaust. Why is this chapter, between 1939 and 1945, discussed and examined? The answer lies within people who experienced the Holocaust such as Elie Wiesel, Jay Frankston, and Franks Shatz. These men have gone through hell and back, but they believe in one thing. That is, the notion of never again. The goal is to educate future generations on what really happened, so history does not repeat itself. Never again should people of any race, religion, or ethnicity, go through the horrific past of the Holocaust. In their writing, Wiesel, Frankston, and Shatz do a great job using pathos, logos, and ethos to convey their message of never again for future generations.

For decades without end, members of the Sikh faith have suffered countless injustices at the hands of their fellow countrymen. The Sikh religion was started in India during the fifteenth century by the first guru Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The Sikh were a peace loving people who spread messages of freedom and equality. They even went as far as too risk their lives to help out other religions. Despite all this in the past century the decedents of the very people the Sikhs sacrificed and continue to sacrifice themselves to save have turned their back on them. India reduced Sikh's to second class citizens, and didn't even consider them as a proper religion. During the independence movements Sikh's were the ones who contributed the most, despite

(Document 5) This shows that even though Britain gave education to Indians they only gave it to who could afford it and hardly anyone could. Lalvani claims that over the 200 year span of British imperialism, India’s religions felt safer and less discriminated against. ( According to Dr.Lalvani) Although the British thought this was true it actually was not. Christians were mocking and discriminating against Muslims and Hindus. (Gandhi) Similarly Hinduism believes in nonviolence so when the protest at Amritsar took place the Indians were brutally slaughtered while being unarmed. (Gandhi) Because of their non-violence beliefs the Hindus had no defense and were killed by what they thought was their

There were conflicts in the early 1940s at religious events. An example is when the Hindu event Holi, also known as the festival of colors, featured riots. There were also cases when sacred cows were murdered. Additionally, there were times when Hindu music was loudly played by mosques during the prayer time. Segregation of the religions was promoted as Muslim’s could only use ‘Mohammedan refreshment room’ at train stations. Muslims could only use the tap waters labeled ‘Muslim water’ and Hindus could only use the taps labeled ‘Hindu water’. The president of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, told a British interviewer, “We are different beings, there is nothing in life which links us together. Our names, our clothes, our foods-they are all different; our economic life, our educational ideas, our treatment of women, our attitude to animals….We challenge each other at every point of the compass”. Professor Mohammad Mujeeb from the distinct

For the bloodbath in March-December 1971 - when the Pakistani army executed a largely unarmed Bengali population in the then vital part of Pakistan’s state known as “East Pakistan”, in an effort to suppress the region’s demand for independence - was at the time the biggest story in the world’s media.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, on a fine summer day, Indian masses gathered, against the dictates of the law, in the park of Jallainwallah Bagh. Some of the men and women there were protesters, and others were simply peaceful people enjoying their religious ceremony. The fact still stands that they were breaking the law that my client had set for the safety of his people and theirs. No one was allowed to organize public meetings, and any meetings found would be fired upon. In the split second decision that General Dyer had to make, he decided fulfill his threat and fire on the crowd to maintain control over the people. Some may consider this an act of terrorism, but I assure you, it is not.

Although it was since proved that many were there to celebrate the Baisakhi festival. Never in all the British Empire’s history had they used military force against a crowd of unarmed people, which resulted in such a vast loss of life. One official report, clearly from the British, counted 319 dead and over 1200 wounded, but with reasonable beliefs, the Indians estimate a much higher dead count (Pletcher, n.d.; Sayer, 1991). To back-up, everything just said a painting of the massacre, which can be found at Amritsar as a memorial, shows the long-lasting effects the massacre had on India as a whole (Painting of Amritsar massacre picture, n.d). After the massacre, many had different reactions, some believing Dyer should be praised for his action and some completely disgusted with his actions. Herbert Asquith, the liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, clearly believed that the massacre was catastrophic and sinful, "there has never been such an incident in the whole annals of Anglo-Indian history nor, I believe, in the history of our Empire from its very inception down to the present day ... It is one of the worst outrages in the whole of our history" (Sayer, 1991). Though all Dyer could say in his defence was “my duty… my horrible, dirty duty.” (Sayer, 1991). This shows

During his final years, Gandhi walked from town to town where Hindus were being murdered in retaliation for the killings of Muslims of Bihar. The massacres and fighting ended because of

The decision to engage in terrorism can occur for many reasons: logical choice, political strategy, ennui with the elite, and lack of opportunity for political participation. Air India flight 182 was a flight operating on from Montreal-India. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route was blown up in midair by a bomb in Irish airspace in the single deadliest terrorist attack involving an aircraft to that date. Two men were known to have left two pieces of luggage for check in, but never boarded the flight. The incident represents the largest mass murder in modern Canadian history. 329 civilians died on the flight, over 270 Canadians. The bombing was the joint project of at least two Sikh terrorist groups with extensive membership in Canada, USA, England and India. Their anger had been sparked by an attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar in June 1984. Sikh militants were seen preaching that "Indian planes will fall from the sky" and urging his followers to "kill 50,000 Hindus." (Sikh extremism enters mainstream Canadian politics, 2007).

An event that has relation to war today is the tension in the northern region of India, Punjab, where the Sikh holy book was ripped up and thrown. Many Sikhs gathered in a peaceful protest, trying to bring to justice the people who were responsible, but the police ended up shooting and killing two peaceful protestors. Simran Jeet Singh, is one of the authors, who writes on this topic. He takes up this topic, because it represents part of the unjust that happened to Sikhs in 1984 where they were killed and murdered in the thousands by the Indian government. Singh says, “I was born in the United States in the summer of 1984, during the height of the anti- Sikh violence in Punjab” (Singh 1). He goes on to say how he feels the pain of his Sikh brothers and sisters who were killed in the year 1984, for their religious beliefs. Background about Singh shows us the importance of mediated narratives, as they show that Singh is trying to raise awareness about the issues going on in Punjab in an attempt to try to avoid the destruction that happened in 1984. Another one of these authors is Nirmala Ganapathy, who is part of The Straits Times. She takes up the same interest as Singh, as she works to raise awareness on the issues affecting her homeland of India. She writes about why Sikhs have been blocking major roads in India and the influence this has. Her curiosity is what has

Genocide, a dire event, has been recurring time and time again throughout history. In the past, there was the Holocaust, where Hitler exterminated over six million Jews based on his anti-semitic views. Elie Wiesel, a Jewish author, has become a very influential man in educating the world of the true events of the Holocaust due to his involvement in the disaster. Presently, a genocide is occurring in the Darfur region of southern Sudan, in which according to Cheryl Goldmark, “a systematic slaughter of non-Arab residents at the the hands of Arab militiamen called Janjaweed” has been taking place since 2003. (1) Not only is genocide a tragic historical event, it also continuously occurs today.

Eventually Gandhi helped pave the way for India’s independence however it wasn’t all over. India began to divide between Muslim’s and Hindu’s and it was settled that the North and Eastern parts of India would be given to Muslim’s and called Pakistan and Hindu’s would be left with the rest of India as their homeland. Thus happening all against Gandhi’s wishes. As scenes move on, Gandhi takes ill, and it becomes known that he has gone on a hunger strike due to the violence between Muslims and Hindu’s. At one point it is clarified

The Partition of India in August, 1947 was a significant event in history that accounted for the separation of one of the world’s oldest civilization into two, independent nations – Pakistan and India. Like many other wars in history, The Partition of India was instigated by religious, political and social conflict. This resulted in violence, discrimination and the largest human displacement in contemporary history. While the Partition was well-studied, much of our understanding was focused on the political side of history, not the human side of it. This was why oral history played an important role in manifesting the complexity of a historical event. Our focus here is Maya Rani’s testimony from Butalia’s book, The Other Side of Silence: