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Sarat C Das,
Hindustan Times
New Delhi, June
04, 2008
In the first week of November, many Sikhs and
their sympathisers place candle in their window sill and whisper a silent
prayer in memory of more than 4,000 Sikh men, women and children killed in
1984 Sikh genocide. It is a candle light vigil to mourn the death so that
the victim may be sufficiently detached and righteous to break the cycle of
birth and death and return to the Almighty. Video
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Video 2
On a fateful
November 1, 1984,
large mobs from suburbs of Delhi and bordering villages of Uttar Pradesh
carried iron rods, machetes, knives, clubs, staves, and combustible material
such as gallons of kerosene to exterminate the Sikhs. Their shops and houses
were ransacked and burned. The death toll in Delhi alone was 2,733, of Sikhs
who were burned alive, knifed or clubbed to death.
The wily culprits
insidiously used the voters' lists to identify Sikh houses and their
business premises. Also mobsters swarmed into Sikh neighborhoods,
arbitrarily killing any Sikh men they could lay their hand on. To prevent
Sikhs from taking refuge in gurdwaras, most of
Delhi's gurdwaras were
effectively roadblocked in the early hours of the violence. The expedient
means of setting houses ablaze was used to get at Sikh families who had
taken refuge on the roofs of their homes. Some families were burnt alive.
The armed mobs stopped buses and trains and other modes of transport, in and
around Delhi, pulled out Sikh passengers to lynch or douse with kerosene to
burn them alive. The massacre of Sikhs was being carried out with macabre
ferocity and surprising impunity.
These unfortunate Sikhs, had been denied the readings of holy Psalm of Peace
from Sukhmani Sahib composed by the fifth Guru Arjan Devji, to console the
dying person. Many of them died before they could know. On the day of their
cremation, the fear of mob attack could not make the ceremonial death ritual
complete. Not all the victims were taken to the Gurdwara or home where hymns
(Shabads) from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Scriptures are recited by the
congregation, which induce feeling of consolation and courage. Also Kirtan
were performed rarely by ragis or their
relatives of the deceased who were nearly frozen sitting near the corpses.
One of the hapless victims of Sikh genocide was a family in Rajinder Nagar.
A mob stormed into house and eliminated all the members of the family. Ever
since the house is deserted and haunted by the former residents. Ravi
Shankar, journalist and known political cartoonist, says, "The neighbours
hear the phone ringing, the TV playing, the taps running and noises of
children at play, though the place has been bare and deserted ever since."
It was a close-knit family, who enjoyed living together with their children
cavorting in the balcony while the elders occupied themselves running the
household chores. Neighbours still remember them as a generous and lively
family. Probably they chose to remain the same way after their death.
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