Interesting article. Hopefully closure can someday be found.

A very interesting article. It isn’t often we get to hear such a story first hand. When a story is repeated in the news it is marred with sensationalism that often covers the truth.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Thanks for sharing this story. I wish someday there will be peace.

I agree with all the above comments, really nice but sad article. Hopefully there will be peace and the people who commit these bad deeds will be brought to justice.

Dear Vikram,

Each word is true…and the pain is deep.

Nothing has changed in 25years in India.We still have the same corruption..same politicians( who belong to no one and have no principles), same police(you can buy the police )…,same fanaticism …………., I wonder when will the society grow.

It was our own school, and we need to do something to ensure this kind of instance is not repeated ever.

One just feels like crying after reading this, but i will hold my tears and do something concrete about this.

The sad memories are still afresh….and the pain is still there.

Bindu

Hi Vikram,
I was also in Delhi (studying in 10th standard) during those horrifying days and so can relate very well to your feelings and thoughts. Only if even a few of those rioters and their instigators were brought to justice, we would have had a reason to keep faith in our Police & Judicial System, but alas, not a single of those Demons / inhumans has been brought to book.. Instead, am pained to state that ironically, when over 3500 sikhs were being killed in broad daylight on Delhi roads, Delhi Police framed false cases of rioting and arson on a few innocent Sikhs itself and those poor souls are still rotting in courts, for acquittal in crimes somebody else commited on their community.
Honestly, now after almost 25 years, I am not hopeful of any significant action from our biased & corrupt system. Those who were the instigators of these crimes, are still very close to the poeple in power.. so there in not even a miniscule chance of their being brought to justice. My only prayer to God is to give further strength and courage to the victim families and let the culprits of those heinous crimes live their remaining lives with a feeling of remorse and resentment…

Hello Everybody,

Thanks for your meaningful comments. The anti-Sikh riots are indeed very painful to remember, but at the same time I feel the human race has to view incidents such as these at a broader level. The reason why people are motivated into performing such evil deeds is hate. I visited the holocaust museum in Washington DC last summer and was horrified by what I saw. All this, whether Delhi 84, Rwanda, Darfur, etc. are just manifestations of human insecurity based on tribal instinct, fear and prejudice. We must grow as individuals and not fear standing up for the truth if all of us wish for such horrors to end.

Best Regards
Vikram

The massacre of Sikhs (it was not a riot) is a very painful chapter in our collective history, because Sikhs never got the justice. It is the same story in Punjab where innocent people were killed by the police. India has a long history of killing it\’s own citizen and it about time that it should be brought in front of international court, because India has failed to prosecute the guilty. It will only stop if the perpetrators of these crimes know that they will have to pay for it. If Indians really want to stop these heinous crimes against innocent then they have to put these people in prison for their crimes against humanity.

thats absolutely terrible.

Any riot – or an act of collective violence – can only happen with the collusion of politicians. Time and again this has been proven. The politicians are elected when we exercise – or not exercise – our right to vote. So to my mind there have to be multipronged efforts such as :
- Sensitise yourself and those around you to the fact that all are humans and vote / support any person with this basic philosophy, irrespective of the party he belongs to. If there is no such party, form one !
- Encourage all \”humanitarians\” such as the ones highlighted by Vikram – why not an annual felicitation day when such people are honored and communal peace encouraged ?
- Go after the guilty by all means available til they are punished.
- Also remember that it is the wide gap between the \”rich\” and the \” poor\” which is exploited by politicians to develop their \”Vote Bank\” . While the same politicians are being wooed by the \”rich\” to make them \”richer\” ! The struggle between \”small \” and \”big\” is an eternal one. There is no quick / easy solution to this except for both to realise that each exists in an environment of another – essential to its own survival.

We must continue to remember and take lessons from History – those who forget it are doomed to repeat it. And we are seeing repetitions – in one form or another – or people increasingly becoming intolerant of the \”other\” .

I\’d be open to partiicpate in any efforts by \”like midned \” people towards peace in inda for the simple reason our own survival and growth depends on that !

Thank you so much for sharing this. You really put a human face on this tragedy. I agree with your comment above too. I haven’t been to the holocaust museum yet, but I have been to the Dachau concentration camp museum in Germany. Such horrors…we have to always remember…and never take peace or the good, heroic side of human nature for granted.

I was a Master\’s degree student at School of Planning and Architecture near the ITO (Income Tax office) when this unfolded. It is hard for someone who has lost friends and family to analyze this unfortunate event in a rational fashion. But it must be understood that Sikhs (fondly called Sardarji\’s) have always been regarded with a lot of affection and respect all over the cities and towns of India. If stripped of emotion and analyzed rationally, the riots of Delhi were a mix of shock at Indira Gandhi\’s assassination and misguided nationalism hijacked by crooks.

Having married a Parsee and with a leaning towards the Muslim community, Indira Gandhi was regarded as a token Hindu by many hardliners. Some bigoted priests even barred her from entering the Jagannath temple in Puri, Orissa. She was regarded more as an Indian Icon on which every community could compromise.

The riots of 1984 did not spread to other cities of India, where more Indians of the Sikh faith live than they do in Punjab. It clearly shows that these riots were not driven by a simmering communal feeling.

Following the rioting, relations between Indians of Sikh philosophy and the traditional Hindu philosophy normalized quickly and within months people pursuing the Sikh faith went on living comfortably in remote parts of India without any fear.

If there is ill-will between communities, you tend to see riots flaring repeatedly. This never happened.

In conclusion, it was not a communal riot. It was the hijacking of nationalistic expression by goons of the society who created disorder during which they could pillage businesses and steal from them. I know that a lot of stealing and looting that went on while the rioting was going on.

The Sikh Philosophy along with Jain, Buddhist, Vedic (Vaishnav) and Dravid (Shaivik)philosophies makes what is called the Hindu composite. As intertwined they are, they can not be separated without rewriting of the scriptures – something, that is never going to happen.

This gave me goosebumps. I was born in 1983 and was obviously a year old when all of this happened. As I grew up and realized what had happened in ‘84, I felt a sense of shock and disbelief, that people can be so inhumane and horrible!!
It is such a shame that people do such things.. We humans have the power to reason, and yet, we act worse than most animals do.
I am glad that you shared this with us Vikram. No one should forget what had happened, and we need to learn from the past. Else our existence is pointless.
The saddest part of this many of the culprits are still scot free. A shame!

Sorry typo **The saddest part of this is many of the culprits are still scot free. A shame!

massacres are just so sad that they are still happening up to this date.

An harmonious society is not something real. It’s an ideal, or an objective..such a tragic event Vikram Chhabra ..and even more tragic that some people had to strike-out at their oppressors.

very true as i was also a student of GHPS at that time and when we came to school after a month the scars were still there..we still havent got over those days and what our friends and families went thru..its hard to forget and move on…we lost our loved ones.can never forget that…….!

i m currently studying in dis skool (just gave my 10th boards)…
i was vry keen to knw wat all hapnd in ‘84….
i saw mostly all d videos on youtube related to d riot and was vry sad on seeeing wat all hapnd….
i myself m a resident of a south delhi colony and my parents told me wat all hapnd!! dere were many hindu families which wer helping d sikhs!! my mothr’s family ws living in a hindu family’s house and all d raashan supplies to my fathers samily was by a hindu family….

none of d mentioned teacher is teaching today!!! i wud love to meet dem…
We can never forget wat all hapend in ‘84

So have we taken any lessons from it? The Episode/AfterEffects/Cause/Conslusions??
Where are our Sikh leaders heading us again? Has there been any change of their “Kattar”philosophies and sociological outlook lately??
Perhaps NO! They are still busy fighting for “Pardhangi”.
Whatever – its not a one man thing.We all need to discuss it with open minds and come to working terms with reality and implement measures for successful co-existence.
This might not be in direct conjunction to the matter but I personally feel the need of arms security,to be with every sikh.Not just symbolic but something useable too.”Jabeb Baan Lagyo, Tabe Rosh Jaagyo”.