LOUDONVILLE — There is an autumn anniversary that haunts Loudonville anesthesiologist and Colonie’s Maharaja restaurant co-owner Dr. Maninder “Manny” Gujral and legions of Sikhs worldwide, including many born after 1984, when Sikh massacres erupted in India, the world’s biggest democracy.
In June 1984, India’s military used tanks and helicopters to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a profoundly sacred Sikh site. The attack was officially named Operation Blue Star. Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi said the objective was to remove violent Sikh secessionists hiding inside.
Operation Blue Star’s official death count was 1,592 soldiers and civilians.
And an even vaster tragedy was coming.
On Oct. 31, 1984, Gandhi was in her garden when two Sikh bodyguards shot her dead.
From Nov. 1-4, there was violence against Sikhs. Mobs dragged thousands of Sikh men, many just teenagers, from their homes then beat them to death or killed them with machetes. Sikh homes and businesses were set ablaze. The official estimate is 3,000 Sikhs were killed although some human rights groups cite higher figures.
Gujral had a unique view of the catastrophe. He was a young ER doctor in the capitol city of New Delhi who saw Sikh neighborhoods burning from his hospital’s rooftop.
He’s studied subsequent independent and government-sponsored investigations of the 1984 massacres, several of which uncovered disturbing evidence of India’s ruling party instigating or enabling violence. Gujral co-produced a film on the 1984 massacres that can be seen on YouTube.
But talking about the trauma with friends of any faith can be difficult. As Gujral put it, conversations about modern religious violence can resemble a frozen lake. Ice gleams smoothly on the surface but you can sense the currents and fractures underneath.
Now, recent whistleblower disclosures over how political activists used Facebook in India to incite religious violence make 1984 feel relevant and urgent. Gujral shared his memories in this Q&A in hope of encouraging interfaith discussion and reflection so 1984 won’t repeat itself in either of the democracies he loves—India or America.
Q: Do you have Hindu friends? Do you talk about 1984?
A: I have many Hindu friends. They had nothing to do with what happened in 1984. But it’s hard to discuss because it’s painful, emotional. Many Sikhs see what happened as a genocide, an attempt, with some government complicity, to wipe out an entire people.
Q: What was it like to grow up Sikh in a predominantly Hindu nation?
A: India was wonderful as there was no apparent divide between Hindus and Sikhs having a close historical kinship. My childhood and medical school friends were Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Religion was not a contentious factor.
Sikh and Hindu religions have few doctrinal differences. There were and still are successful marriages between Sikhs and Hindus.
In the early 20th century, north Indian Hindu families had a practice of raising their first child as a Sikh, including my own father in law.
Q: Please describe the significance of the Golden Temple.
A: The Golden Temple is also called the Harmandir Sahib in Punjab, It’s the spiritual center for all Sikhs, built in 1604. It is surrounded by a pool of clear water that is sacred to Sikhs, an ancient source of inspiration. There’s no religious requirement to journey there but a pilgrimage is deeply meaningful for Sikhs. I had been there three times.
I was 24, politically unaware, a busy resident physician in New Delhi’s largest hospital in 1984. Operation Blue Star was like a dagger through the heart for Sikhs. I found out about it much later than the June 3-6 attack because the government ordered a media blackout.
But I knew about Indira Gandhi’s assassination very early because my hospital program director got a phone call alerting him. I was shocked, horrified, scared. My gut feeling was, there will be repercussions. I told a Sikh lady colleague to go home. I finished work and rushed two blocks to my residence hall where I lived.
Fortunately, my Hindu friends and colleagues were very protective. They realized it was not me who committed the crime. Religion was never divisive between us.
The next day, they took me to the hospital rooftop. Across the city, there were plumes of smoke from Sikh neighborhoods burning.
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What happened next has colored the Sikh psyche in ways that exist today. Violence against Sikhs was horrific and organized. Some mobs were led by Congress Party activists, roving streets, killing Sikhs, dragging them from their homes or businesses. Some Hindus protected Sikh neighbors. But thousands of Sikhs were killed.
Some victims were burnt alive by putting tires around their necks, sprinkling kerosene mixed with a white powder, phosphorous, and lighting it with a matchstick
Most attackers came by bus from outside the neighborhoods they demolished.
An investigative report entitled ‘Who are the Guilty?’ names 200 persons, including politicians and police, who victims identified as attackers.
Nobody dared bring wounded Sikhs to the hospital. But I saw a truckload of burnt corpses at the morgue, piled as sacks of potatoes. It’s a horror embedded in my subconscious psyche forever. The pogrom gave me reason to move to America in 1987.
Q:How did India’s judicial system react?
A: Despite establishment of three commissions and seven committees of inquiry, India’s judicial system failed to prosecute any main organizers.
All religions declare peace and reconciliation are their goals, yet all too often they appear to exacerbate conflicts. Defenders say that most so-called conflicts in the name of religion are in fact ethnic, nationalist and territorial, and they exploit religion for their own purposes.
Q: American news accounts from1984 seem mystified by how religious violence could erupt in a democracy that embraces technology and Western pop culture.
A: That’s a common misperception that a government, even a dictatorship, will respect minorities’ rights once it embraces science, American styles or international business.
Q: Your son, Manmeet, graduated from Dartmouth College and works for Google in San Francisco. He was born after 1984 yet wrote a compelling essay about how 1984 shaped his worldview as a Sikh. He wrote, “I urge each person to take a step back and follow his or her religious beliefs, rather than enforce them.” Is there a life lesson you see in the tragedy?
A: In my opinion, those who are recruited into militant groups or radicalized to extremist violence are typically not motivated by religion, but rather view religion as a way to address their grievances and deliver the promise of adventure, belonging, or becoming a hero.
Dr. Manny Gujral is a leader of the Capital District’s Sikh community, an anesthesiologist and Maharaja restaurant co-owner. His website on Sikh faith and Sikhs in America is www.AllAboutSikhs.com.
