Context
Background
Adherents of the Sikh faith number over 23 million, making it the fifth largest organized religion in the world. Most Sikhs live in the state of Punjab, India, where they constitute approximately 60% of the population. Sikhs make up approximately 2% of the population of India as a whole. Sikhs have settled all over the world, with significant populations in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
(Map source: http://punjabgov.net/about_at_a_glance.asp)
About Sikhism
The Sikh religion began in the 16th Century, in what is today known as Punjab (located in northern India and Pakistan). The revelations of its founder Guru Nanak and nine successive Gurus preached belief in one God, remembrance of God at all times, equality of all human beings, and the rejection of idolatry, ritualism, caste, and ascetism. In 1699, the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, created an initiated order of Sikhs, who wear specific articles of faith, making them readily identifiable. These articles of faith include: Kesh (uncut hair), which is kept covered by a distinctive turban, the Kirpan (religious sword), Kara (metal bracelet), Kanga (comb), and Kaccha (under-shorts). They all have deep religious meanings for Sikhs who wear them.
The Sikh Coalition’s website contains more information on the Sikh religion.
History of the Conflict
(Adapted from “A Judicial Blackout: Judicial Impunity for Disappearances in Punjab, India” by Jaskaran Kaur.)
Punjab witnessed a decade-long insurgency starting in the 1980s, fueled by failed attempts at procuring greater autonomy, water rights, local control over agricultural production and prices, and redress for human rights abuses. On May 24, 1984, the political party Akali Dal channeled discontent into a popular agitation that blocked transport of Punjabi wheat and withheld taxes from the Indian government. The government responded by deploying 100,000 army troops into Punjab, setting the stage for the violent attacks of June 1984.
On June 3, 1984, the martyrdom anniversary of the fifth Sikh Guru, the Indian army launched Operation Bluestar. The army invaded the Harmandir Sahib complex (popularly known as Golden Temple), the center of Sikh religious and political life, and forty-one other major Sikh gurudwaras with tanks and imposed a statewide curfew. The government forbade news coverage of the army attacks, expelled foreign journalists, and cut phone lines across Punjab. Eyewitnesses reported that over 10,000 pilgrims and 1300 workers had gathered inside the complex and could not leave before the attack for fear of arrest. Although the official White Paper cited the deaths of only eighty-three Army personnel and 493 militants, eyewitnesses cited figures ranging from 4000 to 8000 people killed, mostly pilgrims.
Operation Bluestar alienated the Sikh population, casting the Indian government as a regime oppressive toward Sikhs. On October 31, 1984, two of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her in retaliation for Operation Bluestar. After the assassination, local political officials orchestrated pogroms against Sikhs in New Delhi and other cities across India, killing at least 3000 people, and burning Sikh homes and businesses. As a result of the destruction, 50,000 Sikhs were homeless in New Delhi alone. Numerous eyewitnesses and relief workers identified senior political party leaders in Delhi who had organized and led mobs and encouraged them to violence.
The decade-long police crackdown of the self-determination movement after Operation Bluestar led to the deaths of at least 10,000 people in Punjab. Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes Operation Rakshak II, a part of the police counter-insurgency movement initiated in November 1991, as “the most extreme example of a policy in which the end appeared to justify any and all means, including torture and murder.” During this time Director General of Police KPS Gill expanded upon a system of rewards and incentives for police to capture and kill militants, leading to a dramatic increase in disappearances and extra-judicial executions. Although all Punjabi Sikhs were vulnerable to disappearance, police especially targeted Amritdharis (initiated Sikhs), those who were politically active with the Akali Dal parties, and families and friends of suspected militants.
The insurgency was crushed by the early 1990s. Throughout this period, there were regular reports of systematic and widespread human rights abuses, such as disappearances and extrajudicial executions, perpetrated by Indian security forces. Explosive proof of these gross human rights violation emerged in early 1995, when human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra exposed over 6,000 mass cremations in just one of 17 districts in Punjab through government crematoria records. Khalra’s investigation would ultimately lead India’s Supreme Court to find “a flagrant violation of human rights on a mass scale.” Punjab Police murdered Khalra in late October 1995.
Ensaaf works to document and expose the mass state crimes committed during this period, hold the perpetrators accountable, and organize survivors to advocate for their rights. Ensaaf works within the framework of international human rights law and standards, independently of any government, political ideology, or religious affiliation.
