The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms[3][4][1] against Sikhs in India by anti-Sikh mobs (notably Congress Party members and temporarily released convicts) in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Official Indian government reports numbered about 2,800 killed across India, including 2,100 in Delhi.[1][5] Independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000,[2][6][7] including at least 3,000 in Delhi.[8] The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials.[9] Rajiv Gandhi, who was sworn in as prime minister after his mother's death, said when asked about the riots: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".[10]
Sporadic violence continued as the result of an armed Sikh separatist movement which sought independence. In June 1984, during Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to attack the Golden Temple and eliminate any insurgents; it had been occupied by Sikh separatists, who were reportedly[weasel words] stockpiling weapons. Later operations by Indian paramilitary forces were conducted to clear the separatists from the state of Punjab.[11]
The violence in Delhi was triggered by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards who responded to her authorisation of the military operation. One of the assassins was fatally shot by Gandhi's other bodyguards while the other was shot, hospitalized, convicted of Gandhi's murder and then executed. The Indian government reported 2,700 deaths in the ensuing chaos. In the aftermath of the riots, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People's Union for Civil Liberties reported "at least" 1,000 displaced persons.[12] The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organisations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised.[1][9][13] The collusion of political officials in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement.[14] The Akal Takht, Sikhism's governing body, considers the killings genocide.[15]
In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had "yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings".[16] According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian National Congress complicity in the riots and called it "opportunism" and "hatred" by the Congress government of Sikhs.[17][18] Although the U.S. has not identified the riots as genocide, it acknowledged that "grave human rights violations" occurred.[19] In 2011, a new group of mass graves was discovered in Haryana and Human Rights Watch reported that "widespread anti-Sikh attacks in Haryana were part of broader revenge attacks" in India.[20]
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Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindustani: [ˈɪnːdɪrə ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] (
listen); née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician, stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress.[1]She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi, as Gandhi is a common surname in Gujarat. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.[2]
listen); née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician, stateswoman and a central figure of the Indian National Congress.[1]She was the first and, to date, the only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister. Despite her surname Gandhi, she is not related to the family of Mahatma Gandhi, as Gandhi is a common surname in Gujarat. She served as Prime Minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father.[2]
Gandhi served as her father's personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as Prime Minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964 she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting.[3] In the Congress Party's parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966 (upon the death of Shastri) she defeated her rival, Morarji Desai, to become leader, and thus succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.
As Prime Minister, Gandhi was known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power. She went to war with Pakistan in support of the independence movement and war of independence in East Pakistan, which resulted in an Indian victory and the creation of Bangladesh, as well as increasing India's influence to the point where it became the regional hegemon of South Asia. Citing fissiparous tendencies and in response to a call for revolution, Gandhi instituted a state of emergency from 1975 to 1977 where basic civil liberties were suspended and the press was censored. Widespread atrocities were carried out during the emergency. In 1980, she returned to power after free and fair elections. She was assassinated by her own bodyguards and Sikh nationalists in 1984. The assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, were both shot by other security guards. Satwant Singh recovered from his injuries and was executed after being convicted of murder.
In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC.[4]
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