SIKHSOC

REMEMBER 1984; The Sikh Massacre: Let the silence be heard… 25 Years on… Candlelight Vigil 09 4pm to 7pm – 4th November 2009 – Chamberlain Square (outside library), Birmingham, UK Plea to the Sikh Youth : Unite and Remember on Wed 4th November 2009 "Victims speak of mobs led by notoriously unruly youth congress activists armed with voters lists from which Sikh homes and businesses could be identified. How did kerosene materialise so effectively? Why did the police declare open season on Sikhs?" (Daily Telegraph, Nov 1984) Sangat Jee, The week commencing Monday 1st November marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most ruthless and bloody chapters in Sikh history, when the mirage of Indian secularism and democracy was exposed and Sikhs suffered state orchestrated brutality across the country. In the hours that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards (Shaheed Bhai Beant Singh and Shaheed Bhai Satwant Singh), on 31st October 1984, her son Rajiv Gandhi instructed the powers that be to "teach these bastards (the Sikhs) a lesson". The state run media vilified Sikhs, broadcasting proactive slogans such as "khoon ka badla khoon" (blood for blood), and spreading fake rumours e.g. Sikhs had poisoned Delhi's water supply and that trains from Punjab were arriving with dead Hindus on board. What followed was the systematic and co-ordinated massacre of Sikhs, not only in Delhi but also in Uttar Pardesh, Haryana, Binar and Kanur amongst others. The attacks followed a chilling pattern. Local politicians from the ruling Congress party mobilised mobs of Hindu youths and armed them with swords, iron rods, knives, clubs and combustible material, particularly kerosene. Using electoral lists and ration shop records, the Congress party leaders guided the mobs to Sikh homes and businesses, moving from one district to another in jeeps to personally supervise the murder and rape of Sikh men and women. (This is just a glimpse of the atrocities that occurred, for more, go to www.witness84.com ,www.carnage84.com, www.ensaaf.org ) Two of the Congress Party politicians implicated by eyewitnesses were Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. You will not be surprised to learn that neither has ever been successfully prosecuted, as attempts to do so have either collapsed as a result of witness intimidation or been locked in the judicial process. Lawyers in India are trying to bring Kumar and Tytler and many others to account for their actions, but their quest for justice faces immeasurable obstacles as attempts to commence legal proceedings get wrapped in red tape. We must also show that we have not forgotten, and that we too will continue to demand that these criminals Kumar and Tytler and co are brought to justice. The Sikh youth of the region will congregate at Chamberlain Square in Birmingham City Centre on Wednesday 4th November, from 4pm to 7pm to raise awareness amongst the wider community as to the injustice and suffering endured by Sikhs in their 'homeland'. Speakers including British MPs will be invited to show their support. Above all, however, your support is required. Spread the word and let us ensure there is an overwhelming attendance on 4th November. In the same way that the attacks on Sikhs were indiscriminate, regardless of caste, wealth, social status and irrespective of whether they were practicing or not, each and everyone of us, whether amritdhari or not, should feel the pain that still haunts many of our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in India every day. PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE and SHOW YOUR SUPPORT ON THE 4TH NOVEMEBER 2009

300 Years with Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj From Guru Nanak Dev Ji to Eternal Guru Granth Sahib Ji 1708 to Eternity NATIONAL KIRTAN DARBAR GURU NANAK GURUDWARA SMETHWICK SATURDAY 10TH NOV 7 TIL LATE An evening of Kirtan and Katha by various renowned Keertanee. Including Katha in English including an exclusive display and the BOSS Stall which includes books on Sikhi, Hoodies, T-Shirts, and CD's.

WEST MIDLAND'S SIKHI WEEK 2008 IS BACK! 300 Years with Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj From Guru Nanak Dev Ji to Eternal Guru Granth Sahib Ji 1708 to Eternity Wed 29th Oct- Sat 15th Nov Following on the success of previous weeks, the famous Sikhi Weeks of the West Midlands is back and boy is it going to be bigger then ever! With, inspirational talks, a Candle Light Vigil, National Youth Kirtan Darbar, and Paintball Massacre this week promises to be the best yet. Attached is the poster for the week and a short description of each event. Please take the time out to come down and join in… you can't afford to miss it! TEN GURUS: ONE MESSAGE ASTON UNIVERSITY: NG09 WEDNESDAY 29TH OCT 2-4PM A talk given by Bhai Manvir Singh on the message of ten Guru Sahibs from Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj to Guru Gobind Singh Ji. FROM GURBANI TO KURBANI BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY: ST FRANCIS HALL MONDAY 3RD NOV 6:30-8PM A very inspirational talk on the power of Gurbani. On how our Guru Sahibs: Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Tegh Bahadur. And countless Shaheeds such as Bhai Mani Singh and those mothers who had there children cut into pieces and garlands placed around there necks. How they all used the Power of Gurbani to endure physical torture and death. CANDLELIGHT VIGIL BHAM CITY CENTRE: CHAMBERLAIN SQUARE OUTSIDE CENTRAL LIBRARY WEDNESDAY 5TH NOV 4-8PM As an act of remembrance, the Sikh community will be holding a candlelit vigil to remember the dark days in history during the Anti-Sikh Pogroms with killing of thousands of innocent Sikhs across India from the 80's until the present. To this date even after the findings of the latest commission, no one has been prosecuted for the organisation of this horror and 24 years on the Sikh's still await justice. Join us to light a candle of hope and say a prayer for all those souls awaiting justice. THE LIVING GURU: GURU GRANTH SAHIB JI WOLVERHAMPTON UNIVERSITY: ROOM MC 418 THURSDAY 6TH NOV 6-8PM Seminar by Dal Singh (Coventry) on our eternal living Guru, on the uniqueness of Guru Granth Sahib Ji a talk on the complilation of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. A journey from the compilation of Guru Granth Sahib Ji to the Guru Gaddi of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. NATIONAL KIRTAN DARBAR GURU NANAK GURUDWARA SMETHWICK SATURDAY 10TH NOV 7 TIL LATE An evening of Kirtan and Katha by various renowned Keertanee. Including Katha in English including an exclusive display and the BOSS Stall which includes books on Sikhi, Hoodies, T-Shirts, and CD's. GURBANI: A UNIVERSAL MESSAGE BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY: KENRICK LECTURE THEATRE WEDNESDAY 12TH NOV 2-4PM An inspiring talk on what is the universal message of Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj. What is the message of Gurbani? And who is this message for? PAINTBALL MASSACRE SAT 15TH NOV ALL DAY SUTTON COLDFIELD For Paintballing contact your local uni reps. For further information in regards to Sikhi Week contact Email: sikhthetruth@hotmail.co.uk Aston: 07742 350916 BCU: 07902 496548 Bham: 07859 905652 Wolves: 07809 155523 General: 07841 731106/07929 394469

HOW ABOUT A STICKY???????????????????

Wednesday 20th February Aston University, 1.30pm – 4.30pm MB550 Q & A The culmination of the bitesize sikhi weeks – get all your burning questions answered. There’s no chance to embarrass yourself. All questions will be given anonymously to the panel. We’ve called some favours in, and we’ve got an old skool panel who have been around the Sikh Soc’s circuit for the last decade. PANEL : Some Faces from the past . . . ENJOY . . . Lets get the controversial questions commin in. (joke) For further info contact 07742 350916

Friday 15th February Birmingham University 2pm – 5pm Mayatrix Matrix, oops I mean mayatrix, sorry we couldn’t get Keanu but we’ve got someone who is even better, Bhai Butta Singh can do the martial arts tricks for real! Come along and learn how to escape the entrapments of the world and if your lucky, Bhai Butta Singh may even teach you a few moves. Talker: Bhai Butta Singh Jee For Further info contact 07859 905652

Wednesday 13th February Aston University, 2pm – 5pm, MB206 8.4 million deaths to die!!! sound scary, but we’ve all gotta go one day! People pay millions to life coaches to help them get the best out of life, but your loving sikh soc will provide you all this for free in a couple of hours. If your serious about living life to the max, then come along and learn how to. Talker: Bhai Sukhraj Singh Jee For further info contact 07742 350916

Tuesday 12th Feb Birmingham City University AKA UCE, PerryBarr 3pm – 5pm, Baker Hall :wubc: True Love u’ve heard of Heer Ranja, Romeo & Juliet, Posh & Becks but what is true love? Is it the mutual love of two human beings? Open your mind and explore the depths of true love and it’s meanings, come along to this inspirational and moving talk. Roses, boxes of chocolates are all welcome to show your appreciation for the guest speaker. One not to be missed, kickstarting bite size sikhi weeks. Talker: Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Jee Aka SUKHI BABA For further info contact 07902 496548

BITESIZE SIKHI WEEKS 12th - 20th Feb Tuesday 12th Feb Birmingham City University AKA UCE, PerryBarr 3pm – 5pm, Baker Hall :wubc: True Love u’ve heard of Heer Ranja, Romeo & Juliet, Posh & Becks but what is true love? Is it the mutual love of two human beings? Open your mind and explore the depths of true love and it’s meanings, come along to this inspirational and moving talk. Roses, boxes of chocolates are all welcome to show your appreciation for the guest speaker. One not to be missed, kickstarting bite size sikhi weeks. Talker: Bhai Sukhwinder Singh Jee Aka SUKHI BABA For further info contact 07902 496548 Wednesday 13th February Aston University, 2pm – 5pm, MB206 8.4 million deaths to die!!! sound scary, but we’ve all gotta go one day! People pay millions to life coaches to help them get the best out of life, but your loving sikh soc will provide you all this for free in a couple of hours. If your serious about living life to the max, then come along and learn how to. Talker: Bhai Sukhraj Singh Jee For further info contact 07742 350916 Friday 15th February Birmingham University 2pm – 5pm Mayatrix Matrix, oops I mean mayatrix, sorry we couldn’t get Keanu but we’ve got someone who is even better, Bhai Butta Singh can do the martial arts tricks for real! Come along and learn how to escape the entrapments of the world and if your lucky, Bhai Butta Singh may even teach you a few moves. Talker: Bhai Butta Singh Jee For Further info contact 07859 905652 Tuesday 19th February Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Sedgley Street (off Dudley Road), Wolverhampton 7pm – 10pm Kirtan Darbar/ Spiritual Vibes Young Kirtanees from around the Midlands will be bustin some tunes on the good old harmonium, with immortal verses to match. English translations will be given throughout and the infamous BOSS stall will be out, so bring your hard earned cash (sorry I mean student loan!) to buy the latest merchandise. For further info contact 07809 155523 /07878 035476 Wednesday 20th February Aston University, 1.30pm – 4.30pm MB550 Q & A The culmination of the bitesize sikhi weeks – get all your burning questions answered. There’s no chance to embarrass yourself. All questions will be given anonymously to the panel. We’ve called some favours in, and we’ve got an old skool panel who have been around the Sikh Soc’s circuit for the last decade. PANEL : Some Faces from the past . . . ENJOY . . . Lets get the controversial questions commin in. (joke) For further info contact 07742 350916

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fatheh Sikhi Week is not quite finished we still have SIKHS AND DIWALI WOLVERHAMPTON UNIVERSITY: ROOM ML041 FRIDAY 9TH NOV 2-5PM Seminar led by a Bibi Kiranpal Kaur on the difference between Diwali and Bandi Chor why we celebrate Bandi Chor and what this day signifies and really means to Sikhs. NATIONAL KIRTAN DARBAR GURU NANAK GURUDWARA SMETHWICK SATURDAY 10TH NOV 6 TIL LATE An evening of Kirtan and Katha by various renowned Keertanee. Including Katha in English including an exclusive display and the BOSS Stall which includes books on Sikhi, Hoodies, T-Shirts, and CD’s. Transport available from various locations around the UK contact details on poster. NOTE change for London Transport contact 0795858 1555

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fatheh The World has forgotten, have you? Candlelgiht vigil in Remebrance of the victims of the Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984. Please attend and support the event tomorrow 4pm-7pm @ Chamberlain Square near Central Library in Bham City Centre

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fatheh Benti to all the Saadh Sangat to come and pay your respects to all our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters that were killed during Anti Sikh Pogroms of 1984. Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fatheh

7 DAYS 2 GO

WEST MIDLANDS SIKHI WEEK CONTINUES WITH... LANGAR ON CAMPUS! UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: OUTSIDE CLOCK TOWER MONDAY 5TH NOV 11-4PM Langar will be served in a large marquee in the middle of campus with displays on Sikhi. The aim is to provide a free meal to as many people as possible on campus in celebration of Guru Nanak Dev Jee’s Gurpurb. As much help as possible is needed for this event, so come along to partake in Seva in a unique way! A humble Benti to everyone is to come down and show your support and take part in Seva. Hope to see all of you there! Poster of Event below

Details on Delhi Pogrom 1984 Commissions and Committees Click Here Articles on 1984 Delhi Massacre Eyewitness Accounts Sequence of Events A recapitulation of the 1984 Delhi carnage in which about 4,000 Sikhs were massacred in three days in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. October 31, 1984: 9.20 am: Indira Gandhi was shot by two of her security guards at her residence No. 1, Safdarjung Road, and rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences. 11 am: Announcement on All India Radio specifying that the guards who shot Indira Gandhi were Sikhs. A big crowd was collecting near AIIMS. 2 pm: Though her death was yet to be confirmed officially, it became common knowledge because of BBC bulletins and special afternoon editions of newspapers. 4 pm: Rajiv Gandhi returned from West Bengal and reached AIIMS. Stray incidents of attacks on Sikhs in and around that area. 5.30 pm: The cavalcade of President Zail Singh, who returned from a foreign visit, was stoned as it approached AIIMS. Late evening and night: Mobs fanned out in different directions from AIIMS. The violence against Sikhs spread, starting in the neighbouring constituency of Congress councillor Arjun Dass. The violence included the burning of vehicles and other properties of Sikhs. That happened even in VIP areas like the crossroads near Prithviraj Road where cars and scooters belonging to Sikhs were burnt. Shortly after Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister, senior advocate and Opposition leader Ram Jethmalani met home minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and urged him to act fast and save Sikhs from further attacks. Delhi’s lt governor P.G. Gavai and police commissioner S.C. Tandon visited some of the violence-affected areas. Despite all these developments, no measures were taken to control the violence or prevent further attacks on Sikhs throughout the night between October 31 and November 1. November 1, 1984: Several Congress leaders held meetings on the night of October 31 and morning of November 1, mobilising their followers to attack Sikhs on a mass scale. The first killing of a Sikh reported from east Delhi in the early hours of November 1. About 9 am, armed mobs took over the streets of Delhi and launched a massacre. Everywhere the first targets were Gurudwaras – to prevent Sikhs from collecting there and putting up a combined defence. Mobs were armed with iron rods of a uniform size. Activist editor Madhu Kishwar saw some of the rods being distributed among the miscreants. Mobs also had an abundant supply of petrol and kerosene. Victims traced the source of kerosene to dealers belonging to the Congress party. For instance, a Congress worker called Brahmanand Gupta, a kerosene dealer, figures prominently in affidavits filed from Sultanpuri. Every police station had a strength of about 100 men and 50-60 weapons. Yet, no action was taken against miscreants in most places. The few places where the local police station took prompt measures against mobs, hardly any killings took place there. Farsh Bazar and Karol Bagh are two such examples. But in other localities, the priority of the police, as it emerges from the statement of the then police commissioner S.C. Tandon before the Nanavati Commission, was to take action against Sikhs who dared to offer resistence. All the Sikhs who fired in self-defence were disarmed by the police and even arrested on trumped up charges. Mobs generally included teams attending to specific tasks. When shops were to be looted, the first team that gets into action would kill and remove all obstacles. The second team specialises in breaking locks. The third team would engage in looting. And the fourth team would set the place on fire. Most of the mobs were led by Congress members, including those from affluent families. For instance, a Youth Congress leader called Satsangi led a mob in the posh Maharani Bagh. The worst affected areas were however far flung, low income colonies like Trilokpuri, Mongolpuri, Sultanpuri and Palam Colony. The Congress leaders identified by the victims as organisers of the carnage include three MPs H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Dharam Dass Shastri and 10 councillors Arjan Dass, Ashok Kumar, Deep Chand, Sukhan Lal Sood, Ram Narayan Verma, D.R. Chhabbra, Bharat Singh, Vasudev, Dharam Singh and Mela Ram. November 2, 1984: Curfew was in force throughout Delhi – but only on paper. The Army was also deployed throughout Delhi but nowhere was it effective because the police did not co-operate with the soldiers who were not empowered to open fire without the consent of senior police officers or executive magistrates. Meanwhile, mobs continued to rampage with the same ferocity. November 3,1984: It was only towards the evening of November 3 that the police and the Army acted in unison and the violence subsided immediately after that. Whatever violence took place the next two or three days was on a much smaller scale and rather sporadic. Aftermath of the carnage: Most of the arrested miscreants were released at the earliest. But the Sikhs arrested for firing in self-defence generally remained in detention for some weeks. Worse, there was also a pattern throughout Delhi of the police not registering proper cases on the complaints of victims. Instead, the police registered vaguely worded omnibus FIRs which did not deal with any specific incident or person. As if the damage done by such FIRs was not bad enough, the police made little effort to investigate the cases and trace the miscreants. The only acknowledgement of any wrongdoing on their part was the appointment of a committee headed by senior police officer Ved Marwah to probe the role of the police. Two remarkable initiatives that came on the same month as the carnage, in a bid to make up for the failure of the Government, were from human rights organisations and a leading Opposition party. People’s Union of Civil Liberties and People’s Union for Democratic Rights came out with a devastating expose in a booklet titled, Who are the guilty? The Bharatiya Janata Party contradicted the Government’s claim then that only 600 people were killed in the Delhi carnage. On the basis of a survey done by its cadres, the BJP came out with a death toll of 2,700, which is remarkably close to the official tally of 2,733 arrived at three years later.