1984 Rally 2010, Hyde Park To Trafalgar Square

[amzsingh]

Gurfateh Jee,

Photographs from the 1984 Rally '10, Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square are up on G5 Sikh Media here and on facebook here

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

More images by a non-Sikh photographer (Peter Marshall) are at:

http://www.demotix.com/news/356205/sikhs-remember-1984-massacres

This is what he has written:

Sikhs Remember 1984 Massacres

Over 5000 Sikhs marched from Hyde Park to a Trafalgar Square rally to mark 26 years since the Indian Army attacked the Golden Temple at Amritsar in 1984, killing thousands. They called for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan. London, UK. 13/06/2010

The march was an entirely peaceful event, and relatively few of those taking part carried placards or wore t-shirts with political slogans, although there were a few banners. At last year's events police had raised objections to a number of placards and t-shirts with symbols of the proscribed organisation, Babbar Khalsa International - militant Sikhs regarded by the UK government as a terrorist group - as well as some with graphic images of massacre victims and some naming prominent India politicians with a graphic image of an anonymous head in a gun-sight. This year nothing similar was visible, with those taking part wearing normal Sikh dress or everyday clothes. The main banner at the front of the march simply called for 'Remembrance, Justice & Freedom.' Some carried small flags with a Sikh emblem and the text 'Khalistan Zindabad' - Long Live Khalistan.

As usual the march was led by two men carrying Sikh standards, and behind them the five baptised Sikhs, the “blessed ones” dressed in orange robes, walking barefoot and with their ceremonial swords held up. Other than this there was less theatre than on previous occasions, with only a relatively small number of people scattered among the crowd carrying black flags and a single black coffin being carried near the end of the march. Last year was something a special event as the 25th anniversary of the massacres, which perhaps accounts for the rather lower numbers this year.

This year it was still a sizeable march, with around 40 coaches bringing in Sikhs from around the country as well as many who had made their own way there, and by the time the rally began in Trafalgar Square (there had been a shorter rally at the start in Hyde Park) there were probably close to ten thousand present.

To one side in front of the stage at Trafalgar Square there were a few black coffins and some large slabs of flower arranging foam spelling out the year of the massacres, '1984'. Several thousand flowers were distributed among the audience who then lined up to plant these in the foam over around an hour while the speeches were continuing to form a floral tribute to those who died.

Almost half of the speeches in Trafalgar Square while I was there were in English, and a film shown on giant screens in two parts had English sub-titles. From what I heard as I was taking pictures this seemed a clear and relatively straightforward account of the events in India.

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Britain made rather a mess of getting out of the Indian sub-continent shortly after the end of the Second World War. Partition itself was a particularly bloody process, and failed to take into consideration the needs and aspirations of smaller and less vocal communities such as the Sikhs. They had been loyal servants of the British Empire, many losing their lives in two World Wars fighting for it, and the British government felt they would continue as loyal servants of India.

The Indian Army launched Operation Blue Star in June 1984 against a group of Sikhs who were agitating for an independent Sikh state of Khalistan and were in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The army attacked with tanks and heavy artillery, destroying much of the temple and, according to independent accounts, killing around 5000 Sikhs, many of them women and children (some Sikh sources put the figure around twice as high.)

Sikhs blamed Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi for ordering the attack, and in October 2004 the two Sikhs who were serving as her bodyguards opened fire and assassinated her. Following this, there was widespread mob violence against Sikhs, particularly around Delhi, incited by prominent members of the Congress party, with police often giving their active support, and many thousands were massacred across northern India.

Since 1984, both the fight for Khalistan and the persecution of Sikhs have continued, although attracting little news coverage in the outside world. Sikhs claim that over 250,000 Sikhs have been killed by in an orchestrated genocide by the Indian government. There were no photographers or reporters or TV crews from the major news organisations present at the start of the march in Hyde Park, and I saw none in Trafalgar Square.

[SikhRoots]