Page 12 of Gauri Gill’s zine 1984, which addresses the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres through a mix
Page 12 of Gauri Gill’s zine 1984, which addresses the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres through a mix of photo-documentation and personal testimonies of those affected. Following the assassination of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 and mounting tension between the Indian government and Sikh separatists (participants in the Khalistan movement), a series of anti-Sikh pogroms would result in the deaths of some 2000-8000 Sikhs in Delhi and Punjab. The Indian government has yet to persecute those responsible in instrumentalizing these grave acts of violence. One such testimony from Gill’s zine reads, “There is a habit of damaged souls and collective psyches to proscribe an event to a date and time, in order not to deal with the darkness inside. Date and time somehow sets up a false suture, in that we allow ourselves to believe that those two specifics will somehow suffice instead of real justice or giving real voice to what happened. ‘Date and Time’ may have a cathartic aspect, but it absolves us. You see, without date and time, we are forced to realize that we are still responsible for those who survived; their cause is our own, as are their terrors. Generations died, generations within a family, children lost their parents; entire families were wiped out forever. In civilized nations this is called genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing. In India it’s called the 'aftermath of the Sikh riots’. How insidious a term is that, how duplicitous and what further proof does anyone need that we are still a society in denial at best, and a vengeful one at worst.We will never forget. The victims stand beside us as family gathered under our shelters.Zarina Muhammed” (Page 79) -- source link