In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the
the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in Northern India, Sikh-American cartoonist
Vishavjit Singh has created an exhibit titled, “When A Big Tree Falls”.
Singh is the founder of the political cartoon site www.sikhtoons.com.
It is widely known that the October 1984 assassination of Prime Minster
Indira Gandhi came at the hands of her own Sikh bodyguards.
Less well known is that Gandhi’s assassination sparked four days of ethnic cleansing in northern
India,
with Sikhs and their turbans and long hair making them easy targets for
retaliation. That my family survived the retaliatory massacre of Sikhs
is the likely the only reason I am aware they took place. Amnesty
International calls the episode, “A national disgrace,” referring to
the Indian Police who orchestrated much of the killings and federal
authorities who did nothing to stop them.
At least 3,000 were massacred in
Delhi
alone, with countless of thousands more injured and raped. The
assassination of the Prime Minister came admist alleged human rights
abuses and violence between separatist Sikh movements and the Indian
Army. In June of that year, “Operation Bluestar”, was launched on
Sikh’s most important religious site the
GoldenTemple. Thousands, including many civilians were slaughtered.
Its personal for Singh too. His family had made
Delhi
their home, and were saved by a combination of courageous intervention
on the part of friendly Hindu neighbors and his family living in a
government-owned housing complex. Through drawings and text, his
cartoons weave a powerful narrative of the massacre, a rigged Indian
justice system and a silent and complicit Indian media. Not even the
appointment of the first Sikh Prime Minster is enough to turn the
wheels of justice. As the exhibit caricatures, after offering an
official apology to the Sikh community, the current Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh told a Sikh audience its time for the Sikh community to
“Move on.”
The artist titled the exhibit, “When A Big Tree
Falls,” after the first half of quote spoken by Rajiv Gandhi, in the
immediate aftermath of the massacre. Rajiv was Indira’s son and was
sworn in as Prime Minister after his mother’s death The quote
continues, “The Earth shakes a little.” And despite the killings,
Rajiv’s Congress Party won a record-setting landslide victory in
elections held in the same year.
So far, the Indian government has launched ten
investigations, resulting in only 25 convictions. Human Rights Watch
notes that, “No senior government officials or politicians have been
prosecuted despite evidence of their roles in the atrocities.” The
events and aftermath are inseparable from my identify. However for most
Americans, and perhaps many in the Sikh Diaspora, the only death of
note in 1984 in
India
was that of Indira Gandhi’s. Singh offers an insightful and creative
way to remember those who were not as fortunate as our families were.
Sikhtoons exhibit runs through Nov 28th at New Century Artists Gallery at
530 West 25th St (between 10th and 11th ave.) For details visit http://www.sikhtoons.com/nycexhibit.html
