Norwich -
Most Americans have never heard of Operation Blue Star or Operation
Woodrose, but to the Sikh community of the United States, these words
elicit fear, sorrow and a sense of helplessness over thousands of
people who died in those operations 30 years ago in their homeland of
India.
The Sikh Sevak Society International and the Norwich Area Clergy Association will sponsor a memorial and public awareness ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at the David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard outside Norwich City Hall to mark the anniversary of the 1984 Sikh massacres.
On June 5, 1984, four army divisions - under orders from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi - sealed off the crowded Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh site, as thousands gathered for a traditional commemoration ceremony. The army attacked with machine guns and tanks in an attempt to root out a fanatical opposition leader who, it turns out, had moved his headquarters out of the temple some weeks earlier.
Estimates of the numbers of Sikh men, women and children killed range from hundreds to nearly 20,000, according to news accounts.
On Oct. 31, 1984, Gandhi was assassinated, sparking a three-day massacre of an estimated 3,000 Sikhs, their homes and businesses burned and families slaughtered as police and armed forces stood by and watched.
Swaranjit Singh Khalsa of Norwich, a member of the Norwich Area Clergy Association and the Sikh Sevak Society International, said Saturday's ceremony is an effort to remember the victims and seek justice three decades later for families who still don't know what happened to their loved ones. Khalsa said bodies of the dead were quickly trucked away and burned.
"We are doing this event for the sake of awareness," he said. "Still, after 30 years, Sikhs never got any closure. The people who did everything are still outside, never went to jail."
Khalsa said many of the perpetrators were members of powerful political parties or were military or government officials. Sikhs in India are afraid to speak up about the massacres and feel persecuted if they even try to tally the dead. "That's one of the reasons Sikhs immigrated to Europe, Great Britain and the United States," Khalsa said.
He said there are about 500 Sikh families in Connecticut, and there are Sikh temples in Southington, Hamden, Norwalk and Windsor.
Khalsa, who owns the Shell gas station and convenience store on West Town Street, said his father's and grandfather's shops and cars were burned in the November attacks.
Sikh survivors of the massacres are expected to attend Saturday's ceremony, along with local clergy and public officials. State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and Norwich NAACP President Jacqueline Owens will participate.
The ceremony will include ringing of the city's Freedom Bell, which was cast in 2013 in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
"We will also ring it one time for John F. Kennedy," Khalsa said, "because he was a reformer, too."
Saturday is the 51st anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.