A look at efforts to support the survivors of the 1984-1995 conflict in Punjab.
October 14, 2014: The conflict from 1984 to 1995 had devastating consequences for the villages and towns of Punjab. Even today, locals are as likely as not to introduce themselves with a photo or faded press clipping that relates to a loved one lost to alleged or proven cases of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, or clandestine cremation. Civil society leaders across the state have been working for justice and the social and economic conditions that might enable a sustainable peace. Their public leadership – either as individuals or through the informal networks they have formed – is both a salve and a source of inspiration and solace for survivors.
The Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project is housed at the University of California at Berkeley, within the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Haas School of Business. This Project concentrates on internal armed conflict and mass social violence, together with issues of prevention, and reparatory and transformative justice. The Project seeks to understand the cultural and legal contexts that lead to such violence, the long-term consequences for its victims, and how they address its effects. Despite the intrinsic political nature of such conflict, the Project does not take a political stance, nor does it attempt to identify political solutions. The Project is currently focused on South Asia, specifically India. Over time, it plans to apply the lessons from India in other countries.
Active cooperation among community leaders and institutions, nonprofits, academics, and policymakers is crucial to conflict transitions and to developing inclusive and equitable parameters for economic, psychosocial, and policy changes. Drawing on in-house capacity at the Center and elsewhere at Berkeley, and among partnering institutions, the Project’s overarching goal is to establish a collaborative and multilateral network of scholars, academic and advocacy institutions, and local civil society partners and victims-survivors, to produce a policy framework and technical protocols or blueprints for accountability.
If a policy and protocol framework were adopted to protect people’s rights consistent with India’s legal and constitutional commitments, it would contribute to justice and stability across India, the world’s largest democracy, and perhaps serve as a model for other countries.
The first protocol is focusing on gendered and sexualized violence. Learning from local civil society leaders from various walks of life, the Project is creating a prototype for the right to remedy, focusing on psychosocial and legal restitution, economic development, and historical dialogue.
Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership-Haas School of Business. Text by Project Co-chairs Angana Chatterji and Shashi Buluswar and Director of Programs Mallika Kaur. Images by Robert Nickelsberg, except where noted.
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| Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights defender, uncovered the clandestine and mass cremations that were undertaken in Punjab during the conflict. In the early 1990s, he estimated that more than 25,000 such cremations had taken place across the state. In 1995, following an international trip to create awareness around the issue, Khalra was murdered, as noted in the Summary Judgement in the Khalra Case on November 18, 2005. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, his wife and formerly a librarian, founded the Khalra Mission Organization. In 2013, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation validated 2,097 secret cremations that Mr. Khalra had discovered. The government’s inquiries were limited to three crematoria in Amritsar and bound to the timeframe of 1984-94. Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg |
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| The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (Management) Committee Office is located in Teja Singh Samundari Hall, a key landmark in Amritsar. Here, the largest tally of civilian deaths occurred in June 1984, during the army’s operations on the Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara, “Golden Temple,” Complex, where this office is situated. Its walls still bear bullet marks from the incident. Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg......more photos |