“Around 6th grade I was forced to make a life altering decision and pick the sciences over the arts. In 1984 as a teenager, I survived through a carnage that consumed the lives of thousands of Sikhs on the streets of Delhi, the capital of India,” says Sikh cartoonist Vishavjit Singh.
SURREY – Sikh-American cartoonist Vishavjit Singh, who has created an exhibit titled, “When A Big Tree Falls,” in commemoration of the massacre of Sikhs in New Delhi in 1984, will be showcasing his work at Surrey’s Singh Sabha Gurdwara on Sunday and Abbotsford’s Banda Bahadur Gurdwara on Saturday.
“I began doodling characters at a very young age,” Singh said. “Around 6th grade I was forced to make a life altering decision and pick the sciences over the arts. In 1984 as a teenager, I survived through a carnage that consumed the lives of thousands of Sikhs on the streets of Delhi, the capital of India. Amazingly, in a few years I forgot about the carnage and set my eyes on a well paid professional career.”
Singh’s “When A Big Tree Falls” exhibit consists of 23 cartoons, including 19 that have never before been displayed.
It is commonly known that the October 1984 assassination of Prime Minster Indira Gandhi came at the hands of her own Sikh bodyguards. The exhibition deals with the less well known aftermath. Gandhi’s assassination sparked four days of ethnic cleansing, with Sikhs and their identifiable turbans and long hair becoming easy targets for retaliation. Amnesty International calls the episode, “A national disgrace,” for India referring to the Indian police who orchestrated much of the killings and authorities who did nothing to stop them.
At least 3,000 were killed in Delhi alone, with countless of thousands more injured and raped. The assassination of the Prime Minister came amidst alleged human rights abuses and violence between separatist Sikh movements and the Indian Army. In June of that year, “Operation Bluestar”, was launched on the Golden Temple, Sikhism most important religious site . Thousands were slaughtered, including many civilians.
Singh, who is also the founder of the popular political cartoon website www.sikhtoons.com, said that after college graduation and an identity crisis life seemed to be moving along. But then 9/11 happened and the world changed in ways unimaginable, he said.
Singh was living only a few miles from New York City and was the target of hate crimes due to his turbaned and bearded looks.
“ It was the response of American editorial cartoonists that reignited a long hidden passion for the arts. Seeing Sikh characters being represented in cartoons as targets of hate crimes provided the spark for the genesis of Sikhtoons, Sikh cartoons.
“Armed with my right index finger and computer touch pad, I have been creating cartoons for the last 8 years giving voice to Sikh aspirations and frustrations. Living through 9/11 as a Sikh American and its aftermath brought back memories of the carnage in November 1984 on the streets of India. Among many issues affecting Sikhs I have been creating Sikhtoons covering the many aspects of the 1984 carnage of Sikhs in India,” he said.