donderdag 12 mei 2011

Widows of 1984 anti-Sikh riots still waiting for justice

Many of the flats in Hari Nagar have garlanded photos on the wall

Widows of 1984 anti-Sikh riots still waiting for justice

Published on : 22 April 2011 - 12:19pm | By Devi Boerema (photo: Devi Boerema)

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/widows-1984-anti-sikh-riots-still-waiting-justice


Indira Gandhi's assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards on 31th of August 1984 shook India to the core. But the events that followed would leave a permanent mark on the nation's collective consciousness. 

In the days immediately following Mrs Gandhi's death, there was a mass reprisal against Sikhs.  Tens of thousands of Sikh men were pulled out of buses and trains, slaughtered on the streets, in their homes and in their workplace; an estimated 10-17,000 men died in three days.

Uncounted thousands more went into some form of hiding.  Many Sikh men cut their hair and took off their turbans to hide their ethnicity.  It was years before the Sikkh community would regain its collective confidence to repossess the streets of Delhi again.

Widows' colony
In the west Delhi suburb of Hari Nagar, children play on the dusty roadside and women haggle with the vegetable vendors.  From the outside, the ramshackle buildings  look like an ordinary middle class Delhi housing complex.  But inside, it's soon apparent that the inhabitants of the small apartments are all part of a community of grief.  These are the widows of 1984.
There are a few men around, but it's mostly a community of women mourning lost generations of their men folk.

Nanki's memories
Nanki Kaur is in her early fifties, but the deep lines in her face make her look much older. Many of the flats in Hari Nagar have garlanded photos on the wall – Nanki Kaur prefers to keep her photos locked away in a suitcase underneath her bed. They bring back too many memories.

"My husband went to work that day. Like any other day he went to open up his shop. But he returned when he saw the whole market was closed because of Indira Gandhi's assassination. We thought we were safe at home, but soon we heard the news about the mobs that were burning down houses."

Mrs. Kaur's brother-in-law was killed by a mob the day after Mrs Gandhi's assassination. When another angry mob came to where the Kaurs lived, her husband tried to escape by climbing up to the roof.  Mrs. Kaur's last memory of her husband is of him being dragged away by shouting people – many of whom she recognized as neighbours. 

They set him on fire and burnt him alive.

"When I think about what has happened it still makes be cry. Both brothers from the same family were killed. It's only me and my children and grandchildren now"

Kangana's memories
In this community everyone knows what it feels like to lose a husband, brother, uncle or grandfather. A few floors down is Kangana Kaur.  She was eight years old when a mob broke into their home.

"My grandmother tried to stop them. She even begged them to take her instead of my dad. But they took my dad and brothers outside and killed them. My grandmother was brutally beaten up, but she survived"

The memory is decades old, but the pain is fresh and her tears still hot.  She lost her father and her uncles, but the women who were left behind in the family also lost who they had once been.

"We use to have three shops; my family did well for themselves. We had a lot of property, but that was all taken from us. Today we have to live with our whole family in this small apartment in this old building. We worked hard, but now we have nothing"

The stories of Nanki amd Kangana can be echoed in every flat in Hari Nagar.

Nanki Kaur reported the names of the people she'd recognized in the mob, and a couple of them were arrested,  but then they simply disappeared from view.  It's been nearly three decades since the mass killings, but not a single person has been convicted for any of the crimes that were committed against the Sikkh community.

Perhaps it's this thought more than the photos on the wall that makes it such a trial for the families in Hari Nagar to get through each new day.

 

·                          Widows of 1984 anti-Sikh riots still waiting for justiceGarlanded pictures hang in most housesNanki Kaur (middle) sitting outside her house with her neigboursKangana Kaur and her two childrenNanki Kaur's grandchildren holding up the pictures of the men that were killed

 

dinsdag 3 mei 2011

Presbericht: Sikhs de straat op voor Vaisakhi in Alemere

Sikhs de straat op voor Vaisakhi

 

Op zondag 15 Mei 2011 van 11.00 tot 16.00 uur trekt er een oranje vredes-processie door de straten van Almere-Haven. Het zijn de Sikhs die met een Nagar Kirtan, Vaisakhi vieren.

 

Aan het hoofd van de stoet lopen 5 mensen in traditionele oranje kledij. Zij symboliseren de eerste vijf sikhs die gedoopt zijn. De zwaarden die ze met zich meedragen symboliseren Gods macht. Daarna volgt een praalwagen waarop zich het heilige sikh geschrift bevind. Dit wordt gezien als de eeuwige levende goeroe voor de sikhs. De hele sikh gemeenschap sluit zich daarbij aan.

 

De route is: Brongouw 57 (sikh tempel) - Keiwierde - Oldewierde - Zandwierde - Strandweg - Sluiskade - Sluis - Schoolstraat - Stadswerf - Parkwerf - Markenlaan - Brugmark - Noordmark - De Paal - Overgouw - Brongouw 57 (Gurdwara Sikh Sangag Sahib)

 

Onderweg worden frisdrank, etenswaar en informatie uitgedeeld. Halverwege (strandweg) wordt gepauzeerd voor het nuttigen van de lunch (Indiase hapjes).

 

Sikhs zijn volgelingen van het Sikhisme, een monotheïstisch geloof dat is ontstaan in het begin van de 15e eeuw in noord India. Mannelijke sikhs zijn veelal herkenbaar door hun baard en kleurrijke tulband.

Dit geloof benadrukt gelijkheid, rechtvaardigheid, vrijheid en liefde en respect voor elkaar. Volgens de sikhs zijn alle mensen voor God gelijk. Ze discrimineren daarom niet naar afkomst, geloof, ras, status of geslacht. Ook kent het Sikhisme geen priesters of andere intermediairs, de gewone sikh man en vrouw zijn ambassadeurs van hun geloof. Sikhs hebben veel respect voor andere geloven. Het is belangrijker om als goed mens te leven of dit nu als hindoe, moslim, christen, jood of sikh is, dat maakt niet uit.

Hoewel het Sikhisme een uiterst vredelievend en tolerant geloof is heeft het zich door de eeuwen heen vaak moeten verdedigen tegen vervolging, onderdrukking en discriminatie. Tot op de dag van vandaag is trekt hun tulband vaak negatieve aandacht.

 

Nagar Kirtan, letterlijk: stads gezang, is een processie die wordt voorgegaan door de Sri Goeroe Granth Sahib (het sikh heilige geschrift) en wordt gevolgd door de gemeenschap waarbij iedereen die dat wil zich kan aansluiten.

 

Vaisakhi herdenkt de totstandkoming van de sikh doop ceremonie in 1699. Het was hier dat de 10e sikh goeroe, Gobind Singh, de eerste vijf sikhs doopte en vervolgens zichzelf door hun liet dopen.

 

Media contactpersonen:

Theodorus Snellen : +31651810171

Vikrampal Singh   : +31622157488

Sikh Society, Netherlands

WWW.SIKHS.NL

 

Gurdwara Sikh Sangat Sahib
Brongouw 57
1352 EG

Almere Haven


--
Regards
WWW.SIKHS.NL Team
http://sikhgemeenschapnieuws.blogspot.com/

Join us on FACEBOOK



Sikh Society Netherlands is een onpartijdige, a-politieke human development groep die nauw samenwerkt met de Gurudwara's (Sikh gebedshuizen) en andere organisaties in Nederland aangaande onderwerpen die van belang zijn voor de Sikh gemeenschap en andere minderheden, en ter bevordering van die belangen. Verder richt Sikh Society Netherlands zich op aspecten op het gebied van de ontwikkeling en het welzijn van de gehele mensheid.