A Mosaic of Pain Suffering
Jaskiran Chopra
SIKHS: THE UNTOLD AGONY OF 1984 2015, pp. 192, Rs. 399.00 by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Westland Limited, Delhi,, 2015, 192 pp., 399.00
July 2016, volume 40, No 7

The wounds may have healed to an extent but the suffering is relived and borne again and again by the affected families and through them, by their younger generations. The Sikhs who faced the terror and shame of the 1984 riots have found a voice in this book which Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a well-known journalist and political commentator, has written almost three decades after the horrifying event. This is no fiction! Even the people whose stories he narrates have not been given any fictional names. Their real names and stories have been revealed with deep sympathy. The Sikhs who were not directly affected have also been spoken to and the agony is felt no less by them. The author describes the 1984 episode as ‘one of the darkest subplots in contemporary Indian history.’ His presence as the narrator can be felt strongly throughout the work, gathering pieces of narratives and creating a mosaic of pain and suffering.

The book brings out the fear psychosis, sense of panic and the utter humiliation that gripped the Sikhs and from which many of them have not been able to emerge. The attack, says the author, was on their identity and scarred it. It was a bid to annihilate the Sikh identity. In order to show us how, Mukhopadhyay walks us through one of the most shameful episodes of violence in postIndependent India and highlights the apathy of subsequent governments towards Sikhs. The various stories told by him are woven together beautifully in a pattern out of which emerge the emotions of pain, anger, revenge, shame and helplessness. He culled these personal histories, poignant, raw and macabre, over a period of more than two years and tells us how, even after three decades, a community continues to battle for justice in its own country. During his research, he was helped by unknown people as well as some people known to him who came back in a new avatar to share their memories with him.

The survivors, says the author, opened up to him ‘like never before’. Each had a sackful of sad memories. The characters in the account ‘are all linked by an experience which altered their lives indelibly,’ he writes. The book is no doubt a living, breathing document of trauma and terror. It is not just a collection of facts and figures. This is flesh and blood talking, weeping, suffering. People he tells us about include Harmeet Kaur, a middle class Delhi girl born several years after 1984, Swaranpreet Singh, a post-graduate medical student in Delhi in 1984, H.S. Phoolka, a lawyer in his 20s in 1984 who spearheaded the legal struggles for the survivors of 1984, Kulbir Singh, a Human Rights activist since 1984, Prabhsahay Kaur, daughter of H.S. Phoolka born a few months after October 1984, Chandrima Ray, a school teacher in Bokaro, social activist Jaya Jaitley, Joginder Singh Johal, son of Darbara Singh, former Chief Minister of Punjab and several others.

The suffering of the 1984 widows and their children is vividly brought out by the author and also of those children who were born later but live in the shadow of the tragedy. What happened to unsuspecting people who were on their way home or were at home on that October day is narrated with an immediacy that conveys the horror of the time strongly to even those readers who were in no way related to it. For those readers who experienced the nightmare, the book brings it all back—the pain, the panic, the terror, the unfairness of it all! Mukhopadhyay was a young journalist in those days and witnessed the happenings in Delhi. His own feelings and views come across clearly to the reader. ‘Suddenly, 1947 seemed real and with it the partition. It wasn’t a distant year in the calendar anymore.’

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