Film “Amu” Revisits the 1984 Sikh Massacre in Delhi

#5 Shishapa
I always wondered the same about the Hindu killings in Kashmir, Punjab and in Bombay bomb blasts. So far, i did not see any one making any movies about those incidents. Murder is murder regardless of the religion. But in India, For the mainstream political parties and liberals/entertainers, Hindu deaths do not mean much. May be they expect the majority community to take some losses without much noise.

Actually there is agreement all around that two wrongs

do not make a right. No matter who is killed

Hindu-Muslim-Sikh it cannot be hidden under a rug.

I found Shonali to be very strong on this issue.

The Kashmiri Pandit community has suffered

along with the Muslim Kashmiris in J&K.

We should condemn communal violence even though

there is always a starter "Machis" (Match) to

all of these horrific events.

Ras

I hope somone remembers and makes movies about (if not
already) about numerous Hindus murdered/massacred by
Khalistani and Kashmiri terrorists over the years.

They do not get noticed probably because they are Hindus
so do not matter, may be their killings were not as
dramatic as Sikhs in Delhi riots and Muslims killed in
Gujrat riots, but nevertheless they were brutal and
heartless (being dragged out of the buses and houses and
what not). And the murderers did have support of the
populace at large, terrorists do not operate in vaccuum.

{"Q1. What motivated you to make this film? Why did a Bengali feel that the 1984 Sikh riots in Delhi needed to be revisited twenty years later?

SB: This is an issue for all Indians. An injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. None of us want a different section of Indians to be butchered at different times - no matter what religion they belong to. This is not the India we want. And because this is what it has been carrying with 1984 being a watershed - this film is relevant. It’s not about the past but the present.
No one has still been punished for '84. "}

Siddiqui Sahib,
Thanks for highlighting this terrible tragedy that took the lives and happiness of so many inncocent Sikhs. To have this kind of butchery and state-supported murder in any country's capital after so many years of independence is unbelievable.

I have often been critical of Pakistan and how much violence that poor country has seen. One good thing that I must say about Pakistan is that it has not seen a group of Pakistani civilians being butchered by another group of Pakistani civilians with all the trimmings of rape, looting, burning, torture to magnify the barbarism. Maybe, it's because Pakistan already has uniformed murderers that it doesn't need civilian ones. The killings in Bangladesh, Karachi, NWFP, Baluchistan, and now Islamabad were all horrible, all committed by uniformed Paki soldiers - but fortunately no groups of civilians went at each other. Thanks.

The 1984 riots remain the biggest blot on India's history. The main perpetrators like Jagdish Tytler, HKL Bhagat (now dead and perhaps rotting in hell) continued/continue to elude law while some small fish have been convicted. The Congress party should have long been held accountable, but surprisingly still retains a lot of popularity amongst Sikhs themselves. If I were a Sikh, not only would I not vote for it, I would ensure that none from my family did.

The lack of high-level prosecution and jailing of politicians remains a major tragedy and great blot on the face of all indians. It is not correct to say that no one has been prosecuted: - many low-level rioters have been prosecuted and jailed. Compensation has also been paid to the survivors. But until the big fish are nailed india cannot be seen as a mature democracy only an aspiring one.

We need also to understand how many "normal" indians were convinced to participate or look-away from the violence. No doubt it was preceeded by years of funding of violence by some UK and Canadian sikhs (none of whom has ever expressed remorse) and tremendous hate speech towards hindus and hindu traditions. Indira Gandhi cunningly used this to create an even larger divide between the communities. This is the major educational opportunity that needs to be realized -- how hate is created by extremists and utilized by politicians -- otherwise there will be repititions of this kind of violence as in Gujarat - where Mr. Modi applied the lessons of 1984 and before that of 1947 to the state.

Khushwant Singh has also proposed a memorial to the innocent sikhs killed in Delhi. It does not do away with the need for prosecution (e.g., Jagdish Tytler) but it would also mark in a permanent way that something terribly wrong happened in the capital city.

My dad told a story abt the post-Indira riots.

In one case a Sikh truck driver was seen disributing laddus was caught and his back was run over with new sharp blade. Terrible.........

If we look back, it's an incovenient past....indeed.

If u use radical fundamentalists for temporary gain, u'd end-up paying huge price. Indira learnt it at the cost of her life. Rajiv paid it with his life too.