Submitted by: Divya Kaur

On a beautiful day in Punjab, India, around the year of 1606, the fifth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Arjan Dev, happily sat on a burning hot plate, at the command of the Muslim king in power. The saintly man refused to forcefully convert to Islam. The kings told him, “Oh holy man, if you convert, we will give you many beautiful women, a beautiful mansion, and the world’s riches…” Laughing and not tempted by these transitory, superficial pleasures, Guru Arjan Dev proudly proclaimed that he will willingly become the first martyr of the Sikhs and not convert. He sat in meditation pose on the burning plate, as citizens surrounded the scene in shock, eyes welling up with tears, amazed by this great sacrifice given by such a detached and humble man.

Approximately 308 years later in the month of June, 1984, thousands of Sikhs gathered at the Sikh Golden Temple, in Amritsar, India, to remember Guru Arjan Dev’s sacrifice and to pray for equality, humility and detachment from worldly pleasures. Little did they know that within a few hours of that morning, the holy river that surrounded the temple would be the dark, deep, crimson colour of blood. Prime Minister Indhira Gandhi had ordered thousands of troops to raid the complex of the Golden Temple and kill any Sikh man or woman regardless of who they are. At the order of India’s Hitler, Indhira Gandhi, shameless policemen stormed into the temple, shooting innocent children with bullets, raping young women turn by turn, and urinating on the Sikh holy scriptures – a heartbreaking memory for Sikhs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow to recall.

Why did Indhira do this? Her excuse was that she wanted to capture a terrorist who was in the temple, yet this woman, adorned in her white sari, had failed to justify her evil-mindedness. Thousands of casualties were announced and there was a media-blackout, which is most likely why nobody in the western world knew or knows what happened. A temple that had been standing since the time of Guru Arjan Dev had been completely destroyed by the Hindu-dominated government of India (informally known as “Hindustan”). Every year in June, Sikhs come together in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery for a candle light vigil to remember the disastrous, heartbreaking riots and attack of 1984.

Indhira Gandhi had two bodyguards, and both of them were Sikh men. After devastating thousands of children, alienating Sikhs from society, and creating a “Widow Colony” (a dark alley where alienated Sikh widows of 1984 stay and suffer in poverty), Indhira Gandhi decided to take a walk in her beautiful garden. As she entered her garden, her two bodyguards shot her. The media, covering the truth as usual, weeped and wailed in memories of their Prime Minister, or goddess-like figure’s death. The government has attempted to do their best to keep the controversy of 1984 on the down low. One can approach any Sikh teenager today and ask his or her grandparents how they had to escape from police-men in the 1980s-1990s. They would recall the police banging on their doors asking if they were Sikh, and if so, threatening them with torture, rape, and very frequently, murder. So many innocent Sikhs were raped, tortured, and killed. Too many.

This November 2009, the Sikh youth of Vancouver, BC decided to have an “Amritvela Week.” Amritvela is the time before the sunrise, when devout Sikhs pray, as it is the most peaceful time of the day, when the consciousness is most pure. Sikh youth chose to wake up at 3:00 am, shower, and go to a small Sikh temple in Surrey. Here we would meditate in memory of the 1984 massacre, and we would pray to God to give us the strength and courage that the Sikhs had in order to suffer this injustice. As a young Indo-Canadian Sikh woman, I have decided that it is my job to make the cries for justice of the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots heard to the ears of our western society. This pre-planned, government-sponsored massacre still haunts the hearts of the Sikh youth today in Vancouver, BC.

On the same land of India, Muslim saints, Sikh gurus, and Hindu deities walked, yet people seem to completely ignore the sacrifices of each other’s religions and preach that theirs is the “best”. Where the Sikh Gurus walked and preached universal brotherhood, selfless service, humility, and love – on that land, the government of India said without words, “We are the dominant culture, and once again we will violently, silently and secretively teach your minority society of Sikhs that they are absolutely useless human beings.” Whether this was their intention or not, this is what their actions screamed into the ears of my Sikh nation.