Going back to 1984

Betrayed By The State: The Anti-Sikh Pogrom Of 1984
Jyoti Grewal
Penguin
224 pages
Rs275

Jyoti Grewal’s Betrayed By The State: The Anti-Sikh pogrom Of 1984 combines press reportage and personal interviews to drive home the point that the events following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 were not “spontaneous” but well-planned and executed with the active connivance of the government in power.

The book sets out by first explaining the historical-political origins of the crisis in Punjab that had its most tragic denouement in the events of 1984. Grewal’s sweeping description of early Sikh history, and then the sudden leap into 20th century Punjabi politics — the idea of Khalistan, the plight of the Jat Sikh farmers, the rise of Bhindranwale, and so on — comes in a breathless rush.

The heart of the book, though, is chapter three, where the author reproduces the no-holds barred accounts of two widows and a well-to-do IAS officer’s family (her own mother), the experiences of a social worker, and an article by a student who lived in Delhi during the riots. It is purely on the basis of these accounts — poorly edited (for example, the victims constantly refer to events of November 31) — that Grewal bases her premise: that the state was complicit in the events of 1984. She makes no in-depth attempt to explain why the state failed the Sikh community, and only cursorily refers to the work of nine government-appointed commissions set up to investigate the riots. She provides no explanation as to why they  failed to deliver justice to the victims.

Now, 23 years later, the events of October 31, 1984 may seem alien to readers in their twenties. Keeping this in mind, Grewal should have focused on why the commissions failed to deliver and what can be done now. But by basing her premise on the accounts of just two widows and personal experiences of people she knew, Grewal presents a hodge-podge that reveals nothing new about the events of 1984.