A Panjabi Journalist’s Book on the 1984 Sikh Genocide

On 1st Nov, the 40^th anniversary of the Sikh genocide, The Indian Express said that after more than 2,700 Sikhs were killed in India’s capital Delhi (official numbers, unofficial numbers are much higher) just 12 murder cases have ended in conviction. Senior advocate H S Phoolka said, ‘The number of commissions and committees set up to probe the murders… is more than the number of convictions.’ Parallelly, in Panjab, a senior journalist Surjit Singh Sokhi had prepared a report for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) which was published in four parts under the same name - Sikhan Da Qataliam (The Sikh Massacre). The report documented the violence against Sikhs across India. After Sokhi’s demise in 1995, the SGPC compiled all parts and republished the book in 2020. The 463-page book records first-person accounts, statements, inquiry reports, news clippings, articles, editorials, statements, speeches, and so on, on the victims, the accused, the people who tried to stop attackers, and those who made efforts to seek justice for the victims. Sokhi also met representatives of People’s Union for Democratic Rights and People’s Union for Civil Liberties and recorded their understanding on how Sikhs were targeted and murdered. These two groups had published the original report Who Are the Guilty? and have now released a statement on the events saying the ‘fight for justice continues’. Listing exact numbers of victims, Sokhi details cow-belt states where Sikhs were killed and their businesses burnt. However, in non-INC ruled states in the south of India there were hardly any killings. That there is such documentation but it has no bearing on the country’s judicial process points at another chasm in Indian society.