Anti-Sikh Riots (1984): The Erasure of Genocide Through State-Sanctioned Amnesia

Book: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India by CSMFL Publications

Subham Mandal
Assistant Professor, Department of English, North Bengal St. Xavier’s College, Rajganj, India.

10.46679/9789349926639ch01
This chapter is a part of: Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens from India
ISBN (Ebook):978-93-49926-63-9
ISBN (Hardcover Print):978-93-49926-41-7
ISBN (Softcover Print):978-93-49926-75-2

© CSMFL Publications & its authors.
Published: November 10, 2025

Mandal, S. (2025). Anti-Sikh Riots (1984): The Erasure of Genocide Through State-Sanctioned Amnesia. In A. G. Uppal & D. Barot, Cultural Memory in Translation: Revisiting Cultural Memory Through Interpretative Lens (pp 1-13). CSMFL Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.46679/9789349926639ch01

Abstract

The 1984 anti-Sikh massacre, which erupted with the assassination of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, marks one of the most brutal periods of communal violence in post-independence India. Even though thousands of Sikhs lost their lives, homes, and the entire community was shattered both mentally and physically – the events have largely been framed as “riots” rather than recognising it as the strategic genocide that survivors, activist and later even scholars have argued they were. This research paper examines the politics of memory, the mechanism of amnesia/forgetting, and the responsibility of “remembrance” for the sake of history and future. Drawing on various legal testimonies, witnesses given by the survivors, commissions set for the inquiry and various texts – including When a Tree Shook Delhi by H.S. Phoolka and Mitta, I Accuse by Jarnail Singh, Fighting for Faith and Nation by Cynthia Mahmood, and The Crisis of Secularism in India, edited by Anuradha Needham and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan – this study explores the various ways in which the memory of the violence and massacre has been strategically erased from public narratives. The various ways of such provoked amnesia include normalising the violence, delayed and denied justice, terminological reframing, omission from educational books and silence from the media, tactical isolation of the community and others. The paper analyses how such forgetting or cultural amnesia are not mere coincidences, but deliberate tools of power that serves to neglect the narratives of the victims and provide safe haven to the perpetrators from any liability. By following the trajectory of how the 1984 massacre has been remembered/forgotten, contested/silenced, the paper examines how fighting the ‘amnesia’ is a responsibility to build a truly secular and inclusive state. The purpose of “remembering” 1984 is not a matter of paying homage to the victims, but also ensuring that the world’s largest democracy and secular Republic is not built upon the erasure and marginalisation of its minority community.

Keywords: 1984 Anti-Sikh Violence, Politics of Memory, Strategic Genocide, Pogrom, Cultural Amnesia, Communal Violence, State-Sponsored, Biased Justice System, Memorialisation, Secularism, Historical Erasure

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