This movie is specifically and intentionally anti-movement. This is the establishment retort to the grass roots support which has over the last 6 or 7 years been gaining ground in challenging decades of GOI propaganda.
This reviewer is also missing the point – thought and reflection upon what are anomalies rather than what truly characterised the period will lead you to the wrong conclusions. As an example the emphasis upon the killing of innocent Hindu civilians and the help offered to the mother by her Hindu friend do not characterise the reality of the situation, they are simply tools in trying to present some form of balance which frankly never existed. Did some Hindus help Sikhs? – undoubtedly some must have, were innocent Hindu civilians killed? – Again undoubtedly but were either of those situations common? Were these common occurrences? NO – so we must ask ourselves what would be the intention on focusing on aspects of the period that were in fact exceptions to the rule?
The intention is clear – to bring to prominence features which are detrimental to the understanding of the movement whilst at the same time towing the GOI line that this was largely a sectarian issue – which it was not.
Pakistan’s role is always overplayed by pro GOI commentators, whether in print or film. The fact is that Pakistan opportunistically supported the movement on the simple basis that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, no different than India’s support for Bangladeshi separatists – Pakistan did not create the environment which lead to Sikh grievances and they played no part in the GOI response to those grievances.
Remember it was not the Pakistani army that raided Sri Harmandir Sahib, it was not the Pakistani army that simultaneously attacked over 70 other major Sikh Gurudwaras in Panjab (one man-70+locations?) – It was not the Pakistani army that carried out mass murder and torture under the banner of ‘Operation Woodrose’, It was not the Pakistani army that desecrated more than 200 Gurudwaras in Delhi, It was not the Pakistani army that killed more than 3,000 innocent Sikhs in Delhi alone – this pattern repeated in at least 127 other northern Indian towns and cities (figures for those killed there may never be known) and it was certainly not the Pakistani army that burned Sikh chidren alive on the streets of the nations capital AND it has not been the Pakistanis who have for thirty years actively obstructed the prosecution of the guilty.
With regard to Hindu civilian killings in Punjab during the period – this is so often mentioned but very little offered in the way of facts. GOVERNMENT FIGURES, QUOTED BY DGP KS DHILLON IN AN ADDRESS TO A ICSSR SPONSORED CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF PUNJAB, HELD ON 27TH FEBRUARY TO MARCH 1ST 1995 – FOR THE PERIOD OF 1984 TO 1991 FIGURES IDENTIFY VICTIMS ACCORDING TO THEIR RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION – ACCORDING TO THESE STATISTICS THE NUMBER OF HINDU CIVILIANS KILLED FROM 84 TO 91 WAS 3,817.
So essentially the number of Hindu civilians killed for what was effectively the whole duration of the movement was approximately the same number of Sikhs killed within 2 days in Delhi alone – this is according to GOI figures, NGO’s double that figure – and remember this is just within the capital, we now know that the November pogroms carried on in over 120 other northern Indian towns and cities, numbers for Sikhs killed there is unknown and could run into further thousands.
ALSO – WHO WAS KILLING THE INNOCENTS?
It is open knowledge that the GOI employed so called ‘black cats’ – criminals often released from prisons to dress and appear as Sikhs of the movement, whose main goal was to terrorise the local population to defame the movement in order quell the peoples support – QUESTION HERE IS, IF THE MOVEMENT SIKHS WERE SO BLOODTHIRSTY, WHY DID THE GOI FEEL THE NEED TO INJECT CRIMINALS INTO THE MIX???
THE SIKHS CERTAINLY NEVER NEEDED TO DON INDIAN POLICE/ARMY DISGUISES TO COMMIT ATROCITIES TO SWAY THE PEOPLE – THEY DIDN’T NEED TO! ONLY CONCLUSION IS THAT THE MOVEMENT SINGH’S WERE FALLING SHORT IN THEIR TERRORISING OF CIVILIANS – WHILST THE ARMY/POLICE WERE NOT.
THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY, INDIA HAS ITS VERSION OF EVENTS.
This is a comment that tries to suggest that their is somehow some parity
between the Sikh experience and that of the GOI or indian people, there is
no parity whatsoever. India was the aggressor and instigator, the vast
majority of civilian victims were Sikh, those imprisoned,raped and tortured
by the police and army were all Sikh, those disappeared, killed in
‘encounters’,
imprisoned for years without trial were and are Sikhs, bluestar desecrated
the most holy shrine of the Sikhs, all victims of the Nov pogroms were Sikh,
all those denied and still denied justice are Sikh.
There are opinion’s, some are based on facts whilst others are based on
misinformation, the propaganda that was used by the indian government to
justify bluestar and the subsequent ‘information’ issued through government
and army officials into the aftermath of the attack, such as numbers of
militants, numbers of dead, breakdown of men women and children, damage to
akal takht, numbers of arms, discovery of illicit drugs, troop casualties,
arson, removal of artefacts etc.etc.etc. have all subsequently been shown to
be lies, this is not a matter of opinion or open to debate they were
absolute, unashamed, downright, lies. How do we know this?
Because every single piece of information issued relating to the examples
above was later revised or in a number of cases completely denied.
As a small example the Indian’s originally issued a statement saying that
there were 49 militants taking shelter in Harmandir Sahib, Lt.Gen Brar later
offered these statistics “army casualties were 83 killed and 248 wounded;
terrorist and other casualties were 492 killed and 86 wounded” forward to the
24th May 2004 – speaking on the BBC programme ‘After Bluestar’ Lt.Gen. Brar put the number of militants at 2,000!
To further add to the confusion It is
noted that PM Rajiv Gandhi addressing the national union of students at
Nagpur in September 1984 referred to the 700 soldiers killed
executing bluestar. (I.Jaijee P.O.G.)
This endemic lying resonates throughout the entire period of insurgency in
the Panjab and continues to the present day.
The GOI has so twisted and distorted reality that there are those
who will contend that their are ‘two sides to the story’ without really
looking at the fact’s.
The idea that any individual act of barbarity, although unjustifiable is
comparable to the sustained, pre-meditated assault on an entire people,
employing the whole might of a national army, police and intelligence
networks, the use of all media by government to demonise the Sikhs both
nationally and internationally, the corruption of the judiciary, the
suspension of the rule of law, the passing of draconian legislation, the
legitimisation of extra judicial execution,the negation of the democratic process,the immunity from prosecution of the
guilty. In fact the entire machinery of the indian nation state was pitted
against one of its own minority communities, India had effectively declared
a war on the Sikh’s.
These actions as the action of choosing to perpetrate ‘bluestar’ on a
recognised day in the Sikh calendar belies the governments intentions. The
intention of GOI was to cause maximum Sikh civilian casualties. If not the
case then why June 6th? If not why hundreds of thousands of soldiers? If not why give
total immunity from prosecution to the police and army? If not why cut off all
communications, effectively turning Panjab into a open prison? If not why
expel all media,foreign and domestic? If not, why ban entry of UN or Human rights delegations to Panjab to this day?
ITS VERY SIMPLE IF YOU HAVE TWO PARTIES THAT DISAGREE IT IS USUAL TO ALLOW THE ENTRY OF AN IMPARTIAL THIRD PARTY TO LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE AND COME TO A CONCLUSION BASED ON THE FACTS – THE SIKHS HAVE BEEN URGING THIS TO HAPPEN FOR DECADES – UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR / AMNESTY / HRW ETC. – AND FOR DECADES INDIA HAS STAUNCHLY OPPOSED ANY THIRD PARTY OVERSIGHT, USING SIMPLE LOGIC WHO IS LIKELY TO BE TELLING THE TRUTH? THOSE THAT WANT IT EXPOSED OR THOSE WHO WILL DO ANYTHING TO HIDE IT?
I have noticed an increasing number of vocal apologists that talk about ‘moving on’ / ‘reflection’ / ‘don’t look at the movement through rose colored spectacles’
THE COMMUNITY THAT YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE BEEN BORN INTO HAS SUFFERED A TERRIBLE GENOCIDE AND THE STATE AND INDIVIDUALS ARE LIVING FREE WITHOUT ANY FEAR OF PROSECUTION WHILST DEFENDERS FROM THE VICTIMISED COMMUNITY ROT IN JAIL!! YOU TALK OF MOVING ON? YOU TALK OF REFLECTION?
Imagine for a moment that the Nurermberg trials never happened, the Nazi’s were never ousted, Israel was never created and men like Goering still held high positions within the German establishment whilst those Jew’s that took up arms against their persecutors languished in German prisons…..CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT JEWISH PEOPLE WOULD TALK OF ‘MOVING ON’? OF ‘REFLECTION’?
Even after the Nazis were exposed to the world, even after many of them faced trial and were hung, even after the creation of their own state, even after the worldwide recognition that they suffered a terrible genocide, even after they have erected museums so that the world should never forget, EVEN AFTER THAT – THEY CONTINUE TO PURSUE THE GUILTY!!
It is to me a terrible sense of shame when I hear people from our own community expressing these kind of sentiments – ‘move on’ / ‘reflect’ / ‘its been thirty years’ etc… I can do no better than the words of Thomas Paine written for those from his community whose sentiments were akin to ‘moving on’ etc….
“Your future connection with Britain/(see India), whom you can neither love nor honour, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.”
—Thomas Paine
Common Sense (1776)