Above: the School. All other images - courtesy Gurumustuk Singh - are of activities at the School being conducted recently, in conjunction with the staff of Miri Piri Academy, Amritsar.
History
1984 & I:
Terror in a Delhi School
by VIKRAM SINGH CHHABRA
This year, 2009, marks the 25th Anniversary of 1984, when horrendous crimes were committed against the Sikhs in the very land of their origin. To commemorate this sad milestone, we at sikhchic.com have asked our regular columnists, as well as our contributors and readers, to share with us the impact 1984 has had on their lives. We have requested personal stories and anecdotes, as well as an attempt to capture their inner thoughts and deepest ruminations on what 1984 means to each one of them and their loved ones - without going into a litany of facts and figures or a listing of the injustices to date, all of which will invariably be covered with due diligence elsewhere. We intend to present these personal perspectives to you throughout the twelve months of 2009. The following is the seventh in the series entitled "1984 & I".
The following is what happened at the Guru Harkrishan Public School in Vasant Vihar, New Delhi on the morning of November 1, 1984.
I was a student in Grade 11 at the school and this is an account of my own experiences, and those of other eye-witnesses who were my close friends, as well as the school staff.
Guru Harkrishan Public School is a very noticeable building on New Delhi's Outer Ring Road. It is one of the largest school campuses in the city and the architecture of the school is very impressive. Its distinct red stone makes it a sort of a landmark for people looking for directions in the area.
The school, even though located in Vasant Vihar, which is a posh South Delhi colony, borders the neighbouring colony of Munirka, which consists of a village along with residential flats (apartments).
Guru Harkrishan Public School, being a Sikh school, was about 95% Sikh. The total population of the school must have been over 1000 staff and students.
I still vividly remember the day Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards.
Our school was closed early and we were sent home. I will not deny that a few of us Sikh students caught up in the anger of the times were elated by the assassination and some students were shouting cries of victory. In hindsight, I now see that we were wrong in doing this. But the truth must be told and accepted if we wish to attain closure.
Guru Harkrishan Public School was considered a "rich kids‘" school. Most of the students were from well-off Sikh business-families of Delhi. These Sikhs were basically part of the Delhi "Puppy" culture - as the Punjabi version of "Yuppy" was then popularly termed.
For people who are familiar with this culture, it needs no explaining. We were the first school in those days to have a computer. I still remember my first exposure to a PC that the school had invested in. It also had premier facilities that left most other schools behind. The image associated with the school thereby made it a prime target during the days that were to come.
The school also had staff quarters at the rear of the campus which bordered Munirka. There were two buildings. One building consisted of apartments for senior staff. The other building was for junior staff and other school employees. In the front, on the other side of the playground, was the Principal's bungalow.
The Principal at the time was Dr. H.S. Singha.
On the night of the assassination, rioting broke out in the neighbouring Munirka area.
There was a prominent Sikh shop in Munirka called Sardar Wool Shop. The shop was gutted along with other minor Sikh shops in the area.
Munirka was at that time home to a prominent and powerful family called Tokas.
Mahesh Chandra Tokas was the Congress Party councillor for the Munirka region of Delhi.
The second Congress party bigwig of the area was Arjun Das, also based in Munirka.
The Tokas family was a family that depended upon their muscle power. They were the known "goondas" - thugs - of the area and very few people messed with them. They had several businesses; primary amongst them was transportation. They possessed a fleet of buses with the family name "Tokas" painted on either side.
On the morning following the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi, my friend Jasjit, who was the son of Mr. Sethi, the school engineer who had been hired to complete a swimming pool project on the campus and lived in the junior staff quarters, and some other friends who also resided in the school premises, were spending the morning sitting and chatting in the school playground that was in front of their residential quarters.
They noticed about fifty men armed with bamboo sticks come into the school campus. The guards of the campus had fled.
As Jasjit and my other friends on the scene later told me, the mob was armed with petrol bombs. They threw these bombs into one of the school buses that was parked in the campus. The bus exploded into flames.
Everybody was taken by surprise. Nobody ever thought that anybody could have the audacity to do this. Mr. Sukhdeep Singh, who was the school Sports teacher, came out onto the field. He rounded up all the young boys, which included my friend Jasjit, Vishal, son of Mrs. Reita Singh (a school teacher) and Manpreet, son of school headmaster Mr. Grewal. There were about eight of them.
They charged the mob of fifty with no weapons in their hands, just screaming at the top of their voices. The mob of fifty, which severely out-numbered them, ran off without a fight.
This all was followed by total chaos. Mr. Sethi, the school engineer and father of Jasjit, was terrified for his son. All the families had come out of the residential buildings and were scared about what would happen next. Mr. Sethi went running to Mr. Sukhdeep Singh and the other boys who had chased the mob away. He ordered them back to the residential area where everybody else had gathered.
They all listened to him. Mr. Sethi was of somewhat ill health and he walked back slowly.
Behind the school in the area that bordered Munirka, there was an open drain, beyond which was Munirka, where some of the residential flats were visible. Next to the school was a small slum where about fifty families lived in mud huts. It seems that these people got a sniff that there was going to be a looting and rioting opportunity. Maybe they had received direct orders.
They entered the school from the rear by cutting the barbed wire that was along the school perimeter. M.r Sethi was still slowly walking back when they attacked him from the rear. He was hit on the head with a bamboo stick . They left him for dead, as he fell unconscious and was bleeding profusely from a head wound.
In the meantime, it seems that the mob had regrouped. Perhaps on the orders of their political bosses. According to eye-witnesses, some three busloads full of thugs entered the school premises. All the buses had the Tokas logo on their sides.
Mr. Sethi, by some miracle, regained consciousness. He got up and started to slowly walk back to the residential area. All the school staff and their families had taken refuge in the flat of Mr. Purohit, who was the School Registrar.
Mr. Purohit was a Hindu who lived in the school premises, along with his wife and their married son. Mr. Sethi was somehow able to make it to Mr. Purohit's residence. Everybody turned to Mr. Purohit for help, as he was the only Hindu on the campus. There was also the 4th class servants, but they themselves were terrified.
Mr. Purohit and his son showed remarkable courage and poise. They took in over fifty Sikhs in their flat and assured them that they would do whatever possible to keep everyone safe.
Meanwhile, the mob had started their rampage. They started looting the main school complex and attacked the Principal's bungalow. The Principal, Dr. Singha, along with his wife and daughter, were inside the building and had locked all the doors.
The mob threw petrol bombs on the house and it caught on fire. One of the 4th class employees had already cycled to the police station which was on the other end of Vasant Vihar (in C-Block) at that time.
The police dismissed him and said there was nothing they could do.
One of the school's English teachers, Mrs. Gill, was married to an army officer, Colonel Gill. I do not know the details, but he got some indication of what was happening in GHPS. The army, which was by far secular, had already issued two armed soldiers to each Sikh officer for their protection and that of their families.
Col. Gill sent his soldiers to the school campus. They came to the Principal's bungalow, which was burning with the Singha family trapped inside. The soldiers fired in the air and the mob withdrew. They rescued Dr. Singha and his family and took him to the Gill residence. For reasons unknown to me, no effort was made to rescue the other Sikhs hiding in Mr. Purohit's residence. Perhaps they had given up on them.
By now, the whole school complex was filled with mobs of looters. I was told that the whole playground, which was the size of a soccer field and more, was full of a sea of rioters. Perhaps over 1000 people armed with bamboo sticks and petrol bombs.
Mr Purohit and his son stood outside the residential quarters and were pleading with the rioters not to loot the residential complex. They risked their lives with a bunch of rioters who were out to kill. They told them that all the Sikhs had left early in the morning and that only a few Hindus were left in the complex.
When the rioters tried to burn the cars and scooters that were parked nearby, Mr. Purohit claimed that they all belonged to them. I am told that the rioters kept using profuse foul language with Mr. Purohit and his son. Many times, they even threatened to kill him and his family for living with Sikhs.
But Mr. Purohit and his son stood their ground and courageously kept the mob at bay.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sethi's condition was deteriorating. He had lost a lot of blood. His son Jasjit was adamant on getting help, even though he was being held back by others who did not want the mob to find out they were hiding. He forcefully picked up the phone and called Dr. Manekshaw, who was a well known general practitioner in the Vasant Vihar Colony.
Dr. Manekshaw was the younger brother of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who had led India to victory in the Bangladesh War in 1971. Dr. Manekshaw himself was a retired and decorated air force officer who had served in the medical division.
Dr. Maneshaw drove a distinctive foreign-made car which was alien in those days of just Ambassadors and Fiats. It was a blue-coloured Corsair and could be recognized from a distance. Dr. Manekshaw did not hesitate at all when he heard of Mr. Sethi's condition.
With no regard to his own safety, he lived up to the legacy of his family and that of an officer's duty. He drove his car into the school premises through the violent and threatening mob, to the senior staff residence in the rear of the campus.
Dr. Manekshaw was a very imposing man, with an impressive persona. He shouted at any mobster who came near him in his very distinct and brusque voice. They didn't give him any problems.
Dr. Manekshaw found his way to the Purohit residence and immediately started treating Mr. Sethi. Meanwhile, the Hindu residents of the Munirka enclave flats on the other side of the open drain had realized that something terrible was happening in the school. They quickly formed an action committee. This was primarily due to the efforts of one very strong willed Hindu woman named Nandita Haksar. [Mrs. Haksar is now a very well known Indian Human Rights activist.]
The action committee decided it was necessary to save the lives of the Sikhs trapped inside the campus. With no concern for their own safety, they walked across the open drain and into the school campus.
They found a very haggard and distraught Mr. Purohit who was pleading with the mobs to stay away. The "rescuers" told Mr. Purohit that they had come to help.
Mr Purohit took them into his house where all the Sikhs were hiding. The action committee escorted all the Sikhs into the Munirka enclave area by taking them across the open drain and distributing them into each other's houses for safekeeping until things cooled down.
Dr. Manekshaw had, in the meantime, laid the bleeding Mr. Sethi in the backseat of his car with the help of others. He covered him in blankets so that he was totally hidden from view. He then drove Mr. Sethi to a local Vasant Vihar hospital for further treatment, where his life was indeed saved.
The other Sikh families were now relatively safe in the houses of the Hindus of Munirka. However, this was a Tokas stronghold and his goons knew where they were hidden. They would pass these houses and shout out that they knew that Sikhs were hiding there.
Fortunately, though, nothing happened and the Sikhs were saved.
The school, however, was rampaged and pillaged. Other locals who wanted free loot also joined in. A person I met many years after the incident told me how he got some free cricket bats. Our Physics teacher, Mr. Salamatullah Hashmi, who was a Muslim and lived in the neighbouring colony of "R.K. Puram", came the next day to find out if people were safe. He asked a policeman standing outside if everybody was okay. The policeman smilingly told him in crisp Hindi: "Sardar saare chale gaye, lekin abhi bhi bahut samaan hai. Jo kuchh laina hai, jaldi se laylo." (All the Sikhs have gone, but there is still a lot of loot left. Take what you want, but do it quickly!)
I visited the school again, about a week after the incident. By then, belatedly, the city was under army rule and the Sikh residents had returned to whatever was left of their premises. I was shocked by what I saw. Everything I had taken for granted was gone. The place where I studied was destroyed and looted. It was a horrible sight.
In retrospect, I feel that we Sikhs have never really expressed gratitude for those who helped us. Not all people are bad. It is times that make people bad, and all of us are as guilty as others for letting our emotions be carried by the hate of the times.
Even then, in those times of hate, there are people like Mr. Purohit, Dr. Manekshaw, and the Hindu residents of Munirka, who did what was right at the risk of their own lives. Perhaps we should, at times, take a moment to reflect on some of the good things that happened during those troubled times, rather then always focusing on the negativity.
Things will not be complete if I do not tell what happened afterwards.
The government ordered that all repair work of Sikh institutions was to be carried out at government expense by the DDA (Delhi Development Authority). The school reopened after a month, but the effects and scars were still visible.
Dr. Singha remained Principal for a few more years, after which he took up the prestigious position of Chairman of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education). He passed away a few years ago.
Mr. Purohit took the position of Principal of Mother's International School a few years later.
Mr. Grewal became Principal of a school in Ludhiana, Punjab.
The last I heard, Mr. Sukhdeep Singh is still the school's Sport teacher.
Mr Sethi survived the attack, but died of a heart attack a few years later.
His son, and my close friend, Jasjit, is now the CEO of a global transport company in Gurgaon.
Mahesh Tokas remained a Congress council person for many years. The Tokas family is still a powerful family of Munirka.
Arjun Das was assassinated the following year for his role in instigating and leading the mobs during the anti-Sikh pogroms.
The families of more than three thousand Sikhs who did die in the communal carnage, have to date not received any justice from the Indian government or justice system. The guilty behind these crimes have either passed on or still roam free. Some continue to hold positions of power.
I have written all of this for posterity, in the hope that people do not forget these events, as we are all lost in the confusion and stress of our own lives.
Hopefully, someday, we can get answers to our questions and find closure for the anguish and anger we feel deep inside.
February 10, 2009
Conversation about this article
1: Chintan Singh (San Jose, California, U.S.A.), February 10, 2009, 7:39 PM.
Vikram, Thanks for documenting this. I was thinking of doing this myself but you have done a far better job than I would have done. I was a sixth Grade student at GHPS Vasant Vihar at that time, only nine years old. I have immense respect for Mr. Purohit as a teacher and school administrator but did not know about these facts of how he saved the lives of our teachers and their families. I myself know of several Hindu families in Delhi who saved their Sikh neibhours. We must not forget this, ever. I also never knew of the group of Hindus of Munirka and Dr. Manekshaw. I still remember the first day of school after the riots. I can't forget the face of Dr. Singha when he addressed the morning assembly on that day. I also remember the four burnt buses and minivans our school owned. GHPS used to be a premier Sikh institution and I credit it for giving me the Sikh values I possess. To see an academic institution and its beautiful campus burnt, looted and damaged was extremely painful.
2: Baljinder Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), February 10, 2009, 8:54 PM.
I can't imagine the scars that you carry from witnessing such hateful times. I was only eight and far away, but even I feel like i'm a product of 1984. It still shapes my outlook on life. I will carry what happened then and the years after, forever. Your story and those of all who witnessed and were victim to 1984, are a part of anyone and everyone who call themselves Sikh. We should never forget.
3: Vikram Singh Chhabra (Shrewsbury, MA, U.S.A.), February 11, 2009, 4:22 PM.
Hi Chintan and Baljinder: This article is a rehash of something I had written on a discussion forum some years ago. Here is a reply I posted. It is in the context of what both of you have written so I am posting it here due to its relevance: "It's nice to meet a GHPS Alumni every now and then, even if it is in cyberspace ... I do not know if you were old enough when a a very controversial tele-serial called TAMAS was shown on Doordarshan in the late 80's. It was a very powerful story based upon the book of the same name by Bhisham Sahni (brother of the famous actor Balraj Sahni). It is based upon India's partition and shows the suffering and pain on all sides. At the end of the serial, at a refugee camp where they were taking a count of the dead, the clerk who was doing so indicated that an equal number had died from all communities. No side really had the upper hand. A social worker then wryly commented that he should make a new column to classify the dead. He said that he should make a column to determine whether the dead were rich or poor. It would be evident that most of the dead were from the poorer classes. Whereas the massacre of the Sikhs was one-sided, with thousands of Sikhs being killed in just a few days following Mrs. Gandhi's assassination, if you look deeper into where the casualties occured, you will see most of the Sikh casualties were amongst the poorer classes. The rich and well-off Sikh businessmen of South and West Delhi lost their vehicles and shops and factories, but very few of them lost their lives compared to the large scale massacre of Sikhs in the trans-Yamuna area (Trilokpuri, Nangloi, Kalyanpuri) where poor working-class Sikhs resided. It was these Sikhs who paid a very heavy price. In many cases, it was their jealous neighbors who killed and raped them. Many of the rich business-class Sikhs made deals before and after the pogroms. I am ashamed to say this and I will not take names. But I know of many rich and well-off Sikhs who were able to take advantage of the post-massacre atmosphere, and make up for their losses in very devious ways. Many of them became even richer. Their claims were immediately taken care of basically because of their renewed political connections in the new post-pogrom climate. Even in the GHPS case, selfish people made money. Many of us younger Sikhs were infuriated at the time, but there was little we could do. The SGPC invested heavily in making bigger and more beautiful buildings to satisy a worldy image of the so called Sikh spirit. Nobody really cared for the poor class Sikhs that really suffered. They all were just concerned about their power, fame and wealth ... In such circumstances, I see the real sufferers to be the poor Sikhs. Even in Punjab, it was poor Sikh boys who were pulled out of their homes and shot in false encounters. The same thing happens to the poor people of many other communities in India and around the world. The bottom line is, that if you are poor, you have no human rights irrespective of your community. All these political issues are just a farce with the leaders on all sides having unspoken deals based upon which they satisfy their ego and greed. The common people are taken for a ride. Their emotions are played with and, like fools, they continue to dance to the wicked tunes played by the clever. This is the way Waheguru has made this world. I guess this is why they call it the Kalyug ... God tests all people and no particular community. We all have our different paths of Karma. There are no real chosen religions in the world. Yes there are chosen people, but those people are not always of the same race or tribe. A true Sikh is definitely a chosen person. But such true chosen people are very rare to find." Vikram
4: H. Singh (U.S.A.), February 12, 2009, 1:11 AM.
Vikram ji: Yes, poor Sikhs were also killed but not because they were poor but because they were Sikhs. The Hindu mobsters came close my grandparents' home in South Delhi. The Delhi Municipal Corporation had provided them the listing of Sikhs, not of the "poor". My uncle had to hide for many days, not because he was rich or poor but because he was a Sikh. Sikhs were killed all over India in mass numbers and they were not checked off for their poverty grade. It was the worst dance of uncivilized behaviour unleashed by Indians, not because we happen to be rich or poor but Sikhs. Sikhs travelling in trains and buses outside Delhi such Bhopal, Kanpur, Madras, etc. were singled out and butchered. It was not an anti-poor operation but a massacre on an industrial scale. In the words of Rajiv Gandhi, 'Let's teach these bastards a lesson' will always echo in my heart. India elected him overwhelmingly after he proved to the Hindu society that he can do it and yes we know what he did in Punjab. It tells me how alien and dangerous we are in the eyes of extremist Hindus. Failing to recognize the reality of it, you seem to have exonerated the perpretrators. You seem to imply that we are to be blamed also and therefore we deserved it.
5: Chintan Singh (San Jose, California, U.S.A.), February 12, 2009, 3:00 PM.
H. Singh ji: You are missing the point Vikram is making. No doubt the pogroms were against Sikhs, rich or poor, but rich and powerful Sikhs had access to top level connections to save themselves. Unfortunately, the poor had no connections or resources to protect their lives. The rich lost cars, properties, shops, etc., but the poor lost lives in most cases. I also know of certain Sikhs who made big gains from insurance claims of damaged property. I agree with Vikram's comment that if you are poor, you have none or much less human rights regardless of your ethnic or religious heritage, as well as of your geographic location. [Editor: The primary fact, however, that we simply can't lose sight of is that the direct victims of the pogroms in 1984 were innocent Sikhs, poor and rich, young and old, male and female ... No doubt, there are other dimensions to the tragedy, but we should remain focused on the core of the problem, while tending to the other issues as well.]
6: Harkinder Singh (London, Ontario, Canada), February 13, 2009, 3:41 PM.
Dear Vikram: Thanks for documenting your observations as it is part of history. Your writing has touched many dimensions of this tragedy, which in turn is one of many in recent history. Our Gurus have given you bibek-budhi and a responsible pen to document these events. This is what a blessing is - nothing else but purity of heart and focus of the mind on truth. You have rightly credited many individuals in your write up. I hope SGPC or other Sikh bodies take note of this and duly acknowledge and honour these souls publically. While at this, I cannot forget the description of one of the scenes which a Sikh kirtania told me happened in his presence. He said he knew a young family in Delhi near his neighborhood. The husband was a truck driver and was usually away for many days on his truck. His wife and a young son were living in that locality. The night the pogroms began, the father returned home after saving himself from thugs on the way home. But, the next morning a group of other goondas attacked their locality and one man pushed a long spear into the abdomen of this truck driver. As the attacker pulled the spear out, the man's intestines burst out. The little son was watching when his wife and neibours tended to the wounds of the man. This ragi Singh told me that the little boy looked at his father purplexed and asked his mummy: Mummy, aha Daddy de dhidh vichon rassian kivein nikal ayiaan? ... (Mummy, How come Daddy has these ropes coming out of his tummy?)I will not forget this description till I die. Thanks, once again, for your kind attempt at documenting your experiences.
7: H. Singh (U.S.A.), February 14, 2009, 2:29 PM.
Chintan Singh ji, when you said "I agree with Vikram's comment that if you are poor, you have none or much less human rights, regardless of your ethnic or religious heritage, as well as of your geographic location" -This assertion basically aims to conceal the cause of mass-scale ethnic brutality against the Sikhs by justifying it with fatalism. It compounds our pain and it fails to understand why 1984 happened to us. There can be no agreement with our own genocide. [Editor: The pogroms of 1984 were not limited to massacring or brutalizing the poor.]
8: Vikram Singh Chhabra (U.S.A.), February 17, 2009, 1:46 AM.
The majority of killing and rape of Sikhs happened in the Trans-Yamuna area covered by the politician, H.K.L. Bhagat, and the east Delhi fiefdom of yet another politician, Sajjan Kumar. In block 32 A of Trilokpuri, Sikhs were butchered alive and the women gangraped. This has been thoroughly documented in the Manushi reports and the reports by the Indian Express. The Sikhs of these areas were poor. The highest concentration of Sikhs outside Punjab is in the South Delhi constituency. I think the numbers are close to 30% of the electorate. You do not hear of genocide of Sikhs in Greater Kailash, Vasant Vihar or Defence Colony. Looting did happen but not much killing. In fact the day GHPS was burning, Mahesh Chandra Tokas came to many Sikh houses in Vasant Vihar including my own and assured us that there would be no violence in the area. At that time, we had little knowledge of what he was doing. They had no intention of burning down and looting Sikh residences in this area where all the real loot was. It is easy to get away with the killing or torture of the poor. That is what happened in 1984. The poor Sikhs received the brunt of the violence and the rich and well-off Sikhs made a political issue out of it. Unfortunately this seems to continue even now. Those of us who were there saw it with our own eyes and we continue to see this game played today.
9: H. SIngh (U.S.A.), February 17, 2009, 10:45 PM.
Vikram Singh ji: Again, the argument is that the crimes against the Sikhs had a strategic target and the poor were valuable targets, but if the strategic target today is the poor, should we wait till the more affluent Sikhs also become a strategic target. The genocidal impulse can shape itself. If today, the mob hasn't come to your home, what guarantee do you have that it won't come to your home tomorrow. The point is this has not just happened to poor or rich Sikhs but to Sikhs, and if we don't understand this, it will happen again.
10: Pallavi Singh (India), October 30, 2009, 2:31 PM.
Dear Mr. Chhabra, I work with The Indian Express and am writing on the violence that took place at Guru Harkrishan Public School in 1984. I wanted to ask you a few questions about that day. Is there any way I can get in touch with you, by email or by phone tommorrow?
11: Ashvinder (India), September 26, 2010, 12:55 PM.
As a teenager, I was devastated by the '84 pogroms. In '85, along with other friends, I left FAPS and joined GHPS (Class XI). Looking back, I am happy that we have overcome it all, though the ghosts of '84 still haunt us.