Photos by Sanjay Austa. Copyright: - www.SanjayAusta.com
Art
Children of The 1984 Delhi Pogroms
by SANJAY AUSTA
Today, sikhchic.com begins a photo series entitled "CHILDREN OF THE 1984 DELHI POGROMS" in the form of a different photo from an exhibit by world-renowned photo-journalist, Sanjay Austa, which will appear daily on the TODAY'S PHOTO feature of our homepage. Each morning will bring a new photo, with an accompanying description by Sanjay.
Sanjay hereby introduces the ongoing photo-exhibit with the following:
Like many journalists I had visited Tilak Vihar many times.
Ominously called the `Widows' Colony’, journalists come here each time a case against any of the big Congress leaders comes up for hearing. In those visits, like everyone else, I was satisfied with just the quotes of the widows and I filed my story as per the news peg of the day.
Some years later I had an opportunity to visit the colony in my avtar as a photographer. I am not sure if it had anything to do with photography but I suddenly began to notice things that I had not seen in the past. I observed that there were a lot of listless youth in the colony. They were in their twenties but seemed hopelessly unemployed or willfully lethargic. Many of them just sat at the shop fronts watching the traffic go by.
A few of them just stared at me with glazed eyes as I took their photographs. They were clearly on drugs. I asked around about these young men and learned this was the 1984 generation.
Some of them were in their mother’s wombs in 1984, as the tragic events enveloped the community. Some a few days old. Many other were school-going toddlers in 1984 when their fathers, uncles or siblings were butchered in the Delhi anti-Sikh pogroms which left over 3000 Sikhs dead.
These children were suddenly wrenched out from their snug family setup and hurled into the world of neglect, apathy and abuse. They grew up in the shadow of the massacres, struggling between going to school and making a living. Their fathers were killed and their mothers either remarried or were so busy working to eke out a living that the kids were virtually forgotten.
Twenty seven years on, they have grown up into young men and women. I tried to document their lives and discovered that more than 60 percent of them are either into drugs or unemployed or battling some serious psychological scars. They had become wayward due to neglect, others unemployed due to lack of education and yet there were a precious few who transformed their lives by sheer grit and determination.
These are their stories.
To view Sanjay Austa's extraordinary work, please go back to HomePage and click on TODAY'S PHOTO, close to the bottom of the page.
[For more on Sanjay Austa: www.sanjayausta.com ]
August 11, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Jeet Singh (Hawaii, U.S.A.), August 11, 2011, 9:03 AM.
Sanjay: your brave and compassionate lens have caught all the sadness in the eyes. I do not have the words to thank you, especially since I know that producing such a work is not considered a big career move in current-day, messed-up India. A simple but sincere 'thank you' will have to do for now.
2: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), August 11, 2011, 9:35 AM.
Heart rending but, nevertheless, much appreciated. Much better that these narratives come into the light of the day.
3: Bibek Singh (Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.A.), August 11, 2011, 11:03 AM.
In Nov. '09, I prepared a proposal to help out the kids and families of these victims of 1984. I presented it to many leading Sikh organizations. Leaders of a few of them were kind enough to meet me in person. However, they were not supportive of the idea. One of them said - "Hun oh vaddey ho gaye ne. Aidee lorr nahin" - 'Now they're all grown up; there's not so much need anymore.' I strongly disagree. In my personal opinion, a self-sustainable framework needs to be created. One-time monetary help or a few words of sympathy will never help.
4: Rupinder Kaur (Faridabad, India), August 11, 2011, 12:30 PM.
Very sad. What dreams the parents (in 1984) would have had about the future of their children and what fate has fetched for them! They have become objects for study and record, and are exhibited interminably. For what they have lost can never be returned to them, but each one of us can make a conscious effort to help them in the right direction, in accordance with our own capacities. They have the full right to enjoy life and not just be symbols of pity to be captured in stories or by cameras. What will we do, now that our heart-strings have been stirred once again by Sanjay's insightful images?
5: N. Singh (Canada), August 11, 2011, 11:55 PM.
This situation still continues to haunt me, and not because we are still waiting for justice from the Indian government but because there is a nagging feeling that no matter how hard we succeed in the West, how loudly we are lauded by others, that somehow we as a community we have failed. There is something seriously wrong with a community and a philosophy that espouses the well-being of others and yet fails to address the wrongs of their own. It is not as if there is not enough money in the Sikh community to genuinely help these people. What is lacking is the will ... the same mentality displayed in a crowd or a mob whereby ordinary citizens abdicate responsibility and wait for the next guy to do something about it. Although I am fortunate to have lived in the West, it has often crossed my mind that this could so easily have been me ... a small twist of fate is all that it takes. Unlike others, who are put off by gurdwara politics, social issues as well as the discipline of Sikhi it is this nagging feeling, that had my circumstances been different and I had been born into these families, I too would have been abandoned by my community that has often urged me to push away from them and question a philosophy that concerns itself with the rights of Muslim women to the veil and yet leaves unchallenged the right of these young girls and boys to be healed and live their lives to their full potential.
6: Gurjender Singh (Maryland, U.S.A.), August 12, 2011, 8:41 AM.
As a whole, our Sikh community should be in shame after reading and looking at these 1984 pictures. On one side, Sikhs are demanding justice from the Government of India and, on the other, we ourselves do not help others Sikhs in trouble. I have talked to a few gurdwara managements; looks like no one is interested because it does not serve their agendas. Every one thinks that doing seva in the langar hall is all we need to do. Sparing a few dollar would not hurt, it can go a long way. Sikhs have so much in resources even in Delhi itself; if they want, they can bring up these 1984 children very nicely. But Guru Granth Sahib and the Gurus' teachings therein are only worshiped, not followed.
7: Devinder Singh (India), August 12, 2011, 9:07 AM.
Re #3: This is the kind of situation that needs to be addressed imaginatively - a self-sustaining framework as Bibek Singh ji points out. Community-owned commercial projects with the workers as joint owners (without inheritable rights) need to be not only set up but guided through the initial phase by knowledgeable people. These would be not mere economic projects, but training ground in living and working on the principles of Sikhi.
8: Manu Kaur (Buffalo, New York, U.S.A.), August 12, 2011, 9:15 AM.
A quick question or two: Do the United Sikhs have an office or unit in Trilokpuri or elsewhere in Delhi? If yes, where? If not, why not?
9: Harinder (Uttar Pradesh, India), August 12, 2011, 9:20 AM.
Never say die. Our community's strength lies in our chardi kalaa - in healing, surviving and moving forward.
10: Taran (London, United Kingdom), August 12, 2011, 10:15 AM.
Waheguru!
11: Harpreet Singh (Delhi, India), August 12, 2011, 2:59 PM.
A few years ago, I went to another such big colony in Sector 16, Rohini, Delhi, called Sardar Colony. Sikhs of the Lubana community live in this area. It's a totally neglected colony and people. Many of them are on drugs; they have a bad reputation in the area. There are many such pockets of our Sikh brothers in Delhi and all over India. Really, we do seva only in jorra ghar and langars and give our money to big gurdwaras; the funds are never, ever used for helping such Sikhs. Lavish nagar kirtans and eating stalls are everywhere. I suggest we read "Scorched White Lilies of Eighty-Four", by Reema anand. She has single-handedly helped settle 24 widows in such a colony. She lives in Delhi but few know of her book or her work. No felicitation for her from any Sikh stage so that people can help her and ensure such work goes on. I think her photo should be displayed in the Sikh Museum. I think with her experience, Sikhs can form a body which pursues this cause. Today, we have only one agenda, especially in Delhi: to organize lavish kirtan darbars with big lights, big tents, lavish and unnecessary food stalls, dishes cooked by hired labour, not the sangat, but no interest whatsoever in uplifting, educating and empowering these needy Sikhs. Finally, many thanks to Sanjay.
12: Taran (London, United Kingdom), August 13, 2011, 8:49 AM.
I totally agree with Harpreet Singh ji.