Even if I died in the service of the nation, I would be proud of it. Every drop of my blood will contribute to the growth of this nation and to make it strong and dynamic.

- Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi was the first woman Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi is also known as the ‘Iron Lady of India’ as she is considered one of the strongest leaders in the history of India. She was born on November 19, 1917 to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru in Allahabad. She served as Prime Minister of India from January, 1966 to March, 1977 and again from January, 1980 until her sudden death in October, 1984.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984 at her residence in New Delhi. She was assassinated by her bodyguards as they were seeking revenge for Operation Blue Star, the code name of an Indian military action which was carried out between 1 and 10 June 1984, in order to remove the Sikh Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar, Punjab. The Golden Temple is considered the most holiest of shrines for Sikhs. The most reliable estimates of the total number of deaths during Operation Bluestar range from 5,000 to 7,000.

It was a tragedy that could have been avoided if – and it is a big if – Indira Gandhi had had the vision to reach a political settlement with her Akali Dal Sikh opponents.

Indira Gandhi’s political decision to use the ‘Hindu card’ to gain electoral victories led her to choose a dangerous path of confrontation, first with the Akalis and eventually with the entire Sikh community. This miscalculation cost Mrs Gandhi her life, and left the communities of Punjab and of India in general scarred and polarised. This polarisation peaked with the genocidal violence against the Sikh minority in Delhi and many other North Indian Hindu majority towns in November 1984 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh security guards. Sikh nationalists in Punjab were eventually defeated, at least militarily, by the 1990s, but Hindu nationalism was promoted so powerfully that the Hindu nationalists succeeded within a few decades in capturing the Indian state.

In the Sikhs’ collective memory of 1984, the deaths by army action in June and those by genocidal mob violence in November constitute two ends of the same arc of killings. The two cannot be separated and, therefore, remain indelibly linked to the memory of Operation Bluestar, which is seen as the trigger both for the killings and for later disappearances, killings in custody and deaths by ‘encounters’ during the military operations against the armed Sikh opposition movement after the events of 1984.

Day 2 - 2nd June 1984.

At least seven divisions of the army are deployed in villages of Panjab.

The exits out of Amritsar are closed off. However, the Indian forces place no restrictions on pilgrims entering Amritsar or even Sri Darbar Sahib.

As expected, a large number of Sikhs and their families arrive at Sri Darbar Sahib in order to commemorate the martyrdom of the fifth Guru, Dhan Sri Guru Arjan Dev Jee Maharaaj, on the following day. They are allowed to enter the complex, becoming deliberately trapped inside.

Day 7 - 7th June 1984.

By the morning, only a few Sikh fighters are still alive and fighting. The army finally gains effective control of the Sri Darbar Sahib complex.

After the resistance is broken, the army has free reign. Soldiers unleash their vengeance on the unarmed Sikh pilgrims who they had trapped inside the complex. They rape Sikh women and indiscriminately kill Sikh civilians, including children.

An eyewitness details how the army treated the pilgrims who had survived the bombardment: "[The army] took off their [the Sikhs'] turbans with which they tied their hands behind their backs. Then the Army men beat these Sikh boys with the butts of their rifles until they fell on the ground and were shot dead right in front of me."

The Sikh reference library is burnt and destroyed. Its priceless collection of 20,000 incrediby rare and valuable historic documents are reduced to ashes. Amongst these, irreplaceable documents regularly referred to for research are destroyed, hukamname from the Guru period are lost, and above all, 2500 handwritten saroops of Dhan Guru Granth Sahib Jee Maharaaj are desecrated.

After the rapes and murders of innocent pilgrims, "the most distressing and inexcusable act was the torching of the Sikh Reference Library." It was an intentional and calculated act in continuation of the Indian government's onslaught against the fabric of the Sikh nation.

"Any army which wants to destroy a nation destroys its culture. That is why the Indian army burnt the library." ~ Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle, Tully, Mark and Jacob, New Delhi, 1985.

Soldiers celebrate the thousands of cold-blooded murders and the desecration of the Sikhs' holiest shrine by drinking and smoking within the complex. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of alcohol were sanctioned by the Indian state for consumption of its forces within Sri Darbar Sahib.

Day 1 - 1st June 1984.

The Indian Government begins its military operation, which it had spent over a year planning, designed to crush and silence the Sikh political agitations in Panjab.

The army forces surround Sri Darbar Sahib/ the Golden Temple complex. Without provocation, they start firing upon the complex, killing at least 8 people.

Day 3 - 3rd June 1984.

There is a media blackout, and a complete curfew is imposed, with the army and the paramilitary patrolling the whole of Panjab. At this point, Panjab is effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

The army seals off all routes of exit around the Harmandir Sahib complex. Thousands of worshippers and pilgrims are trapped inside, having come to commemorate the martyrdom of the 5th Sikh Guru. No attempt is made to warn the innocent men, women and children trapped inside, or to allow them to evacuate.

The following passage is from Citizens for Democracy; Report to the Nation: Oppression in Punjab (Bombay, 1985): “No one inside the Golden Temple had yet realised the sinister plan of the authorities. Punjab had been sealed. Amritsar had been sealed. The Golden Temple had been sealed. Thousands of pilgrims and hundreds of Akali workers had been allowed to collect inside the Temple complex. They had been given no inkling or warning either of the sudden curfew or of the imminent Army attack. It was to be a black hole-type of tragedy, not out of forgetfulness but out of deliberate planning and design.” A day after the report was published it was banned and confiscated. The authors were arrested and charged with sedition/ incitement of rebellion against the government.

Day 9 - 9th June 1984.

Following the executions of surviving pilgrims within the Gurdwara complex, the remaining survivors are rounded up, detained by the army forces and charged as terrorists:

"379 of the alleged ‘most dangerous terrorists’ were forced to sign a common confessional statement and thereafter served a common charge sheet that they were all Bhindranwale’s closest associates and comrades-in-arms engaged in waging war against the state... The evidence collected established beyond doubt that none of the Jodhpur detainees we succeeded in profiling are ‘terrorists’ but rather all of them are completely innocent, ordinary persons, whose only crime was that they had all gone to or were coming from the Golden Temple as devotees or pilgrims visiting the Golden Temple for the Gurpurab on June 3, 1984 or farmers gone to the Temple to deliver village donations of grain to the S.G.P.C. or students gone to pay obeisance at their holiest religious shrine, the Harmandir Sahib." ~ Citizens for Democracy; Report to the Nation: Oppression in Punjab, Bombay, 1985.

These detainees were detained for up to 5 years, before in the face of worldwide condemnation and protest they were finally released.

An article that was published in India Today (30/9/84) details the most vulnerable of the "suspected terrorists" arrested in June 1984 and detained in maximum security prisons:

"These were the other victims of Operation Bluestar, little children, some only two years old, who got rounded up. Since then, 39 children have been languishing in two Ludhiana jails. The youngest of these children, Jasbir Kaur, is only two years old, her sister Charanjit Kaur is four, and her brothers, Harinder and Balwinder, are six and twelve. There is four-year old Rinku whose father died during the army operation and whose mother has been missing since. Like the rest of the 'infant terrorists', Rinku had to go through gruelling interrogation. When asked where his mother was he replied, "I don't know". Asked where his father was, he said, "Killed with a gun". Why his stomach was so big; "Because I eat clay". Their ordeal began in early June when they were picked up around the Temple and packed into camps in Amritsar and Jalandhar. Two central agencies, the Central Bureau of lnvestigation (CBI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) began their questioning. There were long, intimidating sessions. The children cried and begged to be sent home. But it went on for days. Their little finger prints were taken and IB sleuths set about verifying their bonafides. One interrogating officer admitted that officials were not moved by the children's cries."

The following quote is from an Indian Army circular which was distributed in June 1984, proving that all practicing Sikhs were considered terrorists and were targeted by the Indian government:

"Some of our innocent countrymen were administered an oath in the name of religion to support extremists and actively participated in the act of terrorism. These people wear a miniature kirpan round their neck and are called "Amritdharis". They have to be subdued to achieve the final aim of restoring peace in the country. Any knowledge of the "Amritdharis" who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murder, arson and acts of terrorism should be immediately brought to the notice of the authorities. These people may appear harmless from outside but they are basically committed to terrorism."

The government orders the shooting of unarmed protesters in New Delhi, Sri Nagar (Kashmir) and Panjab.

Day 6 - 6th June 1984.

From the night of the 5th of June moving to the early hours of the 6th of June, the battle increased in ferocity.

Unable to defeat the Sikh fighters in pitched battles, tanks were used by the Indian forces to blow up the complex. High-explosive squash-head shells were exploded into Sri Akaal Takht.

By 5am, due to firing from the army tanks, the Akaal Takht (often described as the Sikh equivalent of the Vatican) is destroyed. The neighbouring structures of the Akaal Takht continue to be attacked.

At 11am, a group of innocent people trying to escape is mowed down by machine gun fire.

"Grenades and poisonous gas shells were thrown at the men, women and children, who had locked themselves in the rooms, bathrooms and toilets of Guru Nanak Niwas, Guru Ram Das serai and Taja Singh Samundri Hall. Those who tried to come out were pierced with bayonets and shot dead. Some soldiers caught hold of small babies and children by their feet, lifted them up in the air and then smashed them against the walls and thus breaking their skulls." - Harvinder Kaur; Blue Star Over Amritsar, Delhi, 1990.