On the morning of October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi,’ the Iron Lady’ of India, was assassinated. She was India’s then Prime Minister. The assassination was carried out by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, her ‘Sikh bodyguards.’ The assassination was the result of the ‘Blue Star’ operation carried out at the behest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by the Indian Army.

The attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Indian Army in June 1984 left the Sikh temple heavily damaged. Hundreds of people lost their lives, including the terrorists as well as the Army. What followed the assassination, however, was brutal, and the recovery was huge. The nation was engulfed in the flames of riots for the next four days. The capital of the nation bore the majority of its brunt. More than 3000 Sikhs have been killed nationwide. The anger against the Sikh community was evident after the assassination.

Indira Gandhi was the country’s first lady prime minister. She was popular among the masses, despite the emergency and Operation Blue Star. “There were scores of people grieving her loss, the loss of a great leader who should have avoided the mistakes just the way that Rajiv Gandhi could have avoided making the famous line,”The earth shakes when a large tree falls”.

WHY WAS INDIRA GANDHI ASSASSINATED?

Between 1 and 8 June 1984, Operation Bluestar was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi to evict leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the buildings of the Amritsar Harmandir Sahib Complex.

Due to her role in the operation that destroyed portions of the Akal Takht and caused casualties, Indira Gandhi was unpopular among Sikhs. In the temple, library that caught fire caused the alleged destruction of Sikh scriptures and manuscripts. Consequently, out of fear of assassination, Sikhs were removed from her private bodyguard by the Intelligence Bureau. She also ordered her Sikh bodyguards to be reinstated by the Special Protection Group, including Beant Singh. He was considered her personal favorite.

WHAT WAS OPERATION BLUE STAR?

–              It is a code name given to an Indian military operation to remove the separatists hiding within the Amritsar Golden Temple on June 5, 1984.

–              Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, ordered the operation, primarily to take possession of the Amritsar Harmandir Sahib Complex (popularly referred to as the Golden Temple).

–              To drive out the Sikh extremist religious leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and his armed followers, the Indian military entered the premises of the temple.

–              There were two components to the operation, Operation Metal, which was the invasion of the temple complex, and Operation Store, which was restricted to the state’s countryside.

–              Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale wanted the Indian government to pass the Anandpur Resolution, and thereby agree to the formation of a separate state of Khalistan for Sikhs.

–              This radical leader of Sikhism had managed to gain ample support for his cause since 1982 and had set up a base with ammunition and his followers within the Golden Temple complex by mid-1983.

–              Operation Blue Star was then launched to get rid of Bhindranwale and his demands between 1 June and 6 June 1984.

–              This operation helped to eradicate Khalistani extremism, resulting in the death of Bhindranwale.

Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1984. She entered office with grand ideas to promote Indian autonomy through the establishment of the Green Revolution. She also joined the fight to create what would be known as Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan). Despite her achievements, there was much opposition to her regime. The Sikh minority wanted their own nation which Gandhi rejected. Tensions rose and led to Operation Blue Star, which sought to stop the Sikh rebellions that Gandhi asserted inspired much terror throughout India. Several Sikhs were killed in the operation. Months later, on October 31, 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh, and Beant Singh. Why did Gandhi’s bodyguards assassinate her and what was the impact of her murder? Satwant and Beant Singh assassinated Indira Gandhi as a result of political and religious grievances, and that her murder led to much retaliation and bias against the Sikhs.

There has been much debate over whether Operation Blue Star, which Indira Gandhi ordered, was justified. The Sikhs developed nationalistic movements to create their own nation. In some cases, they used terror to scare the Indian government into granting them a separate Sikh nation. Some historians argue that Operation Blue Star was necessary to put down Sikh nationalistic movements that were causing turmoil in India.  Conversely, other historians argue that the operation was not justified and that it was an exhibition of Gandhi’s misuse of power and discriminatory action towards the Sikhs. Following her assassination, there were several anti-Sikh riots that plagued the country. Hindus participated in mass killings of Sikhs as an act of revenge.  The riots lasted for months and the death toll rose to thousands. There seemed to be no effective ways to stop the violence. There was fear all over. Also, there was speculation that the government was purposefully not doing anything because they hated the Sikhs for killing Gandhi.

However, this was proven to be false because they had several members in the government that were Sikhs, so the argument had gotten shut down as well. Many nations had no idea how bad the situation was until the numbers were displayed. At this point in time, Sikhs were being blamed for almost everything, even things that were not related to Gandhi.

The divide between Sikhs and Hindus grew at an exponential rate as was the amount of Sikh deaths in India. Rajiv Gandhi, Indira’s son took office as Prime Minister following her assassination and found that he could not keep the situation under control. However, it was becoming apparent that the police would not intervene to save the Sikhs that were being tortured, and killed. So, he had decided to attempt to hide the events that were taking place. Despite his efforts, eventually other nations had discovered what had happened and expressed their disgust towards the events but did not take much action in doing anything to remedy the issue.

Throughout the period of anti-Sikh riots,  thousands of them killed, raped, tortured and more. Homes and holy places of the Sikhs were also destroyed. It was a dark time for the people of India especially the Sikhs.