TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/caps/84/84.4

Text File | 1992-09-25 | 9.2 KB | 172 lines

                                                                                June 18, 1984

INDIA

Slaughter at the Golden Temple


Mrs. Gandhi risks her future in an attack on Sikh extremists


The elegant marble-floored courtyard of the gilded Golden Temple
in Amritsar was strewn with bodies and blood. The once serene
and peaceful 72-acre temple complex, the holiest shrine of the
Sikh religion, stood scarred and bruised after 36 hours of fierce
fighting between militant Sikhs and Indian government troops. In
sweltering heat and the dust of the battle's aftermath, black
crows and vultures perched on the temple's balustrades in search
of grisly carrion. For the first time in the 400-year history of
the Golden Temple, the 24-hour prayer vigil had ceased.

The most fanatical leader of Sikh extremists, Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale, 37, who had provoked the violence, lay among the
dead. Just weeks before, he had vowed to defend to the death his
supporters' demands for increased religious and political
autonomy. "Let them come," he had said. "We will give them
battle. If die we must, then we will take many of them with us."

In ordering her troops to storm the temple, Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi took her biggest political gamble since she declared a
national emergency in 1975. Last week's decision could add to
the turmoil of a nation already torn by violence. Some Indian
commentators voiced fears for the future of the world's largest
democracy. "What happened inside the Golden Temple is a turning
point in India's modern history," said the eminent Sikh Historian
Khushwant Singh. But Mrs. Gandhi apparently felt she had no
choice but to attack. Bhindranwale and his followers had
stockpiled guns, rifles, antitank missiles, rocket launchers,
hand grenades and mortars inside the temple, in grim contrast to
the shrine's jewel-like chambers and cupolas. The defenders'
stiff resistance ended in slaughter:  259 Sikhs and 59 soldiers
killed, an additional 90 Sikhs and 110 soldiers wounded.
Unofficial figures placed the dead at more than a thousand.

At week's end the violence has not yet subsided, and the Indian
army extended its 24-hour curfew in most of the north-western
state of Punjab. Several hundred Bhindranwale loyalists who had
managed to escape the siege of the temple continued to wage hit-
and-run attacks against troops in Amritsar. They also looted
shops, set fires and killed civilians. An additional 100 Sikh
extremists surfaced in Rajasthan, a state near the Pakistani
border, where they called upon Sikh members of the army to rebel.
Some of them did defect, while other Sikhs apparently donned army
uniforms in an attempt to infiltrate and disrupt the front-line
troops that shield India Against potential attacks from its
bitter enemy, Pakistan. The rebellion was swiftly quashed.

Agitation by both moderate and extremist Sikh factions over the
past two years had brought violence in Punjab to alarming levels.
In the past four months alone, more than 300 people had died in
Sikh-inspired violence. At the same time, tensions from last
month's rioting among Hindus and Muslims in Bombay had built to
such a degree that politicians began questioning Mrs. Gandhi's
control over the country. There was speculation that further
instability could cause her governing Congress (I) Party to
suffer a serious setback in the national elections scheduled to
be held by next January.

Sikh outrage at the assault on the temple echoed throughout India
and around the world. Ignoring curfew laws, hundreds of Sikhs
rioted in Punjab; they also caused havoc in a number of Indian
cities. In New Delhi angry Sikhs demanded Bhindranwale's body
for cremation and vowed to keep his legend alive. "If one
Bhindranwale dies," Sikhs at a New Delhi demonstration shouted,
"a thousand are born."  Two militants brandishing swords attacked
the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Canada, leaving it a shambles.
Security was increased around Indian missions in the U.S.,
Canada, Britain, West Germany, The Netherlands, and Denmark,
where there are significant Sikh populations.

The crisis came to a head when, in an effort to press home its
demands for religious and regional autonomy, the Sikhs' Akali Dal
Party announced that it would begin to block grain shipments to
the rest of India from Punjab, which is the nation's breadbasket.
The action would have cut off 65% of the country's crucial grain
reserves, threatening widespread famine.

Three days before the attack, Mrs. Gandhi made an urgent appeal
on national radio and television to all Sikhs to end their
agitation. She outlined a framework for a settlement. "Let us
sit around the table and find a solution," she pleaded. She had
already agreed to most of the Sikh demands for religious autonomy
and was willing to amend the constitution to distinguish Sikhs
from Hindus. But Mrs. Gandhi felt that if she gave in to the
Sikh demand for political autonomy, she would risk a Hindu
backlash.

On Sunday the government ordered a 24-hour curfew, and told all
journalists and photographers to leave Punjab. (Authorities
later confiscated the film of those who had refused to comply.)
Roads across state borders and the airports were closed, trains
and buses stopped running, and telephone and telegraph wires were
cut. The usually thriving Punjab came to a halt, cut off from
the rest of the world. About 4,000 government troops surrounded
the Golden Temple and ordered out the 3,000 Sikhs who live there,
as well as the crowds that enter daily for worship. Many heeded
the warnings, but 1,000 extremists defiantly remained inside the
temple.

Bhindranwale held out in what is described as "the throne of the
timeless" in the temple's basement. His loyal followers took up
positions they had been fortifying for months with sandbags,
steel armor and bricks. When army troops finally stormed the
defenses Tuesday evening, they met heavy resistance from rockets
and machine-gun fire. Pinned down by a far superior, better-
armed force than they anticipated, army troops called for
reinforcements of tanks and artillery. After six hours, the
machine guns fell silent and army sharpshooters closed in, backed
up by troops with bayonets. When army troops finally stormed the
basement, they found the bullet-riddled bodies of Bhindranwale
and his two top lieutenants.

Bhindranwale's death was in the proud, warring tradition of
Sikhism. The religion was founded in the 15th century as a
monotheistic synthesis of Hinduism and Islam. Sikhs believe in
having a direct, personal relationship with God rejecting Hindu
idolatry and the caste system. True Sikhs do not smoke, and the
men do not cut their beards or hair, believing that spiritual
power flows through long hair. India's 15 million Sikhs are
known for being ambitious, hardworking and hospitable. Their
gurdwaras, or holy places, throughout India offer free lodging
and food for any traveler who happens by.

Industrious and ambitious, the Sikhs have turned Punjab, one of
the few areas in which they form a majority, into a model of
agricultural efficiency, thereby helping make India self-
sufficient in wheat. Sikh politicians are demanding economic
improvements from the central government, such as higher wheat
prices and more investment in Punjab. Some Sikhs want a form of
regional autonomy that would give to Punjab authority in all
areas of state government except currency, railways,
communications and defense. Others want the city of Chandigarh,
which is also the capital of the neighboring Hindu state of
Haryana, to be designated exclusively as Punjab's political
capital.

The defiant and charismatic Bhindranwale, known to his followers
as "the guiding light," emerged in 1978 as the most radical of
the Sikh leaders. He possessed a mythic sense of his own destiny
and claimed from an early age that he was fated to lead the Sikhs
in their struggle for autonomy. Gradually distancing himself
from the more moderate Akali Dal, Bhindranwale began in 1981 to
use holy places as sanctuaries and military training grounds for
Sikh fundamentalists rallying around him. The tall, lean leader
always wore a sword as well as a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver on a
gun belt with silver bullets. He preached that Sikhs were a
religious group apart from Hindus and Muslims, with a divine
destiny to rule themselves, and escape the corrupt influences of
Hindu and Western values.

By ordering the assault on the temple, Mrs. Gandhi has placated
critics who accused her of dangerous inaction on Sikh terrorism.
But she has seriously harmed her standing with moderate Sikhs who
did not support Bhindranwale's fanaticism although they revered
the Golden Temple as a shrine of peace. "I don't understand why
Mrs. Gandhi gave the order," said Historian Singh. "We had been
given assurances that there would never be an armed intervention,
but they have gone back on their word. No serious Sikh can
entertain thoughts of talking to Mrs. Gandhi now."  Only through
cautious maneuvering and concessions to moderate Sikhs, it seems,
can Mrs. Gandhi hope to heal the wounds left by least week's
attack and preserve, indeed strengthen, her country's unity.

By Laura Lopez. Reported by Dean Brelis/New Delhi