LONDON, UK (October 31, 2014)—Campaigners from Kesri Lehar, Nations Without States and 1984 Genocide Coalition are inviting London’s activists and residents to join a gathering to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Sikh Genocide in India and World Prisoners Solidarity Day.
Sunday 2nd November 2014, 4-7pm in Trafalgar Square.
In 1984, the Indian government launched a vicious two-pronged physical genocide on the Sikh people. The first in June 1984 and the second part followed in November 1984. Over 50,000 were killed, with many more thousands in the ensuing years.
Campaigners say it was the Indian establishment’s embittered final solution to the irking Sikh question of self-determination and home-rule, which had been biting and aggravating New Delhi for 40-years. The Indian establishment launched into a full-pronged military invasion of the Sikh homeland of Punjab in June 1984 under the cover of a complete media blackout, with mass genocide of the civilian Punjabi-Sikh population. Then followed a second, phase 2, genocide of Sikhs in India’s capital and major cities. This took the form of an open, unashamed 4-day public killing spree of Sikh civilians – men, women and children – in full view of the world media and with the full support of the police and government authorities.
Campaigners say : “1984 is for Sikhs, what the holocaust is for Jews. 1984 was ten times worse than 9-11, in both numbers killed, the prolonged killing spree and the human devastation caused. 1984 is India’s hidden genocide, and the world remains cruelly silent. The Indian state driven murder of tens of thousands of Sikhs, does not count – it appears!”
Campaigners say 1984 was a mammoth state directed genocidal assault on a small community, which had dared to challenge and agitate for autonomy, decentralisation, self-determination and home-rule. The Sikhs, like the Kashmiris, Nagas and others, have always posed a sustained challenge to the undemocratically formed and superimposed, post-colonial Indian super-state. Its structure and governance is based on suppression and subsuming small, diverse nations into a single, homogenous mass ‘Indian nation’ the size of 28 states of Europe. The actual, authentic small nations, are locked and imprisoned within the Indian territorial superstructure.
India imposes itself as a single, rigid, monolithic state power like Russia and China. It is unwilling to entertain the idea of self-determination, referenda, peaceful transition to autonomous governance and formation of free independent states. “India is a brute power, disguised as the world’s largest democracy. The gloss of seeming financial success, conceals a great deal of cruelty, injustice and oppression on India’s 1.5 billion civilian population. The self-aggrandising criminality and corruption of India’s ruling elites, does not care for these ordinary humans.”
India has violently and gruesomely suppressed Kashmiri, Naga, Manipuri, Sikh, Tamil and numerous small nations across its huge territorial spread. “India is an empire in all but name. It was formed from an outgoing empire, and its polices, actions and mind-set are much more worse than the imperialism before it.”
Images of 52 prisoners from across the globe, imprisoned for campaigning for self-determination of stateless peoples and dismantling of the top-heavy power of states like Turkey, India, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zimbawe, Malaysia, Russia, China and Indonesia, will be profiled as part of a world prisoner solidarity day on Sunday 2nd November 2014 in Trafalgar Square, 4-7pm.
This is inspired by the unique and monumental action of Guru Hargobind Ji (1595-1644) in 1619, in demanding the release of 52 political prisoners from Gwalior Fort (north India) as a condition of his own release from incarceration. Campaigners say that, this powerful historic act of solidarity and fellowship demonstrated by Guru Hargobind Ji – a defiant revolutionary and campaigner for justice and freedom, should be marked by active solidarity with current prisoners around the globe imprisoned because of their commitment to justice, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Campaigners from across Kurdish, Kashmiri, Tamil, Matabelan, South Azerbaijani, Sabah, West Papuan, Tibet, South Cameroon, Baluch community are expected to join the solidarity gathering on Sunday 2nd November 2014, 4-7pm.
Participating activists will include Doris Yapp, a UK resident campaigner for Sabah independence. She has recently been specifically named by the Malaysian Prime Minister in a warning to Sabah activists.
Tags: 1984 Sikh Genocide, world prisoner solidarity