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Updated: Nov 01, 2019 06:21 IST

On this day 35 years ago, thousands of Sikh families lost their loved ones in an orgy of violence unleashed by marauding mobs that set their houses and businesses on fire in Delhi and other parts of the country after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Though time has not healed their wounds, several survivors of the 1984 riots, who lost everything, have rebuilt their lives from the scratch by the dint of sheer determination and hard work.

‘The riots broke us emotionally and financially’

After losing two teenaged sisters and a 23-year-old brother in the 1984 riots in Delhi, Surjit Singh, now 66, moved to Punjab with a donated pair of slippers covering his feet. He walked from Delhi to Rewari in Haryana, where he joined four other siblings and parents and went on to take shelter at an uncle’s home in Nabha, in Punjab’s Patiala. With hard work, Surjit has built a successful business in Nabha, where he owns a silk store.

“The 1984 riots were horrific. Rioters looted our two shops, then set them on fire, killed my two sisters and a brother, who was at a shop; and burned our house. We were left with no option but to flee,” recalled Surjit, who had recently married when the riots took place.

Victim of 1984 Anti-Sikh riot Surjit Singh seen holding his family photos, at Nabha, in Patiala, Punjab ( Bharat Bhushan / Hindustan Times )

He and his surviving brothers, Surinder and Harminder, started selling clothes in Nabha and nearby villages. “When we reached here, we were broken emotionally, financially and mentally. All was lost in Delhi except our skill of marketing clothes, and we used that to rebuild from the ashes of Delhi,” Surjit said, recalling how the family borrowed money from relatives to start the business of selling clothes village to village on cycles.

They opened a small store, and now “with the blessing of Waheguru, we have a business worth more than what we used to have in Delhi”, said Singh.

Raminder Singh Nibber, now 79, was a shattered man when his manufacturing unit in New Delhi’s Anand Parbat was burnt down in the 1984 riots. Gathering whatever he had left, Nibber moved to Mohali a few years later and started an industrial unit from a small rented accommodation.

“There was no looking back. We now run a group of companies with annual turnover of ~300 crore, and are growing. One of my companies, Pritika Auto Industries Limited, is listed on the stock exchange,” said a beaming Nibber.

The scars of the violent backlash have not healed. He remembers November 1, 1984 as the darkest day of his life. “There was no help from any side, it was dark all around... There was a loss of confidence. So we shifted all our operations to Punjab,” said Nibber.

“My father’s resilience and the will to fight back brought our business back on track,” said Nibber’s son Harpreet Singh, who joined the company in 1996. The family said it took them 10 years to rebuild their business.

‘Rebuilt business, but loss of 1984 won’t be forgotten’

Daljit Kaur, 78, along with her late husband Balwant Singh and two sons—Gulsher, now 54, and Bhagel, 50—was forced to move to Amritsar after the family home and a factory in Birpara town of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district were burnt down by a mob during the anti-Sikh riots.

“A day after the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, a mob thronged our factory, which was adjoining our home,” Gulsher Singh said, recalling how the rioters tortured his father and six or seven Sikhs who worked at the factory and set their properties on fire before leaving. “We, somehow managed to save ourselves,” he said.

Gursher Singh (54) and his mother Daljit Kaur (78) hold a record file of losses incurred in West Bengal during the 1984 Anti-Sikh riot, in Amritsar, Punjab ( Sameer Sehgal / Hindustan Times )

“We came to Amritsar... The Sikh men, who had been working in our factory, also left. My maternal uncle, Banta Singh, went missing, and till now we have failed to find him. He must have been killed. My younger brother Bhagel could not give his 10th Class examination.”

His father eventually sold the property in Jalpaiguri for ~5 lakh; the property is now worth ~3 crore, said Gulsher.

“We got a tea machinery manufacturing unit, on a huge bank loan, on instalments, in Amritsar. In 2000, we sold this unit, took a bank loan and constructed a new tea machinery manufacturing unit. My father died in 2006 and after this Bhagel returned to Bengal. I and my mother worked 20 hours a day to run the factory. Though we have rebuilt our business, the loss in 1984 will never be forgotten,” said Gulsher Singh.

‘Violence, my brother’s death still torment us’

It has been 35 years since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, but for Harcharan Singh Channi, there isn’t a single day that memories of the violence don’t haunt him.

Owner of a tiles shop in Dugri village of Ludhiana, Channi had to relocate to Punjab from Kanpur as a 23-year-old after the riots in which he lost his older brother. Settling in Dugri and starting from scratch wasn’t easy. He and his family, who had no money, spent 45 days at a camp before shifting to a temporary accommodation.

“The government was party to the crime and had a role in riots. There was no help for us...,” Channi said, referring to allegations of politicians’ involvement in instigating the riots.

“While it all seems a thing of the past, the scenes of violence and my brother’s death still torment us,” he said.