1984

Where Were You in 1984?

The 1984 Living History Project

AVIDEEP KAUR





“If you contrast the kind of oral testimonies you are getting right now to what was written in the print media at that time, it will really show how big the clamp down was and really showcase that it is very important to record things like this as and when they happen to be able to tell our future generations that this needs to stop!”



One of the first interviewees for The 1984 Living History Project -- she was but a young school girl in 1984 -- vividly described her memories of walking into a burnt school where fans hung upside down, melted evidence of the arson.



The 1984 Living History Project is a video project that seeks to capture the range of experiences of 1984, in order to expand awareness about this period in recent history, capture the stories of survival, and increase understanding regarding the institutionalized violence, suppression of information, social trauma, and human rights violations.



For me, this Project is preserving a treasure: the experiences and survival stories of those who lived through this time, a year before I was born.



I began volunteering with the Project last October. As someone from a family that lost a 20-year-old loved one (my mother’s brother), I grew up with questions about this period.



This Project allows us to speak, in solidarity, and feel stronger.



My grandfather, who cremated his young son and throughout his life kept his son’s memory alive, is no more. With his passing, we lost the opportunity to record an experience very valuable to all of us. Now, my mother and grandmother have given their interviews for the Project, and I am inspired by their strength.



I have in turn gone and interviewed absolute strangers, feeling stronger and more informed myself with each interview.



The 1984 Living History Project was born at Saanjh, during a Bay Area Sikh leadership retreat, as young U.S. students and professionals discussed the importance of preserving memories, story-telling, and developing a layered understanding of the 1984 events.



The videos we began collecting illustrated that 1984 affected Sikhs from all walks of life:



* Direct victims of violence, or then in faraway places



* Bankers or farmers or doctors or government employees



* Men or women or girls or boys



* Rich or poor



* Professionals or students



* Politically left-wing or right-wing or in between



… Sikhs will forever share 1984 as a common experience, across differences, as a community.



While today the community may have multiple perspectives on 1984, and the events since, the fact is that in 1984, the community felt unified in fear, anger, grief.



Any Sikh alive in 1984 who was above a few years of age, whether direct victim or not, remembers where they were when gurdwaras were raided in June 1984 or organized mobs took the streets in November 1984.



We want to capture every such story.



The map on our site marks the locations from where we have interviews thus far. We hope the cluster of markers on this map continues to grow! After all, isn’t there a saying: “The Sikh and the Potato are found everywhere” ?



It’s easy to join this initiative.



Just take your camera or your smart phone (or borrow one), and make a video today by following easy steps in the Video Toolkit and sharing the video through our site.



I can’t say I walked into my first interview fearlessly. These are not conversations we are used to having. And they are not pleasant.



But they are vital if we are to understand our recent history.



If we are to preserve this history, while the memory is still alive.



If we are to validate the experience of the young school child I have described above, that despite the silence then, and the silence since, these events did in fact happen.



And they did change a people forever.



After all, if we don’t know our history, how can we plan our future?





Please CLICK here to learn more about The 1984 Living History Project.



And, if you’re ready to make a Video of your own, please CLICK here for the Video ToolKit.

And here’s how to add your Video to the Project: please CLICK here.







[The author is a volunteer with The 1984 Living History Project.]



May 19, 2014

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