Punjab: Civil Society and Conflict TransformationA look at efforts to support the survivors of the 1984-1995 conflict in Punjab.

By Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project

Armed Conflict Resolution and People’s Rights Project, University of California at Berkeley’s Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership-Haas School of Business. Text by Project Co-chairs Angana Chatterji and Shashi Buluswar and Director of Programs Mallika Kaur. Images by Robert Nickelsberg, except where noted.

The conflict from 1984 to 1995 had devastating consequences for the villages and towns of Punjab. Civil society leaders across the state have been working for justice and the social and economic conditions that might enable a sustainable peace…The Diplomat, October 14, 2014. LINK: http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/punjab-civil-society-and-conflict-transformation/

Student-led efforts at Guru Nanak Dev University Gurdwara (a Sikh place of worship) offer a space for community building, and welcome young women and men of all backgrounds. In the

late 1980s students organized to start the campus Gurdwara. Today it is entirely student-managed and serves meals prepared by students, without charge, to attendees.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Chaman Lal is a 97-year old public leader of Hindu Punjabi descent. Following the death

of his son, Gulshan Kumar – a vegetable vendor – while in the custody of the police, who had picked him up three days before his wedding in 1993, Chaman Lal’s quest

for justice to clear his son’s name became the primary focus of his life. Gulshan

Kumar’s case is pending judgment at the Supreme Court of India. Recently Lal

supported a sit-in by some victims of the November 1984 violence who had

relocated from Delhi to Punjab, and were protesting their displacement by Punjab’s local leaders from the very lands allocated

to them for “riot relief.”

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Baljit Kaur, a distinguished civil society leader of Sikh Punjabi descent, undertook fact-finding work during the conflict. Kaur’s work narrates a complex story of the protracted conflict and of

the gendered and sexualized violence that took place in Punjab’s countryside, and has served as the mainstay of numerous reports.

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Nonagenarian Justice Ajit Singh Bains is known as the “People’s Judge” for his principled service on

a government committee investigating the arrests following Operation Blue Star. Bains, who had retired from a judgeship at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1984, was subsequently

arrested in 1992 on charges of seditious speech. He spent five months in jail amidst widespread

international condemnation and protests by local bar associations in India. His son and human

rights lawyer Rajvinder Singh Bains has argued several conflict-related cases, including the case

of the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.

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Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights defender, uncovered the clandestine and mass cremations that were undertaken in

Punjab during the conflict. In the early 1990s, he estimated that more than 25,000 such

cremations had taken place across the state. In 1995, following an international trip to create awareness around the issue, Khalra was murdered, as noted in the Summary

Judgment in the Khalra Case on November 18, 2005. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, his wife and

formerly a librarian, founded the Khalra Mission Organization. In 2013, India’s Central

Bureau of Investigation validated 2,097 secret cremations that Mr. Khalra had

discovered. The government’s inquiries were limited to three crematoria in Amritsar and

bound to the timeframe of 1984-94.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak (Management) Committee Office is located in Teja Singh Samundari Hall, a key landmark in Amritsar. Here, the largest tally of civilian deaths occurred in June 1984, during the army’s operations on the Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara, “Golden Temple,”

Complex, where this office is situated. Its walls still bear bullet marks from the incident.

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Agricultural Fields are a mainstay across Punjab, home to a number of “green

revolution” initiatives. Today, within what is widely viewed as a vibrant economy, more

than 34 percent of marginal farmers live below the poverty line in Punjab, accounting for 78

percent of famers who have committed suicide in the past decade, creating female-led households and placing an even greater

burden on women. Over 200,000 agricultural workers and small farmers gave up farming in Punjab between 1991 and 2005. The conflict magnified existing disputes around land use

and ownership, diminishing the ability of marginalized farming families to produce enough to hold onto their land and the

security it offers. This, and various other socioeconomic factors, has led to a prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse throughout urban and rural Punjab. Sources reportedly claim

that Punjab may be the second highest state with respect to drug abuse in India. More than

5,000 persons reportedly undergo rehabilitation each year for addiction to

opium, cocaine, and other drugs.Image Credit: Mallika Kaur

Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara, “Golden Temple,” Complex.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Social and personal counter-memory can take the form of

a story and circulate across the cultural landscape. In

local mythos, for example, some of the marble inlays

with red patches located at the center of the Harmandir

Sahib Gurdwara, “Golden Temple,” Complex in

Amritsar are stained with the blood of those who died

there in 1984.

Image Credit: Angana Chatterji

Sandeep Kaur, a public figure, set up a Charitable Trust in 2002 to shelter homeless children from affected

families and provide for their education. She was 12-years-old in

1984. Shortly after, she sought out the company of militants training to

combat the army and later spent four years in jail. She witnessed episodes of sexual violence in prison, leading to her

resolve to work for the survivors of conflict, especially girls. Eighty

homeless children – along with older girls and women – live in the

headquarters of the trust in Sultanwind Village, which itself witnessed

approximately 50 deaths during the Punjab conflict.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

The Nishan Sahib, a Sikh symbolic insignia or flag used all over Punjab, is regularly raised atop Gurdwaras, monuments, and other spaces of significance. During the conflict years, villagers

erected Nishan Sahibs in memory of the dead and disappeared. In one village, the Nishan Sahib was bulldozed at one point in time; in another, the orange cloth was stolen. Once erected against

odds, today, Nishan Sahibs are preserved by a multitude of villages.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Nishan Sahib, Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara, “Golden Temple,”

Complex.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Women community leaders.

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Paramjit Kaur Khalra of the Khalra Mission Organization and Human Rights Lawyer Rajvinder Singh Bains withAngana Chatterji and Mallika Kaur.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg

Documents chronicling local efforts at restitution.

Image Credit: Robert Nickelsberg