Last month at the GG2 Awards, the director of the Indian tourist board UK was given a rare award for the most creative media campaign using ethnic imagery. The award handed to the Indian Tourist Board UK by Cherie Blair was for the ‘Incredible India campaign’ – a campaign showcasing India as a destination of choice for global tourists.

 Undoubtedly, India has much to offer the discerning tourist. Scratch a little under the surface of glossy marketing campaigns, reveals a darker side to India – which few often contemplate. I sat in the audience with a hint of cynicism.

Twenty-five years ago thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were brutally murdered on the streets of Delhi and the surrounding area by furious mobs out for revenge following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Outraged by Operation Bluestar, a military siege of Skihism's holiest shrine, they had turned on their employer and gunned her down. 

For the international Sikh community the events following on from the 31st of Oct still arouses unforgettable spectres from the past.  As soon as the killings began it was clear that the rent-a-mobs were meticulously organised and directed from above. John Fraser in Canada’s Globe and Mail described how ‘for three horrific nights and four days, the violence was allowed to proceed…by which time the worst atrocities had been committed.’

The Prime Minister's murder provided a pretext for unprecedented brutality with days of unrelenting violence, rape & pillaging. An estimated 4,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone. British Sikhs like me, although only a child at the time, watched on helplessly as we followed reports in the media of the massacre of our brethren in India’s capital.

Worst still, the authorities were allegedly complicit, in what was the worst carnage across the country since partition. A quarter of a century later and the perpetrators (those who are still alive along with victims) have not been brought to book in the world's so called ‘largest democracy’. The fact that the planners of the Delhi pogroms allegedly were elected members of the ruling Congress party, some of whom are still incumbent should not be a barrier to justice for the victims. In a recent report Amnesty International described India's inability to prosecute the perpetrators of the violence as a "national disgrace".

So why has justice been denied?

In April of this year, Jarnail Singh a journalist from Dainak Jagran a local newspaper, vented his frustration at the acquittal of a Congress leader accused of leading anti-Sikh riots in 1984, by throwing his shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference in Delhi. He is not alone in his sentiment, although his method of dissent was unique, insofar as it involved a Reebok trainer and a senior politician, in the ruling Congress party.

A film recently being widely screened across Britain ‘The Widow Colony- India’s unsettled settlement’ – highlights the enormity of the human tragedy and the biggest shame of all - the country's cripplingly slow-moving legalsystem which has failed to deliver justice to the innocent victims, two and a half decades later. Haunting melancholy music along with interviews with many of the widows frames an honest picture of the deep pain and suffering endured by these forgotten women. Although the debate continues undiminished – the film, along with a recent report about the blood curdling episode called ‘Sikhs Kristallnacht’ – provides time for much needed refection, as to how the episode has shaped how Sikhs see themselves relative to the world since.

Firstly, there is the issue of justice and compensation for the victims and their families. BUt no amount of compensation can assuage the grief stricken souls, struck by such a calamity. Nor can I as a British citizen, enjoying the trimmings of the British judicial system and rule of law, even begin to understand the pain of my co-religionists who suffered so much loss – under such dire circumstances.

Secondly relative silence of the international community is clear for all to see. And yet in 2005 the United States under the Bush administration referred to the Government Arab Janjaweed Militias killing of thousands of Darfuris as ‘genocide’, although the UN stopped short of describing the violence as such.

Whilst the protagonists behind more recent massacres in the Balkans have gradually been brought to book at the ICJ before the eye of the world’s media, there was hardly a peep of protest when it came to the turn of the Sikhs. The Tamil community face a similar fate today, the diaspora and its organisations continue to work as a vanguard on matters related to political detainees and allegations of human rights violations by the Sri Lankan state, since the Government’s so called victory against terrorism.

Lastly little has been done to debate the issue of Sikh Independence and the almost insurmountable feeling of alienation from the Indian state. A small minority of Sikhs in the diaspora, including Britain and Canada, still rally behind the concept of a separate Sikh state or ‘Khalistan’, with annual rallies held across capital cities, including the ‘Sikh Freedom Lobby’ which takes place in Brussels at the European Parliament. 

A Generation on however, here in Britain Sikhs have much to celebrate, they are a truly integrated part of the mosaic of British multi-culturism. Since the battle of Saragarhi was recounted in Parliament in 1897, Sikh Military tradition has been the recipient of 14 Victoria Crosses. The community, meanwhile, has since excelled in the fields of sports, media, education, politics and business, not to mention having the recent honour of protecting none other than her Royal Highness at Buckingham Palace.

This is all inspite of the recent tumultuous history, indicative of resilience to the core coupled with a compelling optimism for the future.

Hardeep Singh, is a freelance Journalist & Broadcaster, he is also the Press Secretary for The Network of Sikh Organisations