But I Smile Anyway…

I try not to be political on my blog, but the events of the last few days have made me think about staying quiet, when it is our voices that will help, not our silence.

So the two previous posts have been in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement that is in full flow.

During this time of unease for many in the Black community, and the extended #BAME community , as well as those not of colour, horrified by the events that took place with the murder of George Floyd, I remembered there was something else of huge importance, to me, as a Sikh, to recall.

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A post shared by Ritu Bhathal ✍🏽📚💜 (@ritubhathalwrites)

1984.

Ten days of Terror for the Sikhs.

This was when the Indian Government launched Operations Blue Star, and there, thirty six years ago, tthebeginnings of the biggest Sikh genocide took place.

Soldiers marched into the holy shrine in Amritsar, the Golden Temple, desecrating the buildings, grounds, religious artefacts, and murdering hundreds of innocent pilgrims, man, woman, child. There was no respite.

They were there to apparently flush out Sikh Separatists after there were calls for a separate state of Khalistan for Sikhs, as there was a Pakistan for the Muslims.

It was a time filled with terror, and resulted in hundreds, if not thousands of deaths of innocent Sikh people. The Indian Government were trying to erase us, the Sikhs.

To read more about the awful happenings of those ten days, click here.

Every year, there is a peaceful remembrance, filled with emotion, remembering those who died in this mindless act, which sparked the assassination of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by two of her Sikh bodyguards. That act then set off a domino effect of riots, rape and murder of thousands of Sikhs in Delhi, and the Punjab.

To this day, there are Sikh people who don’t know what happened to members of their families during this time.

Then, to top it off, on 3rd June of this year, amidst the Black Lives Matter uprising, the hashtags #sikh and #sikhism, which were being used to remember and highlight a key time in our community’s background, disappeared from both Facebook and Instagram.

If you tried to search it, it was blocked.

Sure, there were others, but the main hashtags for us, #sikh, and #sikhism was unsearchable.

So the Indian Goverment tried to erase us then, thirty six years ago, and now, in 2020, we have social media doing the same.

It’s back up now, but why?

Why was it deemed ‘unsuitable content’ for us to remember this injustice?

Were there too many big other movements going on?

We, as Sikhs, are right there, too, but come on social media, give us our chance to speak too!