The Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984 in Delhi: Politicians, Criminals, and the Discourse of Communalism

Abstract

On the evening of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Jim Lehrer asked the India experts who were guests on his McNeil-Lehrer News Hour if the Gandhi family had been the glue that held India together. Without a strong figure in the center, he wondered, what would keep India’s diverse ethnic and religious groups from killing each other? This conventional wisdom that some strong force is necessary to hold ethnic animosity in check is echoed in scholarly literature. Horowitz, for examples, argues that the “fear of extinction” or subordination is characteristic of unranked multi-ethnic societies, and that this “anxiety-laden perception” leads inevitably to a state of discomfort and uncertainty. The latter state in turn often produces a desire to assimilate or eliminate the opposing group, particularly in the case of backward groups who may experience a sense of hostility towards groups perceived as forward at a level of intensity quite disproportionate to any actual threat.¹