Operation Bluestar Essay

The topic of Operation Bluestar is a very contr oversial discommode because of where the Operation took pop and in on the whole the events that occured. Operation Bluestar, was the code name presumptuousness by the Indian presidency. It was an work to evict Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his following from the thriving synagogue. The well-situated Temple is unrivalled of the most sacred places of worship for the Sikh community. It is as well one(a) of the oldest Sikh tabernacles around. The Golden Temple is k in a flashn has the Harmandir Sahib, and is regain in the city of Amritsar. umpteen questions arise to why some melt offg like this would happen in the first place.Bhindranwale was a Sikh fundamentalist. He was a leader of the Damdami Taksaal. The Damdami Taksaal is a Sikh religious intuition and it was put uped by the tenth Sikh Guru. Bhindranwale direct the campaign of terrorism in Punjab. He was associated with the movement of an independent Sikh state. The state would have been whapn has Khalistan, but there was very lilliputian support of it in Punjab by Sikhs. Bhindranwale had been a riddle for a duplicate of years beforehand Operation Bluestar. He and his followers had been murdering and intimidating discipline Sikhs and Hindis. They increased the pressure on Indira Gandhi to do something virtually it. By this rate Bhindranwale and his close followers transformed the Akal Takht, his headquarters within the Golden Temple. He had changed it to an armory and a sanctuary for terrorists, and from here he conducted his campaign. This is when Operation Bluestar comes into play. Indra Gandhi has initiated the approach path on May 31, 1984 on the Golden Temple.The Golden Temple is located in the city of Amritsar and it is a sacred place of worship for the Sikh religion. Gandhi waited six months before finally ordering the soldiery to line Bhindranwale and his followers out. Many say that Ghandi waited six month in order to gird a positive public opinion about it, because it would have sparked a smoke more negativity than it already did. Five days before the the States entered the Golden Temple, 48 community were killed. The only way now that Gandhi could get Bhindranwale out was to use force, so she sent in the ground forces in to the Golden Temple. The force was non prepared, because there were a lot more extremists than expected, they were to a fault build up far better than intelligence reported. The extremists had responded to the armys first initial call for surrender with machine guns.The operation turned into a bloody 3-day siege. 576 people were killed, 83 of them being soldiers from ordained count, but unofficial counts suggest that estimate to be as mellowed as 1,000. The Operation left many scars, approximately 1,000 army members were voluminous and a casualty rate of one-third of four officers. Bhindranwale was found nonviable in the basement of the Akal Takht, along with the le ader of the Sikh Student Federation, and a sacked major general of Indian Army who had reportedly proficient Sikh terrorists. Gandhi had also sent the Indian army into Punjab on June 2nd, 1984, to evade thirty-eight Sikh temples that had considerd to been harboring Sikh militants under the command of Bhindranwale. Throughout the binge of Punjab, Akali leaders were placed under arrest.The generals in charge of Operation Bluestar consisted of 4 Sikhs and 2 of another cast. Their involvement did little to reduce the sense of sphacelus and the anger among nearly all the Sikhs. The Golden Temple also suffered damage, the Temple is also known as the Harmandir Sahib. Both the terrorists and the army had undone it. The terrorists utilise it for gun placements and army had labializeed it. The Akhal Takht suffered the most serious damage and the precious Golden Temple Library was set on fire. Almost all Sikhs were appal by all the destruction that was caused to the Temple.The main que stion that everyone has is why did Bhindranwale pack to hide in the Golden Temple with his militants and weapons, when he could have went anyplace else. It is because he thought he would be safe their. He neer thought that the Indian political sympathies would attack him their because it is a sacred place of worship for all Sikhs. Also a government cannot allow armed militants to enter and attack a holy place. Bhindranwale thought of it in both ways, if they attack he would have an advantage as well. By having the government fight a holy place many people would be outraged such as the Sikhs, the Sikhs and other people would and then be against the Indian Government because of what they did. That is exactly what happened, the government attacked and that sparked the anger between all Sikhs, no matter what they thought of Bhindranwale and his battle for independence that he precious. By hide in the Golden Temple and having the army attack, it really helped Bhindranwale get his m essage out to the people.The attacks do the news world wide, and he became known and people started to know what he was fighting for. Another reason of him hiding there was that many civilians were in the Golden Temple and that made him believe that the Indian Government would not attack, because that would kill innocent people. But the Indian Government did just that. The government, while being successful in violent death Bhindranwale, took the lives of many innocent men, women, and y children. Bhindranwale, while knowing that many civilians would be in the area that could be harassed and killed, he still chose to outride their. That might have been intentionally done, or he might not have known that. But it ended up being deadly for the civilians. Bhindranwales actions caused a lot of damage to the Golden Temple, by converting into a battlefield with a lot of bloodshed of innocent people. But this was all done because of his cause of creating Khalistan.Many whitethorn inquir e why the Indian Government finally mulish to attack the Golden Temple a holy place of worship, after a six-month period of not doing anything. Many people believe that the Indian Government did wrong by attacking the Golden Temple, but you have to analyze both sides before orgasm to a proper conclusion. The Government was wrong at attacking at a holy place but they had to because Bhindranwale would not surrender himself. The army had asked him to surrender, however Bhindranwale refused to and in turn he started firing back at the army. The Army had no choice, so they fired back and this is how the innocent victims were killed along wit the Golden Temple being destroyed by all the gunfire. The Indian Government were not the only ones to destroy it, although many may think that Bhindranwale had his own machine guns at the temple and he was also a big contributor to the destruction of it.Had he had surrendered then, the many people that were killed would not have been and the Golden Temple would not have been disgraced in any way. The Sikhs would also have not been angered. One thin that makes the Indian Government seem really bad is the fact that they decided to attack the Golden Temple in the same week as the Sikh religious day known as the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev. Guru Arjan dev was the one who completed the Golden Temple. It was founded by the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Ramdas. The Indian Government knew that thousands of Sikhs would gather. This is one of the reasons of such a high casualties rate of Sikhs. A direct community of it being the Indian armys fault cannot be made because both Bhindranwale and Indian Government made mistakes. One side cannot be blamed for it all.The people affected by the whole Bluestar Operation were the many of the Sikhs and Hindus as well. Many Sikhs and Hindus died because of the Operation taking place. The Sikhs died directly because it and the Hindus died because the Sikhs were angered. The Indian police target ed many Sikhs after the Bluestar Operation, if they seemed to have any ties with Bhindranwale or believed in what he was standing for they would be killed or harassed. Many Sikhs became martyrs and held off the Indian army for as long as they possibly could. A total of about 250 men had kept the army out of the Golden Temple. The army consisted of over 250,000 troops. The army had entered the Temple after six days of the Sikhs stopping them from entering. They started cleaning innocent Sikhs who came to visit the Temple to celebrate the religious day. When the army came to know that only 250 stopping any army of troops, they were angered and humiliated.The Sikhs in the temple were lined up and shot at point blank range. They ranged from the eldest of people to the adults and the children, no one was spared. What really hurt the Sikhs was that their sacred artifacts and subroutine library was burned. Also literature written by the Sikhs Gurus was also not found after the attacks. It has been said that the army had taken it, but they state that it had been destroyed during the attack. The city of Amritsar had been destroyed. Many visitors visiting from other countries around the world had been arrested or killed. Sikh shops were robed and houses had been burned. Hindus also had a role in the cleanup position of the Sikhs. Groups of Hindus went to Sikh households and burned the Sikhs alive. They also raped the Sikh women and violated significant women.The Sikhs that were being targeted were novel males ranging from 4 to 40 years of age. The Indian Government had feared that the younger Sikh males would rebel and that by putting to death them would diminish the young Sikh community and the Sikh population would not flourish. They hoped that maybe the Sikh community would disappear and no longer be a problem for them. The main reason why many of the Sikhs were going through this was because Hindus wanted to destroy Sikhism. When Sikhs in other places found ou t about the attack that occurred in Amritsar, they rebelled.The Sikhs killed many Hindus that were in high rank. The Indian Government then noticed this movement by the Sikhs and quickly acted on it. They began arresting Sikhs and cleanup position them. Over 40,000 Sikhs were in jail with being charged. Before the Bluestar Operation Sikhs and Hindus were killing each other. When a Hindu would kill a Sikh, the police would do nothing about it, but when a Sikh killed a Hindu the Police would arrest and punish them. After all had happened to the Sikhs they still stuck unneurotic and rebelled to take over the Golden Temple that was theirs. They were successful in doing so.BibliographyKundu, A The Indian Armed Forces Sikh and no(prenominal)-Sikh Officers Opinions of Operation Blue Star. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), 46-69. www.jstor.comHardgraven, L.R. India in 1984 Confrontation, Assassination, and Succession. Asian Survey, Vol. 25, No. 2, A Survey of Asia in 1984 Pa rt II (Feb., 1985),131-144. www.jstor.comMajor, A. From Moderates to Secessionists A Whos Who of the Punjab Crisis. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), 42-58. www.jstor.comMahmood, C.K. Sikh Rebellion and the Hindu Concept of Order. Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Mar., 1989), 326-340. www.jstor.comFair, Christine. 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