Golden Temple Massacre

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In May 1984, Sikh extremists occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar, located in Punjab, India, changing it into a safe place for terrorists. In early June, Indira Gandhi responded when she launched Operation Bluestar. Operation Bluestar is the name for the raid on the Golden Temple, which killed and wounded hundreds of soldiers, insurgents, and civilians.

The insurgency originated in the late 1970s, and the origin of this insurgency is very complex. The Green Revolution, a package of agricultural inputs, transformed the socioeconomic landscape of the state of Punjab. Aside from this new-found prosperity, large numbers of Sikhs started to shed some of the trappings of their faith. This inclination revived an age-old fear in the Sikh community, which was the suspicion of being absorbed into the Hindu fold. Many Punjabi Sikhs, who were driven out of their land as a consequence of an agricultural transformation, found comfort in revivalist movements. One of the leaders of this revivalist movement was Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Sikh preacher. A contributing factor for the insurgency was the attempt by Indira Gandhi , and the Congress, to use Bhindranwale to undermine the position of the Akali Dal, who is apart of another political party, and also brought in as a moderator. Bhindranwale and his followers were encouraged to intimidate Akali Dal politicians verbally. Although with progress was a successful strategy, Bhindranwale and his followers became a source of chaos and disturbance in Punjab. At last after much deliberation, in June 1984, Gandhi had to order units of the Indian army to flush out Bhindranwale and his followers, who had taken refuge in the Golden Temple premises, Sikhism's most holy shrine, in Amritsar, Punjab.

Operation Bluestar had a mixed success in its overall, and became the second, post-Emergency period. After many attempts to negotiate, Indira Gandhi ordered the army to raid the temple. On June 3, 1984 many army units, had the temple surrounded. After rounds of gunfire from both sides, the army was able to successfully take control of the temple. About eighty-three army persons were killed and 249 injured. Insurgent casualties were about 493 killed and eighty-six injured. Many observed say that the number of Sikh casualties was probably higher than those of the insurgents. Indian intelligence authorities had definitely underestimated the firepower that the insurgents had possessed, but the army was prepared with all the defense equipments they had brought such as. The attack on the Golden Temple had the effect of inflaming significant segments of the Sikh community.