Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

As we step into November, memory draws us back to a chapter scarred by atrocity and grief. The 1984 Ghallughara, the Sikh genocide and resistance, is not distant history—it is a wound that continues to breathe, reminding us of lives torn apart, of justice still denied, and of the nation’s resilience that endures.

The delivery of justice in line with the Sikh traditions, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, became the pretext for meticulously orchestrated planned violence throughout India. What followed was not chaos but calculation: Sikh homes burned, families were hunted, lives were extinguished. The very institutions meant to protect citizens looked the other way, and democracy collapsed into darkness. Violence was paraded as politics.

Words such as “atrocity” and “massacre” attempt to capture the magnitude, yet they fall short of the emptiness left behind. And still, we must speak. To remain silent is to betray memory. To name is to resist forgetting. To tell is to insist on truth.

And yet, even in the ashes of devastation, the Sikh spirit shone. Rooted in the wisdom of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs drew strength from the principle of Nam, which embodies 1Ness, and the practice of service. These were not distant ideals but living truths, reminders that when everything else falls, the 1 remains. Sikhi did not call us to hatred or revenge; it called us to rise with courage, to seek justice infused with grace, and to walk in dignity. Sikh history reminds us that to endure is not merely to survive, but to live aligned with Truth, to uphold honor, to stand firm against injustice, and to trust in the Divine Order that holds all creation together. In this spirit, the Sikhs rebuilt, remembered, and continue to stand as a witness, carrying forward the strength of generations.

The memory of 1984 is heavy, but it does not leave us hopeless. It is also an inheritance, pressing us to vigilance against the misuse of power, urging us to live with honor, to uphold justice without fear, and to walk in alignment with the Wisdom-Guru. It asks us to remember not only with sorrow but also with resolve to embody truth and compassion in our own time.

May we remember with clarity.
May we act with courage.
May we walk in love.
May Wisdom-Guru guide us!