Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Justice still denied for 1984 Sikh massacre
Pain and anger run through a community 40 years on as British Sikhs march demanding a full reckoning with Britain’s collusion in events in India that led to a genocide that butchered thousands, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE MP
ATTACKED: A Sikh pilgrim in Amritsar in India’s Punjab region makes his way to the Golden Temple, stormed by the Indian army in 1984

FORTY years ago this month, Indian government troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine. In recognition of the anniversary, thousands of British Sikhs from across Britain marched last weekend in central London.

The Amritsar assault caused the death of around 300-500 Sikhs, an atrocity that was followed, a few months later, by the massacre of as many as 17,000 innocent Sikhs by organised mobs and the displacement of tens of thousands more. The aim was to stop those who campaign for an independent homeland, called Khalistan.

Leaked papers showed that the US government believed the Indian government was complicit in the genocide, yet Western governments took no action, and in four decades only one person has been convicted for their role in the slaughter, 34 years after the crime.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a rally at the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council headquarters in New York, July 2, 2025
Features / 15 July 2025
15 July 2025

The New York mayoral candidate has electrified the US public with policies of social justice and his refusal to be cowed. We can follow his example here, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

Palestinians women mourn people who were killed while returning from one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers operated by the U.S.-backed organization, according to Nasser Hospital, during their funerals in Khan Younis, June 30
Features / 1 July 2025
1 July 2025

Israel’s monopolisation of ‘aid’ to slaughter Palestinians means there is no other option: direct international intervention now, says CLAUDIA WEBBE

Mourners carry the flag-draped coffins of five men reportedly killed in Israeli strikes, during their funeral in the city of Khorramabad, Iran, June 16, 2025
Features / 17 June 2025
17 June 2025

With missiles penetrating the air defences to strike Haifa and Tel Aviv, Netanyahu’s transparent appeal to Trump demonstrates the Israeli underestimation of Iranian retaliation, and they are desperate to drag their allies in, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

Sherin Wafi, center, and her daughter Mira, 4, mourn during the funeral of her husband Hosam Wafi who, according to family members, was killed during an Israeli strike, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 2, 2025
Arms Trade / 3 June 2025
3 June 2025

Starmer should not need to wait for the High Court’s decision on F-35 parts in order to do the right thing, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE

Similar stories
Palestinians women mourn people who were killed while returning from one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers operated by the U.S.-backed organization, according to Nasser Hospital, during their funerals in Khan Younis, June 30
Features / 1 July 2025
1 July 2025

Israel’s monopolisation of ‘aid’ to slaughter Palestinians means there is no other option: direct international intervention now, says CLAUDIA WEBBE

Children sit and play on the remains of a tank, at the river
Features / 21 April 2025
21 April 2025

Keir Starmer’s £120 million to Sudan cannot cover the government’s complicity in the RSF genocide or atone for the long shadow of British colonialism and imperialism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

NOT A FULL APOLOGY: Then prime minister David Cameron visits
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
JOGINDER BAINS argues that the infamously cruel and calculated mass murder of Indians blocked into a public square and fired upon by the British Indian Army still faces a reckoning