Kulbir Singh

A businessman and member of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) in Delhi, Kulbir Singh found himself at the center of the events that unfolded in 1984.

In June, just a few months after he had personally met with Bhindranwale in Amritsar, Singh was inside Bangla Sahib when he heard shots fired outside the gurdwara. On the day of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, unaware that it was her Sikh bodyguards that had fired at her, Singh was on a train to Jharkhand for business with his friend, when the commotion at the stations made him suspicious. While he managed to save himself from the crowd in Kanpur by hiding inside his compartment’s bathroom, closer to his hometown, near Bihar, he was taken out of his hiding place and beaten unconscious.

“A riot is something that entails two groups engaged in violence with each other – this was one sided, this was an attack targeted against Sikhs”

Watch as Kulbir Singh discusses his first-hand account of the violence that transpired, the people that saved him, and the long-term impact that it had on his political goals.