Gandhi's assassination led to the 1984 Sikh genocide which was instigated by nationalist mobs and political figures from the Indian National Congress (INC), Indira Gandhi's party, who orchestrated pogroms against Sikh populations throughout India. Four days of mob violence resulted in the destruction of 40 historic gurdwaras and other important Sikh holy sites. Official Indian government figures put the death toll at 3,350, while other sources have claimed that between 8,000 to over 25,000 Sikhs were killed.
Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star was a large Indian military operation carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984, ordered by Indira Gandhi to remove leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his militant Sikh followers from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab.[1] This attack killed around 5,000 innocent pilgrims, men, women and children, many of whom were Sikhs, and the Indian Army suffered around 700 deaths with most of 80-200 militants dying as well.[2][3]:35[4][5][6][7][8][9][6]:151 The Operation also caused serious damage to two of the holiest Sikh shrines, the Golden Temple and Akal Takht, as well as the destruction of the Sikh Reference Library.[10]
All in all , 783 total people were killed inside the walls of golden temple complex and within Amritsar city including 554 innocent civilians[11] and 229 armed sikh militants[12][13] in op.bluestar.Exactly, 717 dead bodies were found inside Golden temple complex comprising of 501 innocent civilians and 216 sikh militants killed between 3 to 9 june , 1984 upon counting of deceased by DSP of Amritsar City and civil administration before transferring these bodies to Hospital's Mortuary for postmortem. Additionally , 11 more people were killed on June 1 due to firing between Central Reserve police force and extremists as per then Amritsar District Commissioner and winner of Padam Shri in 1986 Ramesh Inder Singh .[14]
Regarding indian army personnel deaths , Lt.gen P.N Hoon who became General commanding officer of Western Command of Indian army(1986-87) after Lt.gen Krishnaswamy Sundarji revealed that 336 indian army and security forces personnel died in operation bluestar inside golden temple complex fighting with entrenched sikh militants led by former major general Shahbeg singh [15] and 800-900 army jawan were injured .[16]
keeping above figures at hand , approx. 1119 to 1130 total people died inside Golden temple complex and within Amritsar City during operation bluestar and these deaths were counted and were basis of district and government records kept away from public eye .[14]
The perceived threat to Gandhi's life increased after the operation.[17] Accordingly, Sikhs were removed from her personal bodyguard detail by the Intelligence Bureau for fear of assassination. Gandhi feared that this would reinforce her anti-Sikh image among the public, however, she ordered the Delhi Police to reinstate her Sikh bodyguards,[18] including Beant Singh, reportedly her personal favourite.[19]
Assassination
At about 9:20 a.m. Indian Standard Time on 31 October 1984, Gandhi was on her way to be interviewed by British actor Peter Ustinov, who was filming a documentary for Irish television. She was accompanied by her personal secretary R. K. Dhawan, personal security officer Rameshwar Dayal, and Constable Narayan Singh.[20] She was walking through the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi towards the neighbouring 1 Akbar Road office.[21] Gandhi was not wearing her bulletproof vest that day, which she had been advised to wear at all times after Operation Blue Star.[22]
Gandhi passed a wicket gate guarded by Constable Satwant and Sub-Inspector Beant Singh, and the two men opened fire.[22][23] Beant fired three rounds into her abdomen from his .38 (9.7mm) revolver;[19] then Satwant fired 30 rounds from his Sterling sub-machine gun after she had said “ouch” and fallen to the ground.[19] Both men then threw down their weapons and Beant said, "I have done what I had to do. You do what you want to do." In the next six minutes, Border Police officers Tarsem Singh Jamwal and Ram Saran captured and killed Beant, while Satwant was arrested by Gandhi's other bodyguards along with an accomplice trying to escape; he was seriously wounded.[24] Satwant Singh was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for killing Gandhi. He was hanged in 1989, along with accomplice Kehar Singh.[25]
Salma Sultan gave the first news of the assassination of Gandhi on Doordarshan's evening news on 31 October 1984, more than ten hours after she was killed.[26][27] It is alleged by the Indian government that Gandhi's secretary R. K. Dhawan overruled intelligence and security officials who had ordered the removal of policemen as a security threat, including her assassins.[28]
Beant was one of Gandhi's favourite guards, whom she had known for ten years.[19] Because he was a Sikh, he had been taken off her staff after Operation Blue Star, yet Gandhi had made sure that he was reinstated.[29] Satwant was 22 years old at the time of the assassination, and had been assigned to Gandhi's guard just five months earlier.[19]
Gandhi's blood-stained Sambalpuri sari and her belongings at the time of her assassination, preserved at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum in New Delhi.
Gandhi was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS) at 9:30a.m. AIIMS director-designate Sneh Bhargava wrote that though Gandhi was clinically dead upon arrival, doctors had to keep up appearances and continue to operate on her until her son Rajiv Gandhi could be sworn in as prime minister.[30] She was declared dead at 2:20p.m. The postmortem examination was conducted by a team of doctors headed by Tirath Das Dogra, who stated that 30 bullets had struck Gandhi from a Sterling sub-machine gun and a revolver. The assailants had fired 33 bullets at her, of which 30 had hit; 23 had passed through her body, while seven remained inside. Dogra extracted bullets to establish the identity of the weapons and to correlate each weapon with the bullets recovered by ballistic examination. The bullets were matched to the weapons at CFSL Delhi.
Gandhi's body was taken in a gun carriage through Delhi roads on the morning of 1 November to Teen Murti Bhavan, where her father stayed and where she lay in state.[21] She was cremated with full state honours on 3 November near Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, at an area named Shakti Sthal. Her elder son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, lit the pyre.
Among the foreign dignitaries who attended the state funeral were:[48][49]
Over the next four days, 8,000 Sikhs were killed in retaliatory violence.[52][53] Other sources record well over 25,000 deaths of Sikhs.[54]
The Justice Thakkar Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Manharlal Pranlal Thakkar, set up to probe Gandhi's assassination, recommended a separate probe for the conspiracy angle behind the assassination. The Thakkar Report stated that the "needle of suspicion" pointed at R. K. Dhawan for complicity in the conspiracy.[55]
Satwant Singh and co-conspirator Kehar Singh were sentenced to death. Both were executed on 6 January 1989.[56]
A Punjabi movie titled Kaum De Heere (Gems of the Community) highlighting the roles/lives of the two guards that assassinated Indira Gandhi was set to be released on 22 August 2014, but was banned by the Indian government[57][58] for five years.[59]
Legacy
She is often remembered as the "Iron Lady of India" for her decisive, though controversial, actions against internal and external threats.
↑Tarkunde, V. M.; Fernandes, George; Rao, Amiya; Ghose, Aurbindo; Bhattacharya, Sunil; Ahuja, Tejinder; Pancholi, N. D. (1985). Oppression in Punjab: A Citizens for Democracy Report to the Nation. New Delhi: Citizens for Human Rights and Civil Liberties. p.65. ISBN978-0934839020.
↑"What happened during 1984 Operation Blue Star?". India Today. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2021. Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83 and the number of civilian deaths at 492, though independent estimates ran much higher.
↑Kiss, Peter A. (2014). Winning Wars amongst the People: Case Studies in Asymmetric Conflict (Illustrateded.). Potomac Books. p.100. ISBN9781612347004. Archived from the original on 15 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018. In operation Bluestar a force of several battalions occupied the holy precincts in a battle lasting several hours. Bhindranwale and man of his associates were killed – but there was a very large number of civilian casualties as well.
↑"Punjab: Backgrounder". South Asia Terrorism Portal. Retrieved 3 February 2026. over 550 innocent civilians were killed in crossfire
↑"Directory of Operation Bluestar 'martyrs' released by radical Sikh group". India Today. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2026. The directory brought out by Dal Khalsa includes the profiles of 220 persons.Dal Khalsa spokesman Kanwarpal Singh, who initiated the exercise to compile the directory, said that the release of the updated directory was important as the people should know whom the memorial was being dedicated to. "It has not been an easy task to identify the fighters and the people who provided them the logistic support. The directory has the names and profiles of all these martyrs," he added.The Directory at a glance: 17 of those killed were related to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.- 156 persons killed in Operation Bluestar belonged to Damdami Taksal.- 22 were Kar Sewaks from Nanded in Maharasthtra.- 26 persons were affiliated to All India Sikh Students Federation.- 10 belonged to Akhand Kirtni Jatha.- Three were Nihangs of Bidhi Chand Dal.- One belonged to Babbar Khalsa.- 13-year-old Sarabjit Singh Dadher was the "youngest of the martyrs".- One Gorkha from Nepal and two Hindus, who had embraced Sikhism, were also killed.- One person who died in the Army operation had come from Singapore.
12singh, Ramesh inder (2022). Turmoil in punjab: Before and After Bluestar: the eyewitness account . HarperCollins India. ISBN978-9354899065. chapter Deaths and destruction ,17 .Exactly, 717 dead bodies were found inside Golden temple complex comprising of 501 innocent civilians and 216 sikh militants killed between 3 to 9 june , 1984 upon counting of deceased by DSP of Amritsar City and civil administration before transferring these bodies to Hospital's Mortuary for postmortem. Additionally , 11 more people were killed on June 1 due to firing between Central Reserve police force and extremists as per then Amritsar District Commissioner and winner of Padam Shri in 1986 Ramesh Inder Singh .<ref name="Ramesh inder singh">singh, Ramesh inder (2022). Turmoil in punjab: Before and After Bluestar: the eyewitness account . HarperCollins India. ISBN978-9354899065. chapter Deaths and destruction,17
↑"Reagan, Others Express Shock, Grief". The Boston Globe. Associated Press. 1 November 1984. p.14. Secretary of State George P. Shultz was named to head the official US delegation to Gandhi's funeral. Bush, asked why he would not represent the United States there, as he often has at state funerals, said: 'Because I'm involved in an election campaign...I think people will understand.'
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