The Indian Army storms the Golden Temple complex in Operation Blue Star to dislodge Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers, killing many pilgrims on a holy day and destroying the Akal Takht; in November, after Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards, organized mobs kill thousands of Sikhs in Delhi and other cities, the twin traumas that define modern Sikh memory.
Tagged: Persecution Sikh The Khalsa Panth
The Event
- Date
- 1984 (exact)
- Also called
- Operation Blue Star, 1984 anti-Sikh riots
- Era
- Modern; Standard periodization of Sikh history
- Location
- Amritsar and Delhi; today Punjab and Delhi, India
- Traditions
- Sikhism
- Streams
- The Khalsa Panth
- Key figures
- Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Indira Gandhi
Connections
- The Amritsar clash of 1978; followed
Primary Sources
- The Citizens' Commission report on the Delhi riots (1985)
Secondary Sources
- Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, vol. 1 (Oxford, 2nd ed. 2004)
- Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (Cambridge, 1990)
Provenance: HIST-0534; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
- The Guru Granth Sahib, Enthroned Art Entry
- Adi Granth compiled History Event
- Guru Gobind Singh History Event
- Guru Hargobind History Event
- Jallianwala Bagh massacre History Event
- Martyrdom of Guru Arjan History Event
- Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur History Event
- The Amritsar clash of 1978 History Event