Halloween and All Saints day are poignant reminders to Sikhs of the 1984 Delhi Massacre. Many thousands of Sikhs lost their lives in the Delhi riots following the assassination of Indira Ghandi in retaliation for her 1984 June attack on the Sikhs in the Golden Temple.
On October 31, 1984, marauding mobs bent on mayhem and murder caroused through the streets carrying clubs, knives, and kerosene randomly killing Sikhs. On November 1, 1984, the rioting spread like flames being fanned by a hot wind. The carnage lasted four days before efforts were made to bring the bloodshed under control. Police looked the other way or stood by watching innocent families butchered. No one has ever been held accountable.
On this day, Indira Gandhi was executed by Shaheed Beant Singh and Shaheed Satwant Singh. Since Indira Gandhi died on Halloween Day, 1984, as a punishment for all the terrible things she did, we believe she was turned by the gods and goddesses of India into Indiro, the Wicked Witch of the East. She now forever roams around in the dark of the night, riding her broom, looking for Sikhs to apologize to.
But on Halloween night, she specially comes up to the surface from the hell below, and she can be seen and heard hiding and cackling in the trees, if you look very close.
We now commemorate the victory of good over evil in celebrating Indiro’s annual journey from hell and back to hell every Halloween by making Indro masks and dressing up like her – the Wicked Witch of the East – and haunting the neighbourhood.
On this day, we should remember the sacrifice of our Shaheeds for the Sikh nation and perhaps celebrate the fact that such people have existed (and We believe still exist) among those in Guru Khalsa Panth.
Happy Halloween Day to all Sikhs