During the carnage of 1984, this Sikh man and his family were protected by his neighbours. In 2020, when North East Delhi was swept by a wave of communal violence, he went out of his way to return the favour. Meet the brave Mohinder Singh of Gokulpuri.
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00There was a lot of pain, but we were able to hold on to the young girls.
00:07Now, the pain has not affected us too much.
00:30We were looking at our business at the shop at 5 in the evening on 26th.
00:37Suddenly, a group of people gathered in a large group,
00:42and by chanting some religious slogans,
00:46they crossed in front of our shop and gathered at the main entrance.
00:52Because of that, the atmosphere in our area was very peaceful.
00:58After a while, the tension subsided.
01:01Near my shop, there are some Muslim families,
01:05some shopkeepers, whom we call Muslim people.
01:10There is also a mosque behind me.
01:15Because of the prayer time, a lot of Muslim people gathered there.
01:22Because of the tension, there was a sense of anxiety in everyone.
01:28So, they got together and in order to keep themselves safe,
01:36they decided to leave the area.
01:40I am the head of the market association here.
01:44I had a feeling that some people in the mosque wanted to leave.
01:50So, we decided to leave the area.
01:53We tried to explain to the people of our area,
01:57that this is an isolated area,
02:01and you should not go anywhere.
02:04We will protect you, so don't worry.
02:08But the atmosphere was very tense.
02:12They requested us to make arrangements to leave the area.
02:19My wife, my daughters, and the ladies there,
02:24were reassured by my wife.
02:26They brought us home, fed us, made tea for us.
02:29They were reassured that we should stay at home.
02:32How many people came to your house?
02:35There were about 10-12 women, children, and girls.
02:40My wife took care of them.
02:43We stayed at home for about an hour.
02:47After that, we also felt that the atmosphere was getting worse.
02:53I was alone, but there was no one else in the neighborhood.
02:58I called my son Inderjit,
03:01and told him that we will have to make arrangements to leave the area.
03:04He told me to come back as soon as possible.
03:08My son Inderjit Singh came to me with his bike.
03:13He gave me a bullet and I gave him a scooter.
03:16We started with our daughters.
03:18There were 2-3 people sitting on the bike and scooter.
03:22We were about 1.5 km from our area.
03:25The whole area was Muslim.
03:27Our Muslim brothers and their relatives live there.
03:32They told us to stay there.
03:35I saw the atmosphere of the area.
03:37On the streets, I saw a lot of religious people chanting slogans.
03:44Seeing that, we started with our daughters.
03:49We took care of the young people.
03:54In about 1.5 hours, we were able to help 50-60 people.
03:59What was the atmosphere like on the road you were taking?
04:07There were a lot of trees.
04:10We were able to help the young people.
04:15We didn't have to worry about the trees.
04:19We didn't have any problems on the road.
04:22Some Muslims had different views.
04:28They told us that we can understand their views.
04:31We were able to help them.
05:03As Guru Sahib has taught us, Surahs are 100 signs of religion.
05:08I have seen the events of 1984.
05:14My brother was also there.
05:16I was 16-17 years old.
05:19At that time, Hindu society took care of our family.
05:22We had to pay social debt.
05:25I took this opportunity to help the society.
05:32This was Guru Sahib's guidance.
05:34This is the result of our humanity.
05:38I want to say that Sardarji supported the Muslims.
05:42But we didn't have a separate community.
05:47We only saw the people who were suffering.
05:54We didn't do this with any particular community.
05:57Guru Sahib taught us about Hinduism.
06:00We didn't do this with any particular community.
06:04This was our duty.