There are people numerous movies seen nowadays that were made by the people of Punjab, India. Most of these are down to earth movies about family life between multiple generations of Punjabis, which most people can enjoy and relate to.
But, I have also witnessed an abuse in what appears to be Punjabi movie making. I saw a movie representing an incomplete history, which would lead the un-educated viewer to form a false opinion and perhaps a false prejudice. The movie I saw depicted violence done against the Punjabi people after Indira Gandhi was slain. The movie shows mobs looking for Punjabi people, and persecuting them, abusing them, killing them. The movie shows innocent and isolated Punjabi persons and isolated Punjabi families being scared for their lives.
According to history.com, about 1000 Punjabi people were slain in these un-just riots.
But here what the movie fails to mention or show:
Indira Gandhi was India’s Prime Minister, India’s chief political office. She was slain by her own Punjabi body guards.
Why was she slain by her own Punjabi body guards?
Indira Gandhi sent the military to pursue terrorists who had taken refuge in a Punjabi temple.
Why did the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi have to send the military?
Punjabi people had held that their temples were places of religious worship, and that law enforcement was not allowed inside. This may not have seemed like such a radical or bad idea originally. But, here is what that led to:
Robbers and murderers of Punjabi descent twisted it to their purpose by committing crimes, and then fleeing into a Punjabi temple to avoid getting arrested. The effect this had on the life in Delhi, the nation’s capitol was that in a bus full of 50 poeple, if one of them happened to be Punjabi, the rest would not say a word. The punjabi people were considered above the law, and considered themselves above the law.
In their own state of Punjab, it was a different story. Wicked oppressors prey on the weak. Since the state of Punjab did not have many non-Punjabi people, the oppressors there oppressed the weak they found there – women. They did many crimes against women, especially after dragging them into their places of worship, which were beyond the reach of law.
In such a situation, the Prime Minister of India sent the Army into a Punjabi place of worship to fetch out terrorists of Punjabi descent who had fled their for refuge.