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Scorched White Lilies of ’84 DELHI burnt after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A genocide took place as the state watched silently. Henchmen headed by local bigwigs let loose terror in the Sikh dominated areas of Trilokpuri, Mongolpuri, Nandpuri and Sultanpuri. Leaving these areas, the trauma-stricken victims settled in Tilak Vihar, which has emerged as a Sikh "slum". Anand purposely uses the word "slum" to describe the settlement "... to bring out the stark reality, show the community the mirror, and hurt the Sikh psyche, the Sikh pride".
With an aim to rehabilitate the women, Anand started a pioneer papad-making project based on the Lijjat Papad model, which was later substituted by the masala project. Financial independence and izzat (self-respect) for the women was the key idea behind the project. Among the trainees, Mataji and Puppy showed leadership qualities but were not easily accepted as supervisors because they did not belong to the Lubana caste to which most of the other women belonged. Caste seems to rear its ugly head everywhere. After many hiccups the project was set to roll. The masalas were ground and packed and the stalls were set up outside gurdwaras. This excellent piece of writing clearly indicates the attitudes of a "desensitized" Sikh community which "... driving down to gurdwaras in expensive sedans and sitting in air-conditioned gurdwaras found the masalas expensive by two to five rupees from the market rate of other popular brands". Making of pickles and seviyan (vermicelli) was added to the project and soon it was on its take-off stage. These women who were the victims of the anti-Sikh riots soon became an extended family for the writer. Conducting personal interviews and having personal talks with them brought to light the gruesome sexual atrocities inflicted on these scarred souls. Given their circumstances, "sex was not a sanctified word" and the choicest of abuses formed a part of their everyday language. The trauma and the memories of the genocide remain etched on the minds of these survivors. This book also relates the sad account of Jukti Ram who saved a few girls from meeting a deadly fate and was suspended in turn. All the red-tapism delayed rehabilitation and the money given for this very purpose and for the marriages of the daughters of the widows never reached them. Working with the scorched lilies, the writer was transformed into a woman rights activist as she was slowly drawn into their domestic lives and helped them fight for a decent life. Though there have been
many works on the anti-Sikh riots, they have not probed the psyche of
the female survivors. This is a highly readable documentation of the
saga of survival of the women of the 1984 holocaust.
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Scorched
White Lilies of ’84 is a
documentation of the life of survivors that delves into the struggles
of the female victims of the holocaust. On the writer’s initial
visit to Tilak Nagar, she was astounded by the noise level, the dismal
houses with a sea of humanity packed like sardines. The 925 families
that live in the locality are bankrupt both economically and
emotionally. Most households possess electronic gadgets that have been
purchased on credit. It is a place that is a haven for drug addicts,
lacks proper sanitation and school facilities.