Purewal, Navtej (2014) The Two Iron Ladies of 1984: Remembering the Postcoloniality of Operation Bluestar 30 Years on.
The Two Iron Ladies of 1984: Remembering the Postcoloniality of Operation Bluestar 30 Years on (Download) (1MB) |
Type of Research: | Other |
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Creators: | Purewal, Navtej |
Description: | Online article - Discover Society June 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, the code name for the Indian army storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. Operation Blue Star, ostensibly designed to rid the temple complex of Sikh separatist militants, resulted in serious damage to many parts of the temple complex and in the death of between 400 and 3000 people (depending on sources), including worshippers, priests, and the ‘fundamentalists’ residing there. The outcome, as critics of the operation have widely highlighted, showed a lack of the Indian government’s and military’s respect for the sacred status of the shrine. Indira Gandhi was subsequently shot at her residence by her two Sikh bodyguards, after which anti-Sikh ‘riots’, or ‘pogroms’, occurred across India, followed by nearly two decades of state repression and heightened religious sensibilities. However, the history of social control and religion goes much beyond Operation Blue Star and needs to be understood within a long historical backdrop of how empire and its postcolonial configurations have managed communities through the tools of social control of which religion continues to feature prominently. |
Official Website: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19013/ |
Your affiliations with UAL: | Research Centres/Networks > Decolonising Arts Institute |
Date: | 2014 |
Related Websites: | https://archive.discoversociety.org/2014/06/03/the-two-iron-ladies-of-1984-remembering-the-postcoloniality-of-operation-blue-star-thirty-years-on/ |
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Date Deposited: | 08 Aug 2025 15:43 |
Last Modified: | 08 Aug 2025 15:43 |
Item ID: | 24529 |
URI: | https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/24529 |
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