“If Impunity is Allowed to Go Unchallenged, it Becomes a Pattern For the Future”

In the history of independent India, what have been the landmarks that have shaped Indian society and politics?

In the first of a three-part conversation on 75 years of India’s independence with activist and independent researcher Sahba Husain, feminist historian Uma Chakravarti spoke about the slipping away of the fundamental rights and the basic framework of our constitution in present day India. The second part focuses on the communal violence of 1984 against Sikhs in Delhi.

Here Uma describes the pogrom as one of the major landmarks in the history of independent India. She states that the impunity given to the police during the 1984 violence set a precedent for impunity in the incidents of communal violence in 1992 and 2002.