ABSTRACT
The anti-Sikh violence of October–November 1984 is among the darkest pages of contemporary Indian history. It is variously referred to as a riot, a pogrom, a case of communal violence, and a genocide. This chapter considers the narratives coagulated in these names of violence as they are used to frame 1984. It argues that “genocide” is unsuited to describe what was possibly planned as a pogrom in the pursuit of immediate political objectives. At the same time, to understand the framing of 1984 as genocide, it is necessary to acknowledge its psychological and political value, based on how violence was experienced and made sense of by many of its victims.
