Pav Singh's '1984' book review: Anti-Sikh riots, for European eyes

He compares the use of phosphorous by mobs to burn the faces of their Sikh victims with the use of this chemical by German bombers over London during the war

1984

India’s Guilty Secret

Pav Singh

Rupa

268 pages; Rs 500

Almost 35 years after the anti-Sikh riots that followed former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination, there has been no justice but certainly a surfeit of literature, documentaries, and cinema on the carnage that will remain a scar on India’s collective memory for eternity. Pav Singh (an anglicised version of Parvinder Singh), a British-born and -bred author, seeks to add to the stable but fails miserably in what is a confused mix of journalistic endeavour and academic rigour — or rather, the lack of both.

It is hard to trust a book when the