Some months after the 1984 massacre of the Sikhs in Delhi, a lecturer of Indraprastha College called me to say MANUSHI should do something to help the family of a man named Prabhu Dayal who had died while saving the lives of women of his Sikh employer’s household. His daughter was studying in IP college at the time. The teacher came to know of the incident because she noticed that this teenage girl sank into a deep depression after her father’s tragic death. While investigating the 1984 pogroms, I had come across several cases of Hindu families having protected endanegered Sikh families of their neighbourhood, but this was the only case where a man actually sacrificed his life while saving lives of others.Even though the Sikh industrialist family that had employed Prabhu Dayal was fairly wealthy, they had done nothing to support Prabhau Dayal’s family. Perhaps they were too truamatised by the 1984 events to care for the plight of someone else. Having lost their main earning member, Prabhu Dayal’s working class family faced penury. Manushi got in touch with that family and wrote a report on the incident…
Read more of this piece by Madhu Kishwar: http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1643
