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Assassination: When Delhi Burned

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31/10/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Assassination: When Delhi Burned

Bobby Friction goes back to Delhi 30 years after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Bobby Friction and Prof Swaran Singh were caught up in the riots that erupted in Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Now, 30 years later, they return.

Bobby Friction was in Delhi visiting his relatives when the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on the 31st October 1984 by her two Sikh bodyguards. Riots erupted across the city to avenge the killing. Bobby went into hiding with his family to escape the mobs who went on the rampage in the shocking aftermath of her death.

Professor Swaran Singh, Head, Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing at Warwick University and a Consultant Psychiatrist, was a trainee surgeon in Delhi in 1984. He witnessed first-hand the riots, the killings and the anguish of those who survived. He was moved to work with the children who had lost either one or both parents - and set up a play area for them where he could also carry out medical checks in the Tilak Vihar area of Delhi.

However, two years later he left not only Tilak Vihar, but India, vowing never to return, traumatised by all he'd seen.

Now, 30 years on from the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Bobby Friction takes Swaran back to Delhi and together they go in search of the children he left behind in 1984.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

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