The Hep-Hep riots in Frankfurt, 1819. On the left, two peasant women are assaulting a Jewish man with pitchfork and broom. On the right, a man wearing spectacles, tails, and a six-button waistcoat, "perhaps a pharmacist or a schoolteacher,"^[1] holds another Jewish man by the throat and is about to club him with a truncheon. The houses are being looted. A contemporary engraving by Johann Michael Voltz.

A pogrom (Russian: погро́м) is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centers. It originally and still typically refers to 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews, particularly in the Russian Empire.^[2][3]

Infamous pogroms include the Odessa pogroms, Warsaw pogrom (1881), Kishinev pogrom (1903), Kiev Pogrom (1905), Białystok pogrom (1906), Lwów pogrom (1918), and Kiev Pogroms (1919). The most infamous pogrom in Nazi Germany was the Kristallnacht of 1938, in which at least 91 Jews were killed, a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps,^[4] over 1,000 synagogues burned, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.^[5][6]

Notorious pogroms of World War II included the 1941 Farhud in Iraq, the Iaşi pogrom in Romania – in which over 13,200 Jews were killed – and the Jedwabne pogrom in Poland. Post World War II pogroms included the 1945 Tripoli pogrom, the 1946 Kielce pogrom, and the 1947 Aleppo pogrom.

Attacks against non-Jews that have been described as pogroms including the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom against Igbos in southern Nigeria, and the 1920 Shusha pogrom, 1988 Sumgait pogrom and Kirovabad pogrom, in which ethnic Armenians were targeted.

Etymology[link]

The word pogrom originally derives from the Russian verb громи́ть (Russian pronunciation: [ɡrɐˈmʲitʲ]), "to destroy, to wreak havoc, to demolish violently" (in perfective, taking the form погроми́ть). Henry Abramson writes that "the etymological roots of the term pogrom are unclear, although it seems to be derived from the Slavic word for 'thunder(bolt)'... The first syllable, po-, is a prefix indicating "means" or "target". The word therefore seems to imply a sudden burst of energy (thunderbolt) directed at a specific target..."^[7] German scholar Werner Bergmann writes that the word's "international currency dates back to the anti-Semitic excesses in Tsarist Russia during the years 1881-1881."^[8] The word pogrom may have come into English (and, according to Abramson, European languages as well) from the Yiddish word פאָגראָם as a loanword from Russian.^[9]

Usage[link]

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "the term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, [and] the first extensive pogroms followed the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881,"^[3] and the Wiley-Blackwell Dictionary of Modern European History Since 1789 states that pogroms were "were antisemitic disturbances that periodically occurred within the tsarist empire."^[10] However, the term is widely used to refer to many events which occurred prior to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire. Historian of Russian Jewry John Klier writes in Russians, Jews, and the Pogroms of 1881-1882 that "By the twentieth century, the word 'pogrom' had become a generic term in English for all forms of collective violence directed against Jews."^[2]

The term is also used in reference to attacks on non-Jewish ethnic minorities, and accordingly some scholars do not include antisemitism as a defining characteristic of pogrom. Reviewing its uses in scholarly literature, historian Werner Bergmann proposes that pogroms be "defined as a unilateral, nongovernmental form of collective violence initiated by the majority population against a largely defenseless ethnic group, and occurring when the majority expect the state to provide them with no assistance in overcoming a (perceived) threat from the minority,"^[11] but adds that in western usage, the word's "anti-Semitic overtones" have been retained.^[8] Historian David Engel supports this, writing that "there can be no logically or empirically compelling grounds for declaring that some particular episode does or does not merit the label [pogrom]," but he offers that the majority of the incidents "habitually" described as pogroms took place in societies significantly divided by ethnicity and/or religion where the violence was committed by the higher-ranking group against a stereotyped lower-ranking group, and with the belief that the law of the land would not be used to stop them.^[12]

Klier writes that "when applied indiscriminately to events in Eastern Europe, the term can be misleading, the more so when it implies that "pogroms" were regular events in the region and that they always shared common features. In fact, outbreaks of mass violence against Jews were extraordinary events, not a regular feature of East European life."^[2] Use of the term to refer to events in 1918-19 in Polish cities including Kielce, Pinsk and Lwów was specifically avoided in the 1919 Morgenthau Report (preferring "excesses"), whose authors argued that the term pogrom was inapplicable to the conditions existing in a war zone and required the situation to be antisemitic in nature rather than political,^[13][14][12] and media use of the term pogrom to refer to the 1991 Crown Heights riot caused public controversy.^[15][16][17]

Pogroms against Jews[link]

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Roman[link]

Philo witnessed and described the Alexandrian pogroms against Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE.

Medieval[link]

Massive violent attacks against Jews date back at least to the Crusades such as the Pogrom of 1096 in France and Germany (the first "Christian" pogroms to be officially recorded), as well as the massacres of Jews at London and York in 1189–1190.

During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, beginning in the 9th century, Islamic Spain was more tolerant towards Jews.^[18] The 11th century, however, saw several Muslim pogroms against Jews; notably those that occurred in Cordoba in 1011 and in Granada in 1066.^[19] In the 1066 Granada massacre, the first large pogrom on European soil, a Muslim mob crucified the Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacred about 4,000 Jews^[20] In 1033 about 6,000 Jews were killed in Fez, Morocco by Muslim mobs.^[21][22] Mobs in Fez murdered thousands of Jews in 1276,^[23] and again, leaving only 11 alive, in 1465.^[23][24]

In Europe in 1348, because of the hysteria surrounding the Black Plague, Jews were massacred by Christians in Chillon, Basle, Stuttgart, Ulm, Speyer, Dresden, and Mainz. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed.^[25] A large number of the surviving Jews fled to Poland, which was very welcoming to Jews at the time.^[26]

In 1506, after an episode of famine and bad harvests, an enormous pogrom happened in Lisbon, Portugal,^[27] in which more than 500 "New-Christian" (forcibly converted Jews) people were slaughtered and/or burnt by an angry Christian mob, in the first night of what became known as the "Pogrom of Lisbon" or "Lisbon's great massacre of 1506".^{[citation needed]} The killing continued for almost a week, almost eliminating the entire Jewish or Jewish-descendant community residing in that city. Even the Portuguese military and the king himself had difficulty stopping it. The event is today remembered with a monument in S. Domingos' church.

Tens of thousands of Jews were massacred by Cossacks in Ukraine during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648–1657,^[28] and thousands more during the Koliyivshchyna in 1768-1769.

19th century[link]

Pogroms against Jews known as the Hep-Hep riots began on August 2, 1819 in Würzburg, Germany and soon reached as far as regions of Denmark, Poland, Latvia and Bohemia. Many Jews were killed and much Jewish property was destroyed.^[29]

The 1821 Odessa pogroms marked the start of the nineteenth century wave of pogroms in the Russian empire, with further pogroms in Odessa in 1859. However, the period 1881-1884 was a peak period, with over 200 anti-Jewish events occurred in the Russian Empire, notably Kiev, Warsaw and Odessa.

There were pogroms too in the nineteenth century in the Arab and Islamic worlds. There was a massacre of Jews in Baghdad in 1828.^[30] There was another massacre in Barfurush in 1867.^[30] In 1839, in the eastern Persian city of Meshed, a mob burst into the Jewish Quarter, burned the synagogue, and destroyed the Torah scrolls. This is known as the Allahdad incident. It was only by forcible conversion that a massacre was averted.^[31]

The Damascus affair occurred in 1840, when an Italian monk and his servant disappeared in Damascus. Immediately following, a charge of ritual murder was brought against a large number of Jews in the city. All were found guilty. The consuls of England, France and Austria as well as Ottoman authorities, Christians, Muslims and Jews all played a great role in this affair.^[32]

Early 20th century[link]

Russian Empire[link]

There were several waves of pogroms throughout the Russian Empire.

See Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.

Outside Russia[link]

Pogroms spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Anti-Jewish riots also broke out elsewhere in the world.

• In the 1911 Tredegar riot in Wales, Jewish homes and businesses were looted and burned over the period of a week, before the British army was called in by then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill, who described the riot as a "pogrom".^[33]
• In the Lwów pogrom (1918), 72 Jews were killed and 443 injured by Polish troops, militia and civilians.^{[34][35][36][37][38]}
• In the Americas, there was a pogrom in Argentina in 1919, during the Tragic Week^[39]
• In 1919, pogroms were reported in several cities in Poland.^[40]

During the Holocaust[link]

Pogroms were also encouraged by the Nazis, especially early in the war before the larger mass killings began. The first of these pogroms was Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, often called Pogromnacht, in which at least 91 Jews were killed, a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps,^[4] over 1,000 synagogues burned, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.^[5][6]

A number of pogroms occurred during the Holocaust at the hands of non-Germans. Perhaps the deadliest of these Holocaust-era pogroms was the Iaşi pogrom in Romania, in which as many as 13,266 Jews were killed by Romanian citizens, police, and military officials.^[41]

On 1–2 June 1941, the two-day Farhud pogrom in Iraq, in which "rioters murdered between 150 and 180 Jews, injured 600 others, and raped an undetermined number of women. They also looted some 1,500 stores and homes".^[42][43]

In the city of Lwow, some Ukrainian police along with occupying Nazis organized two large pogroms in June–July, 1941, in which around 6,000 Jews were murdered,^[44] in alleged retribution for the collaboration of some Jews with the Soviet regime and the large number of communists who happened to be of Jewish descent (see The Lviv pogroms controversy (1941)).

In Lithuania, some Lithuanian police led by Algirdas Klimaitis and the Lithuanian partisans — consisting of LAF units reinforced by 3,600 deserters from 29th Lithuanian Territorial Corps of the Red Army^[45] engaged in anti-Jewish pogroms in Kaunas along with occupying Nazis. On 25–26 June 1941 about 3,800 Jews were killed and synagogues and Jewish settlements burned.^[46]

During the Jedwabne pogrom of July 1941, some non-Jewish Poles burned at least 340 Jews in a barn-house (final findings of the Institute of National Remembrance) in the presence of Nazi German Ordnungspolizei. The role of the German Einsatzgruppe B remains the subject of debate.^{[47][48][49][50][51][52]}

After World War II[link]

After the end of World War II, a series of violent anti-Semitic incidents occurred throughout Europe, particularly in the Soviet-liberated East, where most of the returning Jews came back after liberation by the Allied Powers, and where the Nazi propagandists had extensively promoted the notion of a Jewish-Communist conspiracy (see Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946 and Anti-Jewish violence in Eastern Europe, 1944–1946). Anti-Jewish riots also took place in Britain in 1947.

In the Arab world, there were a number of pogroms which played a key role in the massive emigration from Arab countries to Israel.

• Anti-Jewish rioters killed over 140 Jews in the 1945 Tripoli pogrom.
• The 1945 Cairo pogrom marked the start of a series of violent acts against Egypt's Jews.
• Half of Aleppo's 10,000 Jews left the city in the wake of the 1947 Aleppo pogrom.
• The 1947 Aden pogrom brought to an end the existence of Aden's almost two-thousand-year-old Jewish community.
• The 1948 Oujda and Jerada pogrom and 1954 Petitjean pogrom were pogroms in Morocco.^[53]

The 1991 Crown Heights Riot in Brooklyn, New York has been referred to as a "pogrom" by persons such as Rudy Giuliani^[54] and the New York Times columnist A. M. Rosenthal.^[55]

Influence of pogroms against Jews[link]

The pogroms of the 1880s caused a worldwide outcry and, along with harsh laws, propelled mass Jewish emigration. Two million Jews fled the Russian Empire between 1880 and 1914, with many going to the United Kingdom and United States.

In reaction to the pogroms and other oppressions of the Tsarist period, Jews increasingly became politically active. Jewish participation in The General Jewish Labor Bund, colloquially known as The Bund, and in the Bolshevik movements, was directly influenced by the pogroms. Similarly, the organization of Jewish self-defense leagues (which stopped the pogromists in certain areas during the second Kishinev pogrom), such as Hovevei Zion, led to a strong embrace of Zionism, especially by Russian Jews.

Pogroms against other ethnic targets[link]

Diverse ethnic groups have suffered from these targeted riots at various times and in different countries. The term "pogrom" has been used in the general context of violence against various ethnic groups. Werner Bergmann proposes that "[b]y the collective attribution of a threat, the pogrom differs from forms of violence, such as lynching, which are directed at individual members of a minority, while the imbalance of power in favor of the rioters distinguishes pogroms from other forms of riot (food riots, race riots, or 'communal riots' between evenly matched groups), and again, the low level of organization separates them from vigilantism, terrorism, massacre and genocide".^[56]

• In 1920, the Shusha pogrom was directed at Armenians in Nagorno-Karabagh
• The Istanbul riots of September 6–7, 1955 (sometimes known as the "Istanbul pogrom") killed over a dozen people, and greatly accelerated the emigration of ethnic Greeks from Turkey. Other ethnic minorities were also targeted — 500 stores in the Jewish quarter were damaged or destroyed.^[57]
• In the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom Igbos in Nigeria were targeted
• In 1988, Armenians in Azerbaijan were targeted in the Sumgait pogrom and Kirovabad pogrom.
• In 1989, after bloody pogroms against the Meskhetian Turks by Uzbeks in Central Asia's Ferghana Valley, nearly 90,000 Meskhetian Turks left Uzbekistan.^[58][59]
• The Pogrom of Armenians in Baku occurred in 1990.
• In Egypt, the rise in extremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiya during the 1980s was accompanied by attacks on Copts and on Coptic churches; these have since declined with the decline of those organizations, but still continue.^[60] The police have been accused of siding with the attackers in some of these cases.^{[61][Need quotation to verify]}
• In May 2008, there were pogroms against migrants across South Africa that left almost 100 people dead and up to 100,000 displaced.^[62]
• Although Iraqi Christians represent less than 5% of the total Iraqi population, they make up 40% of the Iraqi refugees now living in nearby countries, according to UNHCR.^[63][64] Massacres, ethnic cleansing, and harassment has increased since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.^[65]
• Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has used the term "pogrom" twice in recent history to describe attacks against Palestinian Arab civilians perpetrated by Israeli settlers. The first usage was in reference to a group of West Bank settlers from Yitzhar who attacked a Palestinian village in September 2008.^[66] The second usage described an incident which occurred in December 2008, wherein Hebron settlers lashed out at Palestinians in that city in response to the eviction of a settler group from a disputed building by Israeli security. Olmert opined, "As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at innocent Arabs in Hebron. There is no other definition than the term 'pogrom' to describe what I have seen".^[67]

See also[link]

• Ethnic cleansing
• Mass murder
• Genocide
• Race riots
• Communal violence

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, The myth of the Jewish world conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (Serif, London, 1996)[1]
• Dekel-Chen, Jonathan, et al. eds. Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History (Indiana University Press; 2011) 220 pages; scholars examine pogroms of the late 1800s and early 1900s in Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Crimea, and Siberia.
• Horvitz, Leslie, and Christopher Catherwood, eds. Encyclopedia of War Crimes And Genocide (Facts on File Library of World History, 2006)
• Shelton, Dinah, ed. Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity (Macmillan Reference, 3 vol. 2005)
• Thackrah, John, ed. Encyclopedia of terrorism and political violence (1987)

Michael Coren (born January 15, 1959) is an English-Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. He hosted the television talk show The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 when he moved to the Sun News Network to host an evening talk show, The Arena with Michael Coren.^[1] He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on CFRB radio.

He has written more than ten books, including biographies of G.K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and C. S. Lewis. His latest book, Why Catholics are Right, was published in 2011.

Life and career[link]

Coren was born in Essex, England. After obtaining a degree in politics from Nottingham University, he moved from the UK to Canada in 1987. For several years, he was a columnist for Frank and then The Globe and Mail, before he began syndicated columns for the Financial Post and Sun Media in 1995. Following his departure from Frank, he became a favourite target of that publication, culminating in a spoof ad contest to "deflower" Michael Coren (a nod to Frank's notorious "Deflower Caroline Mulroney" contest, and a satirical jab at Coren's conservative leanings.) Coren had also been a favorite target of Frank back in the days before he began writing for them. Coren took exception to being labelled a "literary prostitute" during a 1994 interview.^[2]

His career as a broadcaster began in the early 1990s when he co-hosted a political debate segment with Irshad Manji on TVOntario's Studio 2. In 1995, he began an evening talk show on CFRB. In 1999, Coren briefly moved to Talk 640 for a short stint as its morning man. He returned to CFRB, where he hosted a show from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. weekday nights, and regularly filled in for other hosts until November 2005. Coren was dismissed by CFRB as a result of complaints arising from comments ridiculing the weight of an apparent guest. In fact, the guest was an actor and the segment was scripted. According to CFRB's Operations Manager, Steve Kowch, "Pat Holiday, our general manager and myself went through the tape of Monday night's show and were shocked....it was totally out of bounds." Coren argues that it was a satire comparing in his mind public attitude to third world starvation with North America's obsession with slimming and self-indulgence. ^[2]

Despite this acrimonious termination, Coren made regular talk show appearances on CFRB in July 2006, at the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, as he happened to be in Israel at the time. After receiving 60% approval from CFRB listeners in an August 2006 poll, Coren returned to the CFRB airwaves in September 2006 with a Sunday evening show.^[3] As of the 22nd of April 2007, the show expanded from its usual 1 hour 7-8pm to 7-9 pm.^[4] Coren celebrated by giving away double the prizes usually given out. In the fall of 2007 he and former Liberal Party of Canada president Stephen LeDrew launched a daily hour-long afternoon show on CFRB called Two Bald Guys With Strong Opinions in which the two argue about the issues of the day.^[5] After the departure of LeDrew, Coren was joined by Tarek Fatah after several on air auditions by potential replacement co-hosts. Coren was again let go by CFRB along with 12 other staff of the Toronto radio station on 27 August 2009.^[6]

On television, Coren hosted the Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System until June 2011 when he left to join the Sun News Network where he hosts The Arena with Michael Coren weeknights on beginning August 30, 2011. Coren also has a newspaper column published every Saturday in the Sun newspaper chain. He has been a columnist for the Western Standard, Catholic Insight and The Women's Post and has contributed to National Post, Reader's Digest and several other publications. A self-professed Tottenham Hotspur fan, he has appeared as a guest host on The Score's The Footy Show. Coren is also a public speaker, particularly at religious gatherings.

Political controversies[link]

In his earlier, satirical Aesthete column in Frank magazine Coren was by his own admission deliberately provocative. In response to a 1994 interview question about AIDS he responded:

"Look, people are dying all over. When it was blacks in Africa dying of AIDS, no one gave a toss. Nobody gave a toss. Suddenly, it's middleclass men in California and everyone goes crazy about it. It's a double standard. I'm trying to provoke people into rethinking comfortable points of view."^[2]

In September 2006, Coren published an article in the Toronto Sun, supporting the use of tactical nuclear strikes against Iran.^[7] This position was later retracted.^[8]

On the subject of AIDS Michael Coren wrote a column in 2006 titled "Why is AIDS so special?" in which he said "At its most simple, stop fornicating." "AIDS in the West is still overwhelmingly a threat to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users."^[9]

In an article which appeared in Sun Media in 2007, Coren said "As for Jesus not condemning homosexuality, nor did He condemn bestiality and necrophilia."^[10]

Religious Views[link]

His articles and speeches often include stories of his own personal spiritual journey. Coren's father was Jewish as was his maternal grandfather, while his maternal grandmother came from a family of Welsh coalminers and converted to Judaism. Coren's father and uncle were cab drivers. Coren has said that his father's family left Poland a few decades before the Holocaust.^[11] He has also said that his father's family emigrated from Poland in the 1890s.^[12] He said "People have called me an anti-Semite. I thought it quite rich since my father's family was massacred in the Holocaust".^[2] Michael Coren was profiled on Credo, on Vision TV, and said that his father told him he could not attend his son's wedding in a Catholic Church without becoming "physically sick."

He converted to Roman Catholicism in his early twenties while still living in England, but that didn't last long. He said that he "converted to an institution." He eventually converted to Evangelical Christianity in the 1990s, after a conversion experience as an adult, greatly influenced by Canadian televangelist Terry Winter.

In 1991 Michael Coren said in a column for a humour magazine: "The evangelical Christians may be intolerant, small-minded, and repellent, but at least they hold a consistent set of beliefs".^[2]

In a 1993 book review he said "Can anyone imagine a detective priest? Regrettably, it is easier to conjure up the image of a priest being questioned by secular detectives over abuse charges." Also in 1993, Michael Coren had a falling out with the Catholic Church over an unflattering profile he wrote of Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic for Toronto Life magazine^{[citation needed]}. The Bishop, who made Coren a "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre" in a ceremony in October 1992, was quoted using words including "friggin" and "bitch", and said that Francisco Franco was a "conservative Roman Catholic and not a bad fellow." Coren defended himself, saying "He's an archbishop and he was vulgar...obviously what thousands of Roman Catholics expected me to do was lie. I still get hate mail about the article."

After this incident, Coren said that he didn't consider himself a Roman Catholic anymore. He said "My wife is Catholic and the children will be raised Catholic, but that's it. It's just not there for me."^{[citation needed]} Daniel Richler observed that Coren loves scandal, but hates having it come his way. In one of his columns for the satirical humour magazine Frank, Michael Coren depicted Mother Teresa getting drunk in a bar.^[2]

In early 2004, he embraced Catholicism again. He cites St. Thomas More, C. S. Lewis, Ronald Knox and his godfather Lord Longford as spiritual influences, and remains connected to the ecumenical scene in Canada and beyond.

Published books[link]

• Theatre Royal: 100 Years of Stratford East (1985) ISBN 0-7043-2474-1
• Gilbert: The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton (1990) ISBN 1-55778-256-3
• The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells (1993) ISBN 0-689-12119-9
• The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1993) ISBN 0-7475-1229-9
• The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis (1994) ISBN 1-895555-78-7
• Setting It Right (1996) ISBN 0-7737-2940-2
• J.R.R.Tolkien: The Man who Created the Lord of the Rings (2001) ISBN 0-7522-6156-8
• As I See It (2009) ISBN 0-9812767-0-9
• Why Catholics Are Right (2011) ISBN 0-7710-2321-9

Awards[link]

Awards Michael Coren has won.^[13]

• 2005: The Ed Murrow Award for Broadcasting.
• 2006: The RTNDA Radio Broadcasting Award.
• 2007: The Communicator Award in Hollywood.
• 2008: the Omni TV Award.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Michael Coren's blog
• [1] Coren's column in The Toronto Sun

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (March 2009)

Jagdish Tytler
Jagdish Tytler at Manjeet Bullar Cavalry Gold Cup Polo 2010
Personal details
Born	(1944-01-11) 11 January 1944 (age 68) New Delhi
Political party	INC
Residence	New Delhi
Religion	Christianity[1]
As of September 16, 2006

Jagdish Tytler (b. January 11, 1944 as Jagdish Kapoor) is a controversial Indian National Congress politician, and former member of Indian Parliament. He was the Indian Union Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs, a position he resigned from after an official commission of inquiry noted the 'balance of probability' indicated he was responsible for inciting and leading murderous mobs against the Sikh community in Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a charge he denies.

Early days[link]

Jagdish Tytler at his own Sikh wedding performed by a Granthi.

Tytler was born as Jagdish Kapoor in Gujranwala (now in Pakistan), to a Hindu father and Sikh mother.^[2] He was later brought up by educationist James Douglas Tytler, the founder of Delhi Public School and several other schools. Upon, his influence he converted to Christianity and changed his surname.^[1]

He was brought up by the eminent educationist, James Douglas Tytler, who was the founder of many public schools including the Delhi Public School and the Summer Fields School.^[3]

He was highly influenced by Mr. James Douglas Tytler and therefore, to show his gratitude towards Mr. James Douglas Tytler he acquired his surname. Since then Jagdish Kapoor was called Jagdish Tytler.

Active in the Congress' youth organisation and a disciple of Sanjay Gandhi, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. He served as a Union Minister first in the Civil Aviation department and then in the Labor department. He was re-elected in 1991 and served as the Union Minister of State for Surface Transport. In 2004, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha.

1984 anti-Sikh pogroms[link]

The official report of the Nanavati Commission of the Government of India on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots found 'credible evidence' against Tytler, saying he 'very probably' had a hand in organising the attacks. The Indian government, however, decided not to prosecute Jagdish Tytler due to lack of concrete evidence.

Tytler claimed innocence, and maintained that it was a case of mistaken identity. Tytler had not been named by eight earlier inquiry commissions setup to investigate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. On August 10, 2005, his resignation from the Union Council of Ministers was accepted by the President of India on the recommendation of Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.

On April, 2004 the Indian National Congress Party announced Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, R. K. Anand and others allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh riots, as its candidates for Indian Parliament elections for constituencies in and around Delhi. Sajjan Kumar, R. K. Anand, Darshan Sharstri and H.K.L.Bhagat were accused by several independent commissions of inquiry of being complicit in the riots, including the People's Union for Civil Liberties, the People's Union for Democratic Rights and the Citizen's Justice Committee.

The G.T. Nanavati Commission, which is now looking into the riots, continues to receive affidavits from victims with details of the activities of Sajjan, Anand and H.K.L.Bhagat. Tytler became minister of state with independent charge of non-resident affairs, a post which he relinquished under duress, following the Nanavati Commission's report.

Remarks against Phoolka[link]

During an interview of Tytler and advocate H. S. Phoolka on NDTV in 2004, Tytler had accused Phoolka of blackmailing him and demanding money from him.^[4] Phoolka had filed the case at the Ludhiana court against Tytler accusing him of making defamatory remarks in programmes telecast on NDTV news channel. Harvinder Singh Phoolka, a senior advocate is noted for spearheading legal battle to gain justice for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.^[5]

Recently, Tytler was granted bail in defamation case filed by Phoolka.^[6]

In an interview to CNN-IBN, Justice Nanavati says the evidence against Jagdish Tytler is not that strong.^[7]

Reopening of the case in 2007[link]

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) closed all cases against Jagdish Tytler in November 2007 for his alleged criminal conspiracy to engineer riots against Sikhs in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984. CBI submitted a report to the Delhi court which stated that no evidence or witness was found to corroborate the allegations against Tytler of leading murderous mobs during 1984^[8]"Fresh probe into India politician". news.bb.co.uk. December 18, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7149322.stm. </ref> It was also alleged in the court that then member of the Indian Parliament Jagdish Tytler was complaining to his supporters about relatively "small" number of sikhs killed in his parliamentary constituency Delhi Sadar, which in his opinion had undermined his position in the ruling Indian National Congress party of India.^[9]

However in December 2007, a witness Jasbir Singh, who lives in California, appeared on several private television news channels in India, and stated that he was never contacted by Central Bureau of Investigation. India's main opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded an explanation from the minister in charge of CBI in Indian Parliament. However, Minister of State for Personnel Suresh Pachouri, who is in charge of department of CBI, and was present in the parliament session refused to make a statement.^[10]

On December 18, 2007, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi court Mr. Sanjeev Jain, who had earlier dismissed the case after CBI submitted a misleading report in his court; ordered India's Central Bureau of Investigation to reopen cases relating to 1984 Anti-Sikh riots against Jagdish Tytler.^[11]

December 2008[link]

In December 2008, a two member CBI team was sent to New York to record the statements of two eyewitnesses, Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh. The two witnesses have stated that they saw Jagdish Tytler lead a mob during the riots, but did not want to come to India as they feared for their security.^[12]

Clean chit by CBI in 2009[link]

In March 2009, when the CBI filed its final report on investigation into the riots case involving Jagdish Tytler, the BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar alleged that the "such a clean chit ahead of the elections" implied CBI has been misused.^[13] Hundreds of Sikh protestors gathered outside the Karkardooma courts and raised slogans against Tytler and other senior leaders allegedly involved in the riots.^[13]

Shoe throwing incident instigated by clean chit to Tytler[link]

On 7 April 2009, India's home minister P. Chidambaram was assaulted by Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist during a press conference in Delhi on the issue of clean chit to Jagdish Tytler. Singh, who works at the Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran was dissatisfied with Chidamabaram's answer to a question on the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) clean chit to Jagdish Tytler on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.^[14]

Denial of Lok Sabha ticket[link]

After this shoe throwing incident, Congress party dropped both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as congress candidates for Lok Sabha 2009 elections.^[15] Jadgish Tytler accused the media of victimizing him through a media trial. Tytler blamed the Shiromani Akali Dal and his enemies within the Congress party for scuttling his nomination.^[16]

See also[link]

• 1984 anti-Sikh riots
• H. K. L. Bhagat
• H. S. Phoolka
• Nanavati Commission
• Sajjan Kumar

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Cong listens to sole - Tytler and Sajjan eased out The Telegraph - April 10. 2009. quote(final para): "He was later brought up by educationist Rev. James Douglas Tytler, the founder of Delhi Public School and several other schools, and converted to Christianity."
2. ^ Bio-Data of Jagdish Singh Tytler
3. ^ "Bio-Data of Shri Jagdish Tytler". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=1971. 
4. ^ NDTV Interview of HS Phoolka and Jagdish Tytler
5. ^ 25 years after 1984 riots, victims' lawyer soldiers on
6. ^ Tytler granted bail in defamation case
7. ^ Justice Nanavati talks to IBN-CNN
8. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
9. ^ Re-probe Tytler’s role: Court
10. ^ BJP to govt: Clear stand on anti-Sikh riots' witness
11. ^ 1984 riots: CBI to re-investigate Tytler's role
12. ^ Anti Sikh riots witness to give statement to CBI in US
13. ^ ^{a b} CBI files final report in anti-Sikh riot case against Tytler. Press Trust of India.
14. ^ The Times of India
15. ^ Congress drops Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar
16. ^ Sheila shooed me out

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jagdish Tytler

• "United States Should Not Let Tytler Enter Country" Statement by New York Representative Edolphus Towns in US Congress.
• witness84.com Jagdish Tytler
• "I am innocent: Tytler" - rediff.com article dated August 8, 2005
• witness84.com
• NDTV X-Factor discussion about involvement of HKL Bhagat, Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Congress Party in 1984 riots
• antisystemic.org, After Apology, Congress Tries to Scuttle Sikh Massacre Report
• NDTV Interview of HS Phoolka and Jagdish Tytler on YouTube