Charu Nivedita's novel 'Marginal Man' excerpt depicts 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi

An excerpt from Charu Nivedita's novel 'Marginal Man' portrays the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following Indira Gandhi's assassination. The narrative follows a narrator in Mayur Vihar, Delhi, who befriends a Sikh boy named Rekhi. After Gandhi's death on Wednesday morning, mob violence erupts, with Sikhs targeted based on ration card records. The narrator witnesses horrific scenes: four people set ablaze near a gurudwara, charred bodies littering Block 27, and a makeshift shelter containing the burned corpses of two children and an elderly man. Police and army responses are depicted as delayed and ineffective, with the police commissioner announcing only 15 deaths while BBC reports indicate thousands killed. The narrator hides Rekhi and his mother by falsely identifying them as Hindu relatives, but mobsters eventually return and violently abduct Rekhi. The novel is set against political regimes of the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, drawing parallels between the 1984 Delhi riots and 2002 Gujarat riots. Published by Zero Degree Publishing, the book was reviewed in ArtReview Asia's Spring 2018 issue.