Delhi riots began from attack of blue star operation. This operation was a "code name given by the Indian government to an attack on golden temple", which is Sikhs holiest place. This attack on Golden temple was ordered by the Indian government and Indira Gandhi herself because they wanted to arrest Bhinderanwale and his followers. The reason they wanted to arrest him was that he was becoming threat to India because of his popularity in India. He was demanding the rights of Sikhs as "One of the Indians constitution refused to recognize the Sikhs religion as a distinct and does not recognize Sikh marriages". .
There are many reasons why Indian government attacked Sikhs, they wanted to get rid of Sikhs. Also from starting Hindus had problems with Sikhs because when Indian government was writing an Indian constitution that Sikhs are Hindus with long hair but Sikhs refused to do so. "The Indian government broke all their promises and forgot all about the liberties the Sikhs had won for India". Sikhs asked Nehru about the promise he made about the separate state for Sikhs called Punjab but Nehru refused.
The November 1984 killing in Delhi is one of the darkest periods in the history of independent India. From October 31 to November 7, 1984, Delhi along with many other places in India witnessed widespread conflict in which thousands of Sikhs were killed following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards. In the days following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, marauding mobs of Hindus angry at the assassination of Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards killed over two thousand Sikh men, women, and children and burned and looted hundreds of Sikh homes, businesses, and places of worship. .
It is widely believed that the two Sikh bodyguards who assassinated Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, were driven by their anger over the Golden Temple episode.