Mehr Kaur

Kultar's Mime Mehr Kaur

Kultar's Mime tells the stories of Sikh children who survived the Delhi massacre through a poem that grew into a play, made its way from Boston to Delhi, and restarted the conversation about a forgotten chapter in history.

In April 1903, a pogrom targeted the Jewish population in Kishinev, Russia, leaving many dead and wounded and thousands homeless. Upon visiting the aftermath, the Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik composed one of his most famous poems, "In the City of Slaughter."

In 1984, after Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot by her Sikh bodyguards, an orgy of murder, rape, and arson was unleashed upon the Sikh residents of Delhi, in which more than three thousand lost their lives. When he eventually discovered the hidden truth, Sarbpreet Singh, then a young Sikh living in Milwaukee wrote the poem "Kultar's Mime."

The play Kultar's Mime synthesizes the suffering caused by these two events, separated by thousands of miles, many years, and vast cultural differences. Through the raw imagery of the two poems, it reminds us that, in the end, all innocent victims are the same.