Dharam Yudh Morcha (film)

Dharam Yudh Morcha is a Punjabi film about the era from 1947 to 1984 that highlights the fight of the Sikh people of India to safeguard the fundamental rights of the Sikh religion and linguistic minorities and to establish an equal Sikh Rights in the Region of India. The film originates from The Punjabi Suba movement to create a province for the Punjabi Sikh people and the ensuing conflicts between the proponents of the movement and the Indian Government. The movie seeks to shed light on the distortion of the peaceful Dharam Yudh Morcha protest movement into a violent protest. The story is taken from 200-plus eyewitness accounts and official documents. Information gathering and research for the movie took almost 3 years to compile and execute into a story and screenplay. The script was finished in July, 2015. The film derives its title from "Dharam Yudh Morcha" which was launched in the year 1982 to implement the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.

The film was directed by Naresh S Garg. The story was written by Karamjit Singh Batth. The film stars Raj Kakra, Karamjit Singh Batth as Satnam Singh, with Nitu Pandher, Shakku Rana, Amritpal Singh, Malkeet Rauni, Victor John, Sunny Gill, Sarabjit Purewal and Rajwinder Samrala in supporting roles. The movie was filmed on location in India, primarily in a village around Anandpur Sahib, as well as around the Golden Temple Amritsar, Village Mehta, Village Rode (Moga) and around Mohali (Punjab).

Plot

The Movie depicts the story of Satnam Singh, who is a survivor of the Blue Star Attack. His grandson finds a picture of young Satnam Singh and questions him about his past life. The story revolves around the era when Satnam Singh was a young man and he tells his grandson about being involved in the Punjabi Suba Movement and the Dharam Yudh Morcha, as well as the escalation from peaceful protest to the violence which ensued when the Indian Government, viewing the movement as secessionist, moved against the protestors with military force.

Historical events and topics featured in the film include: The River Water Dispute, Anandpur Sahib Resolution, 1978 Nirankari kand, Dharam Yudh Morcha, the arrest of over thirty thousand Sikhs in two-and-a-half months in 1982, the Life of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindrawale and the Bluestar Attack.

Cast

Production

Background

When India was given independence from British rule in 1947, partition was done to create two separate dominions, India and Pakistan. India essentially provided a territory for self-government for the Hindus, while Pakistan provided a territory for self-government for the Muslims. The province of Punjab ceased to exist and was divided into two provinces, East Punjab, in India, largely populated by Sikh and Hindu people, and West Punjab, in Pakistan. Led by the Akali Dal, the Punjabi population started demanding Punjabi as the first language and their share of the river water and other resources, in the 1950s and called their protest movement Punjabi Subha Morcha.

In 1973, the Akali Dal, drafted the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to clearly outline the demands of the Punjabi Sikh population, including a region with river water access and the first language as Punjabi, the return of Chandigarh to Punjab. On 13 April 1978, the day to celebrate the birth of Khalsa, a peaceful Sant Nirankari convention was organized in Amritsar, with permission from the Akali state government. The practices of "Sant Nirankaris" sect of Nirankaris was considered as heretics by the orthodox Sikhism expounded by Bhindranwale.^[1] From Golden Temple premises,^[2] Bhindranwale delivered an angry sermon in which he declared that he would not allow this convention and would go there and cut them to pieces.^[3] A procession of about two hundred Sikhs led by Bhindranwale and Fauja Singh of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha left the Golden Temple, heading towards the Nirankari Convention.^[4] Fauja attempted to behead Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh with his sword but was shot dead by Gurbachan's bodyguard, while Bhindranwale escaped.^[3] In the ensuing violence, several people were killed: two of Bhindranwale's followers, eleven members of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and three Nirankaris.^[3] This event brought Bhindranwale to limelight in the media.^[5]

A criminal case was filed against sixty two Nirankaris, by the Akali led government in Punjab. The case was heard in the neighbouring Haryana state, and all the accused were acquitted on grounds of self defence.^[6] The Punjab government Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal decided not to appeal the decision.^[7]

The case of Nirankaris received widespread support in the media and the orthodox Sikhs claimed this to be a conspiracy to defame the Sikh religion.^[6] Bhindranwale increased his rhetoric against the enemies of Sikhs. A letter of authority was issued by Akal Takht to ostracize the Sant Nirankaris. A sentiment was created to justify extra judicial killings of the perceived enemies of Sikhism.^[8] The chief proponents of this attitude were the Babbar Khalsa founded by the widow, Bibi Amarjit Kaur of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, whose husband Fauja Singh had been at the head of the march in Amritsar; the Damdami Taksal led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who had also been in Amritsar on the day of the outrage; the Dal Khalsa, formed with the object of demanding a sovereign Sikh state; and the All India Sikh Students Federation, which was banned by the government.

In the subsequent years following this event, several murders took place in Punjab and the surrounding areas allegedly by Bhindranwale's group and the new Babbar Khalsa.^[6] The Babbar Khalsa activists took up residence in the Golden Temple, where they would retreat to, after committing "acts of punishment" on people against the orthodox Sikh tenets. Police did not entered the temple complex to avoid hurting the sentiments of Sikhs.^[6] On 24 April 1980, The Nirankari head, Gurbachan was murdered.^[9] Bhindranwale took residence in Golden Temple to escape arrest when he was accused of the assassination of Nirankari Gurbachan Singh.^[10] Several of Bhindranwale's associates and relatives were arrested. The FIR named nearly twenty people involved in the murder, most of whom had ties to Bhindranwale.^[11] A member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, Ranjit Singh, surrendered and admitted to the assassination three years later, and was sentenced to serve thirteen years at the Tihar Jail in Delhi.

On 9 September 1981, Lala Jagat Narain, the founder editor of the newspaper Punjab Kesari, was murdered. He was viewed as a supporter of the Nirankari sect and had written several editorials that had condemned the acts of Bhindranwale.^[9] Lala had urged Hindus of Punjab to reply to government census that Hindi and not Punjabi was their mother tongue and decried the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. Narain had been present at the clash between the Nirankaris and the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and had served as a witness in the court case of the incident.^[12]

Punjab Police issued a warrant for Bhindranwale's arrest in the editor's murder.^[2] Senior officials went inside the Gurudwara Mehta Chowk to ‘negotiate a surrender’ of Bhindranwale. He agreed to surrender for arrest at 1:00 p.m. on September 20, 1981 but added a condition that will do so only after addressing a ‘religious congregation’. This condition was accepted by the police. At the agreed time he emerged address a large crowd of his followers who armed with spears, swords and several firearms. Bhindranwale delivered a fiery sermon against the Government, against the alleged injustices done to him and to Sikhs at large. He ended his speech asking the mob not to act violent after his arrest. Bhindranwale then ‘surrendered’ to the police for arrest and was taken to a circuit house (guest house) instead of prison. While he was being taken away, the mob roused by the speech opened fire on the police in the ensuing violence 11 persons were killed.^[3][13][9]

On 20 September 1981, on the day of his arrest, in retaliation three armed men of his group on motorcycle opened fire using machine guns in a market in Jallandhar and killed four Hindus and injured twelve.^[14] The next day, in another incident at Tarn Taran one Hindu was killed and thirteen people injured. Five days later, in Amritsar a goods train was derailed. On September 29, an aeroplane of Indian Airlines was hijacked and taken to Lahore. Several explosions followed in Punjab's Amritsar, Faridkot and Gurdaspur districts.^[3]

For the next 25 days, violence occurred all over Punjab. The Akali Dal under Longowal decided to support Bhindranwale. Bhindranwale also got support from Tohra, the President of the SGPC and Gurdial Singh Ajnoha, the Jathedar of the Akal Takht.^[9] India’s Home Minister, Giani Zail Singh, then announced in the Parliament that there was no evidence against Bhindranwale in his involvement in Lala Jagat Narain’s murder. On October 15 1981 Bhindranwale was released by the Punjab Police.^[3] After his release he released a public statement approving the murders of Gurbachan Singh and Lala Jagat Narain and that the killers deserved to be honoured and awarded their weight in gold.^[3]

The Akali Dal eventually joined forces with Bhindrawale to further the cause of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and in August 1982, they launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha to get their demands in the Anandpur Sahib Resolution met by the Indian government. Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, considered the Anandpur Sahib Resolution as a secessionist document. In July 1983, the Sikh political party Akali Dal's President Harcharan Singh Longowal had invited Bhindranwale to take up residence in Golden Temple Complex to evade arrest.^[15][16] Bhindranwale later on made the sacred temple complex an armoury and headquarter.^[17] In the violent events leading up to the Operation Blue Star since the inception of Akali Dharm Yudh Morcha, the militants had killed 165 Hindus and Nirankaris, even 39 Sikhs opposed to Bhindranwale were killed. The total number of deaths was 410 in violent incidents and riots while 1,180 people were injured.^[18]

In June 1984, Indira Gandhi ordered a military operation code-named Operation Blue Star to flush out the militants from the Harmandir Sahib. The military action led to an uproar amongst Sikhs worldwide, and many Sikhs had interpreted the military action as an assault on Sikh religion.^[19] Many Sikh soldiers in the Army deserted their units,^[20] Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.^[16] Public outcry over Gandhi's death led to the killings Sikhs in the ensuing 1984 anti-Sikh riots.^[21]

These points of view are the basis of this movie, with the goal of telling the Sikh side of the story. This movie gives inside details of Ghallughara 1984, from June 1, 1984 to June 8, 1984 and uncovers information about the attacks which were planned by the Government leading up to that period, including Operation Sundown and Operation Blue Star.

Release

The movie was released on September 16, 2016.

Critical Response

As per advance critics’ reviews of the movie, it will be one of the most controversial movies in Bollywood and has already created a buzz because of the upcoming elections in the state of Punjab.

References

External links

• Video on YouTube