1978 Sikh–Nirankari clashes

Nirankari, a movement within Sikhism, started in the 19th century. Their belief in a living guru as opposed to the scriptural guru Guru Granth Sahib resulted in their difference with traditional Sikhs, though they were tolerated.[1] A Nirankari hymn-singer, Boota Singh, had been removed from his paid duties due to “personal lapses”[2] considered incongruous in a missionary organization, and in 1929 tried and failed to set up a rival organization in Peshawar, nominating his devotee Avtar Singh, a bakery shop owner, as his successor in 1943.[2] Without having established any significant religious base, Avtar Singh moved to Delhi after partition, getting his group registered as the “Sant Nirankaris” in 1948.[2]

His son Gurbachan Singh succeeded him in 1963,[3] and tensions with the Sikhs escalated as he subsequently proclaimed himself as a godman and incarnation of Guru Nanak,[4] styling himself as bajaanwala (master of the hawk) an epithet of Guru Gobind Singh,[5] using the names of the Sikh Gurus for his servants,[5] and coming out with publications like the Avtar Bani, which made derogatory references to the Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs;[3][4] a story in the Yug Purush narrated that, unlike the prophets of the world’s major religions, refused to go back to earth to “spread God’s message,” except for Avtar Singh, who decided to do so “only after God agreed that anyone blessed by him would go to heaven irrespective of worldly deeds.”[4] Sacrilegious versions of Sikh rituals, including administering to his sat sitare, or seven stars, his version of the Panj Piare of Guru Gobind Singh, "charan amrit", the water used to wash his feet, in place of the amrit, or holy water mixed with sugar by a steel blade, as dictated by Guru Gobind Singh for the Amrit Sanchar.[4]

Clashes between the Sikhs and the Sant Nirankaris took place beginning in the early 1950s, and tensions simmered through the 1960s, during which the Damdami Taksal came to the forefront to counter Sant Nirankari influence,[4] as well as the Akhand Kirtani Jatha at many places in Punjab.[6]

The Akalis claimed that the Sant Nirankaris were supported by the Congress to divide and undermine the Sikh community, while many Sikhs suspected that the Nirankaris were aided and abetted by the central government and the urban Hindu elite in Punjab,[4] who were the base of the Jan Sangh, the Akali Dal’s coalition partner,[7] and from whom the Sant Nirankaris received donations from, and hence why the Akalis had permitted the convention. This reported continuous support of the organization by the central government was also evidenced by the fact that, during a very short span, the Sant Nirankaris established 354 branches: 27 abroad and the rest in India, with large amounts of property.[8] The organization created a para-military branch called the Seva Dal, with a membership of over 7,000, headed by a commander, called a Mukhya Shishak.[8] The Akali Dal’s Janata allies warned the Akalis not to intervene in the growing tensions on the pretext of “religious freedom,”[4] against the wishes of a large section of the Sikh community.[4] Gurbachan Singh had met prime minister Morarji Desai who gave him assurances; major Sikh leaders, including Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, responded by telling the press and government not to meddle in the “internal affairs” of the Sikhs by commenting on hukamnamas.[4]

On 13 April 1978, the day to celebrate the birth of Khalsa, a Sant Nirankari convention headed by their leader Gurbachan Singh was organized in Amritsar, with permission from the Akali state government. While the original Nirankaris, founded in the nineteenth century with a focus on mysticism, coexisted peacefully with mainstream Sikh tradition despite its differences,[9] the practices of the "Sant Nirankaris" subsect was considered as heretics by the orthodox Sikhism expounded by Bhindranwale, as they had begun to revere their new founder and successors as gurus and added their own scriptures to the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book,[9] with Gurbachan Singh comparing himself to Guru Gobind Singh, saying that he would create the "sat sitaras" (seven stars) to complement the Panj Piare.[10] The government’s approval of the new sect’s convention in Amritsar in 1978 was particularly galling to orthodox Sikhs, as it fell on April 13, the founding day of the Khalsa; some felt that the entire Sant Nirankari episode had been provoked on purpose by the central government to destabilize and disunify Sikhs, given its sudden rapid growth in the 1960s,[9] and the unusual composition of converts to the sect, with a preponderance of either gazetted officers and deputy commissioners that could allot land, and the extremely poor as followers they attracted with their wealth, meant that the breakaway sect was being manipulated to undercut the power of Sikhism in the state by the central government at the time, part of what was believed to be constant attempts to “divide and destroy”[10] Sikhism.

From the Golden Temple premises,[11] 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."[12] A procession of about two hundred Sikhs led by Bhindranwale and Fauja Singh of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, which had been founded by Randhir Singh, who had been active in the Ghadr and independence movements and had been imprisoned by the British during that period, left the Golden Temple, heading towards the Nirankari Convention.[13] Fauja attempted to behead Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh with his sword but was shot dead by Gurbachan's bodyguard, while Bhindranwale escaped.[12] In the ensuing violence, several people were killed: two of Bhindranwale's followers, eleven members of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and three Nirankaris.[12] This event brought Bhindranwale to limelight in the media.[14]

A criminal case was filed against sixty two Nirankaris charged with the murder of 13 Sikhs by the Akali led government in Punjab. The case was heard in the neighbouring Haryana state, and all the accused were acquitted,[15] on the basis that they acted in self-defence. The Punjab government Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal decided not to appeal the decision.[16][17] The case of Nirankaris received widespread support in the media and the Prime Minister Morarji Desai put the entire blame on the Sikhs; orthodox Sikhs saw this as an attempt to manipulate the sect as a way to undercut Sikhism in Punjab.[10] Bhindranwale increased his rhetoric against the perceived 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.[18] 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.[15]

On 24 April 1980, the Nirankari head, Gurbachan was murdered.[19] Bhindranwale took residence in Golden Temple to escape arrest when he was accused of the assassination of Gurbachan Singh,[20] though the Babbar Khalsa, who opposed Bhindranwale, claimed responsibility for the killing of Nirankaris.[5] Several of Bhindranwale's associates and relatives were arrested. The FIR named nearly twenty people involved in the murder, claimed to have had ties to Bhindranwale.[21] 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. Ranjit Singh later became head of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). Ranjit Singh spent 12 years in jail as an under-trial from 1984 to 1996.[22][23] Several other members of Sant Nirankari Mission were also killed later.[24]

The government and press often referred to Bhindranwale traveling with an armed retinue, though all the weapons carried were licensed, no incidents ever occurred with his escort, and no laws were broken, while on the other hand, the press never protested the fact that Gurbachan Singh himself traveled with armed men, and that in Amritsar on 13 April 1975, they fired upon an unarmed group of about 100 Sikh protestors, killing 13 and injuring another 78.[25] The government dismissed to subsequent Sikh protests as "dogmatism and extremism," disarming the victims instead of the protestors in 1983 by revoking Bhindranwale's licenses. During the Dharam Yudh Morcha launched in August 1982, the government response to peaceful protests involved beatings, torture in police custody, and killing of youth in extrajudicial fake encounters,[25] particularly those in Bhindranwale's group, 113 of whom had been killed by February 1983, 140 by July 1983, and over 200 later that year, with over 2000 returning from police stations severely injured.[25] It was under these circumstances that Bhindranwale instructed his men to defy the license revocation so that, if need arose, they could defend themselves against Nirankaris as well as the police; as police arrests on trumped-up or fabricated charges came to mean torture or death, he advised first to explain their innocence, and if that did not work, to resist.[25] The police crackdown in the state resulted in an average of 50 youths detained and 6 six killed per week, prompting a wider acceptance of Bhindranwale's claim that the government was out to destroy the Sikhs.[26] The People's Union for Civil Liberties, an Indian human rights group, accused the Punjab police of behaving like a "barbarian force."[26] In response, Akali initiatives like Rasta Roko ("Block the Roads") and Kamm Roko (Stop Work) drew massive popular support in Punjab, and seven other states supported Sikh demands for greater autonomy for Punjab and the decentralization of government power.[26]

In 1978, after the incident Akal Takht issued a Hukamnama expelling Nirankaris out of the Sikh community.[1][27]

Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj, Amritsar was raised in the memory of the 13 Sikhs killed in the clash.[28]

Satpal Baghi of Ferozepur in the Indian Express, notes:[29]

The genesis of the real trouble between the Nirankaris and Akalis goes back to the years when Mrs. Indira Gandhi headed the Union Government. She wanted to weaken the Shiromani Akali Dal, but found that Akalis could not be brought to heel. She thought of an elaborate plan to strengthen the Nirankari sect not only in Punjab but throughout the country and abroad. Official patronage was extended to the Nirankaris, much to the chagrin of Akalis who have always considered the Nirankaris as heretics."
"In pursuit of this policy of divide and rule, Mrs. Gandhi personally gave clearance for a diplomatic passport to be issued to the Nirankari Chief and the Indian High Commissioners and Ambassadors abroad were instructed to show him respect and regard. This was meant to help the sect to improve its image and increase its following abroad. During Mrs. Gandhi's regime, the Nirankaris were known to be receiving financial help from secret Government funds, not open to audit or scrutiny by Parliament."
"During Emergency the recalcitrant attitude of the Akalis further annoyed Mrs. Gandhi and Mr. Sanjay Gandhi. Efforts for building a parallel organisation among the Sikhs of Punjab as a counterblast to the Akalis were intensified. At the insistence of Mrs. Gandhi, the Congress regime began giving great official patronage to the Nirankari sect. Mr. H.S. Chhina. I.A.S. a staunch Nirankari, was appointed Chief Secretary to the Punjab Government, in 1976."'
"As a result of open official patronage and support, this sect got a considerable boost within the administrative set-up of the Punjab Government. Mr. Chhina appointed Mr. Niranjan Singh, I.A.S., as Deputy Commissioner of Gurdaspur. Mr. Niranjan Singh tried his best to enlarge the field of operation of the Nirankaris. It is during this period that Sant Bhindranwale took up the challenge posed by this growing sect.'"[29]

Even journalists partial to Congress[30] and Indira Gandhi[31] reported that neither Bhindranwale nor anyone with him had instigated the violence.[31] Tavleen Singh wrote:

"Contrary to the popular belief that he took the offensive, senior police sources in the Punjab admit that the provocation came in fact from a Nirankari official who started harassing Bhindranwale and his men.
There were two or three Nirankaris in key positions in the Punjab in those days and they were powerful enough to be able to create quite a lot of trouble. The Nirankaris also received patronage from Delhi that made Sikh organizations like Bhindranwale's and the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, headed then by Bibi Amarjit Kaur's husband, Fauja Singh, hate them even more."[32]

Khushwant Singh wrote:

“Terrorist activity preceded the morcha [(“movement”)] by more than six months and was born out of encounters faked by the Punjab police and the armed conflict between the Nirankaris and Sant Bhindranwale beginning April 13, 1978.”[32]

• Sandhu, Ranbir Singh (1999). Struggle for Justice: Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale (1st ed.). Dublin, Ohio, U.S.A.: Sikh Educational & Religious Foundation. ISBN 9780967287416. Retrieved 23 March 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Dhillon, Gurdarshan Singh (1996). Truth about Punjab: SGPC White Paper (1st ed.). Amritsar, Punjab: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. p. xxx. ISBN 978-0836456547. Retrieved 25 March 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Mahmood, Cynthia Keppley (1996). Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812215922. Retrieved 25 March 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)