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Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale (1947 -
1984)
Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale was a (and to some extent still
is ) Sikh hero of modern times. He was born in the family of
Brar-Jatt Baba Joginder Singh and Mata Nihal Kaur of the village
Rode in Faridkot District. Baba Joginder Singh was a farmer of
moderate means. Bhindrenwale was youngest of the seven brothers.
After primary education he took up farming in his village. He
engaged himself in farming until 1965 when he joined the Damdami.
Taksal of Bhinder Kalan village, about 15 km north of Moga, then
headed by Sant Gurbachan Singh Khalsa. Hence the epithet
Bhindrenwale. But his association with Bhinder village was only
notional because Sant Gurbachan Singh, though associated with
Gurdwara Akhand Prakash at Bhinder Kalan, usually took out his
group of pupils on prolonged tours. Jarnail Singh underwent a
one-year course in scriptural, theological and historical
studies, at the hands of Sant Gurbachan Singh Khalsa partly
during one of his tours but for the most part during his stay at
Gurdwara Sis Asthan Patshahi IX, near Nabha Sahib village, 15 km
south of Chandigarh along the Chandigarh-Patiala road. In 1966,
he rejoined his Family and settled down to farming again. He was
married in 1966 to Bibi Pritam Kaur, daughter of Bhai Sucha Singh
of Bilaspur, and had two sons, Ishar Singh and Inderjit Singh,
born in 1971 and 1975 respectively. He continued his religious
studies and also kept his close association with the Taksal,
which after the death of Sant Gurbachan Singh Khalsa, in June
1969, was headed by Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa, who established his
headquarters at Gurdwara Gurdarshan Prakash at Mehta Chowk, 25 km
northeast of Amritsar along the road to Sri Hargobindpur. Sant
Kartar Singh khalsa was killed in a road accident. Before his
deadh on 16 August 1977, he had mentioned the name of Sant
Jarnail Singh as his successor as the new head of Damdami Taksal.
Sant Jarnail Singh was formally, elected at the bhog ceremony in
honour of Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa at Mehta Chowk on 25 August
1977.
He had a meteoric rise to fame and his photographs began to be
avidly displayed on the front pages of newspapers and journals
across the continents. Trained in a Sikh seminary to preach the
holy word of the Gurus, he stood face to face with history at
several critical moments. Bhindrenwale within his seven brief
years of a total of 37, marked by a precipitous course, emerged
as a man of extraordinary grit and charisma. Soon he came to be
talked about in the far-flung academe as well as in political
forums.
Sant Jarnail Singh exhibited remarkable enthusiasm in carrying
out his missionary responsibilities. The primary task he
addressed was the administrating of amrit (Khanda Baate da Pahul)
. He vehemintly denounced drugs, alcoholic drinks and trimming of
hair. He took special notice of the Nirankari heresy which was
undermining the Sikh Structure. Opposition to the Nirankaris had
started during the time of his predecessor, Sant Kartar Singh
Khalsa. Matters camee to a head on the Baisdkhi day of 1978 when
Nirankaris held a convention at Amritsar. The Damdami Taksal
under Sant Jarnal Singh Bhindrenwale and the Akhand Kirtani
Jatha, another purely religious organization, protested against
government allowing the Nirankaris to hold their convention at a
time the Sikhs were celebrating the birth anniverssary of the
Khalsa. Some of them who marched to the site of the convention
were fired upon by Nirankari guardsmen killing 13 of them on the
spot and wounding 78 others. The episode brought Sant
Bhindrenwale into the political arena. He was more against the
Akali Dal which was then leading the government in the Punjab and
was partner in the central authority in Delhi. On 4 january 1980,
two days before the Lok Sabha poll, all the 64 Nirankari accused,
including their chief Gurbachan Singh, being tried for the
killing of Sikhs, were set at liberty, by the sessions judge of
Karnal in Haryana. This bittered Sant Bhindranwale. The media in
the Punjab took the part of the Nirankaris on the pica of'
secularism. So did the Congress party which, on returning to
power at the Centre, dismissed the Akali government in the
Punjab, where too fresh elections were held and Congress
government installed. On 9 September 1981, Lala Jagat Narain, a
press baron of jalandhar, highly critical of Sant Bhindrenwale,
was assassinated. The Sant too had been a strong critic of Jagat
Narain. The government suspected the Sant's hand in the murder
and issued warrants for his arrest. He was then on a preaching
tour in Haryana and was camping at Chando Kalan village in Hissar
district when a combined force of Punjab and Haryana police
raided the village to nab him. He himself escaped t the security
of his own headquarters at Mehta Chowk, but the police fired upon
his jathd or band of disciples; their baggage was looted, and
some of the sacred texts burnt.
The Sant offered himself for arrest on 20 September 1981. This
was followed by, a spate of violence. The Sant was released after
the Central Home Minister, Giani Zail Singh, declared in the
Parliament on 14 October 1981 that there was no evidence against
him to show his hand in Jagat Narain's murder. The Sant had seen
through the Congress conspiracy loaded against the Sikhs. His
arrest and Subsequent release raised the Sant's stature among the
Sikh community who, especially the youth, judging hitu against
the moderate Akali leadership, flocked under his banner in ever
increasing numbers. The Sant became increasingly outspoken. The
governnient took notice of the change in Bhindrenwale's stance
and proceeded to take action against him. An attempt Was made to
arrest him while he was on a visit to Bombay was staying in the
Singh Sabha Gurdwara at Dadar on 20 April 1982, but Sant
Bhindrenwale was again able to reach safely in the Gurdwara at
Mehta Chowk. On 19 July 1982 the police arrested Bhai Amrik Singh
son of the late Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa and president of the All
India Sikh Students Federation. Another senior member of thc
Damdami Taksal, Bhai Thind Singh, was arrested on the following
day. Sant Bhindrenwale felt highly provoked. Feeling that
sanctuary at Mehta Chowk was not safe enough, he moved to the
Guru Nanak Nivas rest house in the Darbar Sahib complex in
Amritsar on 20 july and called for a Panthic convention on 25
july at which he announced the launching of a morcha (campaign)
For thc release of his men. Meanwhile., the Shiromai Akali Dal
had been conducting a morcha since April 1982 against the digging
of Satluj-Yamuna Link (S.Y.L.) canal which would divert part of
Punjab's river waters to Haryana. The agitation inspite of
immense support from the Sikh peasantry was not bearing any
tangible fruit because the site (Kapori village on the
Haryana-Punjab border where the Indian Prime minister had
inaugurated the digging of the canal on 6 April 1982 was in a
remote corner away from the Dal's headquarters. The Dal now
decided to transfer the agitation, now designated Dharam Yuddh or
religious war, to Amritsar from 4 August 1982. Sant jarnail Singh
merged his own morcha with it, and thus became in a way the joint
dictator of the entire Panth though he still swore loyalty to the
former dictator of the Akali morcha, Sant Harchand Singh
Longowal.
A further provocation to the Sikhs came from the behaviour of the
Haryana government and police during the Asian Games held at
Delhi in November 1982. Sikhs travelling from Punjab to Delhi or
back were indiscriminately stopped, searched and humiliated.
Violence in the Punjab was on the increase. It was becoming more
and more clear that the government would seek a military Solution
of the situation in Punjab rather than a political one. Sant
Bhindranwale exhorted the people to be prepared for a showdown.
On 15 December 1983, he with his men entered the Akal Takht and
With the help of a former major general of the Indian Army,
Shahbeg Singh, prepared a network of defensive fortifications
inside the complex collecting in the meanwhile a large stock of
arms, ammunition and rations anticipating the possibility of a
prolonged siege. The government on its part made elaborate plans
for all army action while pretending all along its readiness for
negotiations and denying any intention of sending armed forces
inside the Darbar Sahib complex. The Punjab was placed under the
President's rule on 6 October 1983. A ordinance declaring parts
of the state a disturbed area was promulgated, and the police was
given power to search, arrest or even shoot whom they will with
immunity from legal action. Six additional divisions of the army
including especially trained para commandos were inducted into
Punjab by the end of May 1984. On 1 June, while the Sikhs had
started preparations in the Golden Temple for the observation of
the martyrdom anniversary of Guru Arjan, which fell on the 3rd of
June, strict curfew was clamped on Amritsar and surrounding
districts. The actual assault of the army's operation nicknamed
Blue Star took place on the night of 5-6 June 1984. A pitched
battle ensued in which the army also used tanks and artillery. On
the 7 Of June the dead body of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
was located in the basement of the Akal Takht.
Excerpts taken from 'Encyclopedia of Sikhism´ by Harbans
Singh ji., Published by Punjabi University, Patiala
Khalistan Index
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