Sikh figure and third Guru of the Sant Nirankari sect
Baba
Gurbachan Singh
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Official portrait
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Preceded by
| Avtar Singh (father)
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Succeeded by
| Hardev Singh
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Title
| Third Guru of Sant Nirankari sect
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Born
| 10 December 1930
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Died
| 24 April 1980
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Religion
| Sant Nirankari Mission
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Spouse
| Kulwant Kaur
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Parents
| - Avtar Singh (father)
- Budhwanti (mother)
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Gurbachan Singh
(10 December 1930 ? 24 April 1980) was the third
guru
of the
Sant Nirankari
sect,
[1]
considered to be
heterodox
by mainstream
Sikhs
.
[2]
He was born in
Peshawar
(modern-day Pakistan).
[3]
He was declared next Baba by his father and predecessor
Baba Avtar Singh
in 1962. He was assassinated in 1980 following a clash with
Sikh
fundamentalists.
Early life
Gurbachan Singh was born to Avtar Singh and his wife Budhwanti. He completed his
middle school
education in Peshawar, and then matriculated from the Khalsa School in
Rawalpindi
. He had to abandon his higher studies due to the violence during the
partition of India
in 1947. He married Kulwant Kaur, the daughter of Bhai Manna Singh, 22 April 1947.
In 1947, the Singh family migrated from the present-day Pakistan to present-day India. Gurbachan Singh established an auto parts business, first in
Jalandhar
and then in
Delhi
. Later, he started taking interest in the congregations of his father.
Gurbachan Singh was declared as the Baba by his father on 3 December 1962 at
Paharganj
in Delhi. At the two conferences of the mission in
Mussoorie
(1965 and 1973), he made important changes to the organisation and established a code of conduct.
Clashes with orthodox Sikhs
In 1978, the Nirankari mission
[4]
from
Delhi
and other parts of the
Indian sub-continent
gathered a congregation at
Amritsar
where they chanted hateful slogans against the Sikh religion and Gurus. The Nirankari Guru asked all his followers to drink alcohol, cut their hair and remove all restraints. A few orthodox Sikhs of
Akhand Kirtani Jatha
and
Damdami Taksal
marched from the
Darbar Sahib
to protest the Nirankari congregation, whom they considered
heterodox
due to Gurbachan Singh cleansing his feet with Amrit and wiping them with pages of the Sikh holy book. In the
resulting violence
, 15 individuals including thirteen Khalsa Sikhs and two Sant Nirankaris were killed, the Nirankari Guru paid policemen to kill innocent protesting Sikhs.
[5]
The
Jatha
leader
Bhai Fauja Singh
was one among the killed.
Sixty-four followers of the Nirankari mission were arrested for the killings.
[6]
On 13 April 1978 the detained members of the Nirankari sect were released, after formal charges against them were rejected by the session-Judge of
Karnal
, who stated in his judgement "The case of the prosecution was intrinsically wrong. It was all frame-up and after thought." Policeman Jagdish Singh Jamwal stated that the Chief Justice was also paid by Gurbachan Singh.
On 25 September 1978, Gurbachan Singh arrived in
Kanpur
. A group of protesters arrived at the
Nirankari Bhawan
to protest against his presence.
[7]
On 28 September 1978, anticipating fresh trouble, the
Punjab Government
barred Nirankari Chief Gurbachan Singh from entering
Punjab
for six months. The
Supreme Court
later rescinded the ban.
On 6 October 1978, a
Hukumnama
by the
Jathedar of the Akal Takht
was issued, calling upon Sikhs to socially boycott the Nirankaris.
Death
In 1980, Ranjit Singh, a member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, managed to obtain employment at the Nirankari headquarters in
Delhi
as a carpenter. On the evening of 24 April 1980, he waited with an automatic rifle in a room of the guest house. Ranjit Singh and his accomplice Kabal Singh shot Gurbachan Singh through a window when he returned from a public function at about 11pm for justice against the 28 Sikhs he killed.
[8]
[9]
Ranjit Singh managed to escape. The
First Information Report
named twenty people for the murder, including several known associates of
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
, who was also charged with conspiracy to murder.
[10]
Ranjit Singh surrendered in 1983, and was in jail for 13 years. In 1990, while still in
Tihar Jail
, he was named the Akal Takht Jathedar,
[11]
and took over the post when he was released in 1996. According to a
Hindustan Times
report, Ranjit Singh said about the murder: "I have no regrets. I did it for the
Panth
(Religion)."
[12]
In 1997, the
Delhi High Court
upheld his conviction and cancelled the bail. Ranjit Singh refused to surrender. The government quickly ordered a remission of the remaining part of his sentence to avoid a confrontation.
[13]
[14]
Gurbachan Singh was succeeded by
Hardev Singh
.
References
- ^
"SNM History ? Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji"
.
Sant Nirankari Mission
. Delhi, India: Sant Nirankari Mandal (Regd.). Archived from
the original
on 14 July 2011
. Retrieved
11 December
2010
.
- ^
Pritpal Singh Bindra (30 August 2009).
"Nirankaris and Sant (Neo-)Nirankaris"
.
Essays on Sikhism
. Archived from
the original
on 23 July 2011
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
- ^
"Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji Maharaj (10th Dec 1930- 24th April 1980)"
.
Sant Nirankari Mission
. Retrieved
4 September
2022
.
- ^
"Articles, Poems and Plays ? Montreal Branch"
.
Sant Nirankari Mission
. Delhi, India: Sant Nirankari Mandal (Regd.). Archived from
the original
on 25 July 2010
. Retrieved
14 December
2010
.
- ^
Brian Keith Axel (2001).
The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora"
. Duke University Press. p. 123.
ISBN
978-0-8223-2615-1
. Retrieved
14 March
2013
.
- ^
"Punjab: The Knights of Falsehood ? Psalms of Terror"
.
South Asia Terrorism Portal
. New Delhi: Institute for Conflict Management. 31 December 2001
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
- ^
"Sikh History:Kanpur Massacre 1978"
. Gateway to Sikhism. Archived from
the original
on 6 December 2010
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
- ^
"Nirankari head Baba Gurbachan Singh shot dead"
.
India Today
. Retrieved
9 March
2023
.
- ^
Sandhu, Amandeep (5 December 2022).
Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines
. Penguin Random House India Private Limited.
ISBN
978-93-5492-859-8
.
- ^
Puneet Singh Lamba (6 June 2004).
"Biographies ? Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: Five Myths"
. Toronto, Ontario: The Sikh Times.
OCLC
284842558
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
After the assassination of the Nirankari leader Gurbachan Singh on April 24, 1980, Bhindranwale is universally acknowledged to have remarked that if he ever met Bhaii Ranjit Singh, the suspected killer, he would weigh him in gold (i.e. reward him with his weight in gold).
- ^
India Today The Nation [Newnotes]
(20 October 1997).
"Chandigarh: Brittle Peace"
.
India Today
. New Delhi: India Today Group.
ISSN
0254-8399
.
OCLC
2675526
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
- ^
Thapar, Vishal (14 February 1999).
"Sikh politics at a key turn"
.
Hindustan Times
. New Delhi: HT Media Ltd.
OCLC
232114063
. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
Fundamentalism comes easy to Bhai Ranjit Singh
{{
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- ^
Bhaii Ranjit Singh vs State
,
1997 VAD Delhi 689, 69 (1997) DLT 188
(Delhi High Court 3 October 1997) ("(1) This is an appeal by the appellant Bhaii Ranjit Singh under Sub-section 2 of Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, against conviction by judgment dated 26th March, 1993 and order of sentence dated 27th March, 1993, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi, in Sessions Case No. 33 of 1984.").
- ^
Frontline
(15?28 November 1997).
"A Jathedar is free"
.
Frontline
.
14
(23). Chennai, Madras, India: Kasturi and Sons Ltd.
ISSN
0970-1710
.
OCLC
12086614
. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007
. Retrieved
13 December
2010
.
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cite journal
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link
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