Jarnail Singh was born in 1947, a few months before the partition of India in the village of Rode in the Faridok (now Moga) district of the Punjab. At the age of eighteen, his father, Joginder Singh enrolled his son into a religious seminary, the Damdami Taksal in the village of Bhindran Kalan. On 25 August 1977, he was appointed as the 14th Jathedar of the Taksal, after the death of its leader, Kartar Singh.
When Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency in 1975, the Akali Dal in Punjab offered a sustained resistance to her decision to suspend the constitution. On the restoration of democracy in 1977, Mrs Gandhi greatly misjudged her own popularity with a resentful electorate and was roundly defeated. In Punjab, her Congress Party was trounced by the Akali Dal. Some argue that she and her closest political ally, her younger son Sanjay, never forgave the Sikhs for the losses they suffered, or indeed for their fierce resistance during the Emergency.
The desire to regain power in Punjab (as well as in other states where Congress lost at the ballot box) saw Sanjay devise a plan to discredit and disrupt the Akali Dal. Key to the strategy was to divide the Sikh vote, and cause consternation to the Akali Dal. Along with Zail Singh, who had recently suffered defeat as Congress’s chief minister of Punjab, Sanjay spotted the potential in an enigmatic holy man or sant.[1]
According to author Khushwant Singh, Bhindranwale had been passionately campaigning from village to village in an effort to uphold Sikh orthodoxy, in particular ‘rallying his audiences against the evils of the caste system and the dangers of alcohol consumption and illicit substances, which had blighted the Sikh peasantry’.[2]
His star was on the rise and the Congress Party saw their chance to capitalise on his growing popularity. Though not officially inducted into the Congress Party, and with Zail Singh as his effective handler, Bhindranwale was carefully positioned (unknowingly according to some commentators[3]) against the Akali Dal.[4] The seemingly rustic, plain-speaking preacher ‘seemed too uneducated, too unsophisticated to pose any threat’[5] to those who had sought to direct and utilise him. However, as he gained an increasingly larger following, power and influence came, but so too did the violence[6] and even a plane hijacking in protest against his arrest in connection with the murder of the highly critical newspaper baron, Lala Jagat Narain, on 9 September 1981.[7] Although a warrant was issued for his arrest in 12 September, such was his power that Bhindranwale chose when and how to hand himself in to police. He was released a month later without charge – something that could not have been done without the intervention of the recently appointed Home Minister, Zail Singh[8]. With the police still keen on arresting him, he was by August 1982 living within the sanctuary of the Golden Temple complex and part of the Akali Morcha.[9]
By mid-1983, Bhindranwale was clearly no longer under any alleged control by Congress and was the most influential religious figure in Punjab. As part of a wider front of Sikh groups agitating for greater religious, political and economic demands, no political settlement was likely without his agreement. Tension between central government and the varying Sikh factions including the Akali Dal were at a high.[10]
Indira Gandhi, who had returned as Prime Minister in 1980, finally took action. She dismissed the ruling Congress Party in Punjab and declared President’s rule[11] – as Zail Singh had become President in 1982, in theory, this meant Bhindranwale’s former advocate was now back in charge[12]. But by then, Bhindranwale and his militarised followers were already ensconced in the temple complex. If anything, the violence was only set to escalate.[13]
Bhindranwale made at least forty-four speeches between early 1982 to May 1984, later translated by Ranbir Singh Sandhu.[14], providing some insights into the Sikh leader’s views that changed over time and often appeared contradictory. The vast majority cover the broken promises to Sikhs made by successive Indian government, police oppression and the discrimination meted out the Sikhs, the rise of far-right Hindutva groups in the Punjab and the double standards in how the state dealt with terrorism.
However, he opened himself to those who could paint him as an anti-Hindu sectarian figure particularly with one infamous speech in a packed Manji Sahib Diwan Hall at the Golden Temple on 20 September 1983 where he tried to explain why in an ill-judged outburst he threatened ‘to kill 5,000 Hindus in an hour’, if his minibus, to pick up Bhai Amrik, was not released by the police, when two other buses, belonging to the community for missionary purposes, had been set on fire by the police, including several Sikh religious prayer books. This came just one year after the treatment meted out to innocent Sikhs in route to the Asian Games and the growing threats by right wing Hindu leaders in neighbouring Haryana to expel Sikhs from the state.
The speech was caught on camera. He went on to try to explain his use of the word ‘Hindu’ due to the predicament Sikhs in India had found themselves in, faced with hostile forces from right-wing outfits, the government playing party politics and the police.[15]
“Why did I use the word ‘Hindu’? Nearly two hundred Singhs have died, tell me if any Government official has come to any of you to inquiry about it. All of them, our men, died at the hands of the police. Ashok Kumar, son of a Hindu, was killed by a police bullet in Patiala. The Home Minister came running, and Indira Rani came running also. If she is so concerned about the death of one person in a count of six hundred million (Hindus), why is she not concerned over the death of two hundred in a count of twenty million (Sikhs)? Should one touch the place where it hurts or where you do not feel any pain? It was under these circumstances that I used these words ‘five thousand Hindus’.”[16]
He then went on to emphasise he had no animosity against Hindus. To evidence this, he lists a number of incidents where he favoured the community. For example, when his group rescued a Hindu girl, Hukam Chand’s daughter from Jalalabad who had been abducted by a Hindu youth, or when a copy of the Ramayana was burnt in Kapurthala, a sum of 5,000 rupees was donated by the Damdami Taksaal. Finally, when two Hindus were martyred during an Akali protest, 10,000 rupees were donated to their families by the Akali Dal.
Two months later, he became more forthright in his stand on sectarianism, when he stated: ‘The Sikh Panth never teaches murder or torture of innocent people and if anybody encourages these two things, he is the biggest traitor of the Panth’.[17]
During the course of 1983, he condemned the bus killings of Hindus of Oct 5 and Nov 18, 1983. The Tribune (Chandigarh) in its editorial of November 20, 1983, observed that the first ‘inescapable conclusion’ was ‘that such acts of butchery are not sponsored by the Sikh community as a community, nor even the Akali Dal or by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who has condemned the killings as has Sant Harchand Singh Longowal.’[18] But the press or government were not interested in his condemnation of sectarian killings.[19]
Suffice to say, no such threat of mass killings was ever carried out by his followers. In contrast, some politicians made regular threats against the minority Sikhs living outside the Punjab. A threat that eventually materialised in the ant-Sikh pogroms of February 1984 in the neighbouring states of Haryana and Rajasthan and then the full-scale genocide of November 1984 throughout Northern India.
However, in the run up to the army attack on the Golden Temple in order to dislodge Bhindranwale, he began to share views that contradicted his earlier views, particularly in the event of an attack on the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple): ‘When you come to know that Harmandir Sahib has been attacked, in the cities and towns near you no one without a turban should be seen. Have mercy over the Muslims’.[20]
He would repeat this proclamation on two further occasions, one on 13 April 1984: ‘If the police happen to enter the perimeter here, don’t wait for a letter, don’t wait for newspaper reports. At that time there should be no Chhalli Ram (a fictitious Hindu name) left anywhere in the land of Punjab’.[21] And finally on 24 May 1984: ‘If you come to know that the police have entered (this place), you should keep a watchful eye on Chhalli Ram and Gulli Ram (both fictitious Hindu names) in Punjab. There you should not be lax in the bazaars. Don’t be the first to hurt anyone. We do not have any personal enmity against the Hindus but, if the Government of the Hindu rulers make it their goal that the religious temple has to be destroyed and the Sikhs have to be finished off, then there is no need for unity. That day you should strike with your khandaa (a double-edged sword)’.[22]
Some commentators have argued that his real target were right-wing Hindu nationalist groups rather than ordinary Hindus. According to Ranbir Singh Sandhu, who had translated Bhindranwale’s speeches, he made these remarks at a time the Arya Samaj press were openly demanding the invasion of Golden Temple, pushing Bhindranwale’s call upon the villagers in Punjab to drive out the Hindus if they joined the Government in the attack. Sandhu concludes that this ‘call of desperation was not in line with his previous stand because the Hindus in Punjab villages were, by and large, peaceful and the two communities lived in amity’.[23] In the end though, the remarks gave the authorities and others commentators to label him as a communalist. The die was cast.
The scene was set for an ever-growing escalation of hostilities. The potential for military action was high and, by early 1984, Indian Army commandos were poised to invade the Sikhs’ holiest site.[24] With the pressure mounting, Mrs Gandhi decided to act. On 3 June 1984, the Indian Army was ordered into the Golden Temple complex on the pretext of removing Bhindranwale, which ended with his death while defending the shrine, and thus became a martyr in the eyes of many Sikhs.
But despite this, Punjabi Hindus were not targeted en-masse. On a visit to Bhindranwale’s home village of Rode, following Operation Bluestar, journalist Sanjay Suri of the Indian Express was surprised at what he witnessed: ‘There was not a single non-Sikh in the village, I was the only Hindu, at that point of time. This Hindu stranger that was me had faced no hostility. I was an alien Hindu when suspicions around alien Hindus around Punjab could have been at a peak. But I was offered rest, care and a meal. That dinner was to me the story. That, on that day, Bhindranwale’s family did not forget the age-old traditions of Punjab of welcoming a stranger, looking after him, making him feel at home.’[25]
Bhindranwale remains a controversial figure to this day. With the passage of time, the following two high profile Indian commentators recall their time with him. Firstly, the current editor-in-chief of The Print, Shekhar Gupta, who met Bhindranwale on thirteen occasions, and was candid in his assessment of him as the ‘most interesting personality’ he had met.
Subramanian Swamy stayed five days in the company of Bhindranwale, who left a lasting impression on him, stating he saw the preacher as a ‘Sant’.
A former officer in India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) recently revealed that the Sant was used as part of an operation led by elements in the government to divide the Sikh community between those advocating a separate Sikh State and those seeking a resolution within the Indian state. G.B.S. Sidhu writes:
Whenever Bhindranwale was asked by reporters or others about Khalistan, he would say that he would not refuse the offer of Khalistan if made by the government. Because he would not make Khalistan his core demand, which was central to the Op-1 strategy, the 1 Akbar Road group, especially Zail Singh, came up with the novel idea of floating an organisation that would openly demand Khalistan and simultaneously support Bhindranwale. The hope was that by doing so the demand for Khalistan would gradually stick to Bhindranwale, as he would neither contradict nor counter it.
G. B. S. Sidhu. The Khalistan Conspiracy: A Former R&AW Officer Unravels the Path to 1984. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India: HarperCollins Publishers India, 2020, page 59–60.
Sources
[1] ‘Zail Singh, Sanjay Gandhi responsible for Punjab mess in 80s: Book,’ The Times of India, 31 May 2011.
[2] Khushwant Singh, The History of the Sikhs vol 2, page 329.
[3] Patwant Singh, The Sikhs, page 232.
[4] John Keay, Midnight’s Descendants, 2014, page 226.
[5] Mary Anne Weaver, ‘India’s warring ‘ayatollah’ faced commando siege’, The Sunday Times, 4 March 1984.
[6] John Keay, Midnight’s Descendants, 2014, page 226; Khushwant Singh, The History of the Sikhs vol 2, page 337
[7] Hartosh Singh Bal, ‘The shattered dome’, The Caravan, May 1, 2014
[8] Khushwant Singh, The History of the Sikhs vol 2, page 335
[9] Hartosh Singh Bal, ‘The shattered dome’, The Caravan, May 1, 2014
[10] Khushwant Singh, The History of the Sikhs vol 2, page 338
[11] Hartosh Singh Bal, ‘The shattered dome’, The Caravan, May 1, 2014
[12] John Keay, Midnight’s Descendants, 2014, page 228.
[13] John Keay, Midnight’s Descendants, 2014, page 228.
[14] Sant Jarnail Singh. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999.
[15] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech Two Part Two. You Tube: https://youtu.be/mObCObqdvTc
[16] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech #34. September 20, 1983. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999. Page 280.
[17] Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality. Joshi Chand. New Delhi. 1984. P144. Quoted in The Sikhs in History. Sangat Singh. Amritsar. 2002. Page 369.
[18] The Tribune. November 20, 1983. Quoted in The Sikhs in History. Sangat Singh. Amritsar. 2002. Page 371.
[19] The Sikhs in History. Sangat Singh. Amritsar. 2002. Page 369.
[20] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech #40. March 8, 1984. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999. Page 418.
[21] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech #42. April 13, 1984. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999. Page 438.
[22] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech #44. 24 May 1984. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999. Page 465.
[23] Sant Jarnail Singh Speech. Struggle for Justice. Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale. Ranbir Singh Sandhu. 1999. Page ixvi.
[24] Mary Anne Weaver, ‘India’s warring ‘ayatollah’ faced commando siege’, The Sunday Times, 4 March 1984.
[25] Sanjay Suri, 1984: The Anti-Sikh Violence and After. Page 183-4.
Sant Bhindranwale – rise and fall and defender of the Golden Temple.
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