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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 01
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 02
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 03
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 04
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 05
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 06
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 07
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 08
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 09
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 10
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 11
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 12
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 13
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 14
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 15
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 16
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 17
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 18
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 19
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 20
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 21
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 22
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 23
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 24
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 25
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 27
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 28
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 29
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 30
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 31
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 32
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 33
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Jarnail Singh Khalsa Speech 34
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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 who was youngest of the
seven brothers after primary education
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 villagc
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 villagc,
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 Hindu 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 to 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 thc 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 Arjun, 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.
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