Harvin­dar Singh Bhatinda

A for­mer ac­tivist of the All In­dia Sikh Stu­dents Fed­er­a­tion, Harvin­der Singh Bhatinda is a keen doc­u­men­tal­ist. He will be writ­ing reg­u­larly for The World Sikh News on con­tem­po­rary and his­tor­i­cal sub­jects.

Af­ter the SGPC came into ex­is­tence, at the in­sis­tence of the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee, the Ma­hants who were run­ning the man­age­ment of the his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras in Delhi agreed to hand over the man­age­ment of Gur­d­waras to a com­mit­tee. An 11-mem­ber com­mit­tee was formed from 1923 to 1942, which com­mit­tee se­lected mem­bers every 3 years. There were no rules and reg­u­la­tions for this com­mit­tee’s work­ing.  The mem­bers had lim­ited rights and most of the mem­bers were the rich Sikhs of Delhi.

The Delhi Gur­d­wara com­mit­tee was formed by the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee and as per the de­sires of the mem­bers, rules and reg­u­la­tions were drafted and the com­mit­tee was reg­is­tered.  Af­ter tak­ing away pow­ers from the Ma­hants, a 3-mem­ber com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of Dan Singh Vi­choha, Sar­dar Har­bans Singh Sis­tani and Sar­dar Gur­dit Singh was formed. These three mem­bers en­tered into an agree­ment with the Ma­hants.  Many were given pen­sions and those will­ing to serve were given jobs with salaries.  

Af­ter the reg­is­tra­tion of the Delhi Gur­d­wara Com­mit­tee, there was a new turn in the his­tory of the body.  A vot­ers list was pre­pared, con­stituen­cies were made, elec­tions were held and the As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary of SGPC was made the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer-cum-ob­server for the elec­tions. Elec­tions were held in 1945.  The com­mit­tee that was elected, con­tin­ued to serve even af­ter the par­ti­tion of the coun­try.  Elec­tions were held in 1951, 1954, 1956, 1959 and 1961. How­ever, dur­ing this pe­riod, the rift be­tween Mas­ter Tara Singh, Jathedar Ud­ham Singh Nagoke, Gyani Kar­tar Singh came to the fore. The Con­gress gov­ern­ment too wanted to dom­i­nate the Delhi Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee.

Some­times the courts would de­clare a com­mit­tee il­le­gal and some­times they would al­low it to work. There were cases in courts about the le­gal­ity of the com­mit­tees. The High Court ruled in favour of one com­mit­tee on 24 April 1962, the other one pro­cured stay and then there was a de­ci­sion in 1971. There­fore the in­cum­bent com­mit­tee con­tin­ued to work for 9 years.  The then pres­i­dent of the com­mit­tee was Gian Singh Abtabad and Jathedar San­tokh Singh was the Sec­re­tary.

Jathedar San­tokh Singh was close to Akali stal­wart Sant Fateh Singh. Jathedar Rachh­pal Singh was the main op­po­nent of Jathedar San­tokh Singh in Delhi. Bibi Nir­lep Kaur was also run­ning her own cen­tre of power in Delhi.  With a show of force, all groups op­posed to Sant Fateh Singh, joined hands and with the sup­port of the Delhi gov­ern­ment, on 6 May 1971, oc­cu­pied the of­fices Gur­d­wara Sis Ganj Sahib and closed the doors from the in­side.

The Cen­tral gov­ern­ment got an or­di­nance is­sued by the Pres­i­dent of In­dia on 20 May 1971, hand­ing over the man­age­ment of Gur­d­waras to a 5-mem­ber com­mit­tee. All 5 mem­bers were from the Con­gress party. The chief of this board was Jogin­der Singh and the sec­re­tary was Bhai Mo­han Singh.

The man­age­ment of this Gur­d­wara was handed over to this board. For four years, the board ad­min­is­tered the Gur­d­waras. This was op­posed by Sant Fateh Singh -the pres­i­dent of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal and the Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee.

The promi­nent Akali lead­ers of Delhi -Jathedar San­tokh Singh, Av­tar Singh Kohli, Pres­i­dent, Delhi Akali Dal and Har­bans Singh Fron­tier were de­tained un­der pro­vi­sions of 107/​51 IPC.  On 21 May, as many as 23 cases were foisted on Jathedar San­tokh Singh (fa­ther of Man­jit Singh GK -pre­sent pres­i­dent of DS­GMC).

The de­vel­op­ments in the Delhi Gur­d­waras were dis­cussed at the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal meet­ing in Chandi­garh on 21 May and it was de­cided to hold 30 May as protest day at var­i­ous places and a con­ven­tion to be or­gan­ised, of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions at the Akal Takht Sahib on 6 June 1971.  On the other hand an or­di­nance re­gard­ing the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee was passed in June 1971.

Sant Fateh Singh gave an ul­ti­ma­tum on 16 July 1971, but the gov­ern­ment did not pay any heed to it. In its Work­ing Com­mit­tee meet­ing on 15 July 1971, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal passed a res­o­lu­tion that a 101-mem­ber Jatha -a ded­i­cated group of re­li­gio-po­lit­i­cal vol­un­teers, un­der the lead­er­ship of Sant Fateh Singh would march on 22 July 1971 from Akal Takht Sahib to Delhi to lib­er­ate Sikh Gur­d­waras from the stran­gle­hold of the Gov­ern­ment-dom­i­nated Delhi Gur­d­wara lead­er­ship.

On 22 July 1971, Sant Fateh Singh, ad­dress­ing a gath­er­ing at Gur­d­wara Manji Sahib, within the precincts of Dar­bar Sahib -aka The Golden Tem­ple, de­clared a Mor­cha -a re­li­gious cam­paign. He said that his strug­gle was re­li­gious and not po­lit­i­cal. If the Delhi rulers be­come Za­karia Khan, then the Sikhs will be­come Bhai Mani Singhs. Spread­ing his mis­sion in the course of his jour­ney, when he reached Narela, near Delhi on 14 Au­gust 1971, Sant Fateh Singh was de­tained with his vol­un­teers. Sant Fateh Singh and some Se­wadars -work­ers, were placed un­der house ar­rest at a Gur­d­wara in Bud­dha Jo­har in Gan­gana­gar and the oth­ers were lodged in Ti­har jail in Delhi.

The sec­ond Jatha for lib­er­a­tion of Gur­d­waras was taken to Delhi by Akali stal­warts -for­mer Pun­jab rev­enue min­is­ter Atma Singh, fol­lowed by Sur­jit Singh Bar­nala, Prakash Singh Badal, fi­nance min­is­ter Bal­want Singh, Gurmeet Singh Muk­t­sar, Sat­nam Singh Ba­jwa, Mem­ber Par­lia­ment Gur­cha­ran Singh Tohra, Gur­das Singh Badal, Jathedar Jagdev Singh Tal­wandi, Dhanna Singh Gul­shan, Raja Narinder Singh Nabha, Ravi In­der Singh, leg­is­la­tors of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal, mem­bers of the SGPC and dis­trict Jathedars, who all thronged Delhi in large num­bers.

While the above lead­ers and their Jathas were de­tained in Delhi, ac­tivists from Agra, Al­war, Bharat­pur, Ba­naras, Ali­garh, Gwalior, Kar­nal, Am­bala, Hissar, Pa­tiala, San­grur, Bha­tia and Am­rit­sar filled the jails in their re­spec­tive cities.

A Jatha of Mus­lim ac­tivists from Malerkotla -the only Mus­lim dom­i­nated town of Pun­jab, led by An­war Khan was also ar­rested and sent to Ba­naras prison. 7 Singhs died in prison and were de­clared mar­tyrs. Dur­ing the 115-day Mor­cha to lib­er­ate Delhi Gur­d­waras, as many as 17 thou­sand Singhs courted ar­rest.

Mean­while on 3 De­cem­ber 1971, war broke out be­tween In­dia and Pak­istan. Jathedar Mo­han Singh Tur, -the Mor­cha dic­ta­tor (as he was called), stopped the Mor­cha on 6 De­cem­ber 1971. All Akalis de­tained in the Mor­cha, were re­leased. The gov­ern­ment of In­dia promised to en­act the Delhi Gur­d­wara Act and con­duct elec­tions soon.

The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Coun­cil in­tro­duced the Gur­d­wara bill on 18 De­cem­ber, 1971. The pro­posed Gur­d­wara com­mit­tee was to have 55 mem­bers, 46 of whom were to be elected and 9 to be nom­i­nated. Elec­tions were to be held every four years. Four Jathedars were also to be ex-of­fi­cio mem­bers of the DS­GMC with­out vot­ing rights.

Ear­lier on, there was a min­i­mum ed­u­ca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tion for mem­bers, which was later amended by the gov­ern­ment to en­able a gov­ern­ment nom­i­nee to be­come the pres­i­dent. This story of gov­ern­ment med­dling in Delhi Gur­d­wara af­fairs some other time.

The orig­i­nal ar­ti­cle is in Pun­jabi. It has been trans­lated by the WSN Re­search Bu­reau.