The Nankana Massacre
A brief history of the massacre of Nankana Sahib where ~200 Sikhs were brutally massacred at the hands of corrupt custodian Mahant Narayan Das. These events emboldened the Akalis to call for reform.
Background
The Akali Movement was a Gurdwara Reform Movement which aimed to reassert Sikh ethos and regain control of Gurdwaras from the Udasi Mahants that the Sikhs viewed as corrupt, illegitimate caretakers of the historical Gurdwaras that go back to the times of Guru Nanak. Oftentimes, these Mahants had backing of local and British governments which proved to be a difficult task for the Akalis to regain control of the Gurdwaras. From virtually non-existent support and good-will for the Akali Movement, to eventual total victory of passing the Sikh Gurdwara Bill in 1925 and creating the Shiromani Committee it is important for every Sikh to understand the level of sacrifice that was required for this eventual success. To understand the Akali Movement, this article will briefly highlight the tragedy that should be cemented in every Sikh’s mind - the Nankana Massacre under the authority of Mahant Narayan Das. This brutal and cruel massacre proved to be a pivotal turning point in the Akali agitation against the state as a focal point for Sikh agitation.
The Rise of Mahant Narayan Das
As the birthplace of Guru Nanak, Nankana Sahib is one of the, if not the most important places in the Sikh psyche. Mahant Sadhu Ram, a man known by the Sikh locals as being irreligious and lived a promiscuous, hedonistic lifestyle, controlled Gurdwara Janam Asthan prior to his successor Mahant Narain Das who also adopted the character of his predecessor. Local Sikhs futally attempted to curb these practices that they viewed as antithetical to the Sikh lifestyle due to the Mahant’s support and backing of local British government. To assure the backing of the local government, the Mahant involved the local British officials in the excess that occurred in the Gurdwara, and he also paid them lavishly with lakhs of rupees from the Gurdwara’s funds along with lavish presents in exchange for political support. This synergistic relationship that Mahant Narayan Das developed with the local British officials proved to solidify the Mahant’s security and control of the Gurdwara Sahib. Among the crimes the Mahant was accused of by the Sikhs, he was said to have permitted vulgar singing, dancing girls and illicit relations with a Muslim drummer’s wife within the precincts of Janam Asthan. In an attempt to stop these practices various Singh Sabha reformers passed resolutions to condemn and attempt to prevent such behavior but to no effect on the Mahant’s activities.
As per Akali tradition, Diwans were held to discuss the conditions at Janam Asthan and other Gurdwaras at Nankana Sahib and officially called upon the Mahants to reform their behavior. Early in October 1920 a Diwan held at Dharowal officially passed a resolution directly calling upon Mahant Narayan Das to reform the management of the Gurdwara and to stop desecrating the holy site of the Sikhs. Due to the victories of the Akalis in regaining control of Harmandir Sahib, the Akal Takhat and other Gurdwaras, the sense of urgency and very real threat was presented to Mahant Narayan Das. Immediately the Mahant began amassing personnel to resist the Akalis and their demands. In addition to beginning to amass paid support, he had a meeting with C.M. King, the Commissioner of Lahore division under the guidance of Kartar Singh Bedi and over sixty other Mahants at the Punjab Legislative Council. During this meeting CM King and the Mahants did not recognize the newly formed Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. A parallel committee was formed with Mahant Narayan Das as the president. Rumors of the Akalis ‘attacking’ the Gurdwara were spread. On paper, this meeting discussed a ‘self-defense’ strategy against the Akalis, but in reality something much more sinister was being planned.
The Mercenaries and the Pathans
After the organizing of the Mahants, Narayan Das began to prepare to ultimately crush the Akali reformers and collected roughly 400 mercenaries, including outlaws such as Ranjha and Rehana, and armed them all with various deadly weapons. Along with the 400 mercenaries 100 more Pathan reinforcements under the leadership of Ismail Bhatti had also arrived along with arms, ammunition and kerosene stocked to use. One of the Mahant’s servants shared that a significant amount of pistol cartridges were bought by him from Lahore. Three months prior to any sort of Akali intervention, local authorities were well aware of the extent of preparation the Mahant went through and the scale of weapons and military power the Mahant had amassed. CM King gave an explanation in the Punjab Legislative Council that also confirms this saying:
“...similarly it has been rumored that the Mahant was secretly collecting weapons with which to defend himself from the attack planned on him.”
In addition to this, he also visited Nankana Sahib and saw the Mahant’s preparations with his own eyes witnessing the iron gate with spy holes and instead of questioning the sheer scale of preparation and attempting to deescalate the situation, he justified the Mahant’s actions as a mere act of self defense. Despite repeated local concerns raised, no actions were taken by any official to prevent the Mahant from having an armed conflict with the Akalis. The official backing of the Mahant from local officials emboldened the Mahant against the Akali reformers. The SGPC was aware of the Mahant’s preparations and in response were cautious of agitation for fear of deviating from their strict policy of non-violence for reform and thus advised against the Jathas from attempting to forcibly occupy Nankana Sahib, and avoid potential bloodshed and loss of life.
SGPC Call To Action
January 24th 1921 The SGPC passed a resolution calling upon the Panth to assemble in a Diwan at Nankana Sahib from March 4 - March 6, 1921 in hopes to urge the Mahant for the need of reform. On February 6, 1921 in another meeting, a five-member committee was appointed to make langar arrangements for the Diwan. These meetings put the Mahant on guard and frightened him, and heard of Jathedar Kartar Singh Jhabbar potentially attempting to forcibly retake the Gurdwara if the Mahant did not change his ways. Initially it seemed like the Mahant was open to dialogue. February 7 to 9, 1921 the Mahant was invited to attend an Akali meeting at Sacha Sauda at Sultanpur but he failed to attend. Another meeting on February 14th at Sheikhpura was held, but he also failed to attend this meeting. The Mahant, having changed his mind to dialogue with the Akalis, he instead doubled down and started to recruit more mercenaries by adding 28 more Pathans to his force. According to Jathedar Kartar Singh Jhabbar, the Mahant had a very elaborate strategy to assassinate top Akali leaders. The intent of the Mahant was known by Akali leadership and thus efforts were made to attempt to prevent the Jathas from going to Nankana Sahib before the general assembly on March 4, 1921, and preventing the Akali jathas from falling under the Mahant’s trap.
Teja Singh Samundri, Master Tara Singh and Sardar Harchand Singh’s Plea
These three leaders reached Nankana Sahib on February 19, 1921 with the intention of stopping the Jathas from proceeding to Gurdwara Janam Asthan. These leaders were accompanied by Sardar Sardul Singh Kavishar, Master Sunder SIngh, Jaswant Singh Jhabal and Dalip Singh. Here, all these leaders unanimously decided to enforce the previous decision to not proceed to Gurdwara Janam Asthan. Dalip Singh and Jaswant Singh were sent to Khara Sauda to attempt to meet Jathedar Kartar Singh Jhabbar and persuade him to not proceed with the plan of forcibly occupying Nankana Sahib. After informing the Jathedar, Dalip Singh headed to Sunerkot to inform Bhai Lacchman Singh to not proceed to Nankana Sahib. Upon arrival, they found Dalip Singh had already left, a mile away from Nankana at a factory of Bhai Uttam Singh. On the morning of February 20, the party reached a half mile away from Gurdwara Janam Asthan and they met Dalip Singh and received the message containing SGPC’s instruction to not proceed to Janam Asthan. Bhai Lachman Singh had agreed but members of his Jatha had convinced him otherwise, claiming peacefully visiting the Gurdwara would do no harm. Bhai Lachman Singh headed to Janam Asthan and arrived leading his jatha at 6 in the morning, thus falling into the trap laid out by the sinister Mahant Narayan Das.
Saka Nankana Sahib
The visuals of such a large Jatha arriving led the servants of the Mahant to believe they had arrived to forcibly take over the Gurdwara and the intelligence was conveyed to the Mahant. The Mahant canceled his train to Lahore for a meeting with other Mahants, and returned to Janam Asthan and mobilized his men. The Mahant had already relocated his riches and family to Lahore, thus proving this was a well planned out event. Upon the arrival of the Jatha, the Mahant shouted at his men, “Sikhs are coming, get ready” and distributed arms and ammunition. As soon as the Jathas entered the Gurdwara, the Pathans had shut down the gates, effectively locking the Jathas inside the Gurdwara. Oblivious to the sinister plans of the Mahant, the Jathas bowed down to Guru Granth Sahib and started singing Kirtan. According to a statement of Mr. HA Herbert, the Public Prosecutor in the Nanakana Case, “Firing started almost as soon as the Akalis entered the Gurdwara. Not a single syllable was addressed to them; they were fired upon with parley or question…”. Immediately after the entry of the Akalis 25 of the Mahant’s men opened fire on the Akalis and the rest began throwing bricks at the Sikhs. Sikhs who ran to the side of the Gurdwara were shot dead, and approximately 25 members of the Jatha who were inside the Gurdwara attained martyrdom. Approximately 60 Akalis attempted to shut themselves in Chaukhandi, but the Mahant’s men broke open the doors and killed them. Another room was searched and 25 Akalis were found and executed. Mahant Narayan Das himself supervised the entire incident and urged his men ‘to spare no long-haired Sikh in the whole vicinity’.
Aftermath
After killing all of the members of Bhai Lachman Singh’s party and other Jathas, the Mahant gathered and burned most of the dead and wounded with kerosene. According to an eyewitness account,
‘In these burnt heaps there were traces of arms, heads, legs and other parts of bodies chopped off into small bits… and practically the whole compound was full of blood.’
The public prosecutor also confirmed that the mahant attempted to destroy all evidence of the massacre by burning the corpses. Upon being informed of the tragedy, Bhai Uttam Singh, a local factory owner, and Sardar Karam Singh, the Station Master attempted to inform Punjab’s higher authorities, the Akalis and national leaders. Telegrams were sent to the Lt. Governor of Punjab, the Deputy Commissioner of Sheikhpura, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and Mahatma Gandhi. Eventually, the Commissioner of Lahore Division and the DIG of Police, central Range had reached Nanaka Sahib along with 100 Indian and British troops. Narayan Das, his men and 26 Pathans were arrested and sent to Lahore but many had managed to escape. The Gurdwara was placed under military guard.
Kartar Singh Jhabbar
Kartar SIngh Jhabbar, having had previously abandoned his plan of forcibly occupying the Gurdwara after listening to the advice of Akali leadership. The cold-blooded murder of the Sikhs at Nankana Sahib enraged Akali Jathas of Lyallpur and Sheikhpura districts, and the news of Gurdwara Janam Asthan being overrun by the army further added fuel to the rage. Kartar Singh Jhabbar upon hearing of this tragedy amassed a strong force of 2,200 Akalis and was ready to march to Nankana Sahib and reclaim the Gurdwara. On the way there Jathedar Jhabbar was stopped with an order from the Deputy Commissioner disallowing the Akalis to proceed towards Gurdwara Janam Asthan. Upon receiving the message, Jhabbar took the paper from the messenger and ripped it to pieces saying,
“I am coming with my Jatha; you may do whatever you please…”
Next the Deputy Commissioner himself had confronted Jhabbar and warned of bullets if they do not stop their approach to Gurdwara Janam Asthan. Jathedar Jhabbar ignored the warnings and ordered his men to head towards Gurdwara Janam Asthan and take control of the Gurdwara. Seeing the determination and number of men under Jhabbar, the Deputy commissioner yielded and handed over the keys of Gurdwara Janam Asthan to Jhabbar with a stipulation that they formed a committee of managing the Gurdwara. Upon the successful reclaiming of Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the majority of the Mahants surrounding the area were morally defeated and ended up yielding control of the Gurdwaras to the SGPC.
National Outrage
After the news of the tragedy of Nankana Sahib spread, Sikhs across Punjab demanded severe punishment for the Mahants and Narayan Das. They demanded the death penalty for Narayan Das. On a large scale, due to the very clear cut atrocity committed against the Akalis by the Mahant and local government officials, the media picked up the news very quickly. Mahatma Gandhi visited Nankana Sahib on March 3, 1921 and made a speech in Hindi about the grave injustice and cruelty of the Mahant at Nankana Sahib and he commended the Akali reformers as an ‘act of national bravery’ and condemned the British rule who he also held responsible for their involvement in the massacre. Gandhi went as far as to compare this massacre to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, and said this was a second edition of Dyerism, and a more barbarous, more calculated and fiendish than that of Dyerism of Jallianwala Bagh. After the exile of Mahant Narayan Das in Una, Himachal Pradesh, his wife also relocated with him but trekked on foot from Himachal to Darbar Sahib to seek forgiveness. Mahant Narayan Das was largely unpunished for his cruel crimes, but his wife was forgiven because she identified with Sikhi and was genuinely remorseful for her husbands actions.
Akali Strategic Victory
The Nankana Sahib massacre and the complicit nature of local government officials forced the British government in Delhi and London readdress their policy of non-interference in local affairs. The Punjab policy of attempting to weaken the growing Akali agitation and suppress extremist elements in the Akali leadership under the pretext of law and order proved to backfire. The method in which the Akalis carried out their movement left no room for the government to lay blame on the Akalis and thus allowed for the Akalis to slowly agitate for more control, and more support among the Sikh masses, effectively bringing a complete victory at Nankana Sahib. Eventually, due to the Akalis now viewing the government having had been complicit in Nankana Sahib, fighting against the British had now become an equal cause to the Akalis as their original cause of reform.