Police firing on Nihang Sikhs at Pundri, Haryana

Who: The Nihang Sikhs at Pundri, near Kaithal in Haryana; the Municipal Committee of Kaithal and the Haryana police, while the Janata Party was in power in Haryana; Baba Santa Singh, head of the Budha Dal, the Nihang order; and Sikh leaders who rushed to the spot.

What: In February 1978 the Municipal Committee of Kaithal and the Nihangs were in dispute over 20 kanals of land attached to the samadhi of the former Sikh ruler of Kaithal, which, Gurmit Singh writes, the Nihangs had occupied for a long time. In his History of Sikh Struggles he says the police fired on the Nihangs at Pundri and killed three of them. In a column in The Spokesman dated 27 February 1978 he gives another count: four Sikhs, he writes, died at the hands of the Haryana police while trying to carry food to Sikhs surrounded by police, who he says were determined to starve them into surrender. The sources opened for this page do not reconcile three and four.

The shooting caused tension and several Sikh leaders reached the spot. Baba Santa Singh, head of the Budha Dal, demanded a judicial enquiry into the firing and directed Nihang Sikhs across the country to march towards Pundri. A compromise was reached on 21 February 1978, and he called off the agitation.

Where: Pundri, near Kaithal, in Haryana.

Why it mattered: Gurmit Singh writes that the incident left a trail of bitterness amongst the Sikhs. He lists it among the events that frustrated Sikh youth, a few of whom, he says, formed the Dal Khalsa on 13 April 1978 to oppose the Akalis. The World Sikh News, in an interview with a founder, dates the decision to form it to 6 August 1978 and its formal announcement at Chandigarh to 13 August 1978, so the sources differ on the date. In his column he compares Pundri in importance with Saka Panja Sahib, says Akali leaders were playing it down, and argues that a judicial enquiry would serve no useful purpose and that the event should be written into Sikh heritage. Seven weeks after the compromise came the clash between Sikhs and Nirankaris at Amritsar on 13 April 1978. The sources opened for this page do not report any finding by a court or commission on the firing.