Budha Dal

The Budha Dal (also spelt Buddha Dal) is the senior order of the Nihang Sikhs. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that Buddha Dal (the elders' army) and Taruna Dal (the youths' army), names now claimed by two sections of the Nihang Sikhs, were first the popular names of the two divisions of the eighteenth-century Dal Khalsa.

How it began: After the 1733 settlement with the Mughal governor Zakariya Khan, the main body of Sikh warriors gathered at Amritsar under Nawab Kapur Singh. After Darbara Singh died in 1734, Kapur Singh divided the camp by the age of the jathedars. The elders' camp, which included Kapur Singh himself, was called the Buddha Dal, and the youths' camp the Taruna Dal. The Buddha Dal was to stay at Amritsar and manage the shrines. In 1748 the 65 jathas were reorganised into eleven misls, six under the Buddha Dal and five under the Taruna Dal. In 1749 and 1750 the Buddha Dal under Nawab Kapur Singh raided Lahore itself. Once the misls held separate territories, the Encyclopaedia says, the two names went out of use.

The modern order: ThePrint reports that after the British annexation of 1849 the Budha Dal became a custodial and religious institution, claiming authority through the Akal Takht and important shrines.

Key moments

• February 1978: police at Pundri near Kaithal in Haryana fired on Nihang Sikhs and killed three. Baba Santa Singh, head of the Budha Dal, demanded a judicial inquiry and told Nihang Sikhs everywhere to march to Pundri; a compromise on 21 February ended it (Gurmit Singh).
• July 1984: after Operation Blue Star damaged the Akal Takht, the Union minister Buta Singh asked Baba Santa Singh to carry out the kar seva that rebuilt the Akal Takht. Gurmit Singh writes that it began on 17 July and that Sikh priests called it Sarkar Seva, service of the government. The Tribune says Baba Santa Singh was excommunicated for not following Sikh maryada.
• March 2001: after about 17 years he accepted tankhah and was readmitted by the Akal Takht's high priests, who said he would remain chief of the Budha Dal; Baba Balbir Singh, whom the SGPC had appointed a rival chief, disputed this (The Tribune).
• 8 May 2008: Baba Santa Singh died; he had been in a Patiala hospital since January.

The succession dispute: ThePrint says Santa Singh was the 13th Jathedar. Baba Balbir Singh says he was sworn in as the 14th, while supporters of Baba Surjit Singh say Santa Singh chose Surjit Singh in 2005. On 21 September 2007, at the Budha Dal premises in Patiala, a clash after Baba Uday Singh was stopped from seeing the ailing chief killed four members of Balbir Singh's group; in July 2016 a court gave eight men of Uday Singh's group life terms (The Tribune).

Where it stands: ThePrint (15 August 2026) says Balbir Singh kept recognised control of the official Budha Dal administration after 2008 and that rival factions remain.