Sant Nirankaris (Sant Nirankari Mission)

What it is: The Sant Nirankari Mission is based at Sant Nirankari Colony, Delhi. Its own website calls it an "all embracing spiritual movement" open to people of every faith, and teaches that God is realised through a living Satguru. It is not the same as the Nirankari Sikhs, a reform movement founded by Baba Dayal (1783 to 1855), which the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says holds the Guru Granth Sahib authoritative.

How it began: The Encyclopaedia says Baba Buta Singh founded the separate Sant Nirankari group, unrelated to the Nirankari Sikhs except in name, and that Avtar Singh succeeded him and set up a centre in Delhi after Partition. ThePrint calls it a 1930s offshoot that moved from Rawalpindi to Delhi. Wikipedia dates the founding to 1929.

Why Sikhs object: ThePrint reports that in 1951 Avtar Singh proclaimed himself a living guru in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, and Sikhs attacked his followers. Sikh preachers called Nirankaris "nakli Sikhs", declared the Avtar Bani and Yug Purush heretical, and condemned as sacrilegious Nirankari rituals such as the "sat sitaras" (seven stars) put in place of the panj pyare.

Heads, in order (Wikipedia): Buta Singh, the founder, died 1943. Avtar Singh died on 17 September 1969. Gurbachan Singh was assassinated on 24 April 1980; Wikipedia gives his term as 1962 to 1980, so sources differ on when he took over. Hardev Singh led from 1980 until he died in a road accident in Canada on 13 May 2016. Savinder Hardev led until she died on 5 August 2018, and Sudiksha was named head on 17 July 2018.

Key moments

• 28 November 1973: the SGPC passes a resolution against Gurbachan Singh, which The Tribune calls the first organised Sikh intervention.
• Baisakhi 1978: Sikhs of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and the Damdami Taksal march on the Nirankari convention at Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia says 13 Sikhs were killed and 78 wounded; The Tribune says at least 17 died, most of them Sikhs; ThePrint counts Fauja Singh, 12 others and two onlookers. The sources count Sikh, Nirankari and bystander dead differently.
• June 1978: the Akal Takht issues a hukamnama against dealing with the Nirankaris (ThePrint).
• 4 January 1980: the sessions judge at Karnal sets free all 64 Nirankari accused, Gurbachan Singh among them (Encyclopaedia). ThePrint says the court held they acted in self-defence.
• 24 April 1980: Gurbachan Singh is shot dead in Delhi. Ranjit Singh was convicted of the murder and later became Jathedar of the Akal Takht (ThePrint).

Where it stands: The Mission continues from Delhi under Sudiksha. ThePrint also reports a grenade attack on the Nirankari Bhawan in Amritsar in 2018 that killed three. The Sikh bodies' hukamnama stands; no source opened says it was lifted.