Baba Joginder Singh

Baba Joginder Singh was the father of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and, after June 1984, a leading figure of the United Akali Dal. Wikipedia describes him as a farmer and local Sikh leader. A World Sikh News report of 2 October 1987 places him at Rode in Faridkot district and gives his age as 76, which puts his birth around 1911. No source opened here gives the date of his death.

Key moments

• 1985: the United Akali Dal was founded by Baba Joginder Singh and Simranjit Singh Mann (Wikipedia). Mann was released from prison only after the 1989 general election.
• June 1985: World Sikh News of 7 June 1985 described him as in full command of the United Shiromani Akali Dal, which was observing a "genocide week" ending in a large diwan at Manji Sahib in Amritsar on 6 June. He declared that Sikhs are a peaceful people who would continue their struggle peacefully, and that "There is no place for violence against the innocent in Sikh religion." The paper contrasted him with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, saying Longowal's group had lost credibility with the Sikh masses. That is the paper's judgment, not a settled fact.
• 26 January 1986: Jaspal Singh Sidhu, writing in Abstracts of Sikh Studies, says the United Akali Dal, headed by acting president Baba Joginder Singh, and the Sikh Students Federation virtually controlled the SGPC and the Akal Takht after June 1984, and that with the Damdami Taksal they organised the Sarbat Khalsa at Sri Akal Takht Sahib. It appointed Jasbir Singh Rode Jathedar, with Gurdev Singh Kaunke acting while Rode was in jail. The declaration of Khalistan was a separate act: the five-member Panthic Committee made it from Sri Darbar Sahib on 29 April 1986.
• 1987: the party temporarily merged with two Akali Dal groups under Akal Takht orders, and the merger later failed (Wikipedia). In October 1987 World Sikh News reported that he was 76, that he told the Punjab police chief J. F. Ribeiro he had been under house arrest since 18 May, that police had impounded two of his vehicles, and that he was busy baptising people and speaking against social evils. Ribeiro met him at his son Harjit Singh's home in Rode and promised cataract surgery for his left eye.
• 1989: Wikipedia lists him as president of the party, which won most seats in Punjab in the 1989 general election, after which Mann was released from prison. The party merged into Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) in 1994.

He is remembered as Bhindranwale's father, who after 1984 led one of the Panthic Akali factions and publicly held to a non-violent course.