Giani Bhupinder Singh

Giani Bhupinder Singh was Head Granthi of Sri Harmandir Sahib in the 1950s and until 1962, and later an Akali politician, president of the Master Akali Dal and a member of the Rajya Sabha. A tribute by Amolak Singh in World Sikh News on 24 March 1995 says he was born on 17 August 1910 and died at New Delhi on 13 March 1995. It says he was Head Granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib from 1947 to 1962.

Key moments

• 3 to 4 July 1955: the SGPC's history of the Punjabi Suba morcha says that police went to his house at about 12.30 at night, and that when he asked where their warrants were, the officer leading the party answered that he himself was the warrant. The book says police arrested him that night with Jathedar Achhar Singh and other officials of the Darbar Sahib, and that he was the second Head Granthi to be arrested in history, after Bhai Mani Singh in Mughal times.
• November 1961: named as one of the five Panj Piare to judge whether Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh had kept their vows. Gurmit Singh lists "Bhupinder Singh (Head Priest of Golden Temple)" with Giani Achhar Singh, Giani Chet Singh, Giani Kirpal Singh and Giani Sharan Singh; the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names Giani Bhupinder Singh, Head Granthi of the Harimandar Sahib, with Jathedar Achchhar Singh, Jathedar Sharam Singh of Kesgarh Sahib, Bhai Kartar Singh and Bhai Chet Singh. The two books differ on two of the five names. The five found on 29 November 1961 that Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh had not kept their vows, and laid penances on both.
• 1962: the tribute says he resigned as Head Granthi after the Akali Dal split into two groups. Gurmit Singh says Giani Bhupinder Singh succeeded Jathedar Achhar Singh as president of the Akali Dal (Master); the book does not date the change.
• 1965: J.S. Grewal writes that at an Akali conference at Ludhiana in May 1965 the president of the Master Akali Dal, Giani Bhupinder Singh, seconded a resolution moved by "Justice" Gurnam Singh. It said the Sikhs had no alternative left but to demand a self-determined status within the Union, which Grewal says the Urdu and Hindi press read as a demand for a sovereign Sikh state. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives the same conference, the Nalva Conference at Ludhiana, as held on 4 July 1965, with a resolution for a self-determined political status drawn up by Kapur Singh, moved by Gurnam Singh and seconded by Giani Bhupinder Singh. The two sources differ on the date.
• March 1970: Grewal writes that Chief Minister Gurnam Singh got Giani Bhupinder Singh elected to the Rajya Sabha against the candidate nominated by Sant Fateh Singh, and that Sant Fateh Singh got both of them expelled from the Akali Dal. Parkash Singh Badal became Chief Minister on 27 March 1970. The tribute says he sat in the Rajya Sabha until 1978.

The tribute says he always preferred unity in the Sikh nation, and that the SGPC honoured him on 16 September 1993. He is remembered as the Head Granthi arrested in the night action on the Darbar Sahib in 1955, and as one of the five who judged the two Akali leaders in 1961.