Baba Hardev Singh Nirankari

Baba Hardev Singh was the head, or satguru, of the Sant Nirankari Mission from 1980 until his death in 2016. Wikipedia gives his birth as 23 February 1954 in Delhi and says he succeeded his father, Baba Gurbachan Singh, after Gurbachan Singh's assassination in 1980. When he took charge, the Akal Takht's hukamnama of 1978 forbidding Sikhs any relationship with the Nirankaris already stood.

The letter to the Akal Takht: Gurmit Singh writes that the Nirankaris decided to bow, and that their new chief, Baba Hardev Singh, wrote to the head priest of the Akal Takht saying he considered the Guru Granth Sahib the Word of God and was willing to resolve the dispute according to the wishes of the Sikhs. According to Gurmit Singh, pressure was then put on the Akal Takht's head to withdraw the 1978 hukamnama on the ground that the Nirankaris had recanted. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale opposed the move, and the Akal Takht's head said publicly that he would not withdraw it. Gurmit Singh places this among his account of events in early 1982 and gives no date for the letter.

His death: He died on 13 May 2016 in a car accident near Montreal in Canada. The Asian Age reported that the Sant Nirankari Mandal in Canada put the time at about 5 a.m. IST, and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called his death tragic and a great loss to the spiritual world. Wikipedia says his wife, Savinder Kaur, became head on 17 May 2016.

Key moments

• 1980: becomes head of the Mission after his father's assassination.
• Early 1982: writes to the Akal Takht's head priest, in Gurmit Singh's account.
• 13 May 2016: dies in a car accident near Montreal.

Remembered for: leading the Mission through the years of its conflict with the Akal Takht, and, in Gurmit Singh's account, as the chief who offered to settle that dispute in the early 1980s while the Akal Takht's head and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale held to the 1978 edict.