Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale

Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale led the Damdami Taksal from 1977 and became the best-known voice of the Dharam Yudh Morcha. He was killed in the army's attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib in June 1984. The government of the day and much of the press called him a "terrorist", the word of his opponents. Many Sikhs honour him as a Shaheed; the Sikh Research Institute calls him popular and lauded in parts of the community and a source of discomfort for many.

Early life and the Taksal. He was born in 1947 in Rode village, then in Faridkot district, the youngest of seven sons of Joginder Singh, a Brar Jatt farmer, and Nihal Kaur. He joined the Damdami Taksal at Bhindran Kalan in 1965 under Sant Gurbachan Singh Khalsa, and after Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa died in 1977, having named him successor, he was formally elected head at the bhog ceremony on 25 August 1977.

Key moments

• 13 April 1978: Sikh marchers confronted a Sant Nirankari convention in Amritsar; ThePrint reports that he sent a Taksal jatha, which the Akhand Kirtani Jatha of Bhai Fauja Singh joined. Thirteen Sikhs died and 78 were wounded, according to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. ThePrint notes that the Nirankaris say they were attacked while other reports say they were armed. On 4 January 1980 a Karnal court set all 64 Nirankari accused free.
• September 1981: after the murder of the editor Lala Jagat Narain on 9 September, police went to Chando Kalan to arrest him. He offered himself for arrest on 20 September, and police firing on his supporters at Mehta Chowk killed 12 people; Tarlochan Singh, later press secretary to President Zail Singh, wrote that this shooting has never been investigated. On 14 October 1981 Home Minister Giani Zail Singh told Parliament there was no evidence against him and he was released.
• 19 to 25 July 1982: after Bhai Amrik Singh was arrested on 19 July he moved to Guru Nanak Niwas in the Sri Darbar Sahib complex, and on 25 July announced a morcha for the release of his men. From 4 August 1982 he merged it into the Akali Dal's Dharam Yudh Morcha, and the Encyclopaedia says he became in a way the "joint dictator of the entire Panth". The Sikh Research Institute adds that the Akali demand was the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which he also took up.
• 15 December 1983: after the Babbar Khalsa demanded that he leave Guru Nanak Niwas, he moved into Sri Akal Takht Sahib, and with Major General Shahbeg Singh the complex was fortified.
• 5 to 7 June 1984: during Operation Blue Star he was killed in the army's attack. His body was found in the Akal Takht basement, on 6 June in Ramachandra Guha's account and on 7 June in the Encyclopaedia's. Guha writes that the government gave 4 officers, 79 soldiers and 492 "terrorists" and that other accounts put the toll much higher; the government's White Paper (Annexure XI) lists 493 "civilian/terrorist" dead in the Golden Temple area and does not separate civilians from armed men.

How his rise is explained. Writers disagree. Guha reports that "by some accounts" Sanjay Gandhi and Zail Singh built him up against the Akalis, but adds that he quickly showed "his own independent source of charisma". Tarlochan Singh wrote that the claim about Zail Singh has never been properly researched, and that arresting him in 1981 only increased his popularity. The Sikh Research Institute argues that he stayed in the complex because morcha leaders always had and because of an ardas vow to continue until success, and that the government was responsible for the aggression that led to the attack.

Remembered for: preaching a return to the fundamentals of Sikhi, his challenge to the Nirankaris, the Dharam Yudh Morcha, and his stand inside Sri Akal Takht Sahib. A Gurdwara in the complex now commemorates him.