Lala Jagat Narain

Lala Jagat Narain (1899 to 1981) was a Jalandhar newspaper owner and former Congress politician, the founder of the Hind Samachar group. His killing on 9 September 1981 is the event from which the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism and The Caravan both trace the police action against Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale that followed.

He was born at Wazirabad, now in Pakistan. PTI reports that he left his studies at 21 to join Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement and spent nine years in jail during the freedom struggle, serving as Lala Lajpat Rai's secretary while inside. After Partition he came to Jalandhar from Lahore and started the Urdu daily Hind Samachar in 1948; in 1965 he founded the Hindi daily Punjab Kesari (Wikipedia). He was detained in the Emergency and then left the Congress.

His public stand and how it is judged: Wikipedia records that he resigned as a minister in protest when the Regional Formula on Punjabi and Hindi was implemented in 1956. Critics, as Wikipedia summarises them, say he urged Hindus in Punjab to disown Punjabi as their mother tongue, that his papers vilified Sikhs, and that he later denounced the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. It also records that Bhindranwale accused him of portraying the Gurus as "lovers of wine and women". H. K. Dua, a former editor-in-chief of The Tribune, praised the group for standing against "terrorism", noting that 62 of its staff were killed.

Key moments

• 9 September 1981: he was shot dead near Ludhiana, according to PTI and to Asia Watch. The Encyclopaedia says the government suspected Bhindranwale, who was a strong critic of Jagat Narain as Jagat Narain was of him, and issued warrants. Wikipedia notes that the Government of India's White Paper of 10 July 1984 said he was killed because of his criticism of Bhindranwale.
• Between 9 and 20 September 1981: police from Punjab and Haryana raided Chando Kalan in Hisar district (both the Encyclopaedia and The Caravan place it there), where Bhindranwale's jatha was camping. The Encyclopaedia says the police fired on the jatha, looted its luggage and burned some of the sacred texts. The Caravan adds that two of the jatha's buses were burned.
• 20 September 1981: Bhindranwale offered himself for arrest at Mehta Chowk. The Caravan's writer, Tarlochan Singh, says he led a procession of almost eighty thousand supporters, that police firing killed 12 people, and that the firing was never investigated.
• 14 October 1981: the Home Minister, Giani Zail Singh, told Parliament there was no evidence against Bhindranwale in the murder, and he was released. The Encyclopaedia says the arrest and release raised the Sant's stature among Sikh youth.
• 9 September 2013: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a commemorative stamp in his memory, calling his fearlessness an example (PTI).

The Government of India honoured him with a stamp in 2013 as a journalist who opposed violence. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes him as a press baron highly critical of Bhindranwale, and records that his killing was followed by the arrest warrant, the Chando Kalan raid and the firing at Mehta Chowk.