Mehta Chowk

Mehta Chowk is a village about 40 km north of Amritsar. It is the headquarters of the Damdami Taksal, at Gurdwara Gurdarshan Parkash. Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa had set up the Taksal’s seat there before his death in 1977. Baba Thakur Singh led the Taksal from 1984 to 2004 as acting head, and Baba Harnam Singh since 2004, though Wikipedia records a dispute that began in 2005 over who may claim the jathedari.

Key moments

• 16 and 25 August 1977: Sant Kartar Singh dies in a road accident, having named Jarnail Singh as his successor. Jarnail Singh is formally elected head at the bhog ceremony at Mehta Chowk on 25 August.
• September 1981: after the killing of Lala Jagat Narain on 9 September, police raid his camp at Chando Kalan and warrants are out for Bhindranwale. He returns to the Taksal headquarters at Mehta Chowk. On 20 September he leads a procession of almost 80,000 supporters to surrender. Some clash with the police, who open fire and kill 12 people, a shooting that The Caravan says “has never been investigated”. He is freed after Home Minister Giani Zail Singh tells Parliament on 14 October that there is no evidence against him.
• 20 July 1982: he moves to Guru Nanak Niwas in the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex, because Mehta Chowk no longer seemed safe enough.
• 7 June 1984: his body is found in the basement of the Akal Takht.
• 6 June 2026: the Taksal marks the 42nd anniversary of Operation Blue Star at its headquarters. Girish Mahajan, a Maharashtra minister from the BJP, attends, reported as the first representative of any state government to do so. He calls Blue Star “a black day” and those killed “martyrs”, and compares the attack to Ahmad Shah Abdali’s invasion. Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal demands his removal from the cabinet.

What it means today. Mehta Chowk is the Taksal’s home and the centre of its June commemorations, and the base Bhindranwale left in July 1982 for the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex.