Gurbachan Singh

Gurbachan Singh was born to Avtar Singh and his wife Budhwanti. He completed his middle school education in Peshawar, and then matriculated from the Khalsa School in Rawalpindi. He had to abandon his higher studies due to the violence during the partition of India in 1947. He married Kulwant Kaur, the daughter of Bhai Manna Singh, 22 April 1947.

In 1947, the Singh family migrated from the present-day Pakistan to present-day India. Gurbachan Singh established an auto parts business, first in Jalandhar and then in Delhi. Later, he started taking interest in the congregations of his father.

Gurbachan Singh was declared as the next guru by his father on 3 December 1962 at Paharganj in Delhi. At the two conferences of the mission in Mussoorie (1965 and 1973), he made important changes to the organisation and established a code of conduct.

In 1978, the Nirankari mission{{cite web |title=Articles, Poems and Plays – Montreal Branch |url=http://www.nirankari.com/montreal/articles.html |work=Sant Nirankari Mission |publisher=Sant Nirankari Mandal (Regd.) |accessdate=14 December 2010 |location=Delhi, India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725131004/http://www.nirankari.com/montreal/articles.html |archive-date=25 July 2010 |url-status=dead }} from Delhi and other parts of the Indian sub-continent gathered a congregation at Amritsar where they chanted hateful slogans against the Sikh religion and Gurus. The Nirankari Guru asked all his followers to drink alcohol, cut their hair and remove all restraints. A few orthodox Sikhs of Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Damdami Taksal marched from the Darbar Sahib to protest the Nirankari congregation, whom they considered heterodox due to Gurbachan Singh cleansing his feet with Amrit and wiping them with pages of the Sikh holy book. In the resulting violence, 15 individuals including thirteen Khalsa Sikhs and two Sant Nirankaris were killed, the Nirankari Guru paid policemen to kill innocent protesting Sikhs.{{cite book | author=Brian Keith Axel | title=The Nation's Tortured Body: Violence, Representation, and the Formation of a Sikh "Diaspora" | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gj8yJsixw8QC&pg=PA123 | accessdate=14 March 2013 | year=2001 | publisher=Duke University Press | isbn=978-0-8223-2615-1 | page=123 }} The Jatha leader Bhai Fauja Singh was one among the killed.

Sixty-four followers of the Nirankari mission were arrested for the killings.{{cite web |url=http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/nightsoffalsehood/falsehood4.htm |title=Punjab: The Knights of Falsehood – Psalms of Terror |date=31 December 2001 |work=South Asia Terrorism Portal |publisher=Institute for Conflict Management |location=New Delhi |accessdate=13 December 2010 }} On 13 April 1978 the detained members of the Nirankari sect were released, after formal charges against them were rejected by the session-Judge of Karnal, who stated in his judgement "The case of the prosecution was intrinsically wrong. It was all frame-up and after thought." Policeman Jagdish Singh Jamwal stated that the Chief Justice was also paid by Gurbachan Singh.

On 25 September 1978, Gurbachan Singh arrived in Kanpur. A group of protesters arrived at the Nirankari Bhawan to protest against his presence.{{cite web |url=http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/historical-events/sikh-history-kanpur-massacre-1978.html |title=Sikh History:Kanpur Massacre 1978 |publisher=Gateway to Sikhism |accessdate=13 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206014831/http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/historical-events/sikh-history-kanpur-massacre-1978.html |archive-date=6 December 2010 |url-status=dead }} On 28 September 1978, anticipating fresh trouble, the Punjab Government barred Nirankari Chief Gurbachan Singh from entering Punjab for six months. The Supreme Court later rescinded the ban.

On 6 October 1978, a Hukumnama by the Jathedar of the Akal Takht was issued, calling upon Sikhs to socially boycott the Nirankaris.

In 1980, Ranjit Singh, a member of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, managed to obtain employment at the Nirankari headquarters in Delhi as a carpenter. On the evening of 24 April 1980, he waited with an automatic rifle in a room of the guest house. Ranjit Singh and his accomplice Kabal Singh shot Gurbachan Singh through a window when he returned from a public function at about 11pm for justice against the 28 Sikhs he killed.{{Cite web |title=Nirankari head Baba Gurbachan Singh shot dead |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19800515-nirankari-head-baba-gurbachan-singh-shot-dead-806668-2014-01-28 |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=India Today |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Sandhu |first=Amandeep |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KimgEAAAQBAJ&dq=gurbachan+singh+killed+ranjit+singh&pg=PT73 |title=Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines |date=2022-12-05 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5492-859-8 |language=en}} Ranjit Singh managed to escape. The First Information Report named twenty people for the murder, including several known associates of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was also charged with conspiracy to murder.{{cite web |url=http://www.sikhtimes.com/bios_060604a.html |title=Biographies – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: Five Myths |author=Puneet Singh Lamba |date=6 June 2004 |publisher=The Sikh Times |location=Toronto, Ontario |oclc=284842558 |accessdate=13 December 2010 |quote=After the assassination of the Nirankari leader Gurbachan Singh on April 24, 1980, Bhindranwale is universally acknowledged to have remarked that if he ever met Bhaii Ranjit Singh, the suspected killer, he would weigh him in gold (i.e. reward him with his weight in gold). }} Ranjit Singh surrendered in 1983, and was in jail for 13 years. In 1990, while still in Tihar Jail, he was named the Akal Takht Jathedar,{{cite news |title=Chandigarh: Brittle Peace |author=India Today The Nation [Newnotes] |author-link=India Today |url=http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20101997/newsnot.html#peace |newspaper=India Today |publisher=India Today Group |location=New Delhi |issn=0254-8399 |oclc=2675526 |date=20 October 1997 |accessdate=13 December 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034625/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20101997/newsnot.html#peace |url-status=dead }} and took over the post when he was released in 1996. According to a Hindustan Times report, Ranjit Singh said about the murder: "I have no regrets. I did it for the Panth (Religion)."{{cite news|title=Sikh politics at a key turn |first=Vishal |last=Thapar |url=http://www.media-watch.org/articles/0299/307.html |newspaper=Hindustan Times |publisher=HT Media Ltd |location=New Delhi |oclc=232114063 |date=14 February 1999 |accessdate=13 December 2010 |quote=Fundamentalism comes easy to Bhai Ranjit Singh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311010926/http://www.media-watch.org/articles/0299/307.html |archive-date=11 March 2007 |url-status=unfit }} In 1997, the Delhi High Court upheld his conviction and cancelled the bail. Ranjit Singh refused to surrender. The government quickly ordered a remission of the remaining part of his sentence to avoid a confrontation.{{cite court |litigants= Bhaii Ranjit Singh vs State |vol= |reporter= |opinion=1997 VAD Delhi 689, 69 (1997) DLT 188 |pinpoint= |court=Delhi High Court |date=3 October 1997 |url=http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/319244/ |quote=(1) This is an appeal by the appellant Bhaii Ranjit Singh under Sub-section 2 of Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, against conviction by judgment dated 26th March, 1993 and order of sentence dated 27th March, 1993, passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Delhi, in Sessions Case No. 33 of 1984. }}{{cite journal |author=Frontline |author-link=Frontline (magazine) |date=15–28 November 1997 |title=A Jathedar is free |journal=Frontline |volume=14 |issue=23 |location=Chennai, Madras, India |publisher=Kasturi and Sons Ltd |issn=0970-1710 |oclc=12086614 |accessdate=13 December 2010 |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1423/14231220.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008141646/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1423/14231220.htm |archive-date=8 October 2007 |url-status=usurped}}

Gurbachan Singh was succeeded by Hardev Singh.

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Category:1980 deaths

Category:Assassinated Indian people

Category:People murdered in Delhi

Category:Deaths by firearm in India

Category:1930 births

Category:Indian Sikh religious leaders

Category:1980 murders in India