ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>NANK&#256&#7750&#256 S&#256HIB MASSACRE</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="NANKF,SHIB,MASSACRE"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279NANK&#256&#7750&#256 S&#256HIB MASSACRE refers to the grim episode during the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform movement in which a peaceful batch of reformist Sikhs was subjected to a murderous assault on 20 February 1921 in the holy shrine at Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib, the birthplace of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. This shrine along with six others in the town had been under the control of Ud&#257s&#299 priests ever since the time the Sikhs were driven by Mu<u>gh</u>al oppression to seek safety in remote hills and deserts. In Sikh times these <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> were richly endowed by the State. The priests not only treated ecclesiastical assets as their private properties but had also introduced practices and ceremonial which had no sanction in Sikhism. Their own character was not free from the taints of licentiousness and luxury. The puritan reaction engendered by the preachings of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 movement during the last quarter of the nineteenth century led the community to revolt against the retrogression and maladministration of their places of worship. The protest became louder in the opening decades of the twentieth century and culminated in the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform or Ak&#257l&#299 movement of 1920-26.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Of the Ud&#257s&#299 clergy, Mahant Narai&#7751 D&#257s, the high priest of Gurdw&#257r&#257 Janam Asth&#257n at Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib, was the richest and the most wayward. His stewardship of the shrine had started many a scandal. Sikhs' petitions to the government for the removal of the Mahant had gone unheeded. Matters came to a head when, in 1918, two cases of molestation of women pilgrims were reported. Early in October 1920, a large Sikh gathering held at the village of Dh&#257rov&#257l&#299, in the present Shei<u>kh</u>&#363pur&#257 district, recorded strong protest. Almost simultaneously a Sikh shrine, Gurdw&#257r&#257 B&#257be d&#299 Ber, at Si&#257lko&#7789, was liberated from priestly control and taken over by the Sikhs on 5 October 1920, which marked the beginning of the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform movement. The Harimandar and the Ak&#257l Ta<u>kh</u>t were occupied on 12 October 1920. Narai&#7751 D&#257s, instead of showing repentance or conciliation, started recruiting a private army and laying in arms. On the morning of 20 February 1921, as a <i>jath&#257</i> of 150 Sikhs entered the sacred precincts, his men fell upon it. The Sikhs were chanting the sacred hymns when the attack started. Bullets were mercilessly rained on them from the roof of an adjoining building. Their leader, Bh&#257&#299 Lachhma&#7751 Si&#7749gh, the staunch reformist, a tall and handsome Sikh from Dh&#257rov&#257l&#299, was struck down sitting in attendance of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Outside the main gate, Narai&#7751 D&#257s, pistol in hand and his face muffled up, pranced up and down on horseback directing the operations and all the time shouting, "Let not a single long-haired Sikh go out Alive." Bh&#257&#299 Dal&#299p Si&#7749gh, a much-respected Sikh who was well known to him, came to intercede with him to stop the bloody carnage. But he killed him on the spot with a shot from his pistol. Six other Sikhs coming from outside were butchered and thrown into a potter's kiln. Firewood and kerosene oil were brought out and a fire lighted. All the dead and injured were piled up on it to be consumed by the flames. Bh&#257&#299 Lachhma&#7751 Si&#7749gh was fastened to a tree near by and burnt alive. The total number of Sikhs killed has been variously estimated between 82 and 156.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; News of the Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib massacre shocked the country. Sir Edward Maclagan, Governor of the Punjab, visited the site on 22 February. Mah&#257tm&#257 G&#257ndh&#299, along with Muslim leaders Shauk&#257t 'Al&#299 and Muhammad 'Al&#299, came on 3 March. Princess Bamba Duleep Si&#7749gh (1869-1957), daughter of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Duleep Si&#7749gh, came accompanied by Sir Jogendra Si&#7749gh (1877-1946), to offer her homage to the memory of the martyrs.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Narai&#7751 D&#257s and some of his hirelings were arrested and the possession of the shrine was made over by government to a committee of seven Sikhs headed by Sard&#257r Harba&#7749s Si&#7749gh of A&#7789&#257r&#299, vice-president of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; February 23 was fixed for the cremation rites. Charred, mutilated bodies were collected and torn limbs and pieces of flesh picked from wherever they lay in the bloodstained chambers. A huge funeral pyre was erected. Bh&#257&#299 Jodh Si&#7749gh, in a measured oration, advised the Sikhs to remain cool and patient and endure the calamity with the fortitude with which their ancestors had faced similar situations. The Sikhs, he said, had cleansed by their blood the holy precincts so long exposed to the impious influence of a corrupt regime.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A criminal case against Mahant Narai&#7751 D&#257s and his men started on 5 April 1921 which was observed by the Sikhs as the Martyrs' Day. The Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee appealed to the Sikhs to wear black turbans in memory to the martyrs until the next birth anniversary of Gur&#363 N&#257nak coming off on 15 November 1921 (black turban thenceforth became the insignia of the Ak&#257l&#299s). The sessions court, announcing its judgement on 12 October 1921, sentenced Narai&#7751 D&#257s and seven others to death and eight to transportation for life. Sixteen P&#257&#7789h&#257n mercenaries were awarded seven years' rigorous imprisonment each. The rest were acquitted. The High Court delivering on 3 March 1922 its judgement on Narai&#7751 D&#257s's appeal, reduced his sentence to life imprisonment. Three of his men were awarded capital punishment and two were given life terms; all others were let off.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee instituted a fund to provide relief to the families of the martyrs. It also established the Sikh Missionary Society, which opened the Sh&#257h&#299d Sikh Missionary College at Amritsar as a permanent memorial to the martyrs (<i>shah&#299d</i>, in Punjabi) of Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Shamsher, Gurba<u>kh</u>sh Si&#7749gh, <i>Shah&#299d&#299 J&#299van</i>. Nankana Sahib, 1938<BR> <li class="C1"> Narai&#7751 Si&#7749gh, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Morche te Jhabbar</i>. Delhi, 1976<BR> <li class="C1"> Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Gurdw&#257r&#257 Sudh&#257r arth&#257t Ak&#257l&#299 Lahir</i>. Amritsar, 1975<BR> <li class="C1"> Josh, Sohan Si&#7749gh, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Morchi&#257&#7749 d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>. Delhi, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Mohinder Singh, <i>The Akali Movement</i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> <li class="C1"> Sahni, Ruchi Ram, <i>Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines</i>. Amritsar, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Teja Singh, <i>The Gurdwara Reform Movement and the Sikh Awakening</i>. Jalandhar, 1922<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1994<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">R&#257j&#257 R&#257m<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>