Saka Nankana Sahib 1921: the massacre at Gurdwara Janam Asthan

Saka Nankana Sahib remembers the massacre of 20 February 1921 at Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birthplace of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, where a peaceful jatha of Sikhs was killed by armed men hired by the mahant who controlled the shrine. It is one of the defining events of the Gurdwara Reform Movement.

The mahants

In the nineteenth century many historic gurdwaras had come under hereditary mahants, custodians who treated them as private property, often with the backing of the British authorities. Some brought in practices against Sikh teaching and kept the offerings for themselves. At Nankana Sahib, Mahant Narain Das was notorious for the misconduct allowed at the shrine. In 1920 the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was formed to bring the gurdwaras under the Panth's own care.

The morning of 20 February

A jatha led by Bhai Lachhman Singh Dharowali entered Gurdwara Janam Asthan early in the morning and sat before Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in kirtan. The mahant had prepared for them with armed men. They opened fire, attacked the Sikhs with swords and axes, and burned many of the bodies, some still alive. Bhai Lachhman Singh Ji was tied to a tree and burnt. Bhai Dalip Singh Ji, who came to plead for peace, was shot. Official figures counted well over a hundred dead; Sikh accounts give more.

What followed

The saka shook the whole Panth and turned opinion in India against the mahants. Within days the shrine was handed to the Sikhs, and the reform movement gathered force, leading to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925. Sangats remember the shaheeds with Akhand Paath, kirtan and Ardas, at Nankana Sahib and everywhere.