Until about eight years ago few people in Punjab, let alone the rest of India, had ever heard of the Damdami Taksal but from Baisakhi day, 1978, this organisation, under the leadership of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, began to play an increasingly prominent role in the affairs of the Sikhs and Punjab. Today, as the Taksal and the S.GP.C. and by virtue of the S.GP.C’’s relationship with Akali Dal, the Government confront each other in the sacred precincts of the Harmandir Sahib, everybody knows of it. But there are still few people who do not know much about the Taksal’s history and traditions.

From one viewpoint, the organization is an overnight growth. It must be borne in mind, however, that the Sikhs do not draw a sharp line between politics and religion; as a religious body the Damdami Taksal has been in existence for 280 years and from the very beginning it as defined itself as the militant guardian of the true belief The word Taksal occurs in the final sloka of the Japji Sabi “Ghadhia shabad sachi taxal. Jin ko nadari karmu tinkaar Nanak nadri nadar nihaal.” (“In the mint of truth, the Word is coined, thus those who are graced are to work in joined, O Nanak, by His blessing have joy everlasting.”) “Taksal implies that the institution is engaged in reproducing the true, unalloyed and genuine teachings of the Gurus.

DAMDAMA SAHIB

The first head of the Taksal was Baba Deep Singh Shaheed who was baptised at Damdama Sahib by Guru Gobind Singh in 1706. After the gory battles of Chamkaur Sahib and Muktsar the Guru camped at Damdama Sahib, (Damdama is from a Persian word meaning “drum”, as a king, Guru Gobind Singh had his battle drums beaten each day; the word has since come to mean a resting place.) From there he dispatched the Zafar Nama to Aurangzeb and, according to popular belief, he dictated from memory the entire Guru Granth Sahib, plus the bani of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, after his relative, Dhirmal Sodhi, refused to fetch the holy book from Amritsar.

Tradition has it that Baba Deep Singh was present as the Guru dictated the scriptures to Bhai Manj Singh and he later made five copies of the Guru Granth Sahib, ‘The Guru taught him the correct intonation and interpretation’ of the verses and entrusted him with the task of passing on this knowledge.

Before leaving Damdama Sahib Guru Gobind Singh threw hundreds of reed pens into a tank, subsequently called Lakhan Sar, ‘and prophesied that as many scholars would come to the place to write histories and religious works. “Yeh hai pragat hamari Kashi,” the Guru said,

The Taksal might have turned into a rather passive body of scripture specialists had it not been for the fact that Baba deep Singh had spent much of his life in battle. He was the Zamindar of Paha wind village (Amritsar District) and closely allied with the Chiefs of Shahizad pur, Darauli and Tangori (small States near Ambala).

‘When Ahmed Shah Abdali desecrated the Harmandir Sahib in 1757 Baba Deep Singh gathered an army and marched against the ‘Afghans. He challenged his poorly armed. peasant followers to commit themselves to victory or death in the struggle to free the Temple. Thus began the Shaheedan Misl whose subsequent leaders, Karam Singh, Gurbaksh Singh, Sukha Singh and Natha Singh (all of whom gave their lives for their faith) headed the Taksal as well.

POWERFUL LEADER

During the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the early years of British rule in Punjab the Taksal remained quietly engaged in training Granth is, It wasn’t until the twenties that the Taksal once again had a powerful leader, Sant Sunder Singh of Bhindar Kalan (near Moga) and a powerful cause, the Gurdwara Reform Movement. Sant Gurdial Singh and Sant Magghar Singh were his close associates. Sant Sunder Singh (born 1883) was respected for his knowledge of the scriptures and his saintliness made him popular with the Sikh masses.

‘Sant Sunder Singh died in 1930 and was succeeded by Sant Gur bachan Singh, a man cast very much in Sant Sunder Singh’s mould, Sant Gurbachan Singh belonged to Akhara (near Jagraon), Jamail Singh came to study under Gurbachan Singh in 1965 and in honour of his teacher also called himself Bhindranwale although he actually belonged to Rode village. Sant Gurbachan Singh died at Chowk Mehta in 1969 and such was the esteem in which he was held that the then Punjab Chief Minister, Gurnam Singh, ordered a State funeral for him. It was he who added the Suffix “Khalsa” to his name, a practice which has been retained by his successors and followers.

Two disciples quarreled over who was to ascend the Taksal’s gaddi and the institution split with ‘one Sant remaining at Bhinders and another, Sant Jarnail Singh’s predecessor, Sant Kartar Singh, establishing another center at Chowk Mehta where followers had donated a lot of land, Sant Kartar Singh ‘nominated Jarnail Singh’ to succeed him in 1976, a year before bis death in a car accident.

SHASTRADHARIS

Sant Jamail Singh’s predecessors had mainly exhorted! their followers to a life of purity and piety with emphasis on baptism. Sant Jarnail Singh took up their theme and added the injunction to bear weapons. The Taksal’s tradition of militancy and martyrdom came to figure more and more in his discourses. The Taksal’s course ‘over the past eight years has been recorded not by historians or religious scholars but by journalists.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 21, 1986