Hundreds of followers of two rival groups of the Namdhari religious sect clashed violently in Rania in Haryana’s Sirsa district at the end of last week, leaving at least eight people injured.
The clash on August 11 between the factions led by brothers Sadguru Uday Singh and Thakur Dalip Singh revived bitter memories from eight years ago when the 88-year-old matriarch of the Namdharis, Chand Kaur, was shot dead in Ludhiana.
Haryana Police have registered FIRs against members of both factions over a dispute over 11 acres of agricultural land in Rania. What is this land and dispute?
But first, who are the Namdharis?
The sect was founded by Satguru Ram Singh on Baisakhi in 1857. He challenged the status quo, advocated social reform, and resisted the Raj in various ways. The British inflicted terrible punishments on the Namdharis and deported Ram Singh to Rangoon, from where he never returned. The Namdharis believe Ram Singh is still alive, and will return one day. Until then, they mourn his absence by wearing white.
Namdhari Sikhs consider the Guru Granth Sahib as the Supreme Gurbani, but they also believe in a living human Guru. The Namdharis consider the cow to be sacred, they are teetotallers, and avoid even tea and coffee. The sect’s sprawling headquarters is located in Ludhiana’s Bhaini Sahib near village Raiyaan, where Ram Singh was born. The sect has its deras across Punjab and Haryana, and has a presence in a few other countries, too.
What is the background of the factional feud?
After Ram Singh went missing, his gaddi (succession) went to his brother Satguru Hari Singh, and thereafter, in 1906, to Hari Singh’s eldest son, Satguru Partap Singh. Partap Singh was succeeded by his son Jagjit Singh. The feud began after Jagjit Singh’s demise in 2016.
Jagjit Singh had a daughter and two nephews — Uday Singh and Dalip Singh, the sons of Jagjit Singh’s brother Maharaja Bir Singh. Both Uday Singh and Dalip Singh had ambitions of succeeding Jagjit Singh. Uday Singh, who was backed by Chand Kaur, the wife of Jagjit Singh, won the war of succession, and was declared Satguru.
The Namdharis are a prosperous sect. Uday Singh controls more than 6,000 acres of prime land, including the Bhaini Sahib headquarters, which also houses two palatial bungalows.
Dalip Singh, The Indian Express had reported earlier, used to be in possession of nearly 120 acres of land at Jeewan Nagar in Haryana, the ancestral property of his father Bir Singh, where he ran a dera, besides a bungalow in Bengaluru. However, he was dispossessed of at least a portion of these properties.
Jasbir Singh, a member of the Jeewan Nagar dera management, had told The Indian Express: “A major portion of our land has been encroached by opponents of our dera, leaving just 55 acres with our dera. The Bengaluru bungalow is also not with us currently.”
On April 4, 2016, motorcycle-borne assailants gunned down Chand Kaur at the sect’s Bhaini Sahib headquarters. Both brothers had blamed the other for the murder at the time.
And what is the dispute with the Rania land?
This dispute is about 11 acres of agricultural land at Jeewan Nagar village near Rania, over which factions have laid claims.
The Dalip Singh faction has told Haryana Police that in 2019, a quasi-judicial court of then financial commissioner Anil Kumar (IAS), had passed a verdict on the dispute, and they had subsequently moved the Ellenabad sub-divisional magistrate to rectify the mutation. However, no decision has been taken so far.
In the FIR, the Dalip Singh faction has alleged that “following the orders of Thakur Uday Singh, 250-300 of his followers tried to enter the gurdwara (dera) of Dalip Singh on August 11 to take possession of the land”. The followers of Dalip Singh have accused the alleged attackers of firing on them and attempting to kill them.
The Uday Singh faction, on the other hand, claims that the land belongs to their sect, and has accused the rival sect of trying to take it over. In their police complaint, followers of the Uday Singh faction have said that they were applying urea to their paddy crop in the fields on August 11 morning, when they were attacked by the rival group, leading to injuries to eight persons.
A spokesperson of the Uday Singh faction told The Indian Express that the injured were taken to hospital and that two of them were in serious condition. The complainant, Karan Singh Bhinder, has received bullet injuries on his mouth. Others too, have received gunshot wounds.
The SHO of Rania police station, Inspector Dinesh Kumar, said the police were investigating.
Satguru Ram Singh riding a horse. Painting is from the 19th century. (Wikimedia Commons) 
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