Saka Nankana Sahib (1921) · Saka Nankana Sahib

Culture of origin: Sikh · Historical

Holiday sources: Sikhism

Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib, now in Pakistan, marks Guru Nanak's birthplace. In 1921 it was held by the Udasi mahant Narain Das, whose removal Sikhs had long petitioned for in vain. On the morning of February 20, 1921, a jatha of about 150 reforming Sikhs led by Bhai Lachhman Singh Dharowali entered the shrine; Narain Das's hired men, Pashtun mercenaries among them, fired on them from the roof of a neighbouring building and cut them down with swords and hatchets, and the dead and wounded were piled on logs and burned. Lachhman Singh was tied to a tree and burnt alive, and bullets pierced the Guru Granth Sahib. Estimates of the dead range from 82 to 260. The British authorities arrested Narain Das and his men and handed the shrine to the Sikhs; a sessions court sentenced Narain Das to death, which the High Court reduced to life imprisonment in 1922. Gandhi, who came to Nankana on March 3, 1921, said the mahant had "out-Dyered Dyer". The massacre lies at the heart of the Gurdwara Reform Movement, which ended with the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 giving the historic shrines to the SGPC. The SGPC marks the day on February 21, and the bullet-marked Guru Granth Sahib is shown to pilgrims at Nankana Sahib every year.