On Vaisakhi day, Sikhs protesting a Sant Nirankari gathering in Amritsar march on the venue and are fired on; thirteen Sikhs are killed, and their martyrdom becomes a rallying point of the gathering Punjab crisis and a root of the militancy that follows in the next decade.
Tagged: Persecution Nirankari Sikh The Khalsa Panth
The Event
- Date
- 1978 (exact)
- Era
- Modern; Standard periodization of Sikh history
- Location
- Amritsar; today Punjab, India
- Traditions
- Sikhism
- Streams
- Nirankari, The Khalsa Panth
- Key figures
- Bhai Fauja Singh
Connections
- The Sant Nirankari Mission founded; followed
Primary Sources
- The Punjab government inquiry records
Secondary Sources
- Fenech and McLeod, Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (Rowman and Littlefield, 3rd ed. 2014)
- Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (Cambridge, 1990)
Provenance: HIST-0532; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
- The Guru Granth Sahib, Enthroned Art Entry
- Adi Granth compiled History Event
- Assassination of Baba Gurbachan Singh History Event
- Guru Hargobind History Event
- Jallianwala Bagh massacre History Event
- Martyrdom of Guru Arjan History Event
- Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur History Event
- Operation Blue Star; anti-Sikh riots History Event