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ABSTRACT
This essays concerns the destruction of Sikh Reference Library during the Indian army’s invasion of the Golden Temple, Amritsar in June 1984. The Library built over several decades drew upon almost five centuries’ Sikh literature from various sources containing much of the most precious heritage of the Sikh community. Among its contents were priceless handwritten birs of Guru Granth; recensions of Dasam Granth, hukamnamas and early Sikh literature dating back from 16th century to many gifts deposited by the Sikh sovereign Maharajah Ranjit Singh and other Sikh princes during the 19th century. How the Library, alleged to have survived three days of intensive fighting, then caught fire with contentious claims that its contents were taken away by the army -some of these were returned by the government of India while much is yet unaccounted for, has led to almost continuous controversy since June 1984. The loss of much of Sikh Reference Library is now part of painful memory of India’s callous disregard for a community’s historical heritage with no resolution as to what happened to its contents.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to two librarians at the Sikh Reference Library, Kulwant Singh in the 1990s and Bagicha Singh now in-charge of the Sikh Reference Library. I should also mention much earlier talks with Madanjit Kaur at Guru Nanak Dev Studies Department of Guru Nanak Dev University as she made a first survey of the losses sustained by the library. I have much benefitted by talking to Sardar Satnam Singh who had filed a Public Interest Litigation at Punjab & Haryana high Court where the judges summoned the CBI submission and it is these documents which need more probing. I hope someone will take up the task after reading this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Among several publications describing the battle between Sikh militants inside the Temple and the Indian armies, Tully and Jacob’s account (Citation1985) remains the most reliable.
2 See Kaur ([Citation1983] Citation2004, 222–231). She lists 74 Bungas dividing these into four classes according to who built them, uses these were put to and dates them; 1. Misl; 2. Personal 3. Community 4. Ecclesiastical. The earliest was built in 1754 called Akhara Brahm Buta and by the end of the eighteenth century, there were 25 Bungas, built by emerging Sikh Misl chiefs such as the Sukarchakia, Chhapparwala; Bhungianwala, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, Ahluwalia, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Chichanwalia; Sandhawalia and so on. From 1800, almost a race by various Sikh chiefs led to the building of 50 more Bungas among them Bunga Nauhathian built in 1800, Bunga Sardar Lehna Singh Majithia in 1808 and Bunga Sardar Sher Singh that was completed in 1829, the last of such buildings. Altogether between 1800 and 1829 about fifty Bungas were added.
3 Sikh History Research Department at Khalsa College Amritsar was established in 1930 with the sole efforts of Dr Ganda Singh. As part of its aim was to collect sources of Sikh history, a library was established in a separate building. Altogether the Department collected 570 rare manuscripts (287 in Punjabi, 248 in Persian, 32 in Urdu and 3 in Sanskrit) besides 4726 books on Sikh history along with creating an art gallery. The history of this library is given in the first issue of a journal published by Khalsa College commemorating the contribution of Ganda Singh to Sikh Studies, ‘Dr Ganda Singh Journal of Sikh Historical and Religious Studies,’ Vol.1 No. 1 March 1991. Unfortunately, the journal did not survive for long.
4 Singh (Citation1950b). This issue of Itihasak Pattar contains ‘Suchi Pattar Panjabi [Gurmukhi] Pustakan of Sikh Reference Library’, Amritsar (Singh Citation1950c). This issue of Itihasak Pattar contains ‘author index, and subject index of the Panjabi books of Sikh Reference Library’, Amritsar (Singh Citation1950d). This issue of Itihasak Pattar contains ‘catalogue of English books part 1 of Sikh Reference Library’ (Singh Citation1951). This issue of Itihasak Pattar contains ‘Catalogue of English Books, Part 2 of Sikh Reference Library.
5 This list follows the account given by Kaur (Citation1991); this was earlier published in Journal of Sikh Studies.
6 Tully discusses the destruction of the library on pages 176–177 of his book where he also observes; ‘Nevertheless, it is very difficult to believe that an army which did obey orders to refrain from firing at the Golden Temple itself would have deliberately set a building as important as the library on fire.’ The restraint was not as well-observed as the Golden Temple sustained over 100 bullet marks on its walls besides a shot that passed through sacred pages of the Guru Granth Sahib in the inner sanctum of the Harmandir.
7 Tarlochan Singh, Des Pardes, July 17, 2015, 44.
8 The CBI states that in complying with the order of the High Court on 13 October 1989, 20 June 1990 and 28 December 1990, respectively, whatever was claimed by SGPC was handed over to concerned representatives under proper receipts. In reply to a Public Writ filed by Satnam Singh son of Mela Singh at Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2003 seeking clarification [CWP No. 11301/2003] about the contents of the Sikh Reference Library, the CBI made a submission through V. K. Gupta, Under-Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India and B. S. Kanwar SP CBI/SICII New Delhi citing (Case No. RC 2/84-SIU.III/SIC.II/CBI/New Delhi). It detailed how various items were collected by the army from the Golden Temple and how these were then either handed back to the appropriate SGPC authorities or to the CBI for further investigation. In its submission, there are several annexures wherein list of items handed back to different authorities are listed.
9 Jhand and Shaharyar (Citation2015), also see a report by Varinder Walia in the Tribune, June 12, 2000.
10 See statement of Ranjit Singh Nanda and Shabdal Singh in Ajit of 11, 12 June 2000, respectively.
11 See note 8.
12 In its report, Ensaaf (Citation2006) stated that the Union Government filed an affidavit in a court case in April 2004 acknowledging that it possessed many articles, including handwritten scriptures and documents and wished to return them. As a result, the High Court deposed the petition ordering the government to return the materials. But the government has not complied with the order.
13 See note 8 concerning CBI submission to Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2003.
14 See news concerning this case in various newspapers, Hindustan Times, January 2, 2018 report: Among the damaged articles, there were about 2500 handwritten birs (holy scriptures) of the Guru Granth Sahib from the times of Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Gobind Singh; During the course of the trial, the SGPC offered to withdraw its suit if the government agreed to apologise and submit a token compensation of Rs. 1. The defence lawyers, however, refused. e.g. Indian Express March 23, 2016: The petition seeking compensation was filed in 1986 by the SGPC in Amritsar court. Then the SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra had filed another petition in his personal capacity. The case was shifted to the Delhi High Court. The SGPC was supposed to deposit a fee of Rs. 10 crores as per the court’s rules for the hearing to start. However, the proceedings of the case got delayed as SGPC wanted court to exempt the Rs. 10 crore fees. The fee was eventually deposited by SGPC in June 2013, paving the way for court to start the hearing in the case.
15 The following letter is produced on page 195 in Jasbir Singh Sarna’s book Some Precious Pages of the Sikh History
D.O.N. 706 SL/RM/2000
Minister of Defence
India
May 3, 2000
Dear Gurbachan Singh Bachan,
Please refer to your letter dated 27.03.2000 regarding return of books taken by army in 1984.
I have had the matter examined. The books and documents that were recovered from the Golden Temple Library had been handed over to the CBI by the Army authorities. You may kindly take up the matter with the ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension since CBI comes under the jurisdiction of that Ministry.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/- George Fernandes
To: Dr. Gurbachan Singh Bachan, Secretary, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Teja Singh Samundari Hall, Amritsar.
16 The Tribune May 22, 2009. In reply to a question of Tarlochan Singh, Rajya Sabha member from Haryana, A. K. Antony, Minister of Defence stated: ‘I have been informed that after the Operation, various books/items of Sikh Reference Library (Research) and Sikh Itihas Research Board were handed over to SGPC representative by the Army. Hence, the SGPC has no claim against anyone, the Army or the government’. However, the SGPC president Avtar Singh stated that the Defence Minister is misleading Parliament because Defence Minister George Fernandes had informed earlier that rare books of Sikh Reference Library were yet to be returned to the SGPC.
17 The Times of India, May 14, 2015. Interestingly, Amaninder Sharma the newspaper reporter, calls it ‘raising the nearly-dead issue’ as if this was a minor and insignificant matter.
18 Among prominent donors are Surjit Singh (3000 books), Parkash Singh (450 books), and Sangat Singh (750 books). Some manuscripts were donated by Narinder Singh from his personal collection of birs.
19 Hindustan Times, March 30, 2017.
20 While various Sikh website platforms throw some light, more echo this in emotional terms. See Facebook page of Anurag Singh who keeps a thick file of information and correspondence between the CBI and the Sikh Reference Library but has refused to share it with others except some excerpts through his Facebook notices making much drama of his assertion that some of the manuscripts returned by the CBI were subsequently sold abroad for profit. This kind of debate is hardly helpful as the issue of missing manuscripts needs the skills of an able archivist (combing old registers of the Sikh Reference Library) combined with investigative journalism able to probe the CBI submissions and interview the concerned officers from CBI, army personnel and political leaders.