Amrik Singh

Amrik Singh (24 February 1948 – 6 June 1984) was the President of the All India Sikh Students Federation.

Amrik Singh was born in 1948 as the son of Giani Kartar Singh Bhindranwale, the 13th leader of the Damdami Taksal.

Manjit Singh was his younger brother.

Amrik Singh studied at Khalsa College and received his MA and was on his way to completing his PhD, but never submitted his thesis as he began pursuing promotion of Sikh teachings.

Amrik Singh was made president of the AISSF on 2 July 1978 at large AISSF meeting held at Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh.

Amrik Singh contributed significantly to opposing the Sant Nirankaris and to the building of the Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj, in B-Block Amritsar, at the spot where the 13 Sikh protesters were murdered by the Nirankaris.

When no other organization came forth and the government refused to sell the land to Amrik Singh and the AISSF the AISSF Sikhs began building the Gurdwara wall at night so they could claim the land by force.

Sikh youth would spend the entire night building the wall and it would be knocked down by the police the next day.

A stand off between the police and the AISSF began and the police threatened they would shoot anyone on site, they were met with resolve from Amrik Singh who said they would do anything to raise the memorial for the martyred Sikhs.

Eventually the police acceded to the demands of the Sikhs and the Gurdwara remains there today.

He contested the 1979 Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) election, backed by Bhindranwale, but lost to Jiwan Singh Umranangal.

In the General House Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) elections of 1979, the first in 13 years, Amrik Singh ran and lost to Jiwan Umramangal.

Amrik Singh was in the Dal Khalsa and Bhindranwale's group (who fielded about 40 candidates) running against the Akali Dal and ran for the SGPC Beas constituency.

Notably one of The Dal Khalsa aim included establishing an independent Sikh State.

Some elements of the Congress party supported and backed Dal Khalsa's and Bhindranwale's group so they could undermine the Akalis.

The AISSF held a strike on 25 October 1980 and another on 14 November 1980 to protest against the high bus fare increase and some other issues in such districts as Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana with trains not being able to operate then.

This resulted in student-police clashes at numerous places causing the police to open fire at Dasuya and Jhabhal.

On 14 November 1980 strike against the bus fare increase organized by the AISSF there was jammed traffic in the province.

The residents of the province provided full support for the Sikh students.

Following these agitations all political parties joined the struggle against the increased bus fares.

Some reports are there of police stations being attacked.

The AISSF held numerous agitations, strikes, street riots against various causes and politicians.

During the time of the bus fare agitations the AISSF also held numerous demonstrations against various political leaders including the chief minister of Punjab, Darbara Singh.

Some notable agitations including Sikh students besieging various Punjab ministers and lock themselves inside their offices or residences during early December 1980.

The students responsible were arrested and tortured and more subsequent agitations was launched for the release of these students with these agitations were so forceful that the police released the students within a couple of days.

The success of the AISSF, which this time numbered to a membership of 300,000 members, at one point compelled the non-government political parties to join in and hold a demonstration in front of the state secretariat at Chandigarh from making a speech, in January 1981.

Thousands of AISSF volunteers joined the demonstration with more than a thousand being arrested and eventually police throwing tear-gas and also caning them, however the AISSF were successful in delaying the Punjab governor from making a speech making the government invite all the political parties for a dialogue.

This issue of banning tobacco in and other improvements to Amritsar also put leeway to get the Sikh issues to mainstream politics.

In May 1981 The AISSF alongside Dal Khalsa put forth to pass the bill of banning tobacco in the city of Amritsar, tobacco is forbidden in Sikhism, this bill was originally introduced in 1977 by the Akali Dal for the 400 years founding of Amritsar celebrations.

The AISSF gave an ultimatum to the Punjab government to ban tobacco in the city by 30 March or there would be an agitation.

The Government of Punjab seemed to agree with the issue but they said that technically passing such a ban would be unconstitutional and therefore could not.

On 26 April 1982, he led a campaign to get Amritsar the status of a "holy city".

During the agitation, he was arrested on 19 July 1982 along with other members of the Damdami Taksal.

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale began the Dharam Yudh Morcha to implement the Anandpur Resolution which primarily requested more autonomy for Punjab, arguing that it was being oppressed and treated unfairly by the Indian government.

As part of the Morcha, he also demanded freedom for Amrik Singh and other prominent Sikhs.

He was killed in the Indian Army's operation on the Golden Temple on June 6, 1984.

Amrik Singh was the son of Giani Kartar Singh Bhindranwale, the 13th leader of the Damdami Taksal.

He was well versed in Gurbani and Sikh literature, and devoted much of his life to Sikh progressive activities.

He had passed his Masters in Punjabi from Khalsa College in Amritsar after which he began research work on his Ph.D. thesis.

Amrik Singh was a prominent leader of the Damdami Taksal along with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.