20 February 1921[EoS]
Nankana Sahib massacre
Armed men hired by Mahant Narain Das attack a band of about 150 Sikh reformers inside Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birthplace of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The attack shocks the country and hardens the campaign to take back the gurdwaras.
Udasi custodians had long held the gurdwaras at Nankana Sahib. Mahant Narain Das, the richest of them, faced repeated Sikh petitions, and in 1918 two cases were reported of women pilgrims being molested. As the reform movement grew in 1920, he recruited armed men.
On the morning of 20 February 1921 a band of about 150 Sikhs entered the gurdwara while reciting hymns and came under fire from a roof. Bhai Lachhman Singh was struck while attending Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and was later tied to a tree and burned, attaining martyrdom. Bhai Dalip Singh, who came to plead with the mahant, was shot by him and also attained martyrdom. The dead and wounded were piled together and set alight.
The Governor visited on 22 February, and Mahatma Gandhi came on 3 March. The gurdwara was handed to a Sikh committee. The sessions court passed death sentences on Narain Das and seven others, and the High Court reduced his sentence to life imprisonment in March 1922. The SGPC asked Sikhs to wear black turbans in mourning, and these became the mark of the Akalis.[EoS]