By the early twentieth century, many of Punjab's most important gurdwaras were controlled by hereditary custodians called mahants, some of whom treated the shrines as personal property. The reformist Akali movement demanded that control of these sacred sites be transferred to democratically elected committees. Nankana Sahib, the birthplace gurdwara, was among the most symbolically important targets. The Shiromani Committee planned to approach Mahant Narayan Das on 3 March 1921 to negotiate a peaceful handover. But intelligence reached the Committee that the Mahant had no intention of negotiating - instead, he was reportedly planning to lure Sikh leaders to Nankana Sahib and have them killed by hired thugs. This revelation transformed the timeline. Sikh leaders met at Gurdwara Khara Sauda on 16 February and resolved to send jathas - organized groups - to take possession of the gurdwara.

The combined jatha set out on the night of 19 February, intending to arrive at Nankana Sahib during Amrit Vela, the sacred early morning prayer time. Fifty more Sikhs joined along the way, swelling the group to roughly 200. The march nearly stopped twice. At Chanderkot Jhal, Jathedar Lachhman Singh Dharowali waited in vain for reinforcements from Kartar Singh Jhabbar's jatha and decided to cancel. It was Jathedar Tehal Singh who rallied the group forward: "The prayers having already been said and the action plan already decided with Guru's word, it is now imperative to move forward," he declared, urging everyone to remain calm even under extreme provocation. When they reached the railway crossing near Nankana Sahib, yet another messenger arrived with the Shiromani Committee's order to postpone. Tehal Singh refused. He had committed to his Ardas - his prayer and vow - and would not turn back.

The jatha entered the gurdwara through the Darshani Deori and closed the main gate behind them. Some took seats inside the Prakash Asthan, the inner sanctum; others sat on the platform and the veranda. Bhai Lachhman Singh Dharowali sat at the Guru's seat. Mahant Narayan Das heard the jaikaras - victory cries - of the arriving Sikhs. After a moment of shock, he ordered his mercenaries to kill everyone. Gunfire tore through the gurdwara hall, bullets piercing even the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scripture. Armed men carrying swords, spears, and hatchets descended on worshippers who had been told to keep calm under provocation and who offered no armed resistance. The dead and dying were dragged to a pile of logs that had been collected beforehand and set alight. When police and local Sikhs finally arrived, the bodies had been consumed by fire. Bhai Lachhman Singh, wounded by a gunshot, was tied to a jand tree and burned alive.

News of the massacre spread across Punjab like wildfire. Kartar Singh Jhabbar arrived the following day with 2,200 armed Sikhs. Fearing an escalation that colonial authorities could not contain, Commissioner King of Lahore handed the keys of Nankana Sahib's gurdwara directly to the Shiromani Committee and arrested Mahant Narayan Das along with his Pashtun mercenaries. Das and some of his hired men were charged with murder and sentenced to death. Official British records acknowledged 86 Sikh dead, but other sources place the toll between 140 and 260 - the burning of the bodies made a precise count impossible. The massacre galvanized the broader Gurdwara Reform Movement, which ultimately succeeded in wresting control of Sikh shrines from hereditary custodians and placing them under elected management through the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925.

Every year on 20 February, at the site now known as the Shaheedi Asthan, a special copy of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib is brought before the congregation. This is not an ordinary scripture - it bears the bullet marks from the massacre, physical evidence of what happened that morning more than a century ago. From 2 pm to 4 pm, Sikh sangat gather for darshan of this scarred volume, an act of remembrance that connects the living community directly to the sacrifice of those who walked unarmed into the gurdwara at dawn. Nankana Sahib is now in modern-day Pakistan, and Sikh pilgrims from India and around the world travel there to pay respects at the birthplace of their faith's founder - and to honor those who died trying to reclaim it.