Sudiksha, called Sister Sudiksha by the followers of the Sant Nirankari Mission, was anointed its head on Tuesday. She would succeed her mother, Mata Satvinder, who had taken charge of the Mission at a time that followers say, was the most difficult for them. The head, Baba Hardev Singh, was killed in a road accident in Montreal in 2016. He was supposed to attend the second Nirankari International Samagam in the Canadian city two weeks later. Also killed in the same accident was Sudiksha's 29-year-old husband Avneet Setya.
The Nirankari Mission, based out of the national capital, believes that there is one formless God. Shunning rites and rituals, the Mission, that was founded in 1929, promotes the idea of a guru – a teacher, who shows the followers the path to the formless God.
With most of the followers drawn from the Sikhs, it has been targeted by orthodox Sikh groups, who consider the Mission to be a heresy of Sikhism. It was not long before the Nirakaris and the Akalis, representing the traditional Sikhs, clashed. The Akalis believe in an eternal Guru in the form of Granth Sahib after the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. And after Guru Gobind Singh, the idea of a living Guru was given up.
The Akali-Nirankari clash in Amritsar, on Baisakhi day in 1978, is often seen as the starting point of militancy in Punjab. The Nirankaris had dared to hold a convention in Amritsar, the citadel of traditional Sikhism and home to the holiest of the Gurdwaras as well as the Akal Takhat.
Among those killed in the clash were followers of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, then heading the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh seminary near Amritsar.
Much blood has been shed over the two opposing ideas of “guru”.
But Sister Sudiksha, like her mother, is seen as one who hold the idea of family and happy atmosphere for children to grow up. Their speeches have generally been along these lines.