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variously known as Gurdwara Reform Movement or Gurdwara Agitation
is how Sikhs' long-drawn campaign in the early twenties of the twentieth
century for the liberation of their gurdwaras or holy shrines is
described. The campaign which elicited enthusiastic support, especially,
from the rural masses, took the form of a peaceful agitation-marches,
divans or religious gatherings, and demonstrations for Sikhs to
assert their right to manage their places of worship. This led to
a series of critical episodes in which their powers of suffering
were severely tested by government suppression. In. the event, Akalis,
as the protesters were known, succeeded in their object and the
control of the gurdwaras was vested through legislation in a representative
committee of the Sikhs. The State, under Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839),
had forborne from interfering with the management of Sikh shrines.
It endowed the more prominent
among them with land grants and other gifts but let the control
remain in the hands of sectaries such as Udasis, or hereditary officiants,
who had assumed charge of them generally since the days when Sikhs
under pressure of Mughal persecution had been forced to seek safety
in remote hills and deserts. A kind of professional coenobitism,
contrary to Sikh religious structure, had developed over the generations.
Some of its sinister aspects became apparent soon after the fall
of the Sikh kingdom. Most of the clergy had become neglectful of
their religious office. They had diverted ecclesiastical assets,
including lands, to their own enrichment, and their lives were not
free from the taint of licentiousness and luxury. The simple form
of Sikh service had been supplanted in the shrines by extravagant
ceremonial. This was repugnant to Sikhs freshly affranchised by
the preaching's of the Singh Sabha. The puritan reaction through
which they had passed led them to revolt against the retrogression
and mal administration of their holy places.
Their central shrine, the Golden Temple at, Amritsar, was controlled
by the British Deputy Commissioner through a Sikh manager whom he
appointed. There were idols installed within the temple precincts.
Pandits and astrologers sat on the premises plying their trade unchecked.
Pilgrims from the lower classes were not allowed inside the Harimandar
before 9 o'clock in the morning. This was a travesty of Sikhism
which permitted neither caste nor image worship. Vaguely, the feeling
had been prevalent among the Sikhs since almost the advent of the
British that the administration of the Harimandar at Amritsar was
far from satisfactory. The religious ritual practised ran counter
in many details to the teachings of the Gurus. One audible voice
of protest was that of Thakur Singh Sandhanvalia, who was a member
of the Sri Darbar Sahib Committee in the seventies of the last century.
The Khalsa Diwan, Lahore, at its session (6-8 April 1907), proposed
that the manager of the Golden Temple appointed by the government
be removed and a committee of Sikh chiefs appointed in his place.
Likewise, the Khalsa Diwan, Majha, meeting at Tarn Taran on 10 April
1907; had recorded its concern about the management of the shrine.On
12 October 1920, a meeting of Sikh lower castes, sponsored by teachers
and students of the Khalsa College was held in Jallianvala Bagh
At Amritsar. The, following morning some of them were taken to Harimandar,
but the priests refused to accept karahprasad they had brought as
offering and to say the ardas on their behalf. Their supporters
protested. A compromise was at last reached and it was decided that
the Guru's word be sought. The Guru Granth Sahib was, as is the
custom, opened at random and the first verse on the page to be read
was:
nirgunia
no ape bakhsi lai bhai satigur ki seva lai
He receives into grace (even) those without merit, And puts them
in the path of holy service. (SGGS, 638)
The Guru's verdict was clearly in favour
of those whom the pujaris or temple functionaries had refused to
accept as full members of the community. This was a triumph for
reformist Sikhs. The karah prasad of the Mazhabi (religious, devout)
Sikhs, reformers' description of "low-caste" Sikhs, was
accepted. The devotees then marched towards Takht Akal Bunga in
front of the Harimandar. The priests deserted the Takht and the
visiting pilgrims appointed a representative committee of twenty-five
for its management. This was the beginning of the movement for the
liberation of the gurdwaras. The Akalis set afoot operations for
retrieving their holy places from the control of the mahants or
clergy-cum-hereditary custodians. With a view to establishing a
central committee of administration,. a representative assembly
of Sikhs from-all walks of life was called by the new jathedar,
provost or chief, of Takht Akal Bunga on 15 November 1920. Two days
before the proposed conference, the government set up its own committee
consisting of thirty-six Sikhs to manage the Golden Temple. This
committee was nominated by the Lt-Governor of the Punjab at the
instance of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, who had been approached
by Bhai Jodh Singh and a few of his faculty colleagues at Khalsa
College, Amritsar, to intervene between the government and the Sikhs.
The Sikhs held their scheduled meeting on 15 November and formed
a committee of 175, including the thirty-six official nominees,
designating it Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
The first session of the Committee was held at the Akal Takht on
12 December 1920. Sundar Singh Majithia, Harbans Singh of Atari
and Bhai Jodh Singh were elected president, vice-president and secretary,
respectively. The more radical elements organized a semi-military
corps of volunteers known as the Akali Dal (Army of Immortals).
The Akali Dal was to raise and train men for 'action' to take over
gurdwaras from the recalcitrant mahants. This also signaled the
appearance of a Gurmukhi newspaper, also called Akali.The formation
of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromani
Akali Dal speeded up the movement for the reformation of Sikh religious
institutions and endowments. Under pressure of Sikh opinion, backed
frequently by demonstration of strength, the mahants began yielding
possession of gurdwara properties to elected committees and agreed
to become paid granthis, custodians of the scripture or scripture-readers.
Several gurdwaras had thus come under the reformists' control even
before the Shiromani Committee and the Akali Dal had been established.
However, the transition was not so smooth where the priests were
strongly entrenched or where the government actively helped them
to resist mass pressure. At Tarn Taran, near Amritsar, a batch of
gurdwara functionaries attacked an unwary delegation of reformers
who had been invited to the shrine for negotiations. One of them,
Hazara Singh of Aladinpur, a descendant of Baghel Singh, one of
the misl chiefs, fell a victim to priestly violence on 20 January
1921. He died the following day and became the first martyr in the
cause of gurdwara reform. Another Akali, Hukam Singh of Vasau Kot,
succumbed to his injuries on 4 February 1921.
Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, was the scene of violence
on a much larger scale. The custodian., Narain Das, the wealthiest
of mahants had a most unsavoury reputation, and his stewardship
of the Nankana Sahib shrines had started many a scandal. On the
morning of 20 February 1921, as a jatha or band of 150 Akalis came
to the Gurdwara, the private army of Narain Das fell upon them,
raining bullets all around. The jatha leader, Bhai Lachhman Singh,
of Dadroval, was struck down sitting in attendance of the Guru Granth
Sahib. Bhai Dalip Singh, a much-respected Sikh leader who was well
known to the mahant and who came to intercede with him to stop the
carnage, was killed with a shot from his pistol. Many of the jatha
fell in the indiscriminate firing by the mahants men. The news of
the massacre caused widespread gloom. Among those who came to Nankana
to express their sense of shock were Sir Edward Maclagan, the British
Lt-Governor of the Punjab. Mahatma Gandhi came accompanied by Muslim
leaders, Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali. Narain Das and some of his
accomplices were arrested and the possession of the shrine was made
over by government to a committee of seven Sikhs headed by Harbans
Singh of Atari, vice-president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee.
Another crisis arose as he Punjab Government seized 'on 7 November
1921 the keys of the Golden Temple treasury. The Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak Committee lodged a strong protest and called upon the
Sikhs the world over to convene meetings to condemn the government
action. Further means of recording resentment included a decision
for Sikhs to observe a hartal, i.e. to strike work, on the day the
Prince of Wales, who was coming out on a tour, landed on Indian
shores. They were also forbidden to participate in any function
connected with the Prince's visit. To fill the British jails, volunteers,
draped in black and singing hymns from Scripture, marched forth
in batches. Ex-servicemen threw up their pensions and joined Akali
ranks. Under pressure of the growing agitation, the government gave
way, and on 19 January 1922 a court official surrendered the bunch
of keys, wrapped in a piece of red cloth, to Kharak Singh, president
of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Mahatma Gandhi sent
a wire saying, "First decisive battle for India's freedom won."Guru
ka Bagh (Garden of the Guru), 20 km north of Amritsar, a small shrine
commemorating Guru Arjan's visit, witnessed a morcha most typical
of the series in the Akali movement. On 9 August 1922, the police
arrested on charges of trespass five Sikhs who had gone to gather
firewood from the Gurdwara's land for Guru ka Langar, the community
kitchen. The. following day the arrested Sikhs were summarily tried
and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment. Undeterred, the
Sikhs continued coming in batches every day to hew wood from the
site and courting arrest and prosecution. After 30 August, police
adopted a sterner policy to terrorize the volunteers. Those who
came to cut firewood from Guru ka Bagh were beaten up in a merciless
manner until they to a man lay senseless on the ground. The Sikhs
suffered all this stoically and went day by day in larger numbers
to submit themselves to the beating. A committee appointed by the
Indian National Congress to visit Amritsar, lauded the Akalis and
censured the police for atrocities committed by it. Rev C. F. Andrews,
a Christian missionary, came on 12 September 1922, and was deeply
moved by the noble "Christ-like" behaviour of the Akali
passive resisters. At his instance, Sir Edward Maclagan, the Lt-Governor
of the Punjab, arrived at Guru ka Bagh (I3 September) and ordered
the beatings to be stopped. Four days later the police retired from
the scene. By then 5,605 Akalis had been arrested, with 936 hospitalised.
The Akalis got possession of Gurdwara Guru ka Bagh along with the
disputed land.Guru ka Bagh excited religious fervour to a degree
unapproached during the 70 years of British rule. The judicial trials
of the volunteers were followed with close interest and, when those
convicted were being removed to jails to serve their sentences,
mammoth crowds greeted them en route. On 30 October 1922, many men
and women laid themselves on the rail track at Panja Sahib in an
attempt to stop a train to offer refreshments to Akali prisoners
being escorted to Naushehra jail. Two Sikhs, Partap Singh and Karam
Singh, were crushed to death before the engine driver could pull
up. Not all Sikhs accepted the cult of nonviolence to which the
Shiromani Committee had committed itself. The Nankana massacre and
the behaviour of the police at Guru ka Bagh induced some to organize
an underground terrorist movement. These terrorists, who called
themselves Babar (Lion) Akalis, were largely drawn from the Ghadr
party and army soldiers on leave. Babar violence was, however, of
short duration. By the summer of 1923, most of the Babars had been
apprehended. The trial conducted in camera began inside Lahore Central
Jail on 15 August 1923 and was presided over by an English judge.
Of the 91 accused, two died in jail during trial, 34 were acquitted,
six including Jathedar Kishan Singh Gargajj, were awarded death
penalty, while the remaining 49 were sentenced to varying terms
of imprisonment.
Another Akali morcha was precipitated by police interrupting an
akhand path, i.e. continuous recital of the Guru Granth Sahib, at
Gurdwara Gangsar at Jaito, in the Princely state of Nabha, to demonstrate
Sikhs' solidarity with the cause of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh, the
ruler of the state, who had been deposed, by the British. Batches
of passive resisters began arriving every day at Jaito to assert
their right to freedom of worship. The Shiromani Committee and the
Akali Dal were declared illegal bodies by government and more prominent
of the leaders were arrested. They were charged with conspiracy
to wage war against the King and taken to Lahore Fort for trial.
The agitation continued and the size of the jathas going to Jaito
was in fact increased from 25 each to a hundred, and then from one
hundred to five hundred. One such jatha was fired upon on 21 February
1924 by the state police resulting in a number of casualties.
With the arrival in May 1924 of Sir Malcolm Hailey as Governor of
the Punjab, the government began to relent. Negotiations were opened
with the Akali leaders imprisoned in Lahore Fort. A bill accommodating
their demands was moved in the Punjab Legislative Council and passed
into law in 1925, under the title the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925.
As this legislation was put on the statute book, almost all historical
shrines, numbering 241 as listed in Schedule I of the Act, were
declared as Sikh gurdwaras and they were to be under the administrative
control of the Central Board, later renamed the Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak Committee. Procedure was also laid down in section 7
of the Act for the transfer of any other gurdwara not listed in
Schedules I and II to the administrative control of the Central
Board. With the passage of this Act, the Akali agitation ceased.In
the Akali agitation for gurdwara reform,'nearly forty thousand went
to jail. Four hundred lost their lives while two thousand suffered
injuries: Sums to the tune of sixteen lakhs of rupees were paid
by way of fines and forfeitures and about seven hundred Sikh government
functionaries in the villages were deprived of their positions.
In addition to this, a ban was placed on civil and military recruitment
of Sikhs which, however, was subsequently withdrawn.
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