Sikh and Parsi Reform Movements
The rationalist and progressive ideas of the nineteenth century also influenced the Sikh and Parsi communities, giving rise to their own socio-religious reform movements.
Singh Sabha Movement
- The Singh Sabha movement was founded at Amritsar in 1873, with a twofold objective:
- To bring the Sikh community the benefits of Western enlightenment through modern education.
- To counter the proselytizing activities of Christian missionaries as well as Hindu revivalists.
- Its promoters were drawn mostly from the educated middle class and were also connected with other socio-religious movements in Punjab.
- The major contribution of the Singh Sabha leadership lay in fostering a culture of learning through the Sikh Educational Conference.
- They believed that social evils among the Sikhs stemmed from a lack of education, and accordingly aimed at social and religious reform through the spread of education.
- Khalsa College was founded at Amritsar in 1892, and the Sabha went on to open a network of Khalsa schools and colleges throughout Punjab.
Akali Movement
- Tracing its origins to the wider reformist Singh Sabha movement of the late nineteenth century, the Akali campaign began in October 1920, when the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) was formed.
- It was started by Sikh reformers to purify their religious places by removing evil social practices.
- The movement aimed to liberate Sikh gurdwaras from the control of corrupt mahants, who enjoyed the backing of the government through manipulated loyalist committees that even included non-Sikhs.
- The property and privileges attached to these religious places had encouraged complicated rites and rituals and the emergence of rich, powerful, and corrupt mahants who misused temple premises — including a ban on the entry of people from backward castes into the holy shrines.
- All the well-known Gurdwaras had been endowed with rich, tax-free jagirs by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and other Sikh chiefs.
- Sikh followers tried to check these evil practices through social protest and organised a movement to liberate Sikh shrines from hereditary mahant control.
- In December 1920, the Akali Dal was formed as an auxiliary of the SGPC to coordinate jathas in wresting control of the shrines — the name Akali (“servants of the Eternal God”) being drawn from the small band of martyr-warriors who had defended the faith in the time of Ranjit Singh.
- Already irritated by the imposition of martial law and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Akalis came to a head-on collision with the government in early 1921, when it seized the keys to the Golden Temple at Amritsar and appointed a new manager.
- When the Akalis protested, the government responded with further repression, and the Akalis in turn launched a non-violent, non-cooperation satyagraha against the mahants — a campaign closely linked to the broader Non-Cooperation Movement.
- Gandhi and the Congress supported the campaign, which ultimately forced the government to surrender the keys and administration of the temple to the Akalis.
- The Akali movement has been described as representing “the largest and longest application of the Gandhian programme of satyagraha, or non-violent resistance.”
- After the Amritsar victory, the Akali campaign moved into the Punjab countryside, wresting control of the Guru-ka-Bagh shrine in November 1922 — well after the Non-Cooperation Movement had been formally withdrawn.
- By January 1923, the Akalis had taken control of about a hundred shrines. In September, when the government deposed the ruler of the princely state of Nabha over his alleged support for the Akalis, they launched a militant anti-colonial campaign at Jaito demanding his restoration.
- During this rural phase, the movement at various places crossed the boundary of non-violence, with peasants openly defying the authority of the Raj — prompting Gandhi to withdraw his support, as he disapproved of the campaign for the deposed Nabha ruler.
- The government came down heavily on the Akalis but ultimately reached a compromise, wary of affecting the loyalty of Sikh soldiers.
- The Gurdwara Reform Act of 1925 restored control of the shrines to Sikh management.
- The Akali movement was essentially a sectarian or regional movement, not a communal one, and its leaders played a notable role in the national liberation struggle, though some dissenting voices were occasionally heard.
Nirankari Movement
- Nirankari (Punjabi for “Followers of the Formless One,” i.e., God) is a religious reform movement within Sikhism, founded by Baba Dayal Das (d. 1855) in northwest Punjab in 1851.
- Baba Dayal Das was the first among the reformers of the Sikh religion — he disapproved of the worship of tombs and graves, and of idol worship of human gurus, believing instead that God is formless, or nirankar (hence the movement’s name).
- He also laid great stress on the importance of meditation.
- The chief contribution of the Nirankari movement was its standardisation of rituals connected with birth, marriage, and death, based on Sikh scripture.
- It introduced a simplified form of marriage called Anand Karaj, performed in the presence of the Guru Granth, with a priest singing four relevant hymns from the Sikh holy book.
- It disapproved of dowry, elaborate marriage processions, drinking, dancing, and various other rituals.
- Baba Dayal Das was succeeded by his son, Baba Darbara Singh, who continued to propagate his father’s teachings; Rattan Chand, popularly known as Baba Rathaji, carried the work forward after Darbara Singh’s death.
- Unlike mainstream Sikhs, but like the Namdharis, the Nirankaris accept the authority of a living guru and recognise Dayal Das and his successors in that role.
- Members also differ from other Sikhs in disapproving of the militant brotherhood of the Khalsa.
- Its following is drawn primarily from the urban trading communities.
Namdhari Movement (Kuka Movement)
- The Namdharis believed in no religious ritual beyond the repetition of God’s name (nam) — hence their name — with the movement’s core aim being the establishment of purity in the Sikh religion.
- It is popularly known as the Kuka Movement, after the shrieks (kuks) its followers would let out while in a state of religious ecstasy.
- Over time, it drifted into a political movement aimed at driving out the British.
- It was founded in western Punjab in the 1840s, shortly before the British conquest of Punjab, by Bhagat Jawahar Mal, also known as Sian Sahib, with its headquarters at Hazro in the North-West Frontier Province.
- The movement proclaimed Guru Gobind Singh as the only true Guru, and its tenets included the abolition of caste, the abolition of restrictions on inter-marriage, and abstinence from meat, liquor, and drugs. Followers also tied their turbans in a distinctive fashion.
- Balak Singh succeeded Sian Sahib as leader, and Baba Ram Singh took over leadership after Balak Singh’s death.
- Ram Singh militarised the movement, declaring himself an incarnation of Guru Gobind Singh, and introduced the sect’s distinctive style of wearing the turban, dressing only in clothing made from white handwoven cloth, and frenzied hymn-chanting culminating in the kuks that gave the movement its popular name.
- Under his leadership, the Namdharis sought a resurgence of Sikh rule in Punjab.
- In January 1872, British police apprehended and executed by cannon about 65 Namdharis; Ram Singh himself was exiled to Rangoon, where he died in 1885, bringing the Kuka Movement to an end.
- The Namdharis stress their identity as members of the Khalsa, but differ from the mainstream Sikh community in giving equal regard to the Adi Granth (“First Volume”) and the Dasam Granth (“Tenth Book”) — the latter compiled by the followers of the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh.
- They are further distinguished by their belief that the lineage of living Gurus continued even after Gobind Singh.
- The Namdharis maintain their own gurdwaras and practise strict vegetarianism.
Parsi Reform Movement
- The Parsi community could not remain unaffected by the winds of change sweeping across nineteenth-century India.
- In 1851, a group of English-educated Parsis set up the Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha, or Religious Reform Association, with the object of “the regeneration of the social condition of the Parsis and the restoration of the Zoroastrian religion to its pristine purity.”
- It stood for the modernisation of Parsi religion and social customs, with leading figures such as Naoroji Furdonji, Dadabhai Naoroji, K.R. Cama, and S.S. Bengalee at its forefront.
- The newspaper Rast Goftar (“Truth-Teller”) propagated the Association’s message, and through its efforts, Parsi religious rituals and practices were reformed and the Parsi creed redefined.
- In the field of social reform, attention was focused on improving the condition of Parsi women — including the removal of the purdah system, raising the age of marriage, and promoting women’s education — alongside a broader struggle for uniform laws of inheritance and marriage for the community.
- Gradually, the Parsis emerged as the most Westernised section of Indian society.
