AKĀLĪ MOVEMENT, variously known as Gurdwārā Reform Movement or Gurdwārā Agitation is how Sikhs' long drawn campaign in the early twenties of the twentieth century for the liberation of their gurdwārās or holy shrines is described. The campaign which elicited enthusiastic support, especially, from the rural masses, took the form of a peaceful agitation-marches, dīvāns 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, Akālīs, as the protesters were known, succeeded in their object and the control of the gurdwārās was vested through legislation in a representative committee of the Sikhs. The State, under Mahārājā Raṇjīt Siṅgh (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 Udāsīs, 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 assests, including eleemosynary 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 preachings of the Siṅgh Sabhā. The Puritan reaction through which they had passed led them to revolt against the retrogression and maladministration of their holy places.

        On 12 October 1920, a meeting of Sikh backward castes, sponsored by teachers and students of the Khālsā College was held in Jalliāṅvālā Bāgh at Amritsar. The following morning some of them were taken to Harimandar, but the priests refused to accept kāṛāhprasād they had brought as offering and to say the ardās on their behalf. Their supporters protested. A compromise was at last reached and it was decided that the Gurū's word be sought. The Gurū Granth Sāhib was, as is the custom, opened at random and the first verse on the page to be read was:

        He receives into grace (even) those with-out merit,

                                                            (GG, 638)        

        The formation of the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromaṇī Akālī 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 gurdwārā properties to elected committees and agreed to become paid granthīs, custodians of the scripture or scripture-readers. Several gurdwārās had thus come under the reformists' control even before the Shiromaṇī Committee and the Akālī 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 Tāran, near Amritsar, a batch of gurdwārā functionaries attacked an unwary delegation of reformers who had been invited to the shrine for negotiations. One of them, Hazārā Siṅgh of Alādīnpur, a descendant of Baghel Siṅgh, 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 gurdwārā reform. Another Akālī, Hukam Siṅgh of Vasāū Koṭ, succumbed to his injuries on 4 February 1921.

        Another crisis arose as the Punjab Government seized on 7 November 1921 the keys of the Golden Temple treasury. The Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā 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 haṛṭal, 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 Akālī 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 Khaṛak Siṅgh, president of the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee. Mahātmā Gāndhī sent a wire saying, "First decisive battle for India's freedom won. "

        Gurū kā 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 Paňjā Sāhib in an attempt to stop a train to offer refreshments to Akālī prisoners being escorted to Naushehrā jail. Two Sikhs, Partāp Siṅgh and Karam Siṅgh, were crushed to death before the engine driver could pull up.

        Another Akālī morchā was precipitated by police interrupting an akhaṇḍ pāth, i. e. continuous recital of the Gurū Granth Sāhib, at Gurdwārā Gaṅgsar at Jaito, in the Princely state of Nābhā, to demonstrate Sikhs' solidarity with the cause of Mahārājā Ripudaman Siṅgh, 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 Shiromaṇī Committee and the Akālī 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 jathās going to Jaito was in fact increased from 25 each to a hundred, and then from one hundred to five hundred. One such jathā was fired upon on 21 February 1924 by the state police resulting in a number of casualties.

        In the Akālī agitation for gurdwārā 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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Jagjīt Siṅgh, Siṅgh Sabhā Lahir. Ludhiana, 1974
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Sardār Siṅgh Bhāṭīā

਍㰀⼀昀漀渀琀㸀ഀഀ ਍㰀⼀䠀吀䴀䰀㸀㰀⼀䈀伀䐀夀㸀ഀഀ