Gurudwara reform movement

Also known as Akali Movement,it lead to the freeing of the Gurudwaras from clutches of corrupt Mahants

1. Gurudwara Reform Movement Dr.Monica Sharma

2. The Akali Movement also known as Gurdwara Reform Movement came into full swing from the early 1920′s. It's aim was to bring reform in the working and management of Sikh Gurdwaras. The establishment of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and Shiromani Akali Dal in December 1920 heralded a new era in the history of Punjab politics. The Gurdwara Reform Movement was started by Sikhs to free their Gurdwaras from the control of Mahants (Priests).

3. Gurudwara Reform Movement The Akali movement (also known as Gurudwara Reform Movement) was an offshoot of the Singh Sabha Movement. It aimed at liberating the Sikh gurudwaras from the control of corrupt Udasi mahants. The government tried its repressive policies against the non-violent non-cooperation satyagraha launched by the Akalis in 1921 but had to bow before popular demands. The government passed the Sikh Gurudwaras Act in 1922 (amended in 1925) which gave the control of gurudwaras to the Sikh masses to be administered through Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) as the apex body. The Akali Movement was a regional movement but not a communal one.

4. The campaign which gained tremendous support, especially, from the rural masses, took the form of a peaceful agitation-marches, divans, religious gatherings, and demonstrations for Sikhs to assert their right to manage their places of worship.

5. Corrupt Mahants The Gurdwaras, its property and wealth were being misused by the Mahants and Priests of the temple. With the establishment of British rule in Punjab, the lands and property attached to the Gurdwaras were entered against the names of the Priests or Mahants. Thus Mahants considered the Gurdwara as their personal property and misused the income of Gurdwara on drinking and loose living. Bad characters flocked around them as Chelas to lead easy and immoral lives. In this way the Mahants converted these sacred places of virtue and religion to centres for immoral life .

6. Aim Of the Movement Gurdwara Reform Movement or Akali Movement was created to free the Sikhs historic Gurdwaras from these Mahants who were supported by the British rule. The Sikhs had to give supreme sacrifices and endure untold brutalities to free to historic Gurdwaras like Tarn Taran , Nanakana Sahib and Guru-Ka-Bagh. In addition Sikhs had to fight for the freedom of faith and management of the Gurdwaras against the Government in respect of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, and Gurdwara Jaito .

7. The SGPC sent many Akali jathas to various historical Gurdwaras to liberate them from the Mahants. Under these pressure many Mahants either surrendered to the Akalis or in many cases, agreed to work as employees of the SGPC. But the Mahants of prominent Gurdwaras like Panja Sahib, Taran-Taran , Nankana Sahib and Guru-Ka-Bagh did not agree to handover their Gurudwaras to the Akalis . They rather tried to resist them. In all these cases, the Akalis had to launch Morchas to get hold of these Gurudwaras. The Indian National Congress declared its support for the Akali agitation in the special congress session in Delhi. The Akali’s were the joined  by several freedom fighters, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Kasturirangan Santhanam. Nehru and other were arrested during one such march etc.

8. Gurdwara Reform Act ,1925 In this movement the Sikhs faced with great calm and courage the cruelties and death inflicted on them by the British Government and the Mahants, supported by the British. Eventually the Gurdwara Reform Act was passed in July 1925 which placed all Gurdwaras in Punjab under Panthic control. This control was to be exercised through elected Panthic bodies viz, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandak Committee and local Gurdwara Committees. Thus holy places were rid of the corrupt elements and practices and their income could be used for propagation of the Sikh faith and good of the community.

9. Significance Of the Movement 1) It created sense of confidence among the Indians that the British could be forced to meet their genuine demands through non-violent mass movement; (2) it brought the Akali Dal and the Congress leadership very close to each other, giving a great impetus to the freedom movement in Punjab; (3) the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and the Akali Dal provided the institutional and organizational structure to respond to the aspirations of the newly mobilized Sikh masses, and in the process it acted as the training ground for the emerging Sikhs

10. Nankana Sahib Massacre Nankana Sahib, the birth place of first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev, was also the site of the first big agitation by the SGPC to take back control of gurdwaras from mahants backed by the British. Mahant Narain Das was in control of Gurdwara Nankana Sahib. Newly formed SGPC asked him to improve the administration of gurdwaras in October 1920. However, the mahant took it as challenge to his authority and started equipping himself with arms and fortified the gurdwara SGPC leader Lachman Singh Dharowal was attacked by mahant’s men inside gurdwara on birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji in presence of British officials in November 1920. But no action was taken against the mahant. Sikh leaders made attempts to bring mahant to the negotiation table but their efforts failed.

11. The February massacre Meanwhile, all the mahants and other groups, who were in control of Sikh gurdwaras, also organised themselves and started holding meetings against any move of the SGPC to take control away from them. They called “Sikh Sanatan Conference” in Lahore on February 19, 20 & 21, 1921. Some motivated Sikh leaders took it as an opportunity to take control of the Gurdwara Nankaka Sahiba as Mahant Narain Das would be busy in Lahore. Master Tara Singh and other Sikh leaders tried to stop the Sikh jatha on the way to Nankana Sahib but failed to convince the leaders leading the jatha.

12. Mahant Narain Das also came to know about jatha coming to Gurdwara Nankana Sahib as he was all set to leave for Lahore by train and returned back. The unarmed Sikh jatha entered inside the gurdwara and with a plan to take possession of gurdwara in a non-violent manner. On the other side, the mahant was all prepared for an armed attack and he leashed his men equipped with fire arms, sticks and sharp-edged weapons on this jaths . As the jatha entered the gurdwara, all the gates were closed. Around 60 Sikhs were killed in the main hall. 25 bodied were found in a single room. Many got bullet shots. Some injured Sikhs were even burnt alive in boiling water during the attack. Others were chased down to a railways track nearby and killed there. Total number of causalities stood between 150 to 200.

13. Taking control of the gurdwara After the incident, Mahant Narain Das ran away, while the British police arrested 26 Pathans and sent them to Lahore in special train. The incident, however, created an impression among Sikhs that the British government had played a hidden part in this massacre. All the prominent Sikh leaders reached Nankana Sahib on February 21, 1921. Kartar Singh Jhabbar reached with 2,200 Sikhs. Initially, police and Army tried to stop the jatha, but later Sikhs were allowed to take control of the gurdwara. The then Punjab Governor and his council members also reached Nankana Sahib on February 22 and ordered handing over control of gurdwara to Sikhs. Mahatma Gandhi reached Nankana Sahib on March 3, 1921. Gandhi said that the British government was part of this massacre. He also said that cruelty of this massacre was more than that of Jallianwala Bagh

14. Guru Ka Bagh The peaceful non-violent Morcha (agitation) of Guru Ka Bagh was launched for emancipation of a Gurdwara Sahib from the stronghold of Mahant Sunder Dass in 1922 A.D. The Morcha ended on 17 November 1922 after the demands were conceded. The peaceful conduct of the Sikh’s while bearing merciless beating with Lathis and suffering severe physical injuries won admiration all over the world. Guru ka Bagh in Ghukkevali village, about 20 km from Amritsar, has two historic gurudwaras close to each other, commemorating the visits respectively of Guru Arjan in 1585 and Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1664. The latter is laid out on the site of a bagh (garden) which gave the place its name.Like most other gurudwaras, the management of these two had passed into the hands of mahants belonging to the monastic order of Udasi Sikhs.

15. Sundar Das Udasi was the mahant of Guru ka Bagh. He was indifferent to his ecclesiastical duties and lived a dissolute life, squandering the resources of the gurudwara. To save the shrine from being occupied by reformist Sikhs, he however signed a formal agreement with them on 31 January 1921, promising to make a new start and receive the rites of Khalsa initiation and to serve under an eleven member committee appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. But seeing how the government was everywhere supporting the mahants, he repudiated part of the agreement and said that, though he had surrendered the gurudwara to the Shiromani Committee, the piece of land known as Guru ka Bagh attached to it was still his property. He objected to Sikhs cutting down for the langar (gurudwara kitchen) firewood from that land. The police, willing to oblige him, arrested on 9 August 1922 five Sikhs on charges of trespass. The following day the arrested persons were hurriedly tried and sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment.

16. This sparked off the agitation, and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee decided to send every day a batch of five Sikhs to chop firewood from the grove of trees on the land of Gurdwara Guru ka Bagh and court arrest if prevented from doing so. From 22 August, police began to arrest jathas on charges of theft, riot and criminal trespass. The arrests gave a fillip to the movement and more and more Sikhs came forward to join protest. On 25 August, Amavas day, the gathering was so large that S.G.M. Beatty, Additional Superintendent of Police, ordered the police to disperse it by a lathi charge. Government violence led the Shiromani Commitee to increase the size of the jathas The government banned the assembling of people at Guru ka Bagh, and police pickets were posted on roads and bridges to intercept volunteers coming into Amritsar. Vet jathds of black turbaned Akalls chanting the sacred hymns reached the spot every day to be mercilessly beaten by police until they fell to the ground.

17. Governor of the Punjab, visited Guru ka Bagh on 13 September 1922. Under his orders, the beating of the volunteers was stopped. Mass arrests, imprisonments, heavy fines and attachment of properties were resorted to.In the first week of October, the Governor General Lord Reading held discussions with the Governor of the Punjab at Shimla to find a way out of the impasse. The good offices of a wealthy retired engineer, Sir Ganga Ram, were utilized to resolve the situation. Sir Ganga Ram acquired on lease, on 17 November 1922, 524 kandls and 12 marlds of the garden land from Mahant Sundar Das, and allowed the Akalis access to it. On 27 April 1923, Punjab Government issued orders for the release of the prisoners. Thus ended the morchd of Guru ka Bagh in which,. according to Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee records, 5,605 Sikhs went to jail