The Akali Movement

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The Akali Movement was the first successful demonstration of passive resistance organised by the Sikhs to dislodge the Mahants, priests and other vested interests from the Sikh shrines. It was in the wake of the Akali Movement that the sturdy Sikh peasantry came out in the open against the foreign rule by initiating a frontal attack on the bureaucracy in the province which was working hand-in-glove with the vested interests. An interesting feature is that the Sikhs, who joined National Movement in the course of the Akali struggle and the Non-cooperation then launched by Mahatma Gandhi, courted arrests in a strength equal to that of the Congress and the Khilafat volunteers put together. The sacrifices they made were also far greater. Then again, the Akalis continued their non-violent struggle even after suspension in 1922 of the Non-cooperation Movement until they finally achieved their goal. The triumphant march of the Akali Jathas and their victory in the Keys' Affair was hailed by Mahatma Gandhi as the 'first decisive victory of the forces of nationalism."

The present work, a comprehensive account of the five-year (1920-25) Sikh struggle during which they not only demonstrated the efficacy of non-violent non-cooperation but also greatly strengthened the forces of Indian nationalism by ejecting the pro-British landed interests and by providing nationalist leadership to the Sikh community.

Based on fresh evidence gathered from the private papers of the contemporary British officials and the national leaders, proscribed literature, personal interviews, old newspapers and other original and hitherto untapped sources in both India and the United Kingdom, this book throws new light on many significant issues.

Dr. Mohinder Singh, Professor of Eminence, Punjabi University, Patiala, is Hony. Director of Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi. A well-known scholar, Dr. Singh taught History at the University of Delhi (1968-79) and the Punjabi University, Patiala (1979-82). Earlier he served as Director, Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi (1982-90); Director, National Institute of Panjab Studies, (1990-2010); Member, National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Government of India, (2005-07); Member, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Government of India (2010-2014).

In 1974 Dr. Singh was awarded Fellowship by the Indian Council of Historical Research to carry on his research work on the Akali Movement in the United Kingdom, which later earned him his Doctorate. Author of several standard works on Sikh history and religion, Dr. Singh sits on the Advisory Boards of several national and international organizations. lectured on Sikh studies at several Indian He has and foreign universities including the University of California, Berkeley.

An abridged version of the author's doctoral thesis on the subject, this work was first published by Macmillan in 1978. Having been sold in the very first year of its publication, the book remained out of print all these years. While dramatic developments have taken place in the field of Akali politics over the years the findings contained in this work still remain relevant and, hence, the need for this new edition.

The work tries to explain the essentially non-violent nature of the Akali Movement. The study shows how the Akali leaders in the past succeeded in channelising the popular religious upsurge during the Movement (1920-25) into a powerful instrument for India's struggle for freedom and brought the Sikh community into the mainstream of Indian nationalism. Three distinct features of the past struggle made it more effective than its later manifestations in the form of struggle for Panjabi Suba and more recent Akali agitation (1978-84). The first was that the Akali leadership realised the value of press and public opinion. They not only started an English daily The Hindustan Times, in addition to two vernacular papers, Akali (Urdu) and Akali te Pardesi (Punjabi), but also carried with them the non-Sikh population and the nationalist leadership. The second was that from the very beginning, they eschewed violence and quickly disowned the violent activities of the splinter group, the Babbar-Akalis. And thirdly the movement was never allowed to take a communal turn.

The extant literature on the Movement has not been able to do full justice to the subject as it has either ignored the Akali contribution to the political struggle in the country by depicting it as a 'mere movement of religious reform' or allowed the biased opinions of the authors to dominate their critical and objective judgement. With the exception of a well-known work in Punjabi, in which an attempt has been made to project the political aspect of the movement along with its religious achievements, the only two other important works are Teja Singh's Gurdwara Reform Movement and the Sikh Awakening and Ruchi Ram Sahni's Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines (edited by Dr. Ganda Singh). These depict only a part of the religious struggle with a some what pro-Akali bias.

Biographies and commemoration volumes on some of the important Akali leaders as also the accounts of the national leaders and the British officials directly or indirectly concerned with the Movement too, do not give an objective account of the Akali struggle. Similarly, a large number of Panjabi pamphlets, tracts and other popular forms of literature, written during or after the Movement, are more in the nature of emotional and religious appeals and rather exaggerated and involved account of the authors' own sufferings and contributions to the Akali struggle than accounts of the Movement itself.

In the official records, C.I.D. reports, confidential memoranda and press communiques, etc., the Akali activities have either been underrated or overstated. On the one hand, the Panjab Government in its reports to the Viceroy of India described the situation in the province as 'normal and under control', while on the other, in order to justify its repressive measures against the extremists in the Akali camp, it charged them with 'entertaining political designs under the cloak of religion with the ultimate object of subverting the British rule and re-establishing the Sikh Raj. In spite of the Akalis amply demonstrating their strict adherence to the vow of non-violence at Nankana, Guru-ka-Bagh, Jaito and other places, and the Shromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee's open and repeated dissociation from the terrorist activities of the Babbar Akali militants, the official machinery continued to charge the Akali leadership with 'maintaining secret contacts with the authors of Babbar outrages and with having associations with the revolutionaries in Bengal, Afghanistan, Turkey and the Communist International.

The Akali Movement (1920-25) was the first successful demonstration of passive resistance organized by the Sikh community to dislodge the Mahants and other vested interests in the historic Sikh shrines. Of all the popular movements in India, the Akalis' was the strongest movement with broad base and active mass participation. It was the Akali Movement which gave birth to two powerful organizations of the Sikhs- the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee-which have remained premier representative bodies of the Sikhs since their inception.

The Akali leaders had the vision to start an English daily, The Hindustan Times, with S. Mangal Singh Gill as its founder Editor and two vernacular papers- The Akali and The Akali-Te-Pardesi.

Triumphant march of the Akali Jathas and their victory in the Keys' Affair was hailed as "first decisive victory of the forces of nationalism". Beating of the innocent Akali reformers by the police during Guru-ka-Bagh morcha was described by C.F. Andrews, a Christian missionary, as 'inhuman, brutal, foul, cowardly and incredible to an Englishman and a moral defeat of England".

The Akali-te-Pardesi has thus summarized the Akali contribution towards strengthening of the forces on nationalism: "The Akalis have shown to the Indians how a most arrogant, oppressive, cunning and deceitful bureaucracy can be brought to its knees by means of non-violent Satyagraha. By sacrifices at Guru-ka-Bagh, they have destroyed the prestige of the bureaucracy and raised the dignity of India."

To mark 95 years of the Akali Movement, Punjabi University, Patiala has decided to publish Dr. Mohinder Singh's seminal work, The Akali Movement (first published by Macmillan in 1978) in English along with its Punjabi version.

The Akali Movement was the first successful demonstration of passive resistance organised by the Sikhs to dislodge the Mahants, priests and other vested interests from the Sikh shrines. It was in the wake of the Akali Movement that the sturdy Sikh peasantry came out in the open against the foreign rule by initiating a frontal attack on the bureaucracy in the province which was working hand-in-glove with the vested interests. An interesting feature is that the Sikhs, who joined National Movement in the course of the Akali struggle and the Non-cooperation then launched by Mahatma Gandhi, courted arrests in a strength equal to that of the Congress and the Khilafat volunteers put together. The sacrifices they made were also far greater. Then again, the Akalis continued their non-violent struggle even after suspension in 1922 of the Non-cooperation Movement until they finally achieved their goal. The triumphant march of the Akali Jathas and their victory in the Keys' Affair was hailed by Mahatma Gandhi as the 'first decisive victory of the forces of nationalism."

The present work, a comprehensive account of the five-year (1920-25) Sikh struggle during which they not only demonstrated the efficacy of non-violent non-cooperation but also greatly strengthened the forces of Indian nationalism by ejecting the pro-British landed interests and by providing nationalist leadership to the Sikh community.

Based on fresh evidence gathered from the private papers of the contemporary British officials and the national leaders, proscribed literature, personal interviews, old newspapers and other original and hitherto untapped sources in both India and the United Kingdom, this book throws new light on many significant issues.

Dr. Mohinder Singh, Professor of Eminence, Punjabi University, Patiala, is Hony. Director of Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi. A well-known scholar, Dr. Singh taught History at the University of Delhi (1968-79) and the Punjabi University, Patiala (1979-82). Earlier he served as Director, Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi (1982-90); Director, National Institute of Panjab Studies, (1990-2010); Member, National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Government of India, (2005-07); Member, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Government of India (2010-2014).

In 1974 Dr. Singh was awarded Fellowship by the Indian Council of Historical Research to carry on his research work on the Akali Movement in the United Kingdom, which later earned him his Doctorate. Author of several standard works on Sikh history and religion, Dr. Singh sits on the Advisory Boards of several national and international organizations. lectured on Sikh studies at several Indian He has and foreign universities including the University of California, Berkeley.

An abridged version of the author's doctoral thesis on the subject, this work was first published by Macmillan in 1978. Having been sold in the very first year of its publication, the book remained out of print all these years. While dramatic developments have taken place in the field of Akali politics over the years the findings contained in this work still remain relevant and, hence, the need for this new edition.

The work tries to explain the essentially non-violent nature of the Akali Movement. The study shows how the Akali leaders in the past succeeded in channelising the popular religious upsurge during the Movement (1920-25) into a powerful instrument for India's struggle for freedom and brought the Sikh community into the mainstream of Indian nationalism. Three distinct features of the past struggle made it more effective than its later manifestations in the form of struggle for Panjabi Suba and more recent Akali agitation (1978-84). The first was that the Akali leadership realised the value of press and public opinion. They not only started an English daily The Hindustan Times, in addition to two vernacular papers, Akali (Urdu) and Akali te Pardesi (Punjabi), but also carried with them the non-Sikh population and the nationalist leadership. The second was that from the very beginning, they eschewed violence and quickly disowned the violent activities of the splinter group, the Babbar-Akalis. And thirdly the movement was never allowed to take a communal turn.

The extant literature on the Movement has not been able to do full justice to the subject as it has either ignored the Akali contribution to the political struggle in the country by depicting it as a 'mere movement of religious reform' or allowed the biased opinions of the authors to dominate their critical and objective judgement. With the exception of a well-known work in Punjabi, in which an attempt has been made to project the political aspect of the movement along with its religious achievements, the only two other important works are Teja Singh's Gurdwara Reform Movement and the Sikh Awakening and Ruchi Ram Sahni's Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines (edited by Dr. Ganda Singh). These depict only a part of the religious struggle with a some what pro-Akali bias.

Biographies and commemoration volumes on some of the important Akali leaders as also the accounts of the national leaders and the British officials directly or indirectly concerned with the Movement too, do not give an objective account of the Akali struggle. Similarly, a large number of Panjabi pamphlets, tracts and other popular forms of literature, written during or after the Movement, are more in the nature of emotional and religious appeals and rather exaggerated and involved account of the authors' own sufferings and contributions to the Akali struggle than accounts of the Movement itself.

In the official records, C.I.D. reports, confidential memoranda and press communiques, etc., the Akali activities have either been underrated or overstated. On the one hand, the Panjab Government in its reports to the Viceroy of India described the situation in the province as 'normal and under control', while on the other, in order to justify its repressive measures against the extremists in the Akali camp, it charged them with 'entertaining political designs under the cloak of religion with the ultimate object of subverting the British rule and re-establishing the Sikh Raj. In spite of the Akalis amply demonstrating their strict adherence to the vow of non-violence at Nankana, Guru-ka-Bagh, Jaito and other places, and the Shromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee's open and repeated dissociation from the terrorist activities of the Babbar Akali militants, the official machinery continued to charge the Akali leadership with 'maintaining secret contacts with the authors of Babbar outrages and with having associations with the revolutionaries in Bengal, Afghanistan, Turkey and the Communist International.

The Akali Movement (1920-25) was the first successful demonstration of passive resistance organized by the Sikh community to dislodge the Mahants and other vested interests in the historic Sikh shrines. Of all the popular movements in India, the Akalis' was the strongest movement with broad base and active mass participation. It was the Akali Movement which gave birth to two powerful organizations of the Sikhs- the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee-which have remained premier representative bodies of the Sikhs since their inception.

The Akali leaders had the vision to start an English daily, The Hindustan Times, with S. Mangal Singh Gill as its founder Editor and two vernacular papers- The Akali and The Akali-Te-Pardesi.

Triumphant march of the Akali Jathas and their victory in the Keys' Affair was hailed as "first decisive victory of the forces of nationalism". Beating of the innocent Akali reformers by the police during Guru-ka-Bagh morcha was described by C.F. Andrews, a Christian missionary, as 'inhuman, brutal, foul, cowardly and incredible to an Englishman and a moral defeat of England".

The Akali-te-Pardesi has thus summarized the Akali contribution towards strengthening of the forces on nationalism: "The Akalis have shown to the Indians how a most arrogant, oppressive, cunning and deceitful bureaucracy can be brought to its knees by means of non-violent Satyagraha. By sacrifices at Guru-ka-Bagh, they have destroyed the prestige of the bureaucracy and raised the dignity of India."

To mark 95 years of the Akali Movement, Punjabi University, Patiala has decided to publish Dr. Mohinder Singh's seminal work, The Akali Movement (first published by Macmillan in 1978) in English along with its Punjabi version.