Akali movement
The Akali movement, also called the Gurdwara Reform Movement, was a set of campaigns to bring reform in the gurdwaras in India during the early 1920s. The movement led to the introduction of the Sikh Gurdwara Bill in 1925, which placed all the historical Sikh shrines in India under the control of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
The Akalis also participated in the Indian independence movement against the British Government, and supported the non-cooperation movement against them.
Formation
Sikh leaders of the Singh Sabha in a general meeting in Lahore in March 1919 formed the Central Sikh League in March 1919, which was formally inaugurated in December of that year. In its periodical, the Akali, it listed among its objectives the goals of bringing back control of the Khalsa College, Amritsar under the control of representatives of the Sikh community, liberating gurdwaras from mahant control, and encouraging Sikhs to participate in the independence movement, lending support to the non-cooperation movement in October 1919.The Central Sikh League demanded the administration of the Golden Temple to be transferred from the government to an elected representative body of Sikhs answerable to the panth, and in October 1920 took control of the Golden Temple and Akal Takht.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919 during the course of the national independence movement, subsequent words of support from Arur Singh Shergill, the head priest of the Golden Temple, to General Dyer, and the general disturbances in Punjab in 1919 provoked an outcry among Singh Sabha circles, and increased Sikh urgency to reclaim control of the gurdwaras.
To pacify these sentiments, the colonial Punjab Government appointed a provisional committee of 36 members, entirely from Sikh landed aristocrat families, to formulate proposals regarding the operation of the Golden Temple. Following the Central Sikh League's disapproval of the committee's composition, expressed in a large gathering at the Golden Temple on 16 November 1920 attended by over 10,000 Sikhs, the committee in charge of the Golden Temple was reformulated with 175 members to form a managing committee for all gurdwaras. The government, publicly pursuing a policy of neutral non-interference though still managing to have some appointees on the committee, allowed the new committee, and in December 1920 the committee was named the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, or SGPC, which coordinated the activities of Akali jathas, or volunteer groups, to liberate all gurdwaras from the corrupt mahants.
The Akali movement was started in 1920 by the Central Sikh League's political wing, the Akali Dal, which was founded in Amritsar in December 1920 and assisted the SGPC. The term Akali derives from the word Akal used in the Sikh scriptures. The movement was named for the Akalis, a Khalsa militant order from the time of Guru Gobind Singh which had risen to prominence under Akali Phula Singh, one of the commanders of the Sikh Empire.
Initial agitations
By the early 20th century, a number of Sikh gurdwaras in British India were under the control of the Udasi mahants or managers appointed by the Governors. The Udasis had come to control Sikh shrines in the eighteenth century during the period of increased persecution of the Khalsa by the Mughal Empire during that time forced them to yield control of Sikh institutions to those without external identifiers; the Khalsa would subsequently focus on political power resulting in the Sikh Empire. The main aim of the Akali movement was to have the Sikh gurdwaras released from the control of the traditional clergy, which had become powerful and ritualized.The non-violent movement began in 1920, with the jathas, led by Kartar Singh Jhabbar, playing a major role. The first shrine chosen for reform was the Babe di Ber gurdwara in Sialkot. It was under the control of the widow of the mahant Harnam Singh. She initially resisted the takeover of the gurdwara by the Akalis, as it was her only source of income, but relented after she was offered a pension. The control of the gurdwara was then transferred to an elected committee headed by Baba Kharak Singh.
The next major target of the Akalis was the Harmandir Sahib, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. The priest of the Golden Temple had refused to allow low-caste Hindu converts to offer prayers in the shrine. Kartar Singh Jhabbar walked to the Akal Takht in the temple premises, urging the Sikhs to give up the caste-based restrictions and reform the gurdwaras. On 28 June 1920, the Golden Temple came under the control of an elected committee called Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.
Next, the Akalis headed to Hasan Abdal, where Gurdwara Panja Sahib was under the control of Mahant Mitha Singh. Singh allowed sale of cigarettes inside the gurdwara, and was disliked by the Sikhs. The Akalis led by Kartar Singh Jhabbar took control of the gurdwara on 20 November 1920. However, the local Hindus, who also frequented the gurdwara for worship, opposed this takeover. Around 5–6 thousand of them surrounded the gurdwara on the night of the Akali takeover, but were dispersed by the police. Nevertheless, the gurdwara was later successfully brought under the authority of the SGPC.
The Akalis then took control of the Gurdwara Sacha Sauda at Chuhar Kana. They then turned their attention to the Gurdwara Sri Tarn Taran Sahib, whose clergymen were accused of allowing dancing girls, smoking and drinking inside the shrine's premises. The clergymen were also accused of spreading the teachings of Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement some of whose leaders had criticized Sikhism. A group of 40 Akalis, led by Kartar Singh, arrived at the gurdwara on 25 January 1921, performed ardas and declared that the gurdwara was now under their control. Henchmen employed by the mahants attacked the Akalis with crude bombs and bricks while the latter were sleeping. Two Akalis were killed and several wounded, and a jatha two weeks prior had also been beaten. The next day, the Sikhs from the surrounding villages took control of the Gurdwara, and a managing committee appointed by the SGPC. Following this, the Akalis led by Kartar Singh then took control of five more gurdwaras, including the Gurdwara Guru ka Bagh near Amritsar. The British, believing that gurdwara control could be contested in court, did not like the control of gurdwaras passing under the control of committees appointed by the SGPC.
Nankana massacre
In 1921, the Akalis turned their focus to the gurdwara at Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of the first Sikh Guru Nanak. The gurdwara was under the control of a mahant called Narain Das, who was accused of allowing immoral activities in the temple premises, including licentiousness and the misappropriation of gurdwara funds. One of the clergymen at the gurdwara had allegedly raped the 13-year-old daughter of a Hindu devotee from Sindh. The mahant's conduct had been widely condemned by the local congregation, though the large revenue from the gurdwara estates insulated him from public pressure. With the movement gaining momentum, public meetings passed resolutions condemning his conduct, and worried about being ousted by the Akalis, he turned to the government for help. When the government did not respond, Narain Das made his own arrangements, preemptively fortifying the premises and hiring approximately 80 mercenaries.When a jatha of over 100 Sikh made an unscheduled trip to Nankana on 20 February 1921 without any intention yet of taking it, the Pashtun guards of the Mahant opened fire without warning, killing 130 people in what came to be known as the Nankana massacre. Visitors attempting to seek refuge in the gurdwara were chased and killed, and piles of dead and wounded were lit on fire to attempt to destroy evidence of the massacre.
Reaction
Two days later, Mahatma Gandhi and the Governor of the Punjab province visited the site, accompanied by a number of Sikh and Hindu leaders. Gandhi sympathized with the Sikhs and said that the Mahant had "out-Dyered Dyer." The attending politicians utilized widespread anti-government feelings to exhort the Sikhs to join the national noncooperation movement, which was supported by a resolution passed by the SGPC in May 1921 appealing to Sikhs to begin civil disobedience. As the Sikh reformers were now aligned with the national movement, colonial administrators began to rethink its position on non-interference in gurdwara management and acceptance of the increasing control of the SGPC.Akalis headed to Nankana upon hearing the news in the thousands, and access to the gurdwara was restricted by the government, though eventually conceded. The British Government, finding itself under immense political pressure, agreed to transfer the control of the gurdwara to the Akalis on 3 March 1921. Narain Das and 26 of his henchmen were arrested.
A section of Akalis rejected the peaceful methods adopted by SGPC, and formed the breakaway Babbar Akali movement to seize the control of the gurdwaras using violent methods. Some Akalis and Ghadarites would react against the killing of the Nankana massacre, attempting assassinations against officials held responsible for the killings, as well as their native supporters. Arrests of the militant leaders would follow, but the Babbar Akali Jatha, founded in August 1922 with the aim of defending the faith and political independence, would make overtures to ex-soldiers and the Akali reformers, as well as to Hindus and Muslims who opposed the authorities. They issued 15 issues of the Babbar Akali Doaba from a moving press throughout Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur from August 1922 to May 1923, and in 1923 committed a series of political assassinations; they were declared unlawful in August 1923 and in under a year most Babbar Akali leaders would be arrested or killed. Those arrested would be tried in 1925 and considered to be fighting for independence and Sikh rule, with six hangings in February 1926. Several organizations, including the Central Sikh League, would issued appeals to raise funds for the families of those killed and hanged, and they would be celebrated in poetry and literature.