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96-421: Having gained social prominence in the pre-British 18th- and colonial-era 19th-century Punjab by taking over gurdwaras and Sikh institutions, the forerunners of this faction were composed of what are now referred to as Sanatan Sikhs (a neologism and formulation coined by Harjot Oberoi ). The custom of this faction, which had emerging from the duality between initiated Khalsa and uninitiated Sehajdhari identities,

192-592: A Khatri background. They had rejected the Khalsa initiation practices like the Khande di Pahul ceremony on the grounds that it threatened their caste and polluted their ritual boundaries which they considered as primary. As such, they aligned Sikh tradition with the Brahmanical social structure and caste ideology; their predominant concern was to protect the social framework in which they held status. While this faction resented

288-612: A pracharak-dharma , or conversion religion, able to compete for converts. Hindu-Sikh relations first began to decline with the publication of Saraswati's polemical and ideological Satyarth Prakash , published in 1875, the year of the sect's first establishment in Bombay , which portrayed the Sikh gurus as "misguided and ill-educated simpletons" who had diverted people from the Vedas. Two years later in 1877, Dayanand would visit Punjab, establishing

384-420: A "broadly defined" Hinduism, and was set up and backed by a faction of Khatri Sikhs, Gianis, and granthis, many of whom where direct descendants of the early Sikh Gurus. They had rejected the Khalsa initiation practices like the Khande di Pahul ceremony on the grounds that it threatened their caste and polluted their ritual boundaries which they considered as primary. They had gained social prominence in

480-487: A "pujari" priestly class under the patronage of the Sikh elites and aristocracy. This new Jatt Sikh nobility would begin to imitate Rajput kings, the customary embodiment of royal prestige of the region, following them in the process of Sanskritization , and taking on their customs and religious beliefs, including astrology, Brahmin patronage, cow veneration, and sati , alongside their own. The religious functionaries allied with such groups would write exegeses , while

576-498: A "purified," rationalistic, codified Hinduism, based on the sole infallibility of the Vedas and dismissing most post-Vedic literature and tradition, and a "Vedic Golden Age" upon which to model Hindu society, conceived by selectively and arbitrarily reinterpreting cultural traditions while retaining some post-Vedic thought. It rejected contemporary Hindu practices like polytheism, idol and avatar worship, temple offerings, pilgrimages,

672-804: A fifteen-member executive committee, with six positions reserved for sahajdhari Sikhs. The Ferozpur and Tarn Taran Sabhas had female members playing an active role alongside the men, with the Tarn Taran Sabha having a special female branch, the Istri Sat Sang Sabha. Bhai Takht Singh of the Singh Sabha Ferozepur also advocated for women's education. The Gurmat Granth Pracharak Sabha in Amritsar, established on 8 April 1885, researched and published books on ideological and historical topics. The Shuddhi Sabha, for conversions and reconversions into Sikhism,

768-583: A mother tongue, and influenced by colonial rationality and science, the movement attracted newly educated sections of the colonial Hindu populace in particular, finding it more relevant to the religiously competitive northwest. This first Singh Sabha, the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Amritsar, led by Khem Singh Bedi , convened a founding meeting in Guru Bagh, Amritsar, on 30 July 1873, with its first formal meeting, or jor-mel , taking place in front of

864-592: A much more equal footing between members, in line with its principles. The Amritsar faction was largely defunct thereafter, with eventually three chapters remaining at Amritsar, Faridkot , and Rawalpindi, as it failed to gain popular support; decisions from the Saman Khand commoner house were subject to the supervision and approval of the Mahan Khand elite house, and the majority of the Singh Sabha would shift allegiance to

960-497: A political element alongside what had been an exclusive focus on social reform. The sect's anti-British stand brought them into conflict with the British army and police. They would destroy idols, tombs, and graves, drawing local ire and resulting in their gatherings being banned in 1863, and the arrest and execution of 65 Namdharis in July 1872 along with the exile of its leader to Burma, and

1056-545: A position to challenge them, forming the Tat Khalsa faction, or "true Khalsa," in 1879, headed by Gurmukh Singh, Harsha Singh Arora, Diwan Buta Singh, Mehar Singh Chawla, Ram Singh and Karam Singh, later joined by Jawahir Singh and Giani Ditt Singh , and the Lahore Singh Sabha. The Tat Khalsa's monotheism, iconoclastic sentiments, egalitarian social values and notion of a standardized Sikh identity did not blend well with

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1152-485: A split into two Khalsa Diwans, which would differ greatly in nature and composition. The Khalsa Diwan Amritsar, remaining with about 7 chapters, re-organized itself as a bicameral body consisting of the Mahan Khand (the aristocracy) and Saman Khand (the priestly class and body of believers), while the breakaway Khalsa Diwan Lahore, with about 30 chapters, set up on 10-11 April 1886, with Sardar Attar Singh Bhadaur as President and Professor Gurmukh Singh as secretary, retained

1248-674: A wide range of beliefs drawn from Hinduism and Islam , including belief in the Vedas , idols, Hindu epics, and Sufi pirs. According to Oberoi, the interpretation "deeply transformed Sikh thinking and practices." Under its auspices, Hindu priests publicly worshipped idols and images in the Golden Temple precincts, and it was considered legitimate to worship living Gurus, descendants of Sikh gurus and other prominent ancestries who had "inherited their charisma." In addition to himself, Khem Singh claimed special reverence for all members of clans to which

1344-571: A worshipful following (including Munshi Ram), who treated him as a spiritual guide, and he would attack Sikh leaders and ideology. Later, Lekh Ram, unlike Dayanand or Guru Datt, was not educated in the Western style and would not focus on orthodox Hinduism or Christianity, but on Islam. By 1893 their " Mahatma " faction would overpower and eventually split from the more conservative faction led by Lala Sain Das, Lala Hans Raj , Lala Lajpat Rai , and Lal Chand, which

1440-526: The Khalsa Tract Society created by Vir Singh in 1894. Kahn Singh Nabha would also serve the movement in various capacities under Hira Singh's patronage, as would Pandit Varyam Singh, whose services would also be sought and sponsored by other aristocratic families including the Sodhis of Kartarpur. All the Sikh princes donated heavily to the establishment of Khalsa College, Amritsar , receiving seats on

1536-602: The Mughals and the hill-rajas of the Sivalik Hills allied to them; having vacated the Punjab plains, they launched attacks from the refuges of the northern hilly areas adjoining Punjab, and the desert areas to the south. They later fought the Afghans and established themselves as local leaders. Meanwhile, mahant control of Gurdwaras continued into the nineteenth century, particularly

1632-573: The janamsakhis , and Gurbilas literature and the Rahitnamas, later codified by the SGPC as the Sikh Rehat Maryada . Non-Sikh practices accumulated during the period of institutional neglect by the British and mahant control, including idol worship, the primacy of non-Sikh Brahmins , caste discrimination, superstitious cults of folk heroes and Hindu deities, and Vedic rites officiated by Brahmins during

1728-592: The 1870s and 1890s, the efforts of Tat Khalsa reformers had focused on reinforcing the distinct Sikh identity separate from Muslim and Hindu practices, the primacy of the Khalsa initiation and codes of conduct, and setting up schools and colleges in town and villages, initiatives that continued through the following CKD period. Through print media newspapers and publications, like the Khalsa Akhbar (in Gurmukhi Punjabi,

1824-511: The Akal Takht on 1 October 1873. Sardar Thakur Singh Sandhawalia was appointed its chairman, Giani Gian Singh as secretary, Sardar Amar Singh as assistant secretary, and Bhai Dharam Singh of Bunga Majithia as treasurer. The initial membership numbered 95, with most of its members being elites, making it one of the richest Singh Sabhas. Though largely concerned with defending Sikhism against Hindu and Christian criticism, it saw Sikhism as part of

1920-603: The Arya Samaj's Paropkarini Sabha from 1878 to 1883, as Secretary of the Lahore Arya Samaj since its inception, and Secretary of the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic Fund College Committee. Thereafter only a few Sikhs would remain with the Arya Samaj, fully accepting its platform. The Sikhs held a protest meeting denouncing the Arya Samaj, specifically Guru Datt. Both Sikh and non-Sikh newspapers denounced

2016-708: The Brahminical social order, within two decades British colonial rule effected several changes in Punjabi society and culture: the decline of Sikh aristocracy, the gradual emergence of an urban middle class, the dissipation of the "national intellectual life" of the Punjab owing to the neglect and decay of indigenous education, and a new bureaucratic system with Western-style executive and judicial branches, necessitating emphasis on western education and attainment of skills required for new occupations such as law, administration and education. Western science and Christian ethics also spurred

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2112-473: The Brahmo Samaj in the 1870s and 1880s led to the region's Hindus turning to the more aggressive, less syncretic Arya Samaj movement, founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati , a Brahmin from Gujarat , who arrived in Punjab in 1877, at the invitation of Anglicized Hindu Punjabis, Bengalis, and Sardar Vikram Singh Ahluwalia. Promoting the use of Hindi , the " ārya bhāṣā ," as the medium of education and as

2208-509: The British administration in Punjab. The Bengali middle-elite began to introduce values and ideologies from British-ruled Bengal, and introducing the Brahmo Samaj , a Hindu reform movement composed of English-speaking Bengalis had set up branches in several Punjabi cities in the 1860s. The newly English-educated in Punjab, overwhelmingly Hindu, initially accepted Bengali modernity, before tensions between this English-educated class in Punjab and

2304-419: The British as they looked upon his movement with suspicion. The movement would survive by relocating out of town to continue propagating its teachings, and would remain potent and active campaigners in the late 19th century and early 20th century for the removal of all idols and images from the Golden Temple and other Gurdwaras. < The Namdhari sect was founded as one of the Sikh revivalist movements during

2400-449: The British, like the Sikh aristocracy and Sikhs with noted family lineages, who were given patronage and pensions, and Udasis, who had gained control of historical gurdwaras in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, were allowed to retain proprietary control over lands and gurdwara buildings. The British administration went to considerable lengths to insert such loyalists into the Golden Temple in order to exert as much control over

2496-568: The Gurus had belonged. For these groups the principle of authority of Sikh tradition was invested in living gurus (as Khem Singh Bedi, their leader, liked to be regarded) rather than the principle of shabad-guru, or the Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru, which was upheld by the dominant Khalsa tradition. Amid factional rivalry, the influence of the dominant Tat Khalsa ("true Khalsa"), due to the support of

2592-509: The Hindu deity Vishnu , and saw Sikhism as a tradition aligned with Vaishnavism; and these included the Nirmala, Udasi, and Giani schools of Brahminical thought. As such, they aligned Sikh tradition with the Brahminical social structure and caste ideology; their predominant concern was to protect the social framework in which they held status. For these groups the principle of authority of Sikh tradition

2688-680: The Khalsa Diwan Majha pushed for reform in Sikh shrines in Tarn Taran and Amritsar. Among the local Singh Sabhas, the Singh Sabha Bhasaur, later the Panch Khalsa Diwan Bhasaur, established in 1893 under Teja Singh was the most active. Particularly strict, egalitarian, and unwavering on Khalsa ethos, identity, and practice, it drew heavily from the middle and lower strata of society. Its fundamentalism would draw it away from

2784-492: The Khalsa army was disbanded and the Punjab demilitarized, and Sikh armies were required to publicly surrender their arms and return to agriculture or other pursuits. Certain groups, however, like those who held revenue-free lands (jagirdars) were allowed to decline, particularly if they were seen as “rebels,” The British were wary of giving the Sikhs unmitigated control of their own gurdwaras, and drew from Sikh factions seen as loyal to

2880-549: The Khalsa focused on political power at the time, as Sikh jatthās solidified into the Sikh misls of the Dal Khalsa . The Dal Khalsa would establish the Sikh Empire , which, in the midst of reaching new levels of political power in the face of Mughal and Afghan attacks, came at the expense of reestablishing direct control over Sikh institutions and the eroding of Sikh mores, a development that Khalsa would have to contend with when

2976-418: The Lahore Singh Sabha movement, where they were welcomed by Gurmukh Singh; Jawahir Singh and Giani Ditt Singh would go on to become leading figures in the Sikh resurgence. Jawahir Singh and Ditt Singh had sought Arya Samaj partnership based on common ground, having ignored Dayanand's insults of Guru Nanak to do so. Jawahir Singh has accompanied Dayanand during his tour of Punjab, serving as vice-president of

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3072-572: The Punjab University College and graduate of Oriental College, where Harsha Singh, a Darbar Sahib granthi from Tarn Taran, had been the first teacher of Punjabi, would interest prominent Sikh citizens of Lahore, such as Diwan Buta Singh and Sardar Mehar Singh Chawla, along with Harsha Singh, in Singh Sabha goals. Gurmukh Singh believed Sikhism to be a sovereign religion having equality of all believers without distinction of caste or status as its basic social creed. The Sri Guru Singh Sabha Lahore

3168-512: The Sanatan faction as early as the early 1880s. The Amritsar Singh Sabha was subsequently challenged and eventually marginalised. Sanatan Sikh Sanatan Sikh (IAST: sanātana sikkha , Punjabi pronunciation: [sə.näː.t̪ənᵊ sɪkkʰᵊ] ), a neologism and hypothesis formulated by Harjot Oberoi in 1987, to refer to Sikhs who formed the Amritsar Singh Sabha faction during

3264-469: The Sanatan faction. Giani Ditt Singh , as a Mazhabi Sikh , was critical of Khem Singh Bedi's views on pollution, ritual, and lack of distinct identity. For these groups the principle of authority of Sikh tradition was invested in living gurus (as Khem Singh Bedi, leader of the Amritsar faction, liked to be regarded) rather than the principle of shabad-guru, or the Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru, which

3360-503: The Sikh Panth , Though not an initiated Khalsa, he urged Sikhs to return to their focus to a formless divine ( niraṅkār ) and described himself as a niraṅkārī , favoring the revival of the traditional simplicity, austerity, and purity of Sikh rites and ceremonies. He was particularly opposed to all idol worship, including the practice of keeping idols and pictures of the ten Sikh Gurus and praying before them, which had begun during

3456-518: The Sikh Empire was lost to the British. The British East India Company annexed the Sikh Empire in 1849 after the Second Anglo-Sikh War , ending the central Sikh government founded by Ranjit Singh in 1799 and replacing the existing ruling class. Thereafter, Christian missionaries increased proselytising activities in central Punjab . In 1853, Maharajah Dalip Singh , the last Sikh ruler,

3552-506: The Sikh body-politic as possible. One reason for this was the growth of Sikh revivalist groups, like the Nirankaris and the Namdharis, shortly after annexation; this revivalism was spurred by a growing disaffection within the ranks of ordinary Sikhs about the perceived decline of proper Sikh practices. Parallel to the end of Sikh sovereignty in Punjab and the gradual appropriation of Sikhism by

3648-597: The Sikh fold the apostates who had converted to other religions; as well as to interest the influential British officials in furthering the Sikh community. At the time of its founding, the Singh Sabha policy was to avoid criticism of other religions and political matters. Singh Sabha was successful in almost doubling the Sikh population by bringing new converts into Sikh fold. Sikhs were traditionally proselytising. Between 1901 and 1941, many Jats, OBC's, and Dalits converted to Sikhism due to outreach and preaching efforts of Singh Sabha movement. Increased Mughal persecution of

3744-617: The Sikh masses, resulted in the decline of this socioreligious faction. This Sikhism-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Singh Sabha Movement The Singh Sabhā Movement , also known as the Singh Sabhā Lehar , was a Sikh movement that began in Punjab in the 1870s in reaction to the proselytising activities of Christians , Hindu reform movements ( Brahmo Samaj , Arya Samaj ) and Muslims ( Aligarh movement and Ahmadiyah ). The movement

3840-421: The Sikhs in the eighteenth century forced the Khalsa, which had raised arms against the state, to yield Gurdwara control to mahants , or custodians, who often belonged to Udasi , Nirmala , or other Brahmanical-influenced ascetic heterodox sects, or were non-Sikh altogether due to their lack of external identification, as opposed to initiated Sikhs. The Khalsa at this time engaged in guerilla campaigns against

3936-468: The Sikhs, and culminated in an article written in 1888 titled Sikhism Past and Present , which ridiculed Guru Nanak and denigrated the state of contemporary Sikhism as even worse than that of the Hindus: "While the prejudices of the Hindu community are gradually fading away before the progress of western civilization, those of the Sikh community are acquiring fresh strength by their reluctance to keep pace with

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4032-583: The Sikhs. Three Samajis in particular, socially radical and religiously militant, would determine the course of the Arya Samaj: Pandit Lala Guru Datt, Pandit Lekh Ram , and Lala Mahatma Munshi Ram, later known as " Swami Shraddhanand ". Guru Datt, Dayanand's successor, would come to increasingly reinterpret Dayanand as a rishi , or sage, and the Satyarth Prakash as a sacred text to be followed unquestioningly. Guru Datt would accrue

4128-475: The Sikhs. Lahore judge Lala Amolak Ram Munsif, who in an 1887 public letter deemed Dayanand's word as neither infallible or binding upon its members, and his opinion as "wrong," decried the "jealous effort" of "instigating our respected and glorious Sikh brethren against the Arya dharma." This would help to reconcile earlier Sikh allies to some extent, but would not last as subsequent Samaj leaders would increase attacks on

4224-523: The Singh Sabha ("revivalism and renaissance") and the Panch Khalsa Diwan ("aggressive fundamentalism"). Growing sentiments against these creeping practices would give rise to the first reformist movement, the Nirankari movement, started by Baba Dyal Das (1783–1855). The Nirankaris condemned the growing idol worship, obeisance to living gurus, and influence of Brahminical ritual that had crept into

4320-475: The Singh Sabha mainstream. Sikh princes allied themselves with various political and social factions within the Singh Sabha. The first to be involved prominently was Raja Bikrama Singh of Faridkot , with the Amritsar Singh Sabha and various Sikh educational projects. Meanwhile, Maharaja Hira Singh Nabha and Maharaja Rajinder Singh of Patiala sustained Sikh newspapers of the Lahore Singh Sabha, with

4416-464: The administration of the mahants, supported by the British, who in addition to being considered as ignoring the needs of the Sikh community of the time, allowed the gurdwaras to turn into spaces for societal undesirables like petty thieves, drunks, pimps, and peddlers of unsavory and licentious music and literature, with which they themselves took part in such activities. In addition, they also allowed non-Sikh, Brahmanical practices to take root in

4512-425: The anti-Sikh remarks of the Satyarth Prakash in his speech. Guru Datt denigrated Guru Gobind Singh as "not even a hundredth part like our Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati," Sikhs as ignorant and hardly having religion, and stated, "if Swami Dayanand Saraswati Maharaj called Guru Nanak a great fraud, what did it matter? He held the sum of the Vedas in his hands, so if he wanted to compare this light with anything, what

4608-410: The attention of colonial authorities. It grew significantly in the 17 subahs of the colonial state, particularly in the Amritsar, Sialkot, Jalandhar, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Ambala, Karnal, Malerkotla, Nabha and Patiala subahs . In 1862, upon his assuming leadership, Ram Singh had prophesied the rebirth of Guru Gobind Singh and the establishment of a new Sikh dynasty to displace the British, introducing

4704-416: The broader Singh Sabha Movement in 1873. While W. H. McLeod considers the dominance of the Khalsa identity to last well into the 19th century, Harjot Oberoi sees the emergence of a "Sanatan Sikh tradition" that displaced the eighteenth-century "Khalsa episteme." The faction was led by Khem Singh Bedi , Avtar Singh Vahiria and others of the landed aristocracy. Theirs was an interpretation that accepted

4800-449: The centrality of religion among the Sikhs, the British particularly took care to control central Sikh institutions, notably those at Amritsar and Tarn Taran , where British officers headed management committees, appointed key officials, and provided grants and facilities. They sought to cosset and control the Sikhs through the management of the Golden Temple and its functionaries, even ignoring its own dictates of statutory law which required

4896-470: The college board. Its 1892 establishment had been spurred by the 1886 founding of the D.A.V. College Lahore. The rivalry of the Lahore and the Amritsar factions was often intense, as the Amritsar faction was dominated by elites and aristocrats who wanted more total say, and the Lahore faction who drew from all castes, including traditionally non-elite castes, and was more democratic in nature. Despite this, under

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4992-493: The colonial British empire, remaining under the control of a "loyalist, landed elite with extensive ties to the British Raj." They were most prominent in the 1800s, and self-identified as Hindu, and were also the significant molders and primary participants among the rural masses of Sikh population. This first Singh Sabha, called the Amritsar Singh Sabha, was set up and backed by a faction of Sikhs, Gianis, and granthis belonging to

5088-594: The common goal of reform, Sikh public leaders formed a central committee and a Singh Sabha General in 1880. On April 11, 1883, this General Sabha evolved into Khalsa Diwan Amritsar, with about 37 affiliated local Singh Sabha chapters. Other Singh Sabhas, however, opposed it and there were also internal dissensions, as Khem Singh and Raja Bikram Singh opposed measures to democratize, wanting more absolute power and not wanting Lahore leaders to be more than ordinary members. The Singh Sabha chapters could not agree on its constitution or its leadership structure, ultimately leading to

5184-405: The democratic tendency within the Khalsa groups, they continued to co-exist within the broader Sikh panth, even as they remained aloof from the mainstream Khalsa practices. The Tat Khalsa's monotheism, iconoclastic sentiments, egalitarian social values and notion of a standardized Sikh identity did not blend well with the polytheism, idol worship, caste distinctions, and diversity of rites espoused by

5280-529: The egalitarian, decentralized Lahore Sabha. In its first of several defeats, the Amritsar faction proposed renaming the Singh Sabha to the Sikh Singh Sabha in 1883, as he perceived that the Singh Sabha had already become synonymous with the Khalsa Sikhs, and wanted to attract unbaptized and other minor Sikh sects to the organization. The opposition to this initiative was so overwhelming that Khem Singh Bedi

5376-485: The end of the 19th century with many affiliated to the Lahore Sabha, or remaining unaligned. Each chapter, while similar in composition, differed greatly in stability and constitution, with memberships ranging from five to hundreds. As the movement gained momentum, Singh Sabhas not only throughout Punjab, but in several other parts of India and abroad, from London, England to Shanghai, China. The Karachi Singh Sabha had

5472-452: The entire community, striving with considerable success to restore the old purity of religious thought and practice. The first Singh Sabha was founded in 1873 in Amritsar as a response to what were identified as three main threats: The objectives of the Singh Sabha were as follows: Along with the British had come English-educated Bengalis and Kayasthas that served as the lower rung of

5568-549: The execution of 61 more in 1878 by cannon for going on weapons raids and attacking cow butchers in Malerkotla , an idiosyncrasy of the sect. The impact of the two revivalist movements, created a feeling among Sikh masses for reform and a return to Sikh fundamentals, would set the stage for the Singh Sabha movement. Unlike these movements, however, the changes sought by the Singh Sabha would not be simply religious in nature or lead to new sectarianisms, but had mass appeal influencing

5664-537: The expense of their Punjabi linguistic identity and traditional modes of Punjabi saint-worship, in favor of a wider Hindu ethnoreligious identity and the traditional Hindu pantheon. The confrontational, chauvinistic character of the Arya Samaj would lead to the decline of the more Western-oriented, syncretic Brahmo Samaj in Punjab after 1877. The Arya Samaj would nevertheless build on Brahmo Samaj techniques, as well as those of Christian missionaries and both modern and traditional native ones, thus reinterpreting Hinduism into

5760-430: The fact that they emphasized Khalsa identity and the authority of the Guru Granth Sahib, particularly from the middle of nineteenth century onward. In addition to the religious aspect of his teachings opposing idolatry and Brahminical ritual at Sikh sites, the sect also introduced a political aspect, rejecting anything British, including the boycott of British courts, postal system, foreign cloth, and cooperation, drawing

5856-517: The first Punjabi newspaper ) and The Khalsa (in English), the Singh Sabha solidified a general consensus of the nature of Sikh identity, and that the source of authentic Sikhi was the early Sikh tradition, specifically the period of the Sikh Gurus and immediately after. The Adi Granth was held to be the authoritative Sikh literature, along with compositions by Guru Gobind Singh , the works of Bhai Gurdas ,

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5952-795: The growing influence of the Christian missionaries, including Jawahir Singh Kapur, Giani Ditt Singh , Maya Singh, and Bhagat Lakshman Singh, with the understanding that the purging of error among the Hindus would bring them closer to the purer Sikhism of yesteryear. Dayanand initially seldom criticized Sikhs, focusing mainly on Christian missionaries, "orthodox" Hindus in particular, and increasingly Muslims; any strong or violent opposition to him came solely from those orthodox Hindu forces, "most condemned" by him, who would vilify him and write counterattacks. Primarily focused on proselytization, and noting Christian missionary success in proselytizing to lower castes,

6048-434: The gurdwaras, including idol worship , caste discrimination, and allowing non-Sikh pandits and astrologers to frequent them, and began to simply ignore the needs of the general Sikh community, as they used gurdwara offerings and other donations as their personal revenue, and their positions became increasingly corrupt and hereditary. Hindu priesthood, which had begun to make way into Sikh places of worship under

6144-511: The infallibility of the Vedas was as uncompromising as that of the Muslims in the Koran.... Dayanand set the tone; his zealous admirers followed suit." He regarded the Guru Granth Sahib as a book of secondary importance, the Sikh gurus and theologians as unlearned particularly due to their ignorance of Sanskrit (to be thus deemed as maha murkh or "great fool"), and denounced Guru Nanak. His followers deemed

6240-464: The infallibility of the uneducated Guru Nanak among Sikhs to be a threat to the infallibility of the educated Dayanand, and the points of convergence between the two regarding renewal to instead lead to competition. In correspondence after having left Punjab, he would write that his opinion of Sikhism had changed after his stay, and the objectionable content would be removed in the next edition. This would not be done before his death in 1883, however, and

6336-521: The late rule of Ranjit Singh by Balak Singh , then carried forth by Ram Singh after he left Nau Nihal Singh 's regiment of the Sikh Khalsa Army at the end of the First Anglo-Sikh war in 1845. They did not believe in any religious ritual other than the repetition of God's name, including the worship of idols, graves, tombs, gods, or goddesses. The Namdharis had more of a social impact due to

6432-434: The laypeople, and was essentially the "religious universe" of a small minority, the Sikh elites. The Arya Samaj attacked the formation of a religious aristocracy among the descendants of the Gurus in their 1887 Arya Patrika publication, which the Amritsar Singh Sabha was characterized by. Like the Lahore Singh Sabha, the leaders of the Amritsar Singh Sabha also appreciated the translations of Max Arthur Macauliffe . They

6528-488: The mahant period, were banished, and Sikh rites and symbols including the Khalsa initiation , the names “Singh and “Kaur,” the 5 Ks , Sikh birth, death, and marriage rites, and the compulsory learning of Gurmukhi and Punjabi in Khalsa schools, an institution found in modern Gurdwaras worldwide, were formalized. After the Lahore Singh Sabha, many other Singh Sabhas modeled after it were formed in every town and many villages throughout Punjab, exceeding over 100 in number by

6624-471: The mahants during the Empire, had come to guide Sikh rites and ceremonies after annexation. Some local congregations marshalled popular pressure against them and to relinquish control, but the large revenue derived from gurdwara estates empowered them to resist such pressure. In response to these developments arose several Sikh movements: Nirankari (analogized as "puritanism"), Namdhari ("militant Protestantism"),

6720-547: The march of times.... The intellectual forces brought into play by the spread of English education are slowly and imperceptibly infusing a spirit of liberalism into the Hindu mind, but it is our individual opinion, and we think we have good grounds to come to such a conclusion, that the Sikh is as much a bigoted and narrow-minded being now as he was thirty years back...," thus backsliding into superstition and ignorance, having been left backwards by their loss of political dominance. The increasingly shrill anti-Sikh tone continued into

6816-433: The militant Samajis developed their own conversion ritual, a novelty in Hindu tradition, called shuddhi , to convert Muslims or Christians and to "purify" the untouchable castes into Hinduism, who traditionally had been denied access to Hindu texts by the priestly class. Orthodox Brahminism did not permit admission of outcastes or readmission of lapsed adherents, and not until the rise of the Arya Samaj that such reconversion

6912-525: The need for self-examination and evolution, and modernization aroused among the Sikhs concern for survival and self-definition. Further challenges included the proselytization of the agnostic Brahmo Samaji and neo-Hindu Arya Samaji reform movements of Hinduism, the Muslim Ahmadiyah of Qadian and Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam movements in Lahore, and British-backed Christian movements of proselytization. Sikh institutions deteriorated further under

7008-486: The next few years, and the Arya Samaj would condemn the descendants of the Gurus forming a religious aristocracy in the 1887 Arya Patrika , as the Amritsar Singh Sabha was characterized by. Continued public antagonism continued towards Sikhism by the Arya Samaj leading up to its 11th anniversary celebration at Lahore in November 1888, when the anti-modernist leader Pandit Guru Datt chose to publicly attack Sikhism, repeating

7104-500: The polytheism, idol worship, caste distinctions, and diversity of rites espoused by the Amritsar faction. The Tat Khalsa met with immediately successful organizational and ideological challenging of the Amritsar faction as early as the early 1880s, emerging successful, representing the Tat Khalsa faction. Ditt Singh, as a Mazhabi Sikh, was critical of Khem Singh Bedi's views on pollution, ritual, and lack of distinct identity. Between

7200-547: The pre-British 18th- and colonial-era 19th-century Punjab by taking over Gurdwaras and Sikh institutions, while Khalsa warriors confronted the Mughal state and Afghan forces for the survival of the Sikh community. While the Amritsar faction resented the democratic tendency within the Khalsa groups, they continued to co-exist within the broader Sikh panth, even as they remained aloof from the mainstream Khalsa practices. They considered Guru Nanak to be an avatar , or incarnation, of

7296-538: The recitation of the Gayatri Mantra , showing a new confidence in the practice by then. In addition to Dayanand's new Western-influenced ideas about a "highly specific scriptural canon," along with a long list of traditional Hindu writings to be condemned and repudiated, another religious innovation of the Arya Samaj was the nationalistic idea of a nationwide Hinduism, as opposed to a myriad of different dharmas previously always qualified by subregion or type, which

7392-549: The second edition would attack Sikhs, Sikhism, and its scriptures even more directly, as would other Samaji publications; beginning in the Arya Patrika newspaper in 1885, which described a Sikhism that was begun with noble aims as having degenerated. Along with the increased hostility of its followers, this would disillusion some Sikh followers and sympathizers of the movement. Some notable Arya Samaj members expressed disagreement with Samaji conduct and attempted to reconcile with

7488-454: The sect in Lahore. It was not until he reached Amritsar did he begin to belittle Sikhism, its founders, and current practices, provoking Nihang hostility and threats. Addressing Sikhism briefly in his book, he wrote that "Nanakji [the founder of Sikhism], had noble aims, but he had no learning. He knew the language of the villages of his country. He had no knowledge of Vedic scriptures or of Sanskrta ," without which he lacked Vedic knowledge and

7584-430: The separation of secular and religious matters, neutrality in the treatment of religious communities. and the withdrawal from involvement in religious institutions. The need to control the Golden Temple was held to be more paramount, and along with control of Sikh institutions, measures included the legal ban of carrying weapons, meant to disarm the Khalsa who had fought against them in the two Anglo Sikh Wars. In this way

7680-479: The time of the Sikh Empire. Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire was said to have appreciated his teachings, but the death rites of Ranjit Singh, including the sati of his queens and maidservants, would provide further impetus to Dyal Das to return to Sikh fundamentals. Gurdwara Peshawarian in Rawalpindi , Dyal Das' headquarters, which had been granted a jagīr by Ranjit Singh, would come to be occupied by

7776-414: The widow remarriage prohibition, child marriage, and sati as degenerate accretions, as well as the priestcraft of Brahmins, considered to have misled the masses through introducing such deviations. These repudiations were in accord with Sikh tradition, which the Arya Samaj first saw as a reforming movement akin to their own, and many young Sikh reformists had initially coordinated with them to counteract

7872-472: Was controversially converted to Christianity . The British colonial rulers, after annexing the Sikh empire in mid-19th-century, continued to patronize and gift land grants to these mahants, thereby increasing their strength and helped sustain the idolatry in Sikh shrines. The annexation of the Punjab to the British Empire in the mid-19th century saw severe deterioration of Gurdwara management. Recognizing

7968-531: Was besieged by, and opposed to, both foreign interference and "unreformed Brahmanical hierarchies." This established the organization as an important factor in the development of Hindu religious nationalism. In addition to boosting the collective morale of the Hindus in Punjab, by enabling a shift in self-identification from a regional minority with no political heritage to part of a national majority, Samaji identity would also provide an answer to criticisms of superstition and casteism from other communities, though at

8064-415: Was encouraged, which elicited continued "Sanatanist" opposition. Shuddhi was reinterpreted under the influence of Christian conversion from a caste purification ritual to a conversion ritual, to convert non-Hindus and outcastes into dvija or pure-caste Hindus, between 1889 and 1891. This was followed slowly and reluctantly by other Samajis, and was disapproved by traditionalists. Though at first there

8160-648: Was forced to drop it in the next meeting of the Diwan in April 1884. Despite this, both Diwans, even despite disagreements and even litigation, worked for common goals with the same programs, even as the Khalsa Diwan Lahore overtook its rival in popularity. Though the two terms would begin to become synonymous, Singh Sabhas tended to form in small towns, while Khalsa Diwans formed in larger towns and cities. Khalsa Diwan meetings were held biannually. The Arya Samaj espoused

8256-459: Was founded in April 1893 by Dr. Jai Singh. The Sri Guru Hitkarni Singh Sabha, which would break with the Lahore Sabha in 1886 over its advocacy of the restoration of Duleep Singh to the throne, hence entailing involvement in politics, would reconcile with the Singh Sabha in 1895. The Sri Guru Upkar Pracharni Sabha, in addition to propagating Sikhism, would counterattack on Sikhism from the Arya Samaj's Arya Kumar Sabha. The Singh Sabha Tarn Taran and

8352-490: Was founded in an era when the Sikh Empire had been dissolved and annexed by the British, the Khalsa had lost its prestige, and mainstream Sikhs were rapidly converting to other religions. The movement's aims were to "propagate the true Sikh religion and restore Sikhism to its pristine glory; to write and distribute historical and religious books of Sikhs; and to propagate Gurmukhi Punjabi through magazines and media." The movement sought to reform Sikhism and bring back into

8448-509: Was founded on 2 November 1879, holding weekly meetings with Diwan Buta Singh as president, Gurmukh Singh as secretary and Harsha Singh, Ram Singh and Karam Singh as members formed its working committee. Shortly thereafter, Nihang Sikhs began influencing the movement, followed by a sustained campaign by the Tat Khalsa . The Amritsar faction was opposed by these predominant groups of the Sikhs, particularly those who held Khalsa beliefs, who through access to education and employment, had reached

8544-423: Was invested in living gurus (as Khem Singh Bedi, leader of the Amritsar faction, liked to be regarded) rather than the principle of shabad-guru, or the Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru, which was upheld by the dominant Khalsa tradition. In addition to himself, Khem Singh claimed special reverence for all members of clans to which the Gurus had belonged. Professor Gurmukh Singh, a teacher of Punjabi and mathematics at

8640-415: Was less religiously militant and more concerned with educational institutes ; the more moderate faction was called the "College Party." With increasingly radicalized dogmatism, along with its kernani (Christian), kurani (Muslim), and purani (orthodox Hindu) opponents, propaganda targeting Sikhism continued to be published in the Arya Samaj press through the 1880s, further aggravating relations with

8736-465: Was no standard procedure for the new practice, and more conservative Samaji leaders were reluctant to sponsor them, shuddhi for caste readmission was originally the full orthodox prāyaścitta , involving bathing in the Ganges, feeding Brahmins, and the consumption of the panchagavya , or cow products: milk, butter, curd, urine and dung; it would be simplified by 1893 to tonsure , hom , janeu , and

8832-417: Was only as old as the late eighteenth century, in the post- Sikh Empire society where Khalsa Sikhism was no longer the universal norm. Non-Khalsa factions had gained social prominence following Khalsa persecution and loss of institutional control in the 1700s, and guided the operations of Sikh gurdwaras in the pre-British 18th- and colonial-era 19th-century Punjab because of support from Sikh elites and later

8928-551: Was opposed by the numerically predominant groups in the Panth, particularly those who held Khalsa beliefs, who through access to previously limited education and employment, had reached a position to challenge the Amritsar faction, forming the Tat Khalsa faction, or "true Khalsa," in 1879, headed by Gurmukh Singh, Harsha Singh Arora, Jawahir Singh and Giani Ditt Singh. They formed the Lahore Singh Sabha. The Tat Khalsa met with immediately successful organizational and ideological challenging of

9024-493: Was that?" Other Samaj leaders like Swami Swatmananda, Lala Murlidhar, and Lekh Ram seconded the comments, the latter two rising to do so. This was followed by Lekh Ram's speech, attacking Sikhs further and physically insulting the Guru Granth Sahib placed before him. While approved by the majority of Samajis present, Sikhs also present in the meeting, including Lahore Samaj Vice President Jawahir Singh, Giani Ditt Singh, and Maya Singh would resign their Samaj membership and join

9120-446: Was thus incapable of permanent accomplishment, teaching little of value. He considered the state of Sikhs to be as ignorant and degenerate as Puranic Hindus, and as worthy to be noted, refuted, and forgotten, stating that while "[t]hey do not worship idols," their treatment of the Guru Granth Sahib was essentially bibliolatrous . According to Khushwant Singh, "It did not take the orthodox Sikhs long to appreciate that Dayanand's belief in

9216-418: Was upheld by the dominant Khalsa tradition. Not subscribing to the idea of the Guru Granth Sahib being the guru of the Sikhs, but allowing the worship of images, living gurus, and even "charismatic descendants" of the Sikh gurus, who devotees would be expected to show the same allegiance as that of "a subject and his ruler," it was primarily a "priestly" religion with a strong distinction between intermediares and

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