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Unit 3: Socio-Religious Reforms Movement

In 1883 the Lahore and Amritsar Sabhas were merged, but the association proved a failure. The Notes
Amritsar Sabha had been constituted by an easy-going group of conservatives dominated by men
like Khem Singh Bedi, who, by virtue of his descent from Nanak, was wont to accept homage due
to a guru. The Lahore group was radical and strongly opposed to the institution of ‘gurudom’. The
two groups clashed on the right of untouchable Sikhs to worship in the gurdwaras; the conservatives
sided with the priests who allowed untouchables to enter only at specified hours without the right
to make offerings. The debate became acrimonious. The conservatives dissociated themselves
from the movement and thenm became openly hostile.
The rapid expansion of the Arya Samaj and the anti-Sikh bias of many of its leaders constituted a
challenge to the Singh Sabha movement. It also brought about the final rupture between the Samaj
and some of its Sikh supporters.
The two Singh Sabhas again rejoined hands and doubled their efforts to start a college of their
own. At a largely attended meeting held in Lahore, a plan was drawn up; a hukumnama was issued
from the Golden Temple asking Sikhs to give a tenth of their income (dasvandh) towards the
building of the college. English well-wishers organized a committee in London to raise funds in
England. Sikh princes, encouraged by the viceroy and the commander-in-chief, made handsome
donations; the Anglo-Indian Civil and Military Gazette supported the cause with enthusiasm. Money
began to pour in from all over the province. On 5 March 1892, the lieutenant governor, Sir James
Lyall, who had taken personal interest in the venture, laid the foundation stone of the Khalsa
College at Amritsar.
It was inevitable an organization such as the Singh Sabha which had such multifarious activities
should evolve its own politics as well. These crystallized in the formation in 1902 of the Chief
Khalsa Diwan pledged ‘to cultivate loyalty to the crown,’ to safeguard Sikh rights vis-a-vis the
other communities, and to fight for adequate representation of Sikhs in services, particularly the
army. Almost from its inception its most effective leader was Sunder Singh Majithia.
The most important aspects of the Singh Sabha movement were educational and literary. From
1908 onwards, an education conference was convened every year to take stock of the progress of
literacy in the community and collect money to build more schools. The teaching of Gurmukhi and
the Sikh scriptures was compulsory in these Khalsa schools.
The impetus given to education in its turn stimulated the publication of books, magazines, tracts,
and newspapers.
Its circulation increased under the editorship of Vir Singh, who rose to prominence as a novelist,
poet, and a commentator of scriptural writings. Vir Singh also started the Khalsa Tract Society and
published literature on different aspects of Sikh history and religion.

The earliest venture in Punjabi journalism was the weekly Khalsa Akhbar. In 1899 the
Khalsa Samacar was founded and soon became the leading theological journal of the
community.

A spate of books on Sikhism, both in Gurmukhi and English, were published. Of the Gurmukhi,
Gyani Gyan Singh’s Panth Prakas and Tawarikh Guru Khalsa and Kahan Singh’s voluminous
encyclopaedia of Sikh literature (Guru Sabdaratnakar Mahankos) were of lasting significance. M. A.
Macauliffe’s monumental work on the life and teachings of the Sikh gurus was also published at
this time.
The Singh Sabha movement not only checked the relapse of the Sikhs into Hinduism but retaliated
by carrying proselytizing activities into the Hindu camp. Large numbers of Hindus of northern
and western Punjab and Sindh became sahajdhari Sikhs and the sahajdharis were baptized to
become the Khalsa.

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