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 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 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. Between 1901 and 1941, many Jats, OBC's, and Dalits converted to Sikhism due to outreach and preaching efforts of Singh Sabha movement.Singh, G., & Shani, G. (2021). The Emergence of Modern Sikh Nationalism, 1880s–1930s. In Sikh Nationalism (New Approaches to Asian History, pp. 52-81). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316479940.005Census of India, 1931, Punjab, Part I, Report, p. 69 and Census of India, 1941. The movement was allied with the Theosophical Society. The movement led to the development of Modern Standard Punjabi as a standardized form of Punjabi.
Background Khalsa period Increased Mughal persecution of 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 “The government had handled the Sikhs with caution, combining patronage with control. Pro-British groups and important individuals were the recipients of this patronage. In return they were expected to help in keeping hostile elements under control. This was perhaps best exemplified by the fact that the government never allowed the management of the Golden Temple to go completely out of its hands. It thus stood behind the mahants, who were almost invariably unbaptized Sikhs (though claiming affiliation with the Udasi sect founded by one of the sons of the first guru) or plain Hindus. They kept alive idolatry and a great deal of Brahmanical ritual in the temples and were considered venal... The managers of the Golden Temple were particularly disliked, not only for their Hindu origin but also for their loyalty to the British.” due to their lack of external identification, as opposed to initiated Sikhs. The Khalsa at this time engaged in guerilla campaigns against the Mughals and the 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 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 Sanskritisation, 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 the Khalsa focused on political power at the time, as Sikh jatthas 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 the Sikh Empire was lost to the British.
British annexation
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, was controversially converted to Christianity. The British colonial rulers, after annexing the Sikh empire in mid-19th-century, continued to patronise 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. Recognising 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 the separation of political 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 the Khalsa army was disbanded and the Punjab demilitarised, 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 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 buildings.
The British administration went to considerable lengths to insert such loyalists into the Golden Temple in order to exert as much control over 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.
Community concerns Parallel to the end of Sikh sovereignty in Punjab and the gradual appropriation of Sikhism by 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 the need for self-examination and evolution, and modernisation aroused among the Sikhs concern for survival and self-definition. Further challenges included the proselytisation of the deistic 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.
Sikh institutions deteriorated further under 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 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 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.
Antecedents In response to these developments arose several Sikh movements: Nirankari, Namdhari, the Singh Sabha ("revivalism and renaissance") and the Panch Khalsa Diwan ("aggressive fundamentalism").
Nirankārīs 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 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 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 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.
Nāmdhārīs
The Namdhari sect was founded as one of the Sikh revivalist movements during 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 the fact that they emphasised Khalsa identity and the authority of the Guru Granth Sahib, particularly from the middle of nineteenth century onward.