Singh
Sabha
During the third quarter of the 19th century,
the Sikhs ultimately came to the bitter conclusion that they cannot
oust the British Power from their homeland, the Punjab, since neither
the Hindus nor the Muslims would joint them in doing so and the Sikhs,
therefore, turned their face towards the roots of their religious faith.
It was in this background that they invited a Hindu demagogue from Maharashtra,
Swami Daya Nand, to preach against idolatry amongst Hindus. Swami Daya
Nand, who had failed to strike roots in any other part of India readily
accepted this invitation and he was warmly welcomed and aided by the
Sikhs to establish Arya Samaj societies in the Punjab with the object
of purifying Hindu society of idolatory and other superstitions so that
it may regain its pristine spiritual vigor and thus become a natural
and ultimate ally of Sikhism. As it happened, however, the Arya Samaj
Organisation and Swami Daya Nand, both passed into the hands of an element
of Punjabi Hindus whose primary motivation was the hatred and opposition
to Sikhism and not reversion to the original roots of Hinduism. In this
manner the Arya Samaj movement became primarily a virulently anti-Sikh
movement obliging its Sikh founders and office holders to quit it. Thus
a positive Sikh religious reform movement came into existence, called
the Singh Sabha Movement. The originators and founders of Singh Sabha
movement were precisely those Sikhs who had invited Swami Daya Nand
to Punjab and who had fostered the Arya Samaj Societies to begin with.
In the year 1873, the First Central Singh Sabha organisation was -established
at Amritsar under the chairmanship of Sardar Thakur Singh Sandhawalia,
with Giani Gian Singh, the famous Sikh scholar as its secretary. In
the year 1879, a rival Singh Saba Central Organisation was established
at Lahore with Professor Gurmukh Singh of the Oriental College as its
secretary and in the year 1880 both these central organisations merged
into one. The clarion call of the Singh Sabha Movement was, 'back to
the original purity of Sikhsim' and to achieve this objective, a large
number of social and religious reforms were affected. The Singh Sabha
Movement remained vigorous for about half a century when under the impact
of political upheaval in the rest of the country, the Sikh ethos were
transformed into political yearnings. This change in Sikh attitude became
reflected in the Akali Movement with the twin object of purifying Sikh
practices and of ousting the foreign political power from India Currently,
an influential committee has been set up by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee to celebrate the Centenary of the Singh Sabha Movement as
well as to revive the pristine purity of Sikh practices.
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