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Emergence of the Akalis (1920-1922)
The prefatory paragraph of this chapter begins with reference to two theories. One theory is enunciated and other theory is contended. The theory on which the author has stressed that Akalis were the pioneer of the non-violent movement in India. The theory which has been negated is that Akalis were "a semi-military corps trained for action in taking over Gurdwaras from recalcitrant Mahants".
Now it is not a matter of opinion. There is truth in thesis of the author.
Before showing any surprise, any person, who would reject the above statement must try to evaluate the work of writing history in India. In India, the history was written under the rule of Congress. It was not carried out as per the directives of the field of history. Somewhere, with a stress more on the Gandhian achievement is a biased version of Indian history. If the BJP stress on saffronization of history is wrong, then it is also a fact, that Indian history has not been written in true spirit of the subject of history. Either, the Indian historians have reacted to what the western historians have said about India or they have written it to appease the masters of their time. The real history has yet not been attempted in India.
I am writing all this as a student of history who feels that he has started understanding his subject. It is under that learning that it is being said categorically that real history writing has not been attempted in India. It is that learning which tells that whatsoever is being passed as history of India is work of one politically influential group. If I approve that accusation that even BJP government has gone for saffronization of Indian history, it is being said because being a student of history I can see that they are not doing anything different. In the similar manner, the above referred nature of the work of the author in question, is being found true to some extent and objectionable to rest of its part.
On the whole the chapter 3 and Chapter 4, The Last Battle, should be read as one chapter. However, the author has already made it clear in the chapter one Overview, that how he has divided the survey of the history of Akalis and it is part of his model that he has divided the time period from the founding of the Akali Dal in 1920 to passing of Gurudwara Act by 1925 into two stages and in these two chapters he has justified his game plan.
A survey of the history of Akalis is pure historic facts. The only other feature is the motivation and theme that keep on emerging again and again in these two chapters and rest of the book.
The reading of this chapter 3 can be headed by quoting the first line of this chapter. It is, "the Shiromani Akali Dal was founded on 14 December 1920." The rest of the chapter and the next chapter describe that how that date became historic date and how a social reform movement when received an organization acquired political aims also. This is the thesis of the author.
Section one:
The section begins by referring to the social aims of the Singh reformers. They wanted to bring Gurdwaras under the Panthic control.
Now here is the shortcoming of this thesis. The author has started with finding genesis of the coming up of Akali Dal in the historic traditions of Sikh community. He has given philosophical and theoretical justification for the rise of the movement. However, he is referring to those historic changes which were taking place under the impact of various forces which had come into play in the nineteenth century. This contention and objection has been already emphasis in the reading of the chapter 2.
The author begins straightaway with the assertion that there was a movement for reforming the activities concerning the control of the gurudwaras. He should have given full chapter referring to various social reform movements or should have added to the chapter 2 where he had given a brief and effective study of rise of the Singh Sabhas and Diwans. Therein, Had he given that, then his prefatory statement would have become a thumping statement.
Anyhow, he has pointed out that Chief Khalsa Diwan, which also wanted to change in the management of the Gurudwaras, believed in petitioning to the government of the time. Now this was the feature of all the social reform movement of the nineteenth century in India. This feature of the nineteenth century separates it from the two earlier religious and social reform movements of India. Those earlier two movements were Bhakti movement and the 6th century B. C. religious reform movement. Those movements did not petitioned to the government of their time. They rather won over the governments of their time to their philosophy or fought against the local government under the conviction that they were supporting the truth. However, in case of nineteenth century, right from the Brahmo Samaj movement, the social reformers of all the various communities of India sought the legal and legislative help from the government of time. Even the SGPC Act is nothing else but the protection and authentication from the government of time.
However, Dr. Garewal had stressed on this aspect of Chief Khalsa Diwan whereas whole of the chapter is a detailed picture of the events in which the Akalis before 1920 had worked in direct contact with the government and they had sought protection through legislative means. They fought with the government for it and got it from the government with which they fought. Their fight has a wider meaning and implication in the history of India and the whole religion. However, as it is now being repeatedly emphasized that a peculiar theme of ‘it is exclusive to the Sikh community syndrome’ predominates in exposition of the events and thus reduce this work to a level of biased approach.
The genesis of Shiromani Akali Dal has been shown to appear from the event of Rakabganj Gurdwara. In the year 1914, the government tried to build a road straight to the Viceregal Lodge. The government had shifted their capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911. That event had caused two sacrileges to the Sikh community. The first wrong thing was the demolishing of the wall of the Gurudwara and second was that they made deal only with the Mahant of the Gurudwara in order to take possession of the land and treated Mahant as the owner of the land.
The Sikh community protested against the sacrilege in the strongest manner but through constitutional means. In response, the government tried to find a way out through the help of the Sundar Singh Majithia of Chief Khalsa Diwan.
There is no doubt, that Rakabganj wall case was a major historic event in development of the Akali activity. Dr Garewal identifies the Sikh Education Conference held at Jalandhar in April 1914 as the next important historic event in the development of the SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal). In that conference, Harchand Singh of Lyallpur and Teja Singh Samundri walked out of the conference because they raised the issue of the Rakabganj and the wrong done by the government. That conference was followed by a meeting of Chief Khalsa Diwan in May 1914 at Amritsar in which a compromise resolution was passed in order to allow the government to continue with their act.
The events mentioned above isolated the Chief Khalsa Diwan. Harchand Singh of Lyallpur launched "Khalsa Akhbar" in Urdu. The press was used in order to criticize the stand of Chief Khalsa Diwan and the act of the government. The Khalsa Akhbar was banned by the government. However, the agitation also became dormant because the attention of India was diverted to world war.
In reviewing the above events in the development leading to the birth of SAD, it can be clearly seen that the social reform movement of the Sikh community was adopting the same methodology which was being followed by other social reform movement of the nineteenth century. However, as it is observed in previous posts and at sumir-history.blogspot.com, the history of Akalis is not evaluated in the milieu in which it had taken place. There is no reference about the forces which were active at that time in and outside Punjab. The whole theme has remained that movements and activities of the Sikh community were exclusive to the Sikh community. If they were drawing any force, encouragement and guidance, it was only from their traditions. How far such an evaluation can be judicious in history writing? The raising of organization to coordinate the activities of the various Diwans and Sabhas, the petitioning to the government, the use of press, adoption of the Urdu language, are such features of that period, which should have been touched upon even if it is a short history of Akalis. One can not see them separately and exclusive to Sikh community only. There is demand of the historic evaluation that they should be identified and shown as the process and mechanism which had their origin separate from Sikh community.
There is no further reference to the events after 1914. The author begins with the launch of daily Akali by Harchand Singh, Teja Singh Samundri, master Sudner Singh of Lyallpur and Professor Niranjan Singh at Lahore on May 21, 1920 (which was the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan) . It acquired the name of Akali from the achievements of Akali Phulan Singh. The tradition of sacrifice and selfless service to the community was revived but this time the vehicle to carry it was new and it was the press. The author has identified the name of Hira Singh Dard and Mangal Singh Gill with the Akali newspaper. He has mentioned that Sohan Singh Josh had written in his "Akali Morchian da Itihas" that the Akalis became the voice of people not only for the liberation of the Gurdwaras but also for the national independence. Now, this is what is true. But it is surprising that why this exclusive to Sikh community syndrome keep on creeping into otherwise a very edifying narration. The author mentions without giving the exact figures that how different editors of the newspaper suffered. The newspaper of Bengal and Bombay suffered in the same manner even in nineteenth century. No doubt, when the author begins the fifth chapter of this book, he starts on a very different note. From that chapter onwards, he continue to refer to the milieu in which the politics of SAD develops.
The Akali newspaper shifted to Amritsar in 1922 and merged with Pardesi and appeared as Akali te Pardesi. In its new form, it became the journal of the Akali movement. It was an Urdu newspaper and continued up to 1930.
Hence, the Akali, as the official organ of Akali movement started from May 1920 and facilitated the movement through print media. The author has identified the press as the cause of the establishment of the Akali Dal. After that he identifies a set of the political events related to freeing of Gurudwaras from the control of non-Pathnic control and shifting them to the Pathnic control.
The author identifies the Rakabganj event as the next important milestone on the road to the rise of Akali Dal. The Rakabganj case had become a major issue in 1913. As narrated above, it remained subdued due to the world war activities. However, in 1920, the Sikh press as it emerged during 1920 took the Rakabganj case.
Hira Singh Dard, the editor of Akali te Pardesi, had placed on the record that Rakabganj case was one of the major issue for the Sikh press. The then editor of Akali, Mangal Singh Gill had written a letter to Chief Commissioner of Delhi on July 19, 1920 on this issue. The issue was also taken by various Sikhs in different meetings. The author has identified the names of Sardul Singh Caveeshar, Dan Singh Vachhoa, Amar Singh Jhabal and Jaswant Singh Jhabal who had brought back this issue in the forefront by taking it in various meetings.
Apart from raising the issues in press and public meetings, the Sikhs adopted the method of enlisting volunteers who could lay down their life for Rakabganj Gurudwaras and if required they could volunteer to reconstruct the wall which was being an issue since 1913.
The enlisting of volunteers was again sought through the medium of press. The first call for the volunteers as identified the author was made on September 2, 1920. It appeared in Akali te Pardesi. It was placed by Sardul Singh Caveeshar in the newspaper. He had asked for one hundred volunteers who were called Shahids. Nearly 700 volunteers responded and they met on October 20, 1920. It was decided in that meeting that they would reconstruct the wall on December 1, 1920 if the government did not correct its wrong action. The leading Sikh personalities who came to the meeting were Teja Singh Samundri and Sohan Singh Josh. Other leaders who had raised the issue of Rakabganj case were Master Tara Singh, Master Sunder Singh, Professor Niranjan Singh, Bhai Randhir Singh and Master Mota Singh.
The government reconstructed the wall before that date and publicized it in the press. It is important to remember that the government was seeking solution to it in 1914. The wall was reconstructed in 1920.
Before moving further, it could be evaluated here that before the Akali Dal came into existence, the social reform trend among the Sikhs had followed the same course which the earlier and other similar movement of social reform had adopted. The major methods adopted by them were raising of public opinion through press and meeting. The Sikhs also used the press and meeting methods to discuss the issues related to them. However, the writer Dr. Garewal has not touched upon such aspect at all. When in the later part of the book, he refers to national movement of which he identifies that Akali Dal also was a part, the presentation remains short of analytical approach which was expected from Dr. Garewal.
However, one feature of methodology, which stands exclusive to Sikh reform is the calling of volunteers. This is the feature which was not identified in other social reform movements. In other reform movement, it was the leader or the organizers who made it possible. It was never that a mere call could have brought a large number of one community to assemble an issue related to the community. In case of Sikhs, it is a feature, which requires further study. No doubt, they gather in the name of religion. Another aspect of their religion, that is brotherhood among the Sikh community, that is, Sikh Panth, Gurudwara, and Guru Granth Sahib, are the magnets, which bring them together. In case of Female infanticide case of nineteenth century, it was Community guild or baradari, which was used by the British administration to bring the social reform among them. Even there, the same features were sought to elicit the commitments from the Bedi baradari. The main issue is that calling of volunteers and the response which it gets is a feature which is exclusive to the Sikh community. Such aspects should be taken up by scholars and brought in to study of the history of the region and Sikh community.
The author continues to survey the events which happened before the rise of the Akali Dal. He again refers to the activities carried through the medium of press. The other issue, which the Akali te Pardesi took up was the issue of Pathnic control over Gurudwaras. Rakabganj was one issue and an episode. However, the control of Gurudwara was a wider question and issue. However, he has not taken it in chronological orders. The next event which Dr. Garewal has taken up is of Gurudwara of Sialkot known as Babe-di-Ber. The issue involved was the ownership of management of the religious which was the bigger issue for the Akali movement or the Gurudwara Movement. Gurudwara Movement was basically the issue of actual status of the Gurudwara for the Sikh community. The claim of the traditional caretaker had become an issue because of the changing legal scenario which was introduced by the British administration. Such an aspect is again not taken up by the author. He has straightaway given that the Pathnic Control of Gurudwara was intrinsic issue and based on ideological basis of the Sikhism. The control of Gurudwaras had become issue since the day of Prithi Chand. It was further became an important issue during the period of Guru Teg Bahadur. But in the ninteenth and twentieth century, it was because of the legal scenario which had been introduced by British administration which had made it an issue for the Sikh community. However, such an aspect has not dealt with here. Only justification could be that the book is about the Akali’s history not the issue of Panthic control. But it is difficult to see them separately in view of the subject matter given here. Secondly, rather the main thing is that he has not taken it in chronological order. The issue of Sialkot Gurudwara had taken place before the reconstruction of the wall. However, if we consider that the issue of Rakabganj had risen nearly five years back its settlement had taken place only in 1920 then, the order of presentation is correct. But then, the question of gradual development of the Akali movement comes which is not at all taken up like that. In that case, the whole book has to be re-written. In that, first the issues of conceptual and historic background of social reform movements in India would be taken. That seems to be more logical. But the author has started with ideological survey of the Sikhism and from there he has identified the forces which has created the Gurudwara movement. No doubt, up to this chapter, one can feel that there is something missing in whole of this survey. The author should also have taken general development of the social reform movement in India and how similar thing has been seen in Punjab and among Sikh community, should have been studied. But this what that is not done. The theme is that there are something exclusive to Sikh community. That is the main theme and thesis which comes out.
The issue of Babe-di-Ber or Gurudwara of Sialkot is the second important event after the rise of journalistic activities and reconstruction of the wall of Rakabganj Gurudwara as per the author. He has given a detailed survey and similar survey continues for the forthcoming events that ultimately led to the founding of the Akali Dal. In such a treatment, the author is quite successful in presenting the working of the social commitments of the Sikh community. But the feature of social commitment which he has been able to present here is not identified in the chapter 2 wherein the feature of social commitment has been given only an ideological basis. But, the social commitment which is surveyed here is something which is result of the social structure and social institutions as developed with time and something which the sociologist would like to discuss as a case study.
Now it is not a matter of opinion. There is truth in thesis of the author.
Before showing any surprise, any person, who would reject the above statement must try to evaluate the work of writing history in India. In India, the history was written under the rule of Congress. It was not carried out as per the directives of the field of history. Somewhere, with a stress more on the Gandhian achievement is a biased version of Indian history. If the BJP stress on saffronization of history is wrong, then it is also a fact, that Indian history has not been written in true spirit of the subject of history. Either, the Indian historians have reacted to what the western historians have said about India or they have written it to appease the masters of their time. The real history has yet not been attempted in India.
I am writing all this as a student of history who feels that he has started understanding his subject. It is under that learning that it is being said categorically that real history writing has not been attempted in India. It is that learning which tells that whatsoever is being passed as history of India is work of one politically influential group. If I approve that accusation that even BJP government has gone for saffronization of Indian history, it is being said because being a student of history I can see that they are not doing anything different. In the similar manner, the above referred nature of the work of the author in question, is being found true to some extent and objectionable to rest of its part.
On the whole the chapter 3 and Chapter 4, The Last Battle, should be read as one chapter. However, the author has already made it clear in the chapter one Overview, that how he has divided the survey of the history of Akalis and it is part of his model that he has divided the time period from the founding of the Akali Dal in 1920 to passing of Gurudwara Act by 1925 into two stages and in these two chapters he has justified his game plan.
A survey of the history of Akalis is pure historic facts. The only other feature is the motivation and theme that keep on emerging again and again in these two chapters and rest of the book.
The reading of this chapter 3 can be headed by quoting the first line of this chapter. It is, "the Shiromani Akali Dal was founded on 14 December 1920." The rest of the chapter and the next chapter describe that how that date became historic date and how a social reform movement when received an organization acquired political aims also. This is the thesis of the author.
Section one:
The section begins by referring to the social aims of the Singh reformers. They wanted to bring Gurdwaras under the Panthic control.
Now here is the shortcoming of this thesis. The author has started with finding genesis of the coming up of Akali Dal in the historic traditions of Sikh community. He has given philosophical and theoretical justification for the rise of the movement. However, he is referring to those historic changes which were taking place under the impact of various forces which had come into play in the nineteenth century. This contention and objection has been already emphasis in the reading of the chapter 2.
The author begins straightaway with the assertion that there was a movement for reforming the activities concerning the control of the gurudwaras. He should have given full chapter referring to various social reform movements or should have added to the chapter 2 where he had given a brief and effective study of rise of the Singh Sabhas and Diwans. Therein, Had he given that, then his prefatory statement would have become a thumping statement.
Anyhow, he has pointed out that Chief Khalsa Diwan, which also wanted to change in the management of the Gurudwaras, believed in petitioning to the government of the time. Now this was the feature of all the social reform movement of the nineteenth century in India. This feature of the nineteenth century separates it from the two earlier religious and social reform movements of India. Those earlier two movements were Bhakti movement and the 6th century B. C. religious reform movement. Those movements did not petitioned to the government of their time. They rather won over the governments of their time to their philosophy or fought against the local government under the conviction that they were supporting the truth. However, in case of nineteenth century, right from the Brahmo Samaj movement, the social reformers of all the various communities of India sought the legal and legislative help from the government of time. Even the SGPC Act is nothing else but the protection and authentication from the government of time.
However, Dr. Garewal had stressed on this aspect of Chief Khalsa Diwan whereas whole of the chapter is a detailed picture of the events in which the Akalis before 1920 had worked in direct contact with the government and they had sought protection through legislative means. They fought with the government for it and got it from the government with which they fought. Their fight has a wider meaning and implication in the history of India and the whole religion. However, as it is now being repeatedly emphasized that a peculiar theme of ‘it is exclusive to the Sikh community syndrome’ predominates in exposition of the events and thus reduce this work to a level of biased approach.
The genesis of Shiromani Akali Dal has been shown to appear from the event of Rakabganj Gurdwara. In the year 1914, the government tried to build a road straight to the Viceregal Lodge. The government had shifted their capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911. That event had caused two sacrileges to the Sikh community. The first wrong thing was the demolishing of the wall of the Gurudwara and second was that they made deal only with the Mahant of the Gurudwara in order to take possession of the land and treated Mahant as the owner of the land.
The Sikh community protested against the sacrilege in the strongest manner but through constitutional means. In response, the government tried to find a way out through the help of the Sundar Singh Majithia of Chief Khalsa Diwan.
There is no doubt, that Rakabganj wall case was a major historic event in development of the Akali activity. Dr Garewal identifies the Sikh Education Conference held at Jalandhar in April 1914 as the next important historic event in the development of the SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal). In that conference, Harchand Singh of Lyallpur and Teja Singh Samundri walked out of the conference because they raised the issue of the Rakabganj and the wrong done by the government. That conference was followed by a meeting of Chief Khalsa Diwan in May 1914 at Amritsar in which a compromise resolution was passed in order to allow the government to continue with their act.
The events mentioned above isolated the Chief Khalsa Diwan. Harchand Singh of Lyallpur launched "Khalsa Akhbar" in Urdu. The press was used in order to criticize the stand of Chief Khalsa Diwan and the act of the government. The Khalsa Akhbar was banned by the government. However, the agitation also became dormant because the attention of India was diverted to world war.
In reviewing the above events in the development leading to the birth of SAD, it can be clearly seen that the social reform movement of the Sikh community was adopting the same methodology which was being followed by other social reform movement of the nineteenth century. However, as it is observed in previous posts and at sumir-history.blogspot.com, the history of Akalis is not evaluated in the milieu in which it had taken place. There is no reference about the forces which were active at that time in and outside Punjab. The whole theme has remained that movements and activities of the Sikh community were exclusive to the Sikh community. If they were drawing any force, encouragement and guidance, it was only from their traditions. How far such an evaluation can be judicious in history writing? The raising of organization to coordinate the activities of the various Diwans and Sabhas, the petitioning to the government, the use of press, adoption of the Urdu language, are such features of that period, which should have been touched upon even if it is a short history of Akalis. One can not see them separately and exclusive to Sikh community only. There is demand of the historic evaluation that they should be identified and shown as the process and mechanism which had their origin separate from Sikh community.
There is no further reference to the events after 1914. The author begins with the launch of daily Akali by Harchand Singh, Teja Singh Samundri, master Sudner Singh of Lyallpur and Professor Niranjan Singh at Lahore on May 21, 1920 (which was the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan) . It acquired the name of Akali from the achievements of Akali Phulan Singh. The tradition of sacrifice and selfless service to the community was revived but this time the vehicle to carry it was new and it was the press. The author has identified the name of Hira Singh Dard and Mangal Singh Gill with the Akali newspaper. He has mentioned that Sohan Singh Josh had written in his "Akali Morchian da Itihas" that the Akalis became the voice of people not only for the liberation of the Gurdwaras but also for the national independence. Now, this is what is true. But it is surprising that why this exclusive to Sikh community syndrome keep on creeping into otherwise a very edifying narration. The author mentions without giving the exact figures that how different editors of the newspaper suffered. The newspaper of Bengal and Bombay suffered in the same manner even in nineteenth century. No doubt, when the author begins the fifth chapter of this book, he starts on a very different note. From that chapter onwards, he continue to refer to the milieu in which the politics of SAD develops.
The Akali newspaper shifted to Amritsar in 1922 and merged with Pardesi and appeared as Akali te Pardesi. In its new form, it became the journal of the Akali movement. It was an Urdu newspaper and continued up to 1930.
Hence, the Akali, as the official organ of Akali movement started from May 1920 and facilitated the movement through print media. The author has identified the press as the cause of the establishment of the Akali Dal. After that he identifies a set of the political events related to freeing of Gurudwaras from the control of non-Pathnic control and shifting them to the Pathnic control.
The author identifies the Rakabganj event as the next important milestone on the road to the rise of Akali Dal. The Rakabganj case had become a major issue in 1913. As narrated above, it remained subdued due to the world war activities. However, in 1920, the Sikh press as it emerged during 1920 took the Rakabganj case.
Hira Singh Dard, the editor of Akali te Pardesi, had placed on the record that Rakabganj case was one of the major issue for the Sikh press. The then editor of Akali, Mangal Singh Gill had written a letter to Chief Commissioner of Delhi on July 19, 1920 on this issue. The issue was also taken by various Sikhs in different meetings. The author has identified the names of Sardul Singh Caveeshar, Dan Singh Vachhoa, Amar Singh Jhabal and Jaswant Singh Jhabal who had brought back this issue in the forefront by taking it in various meetings.
Apart from raising the issues in press and public meetings, the Sikhs adopted the method of enlisting volunteers who could lay down their life for Rakabganj Gurudwaras and if required they could volunteer to reconstruct the wall which was being an issue since 1913.
The enlisting of volunteers was again sought through the medium of press. The first call for the volunteers as identified the author was made on September 2, 1920. It appeared in Akali te Pardesi. It was placed by Sardul Singh Caveeshar in the newspaper. He had asked for one hundred volunteers who were called Shahids. Nearly 700 volunteers responded and they met on October 20, 1920. It was decided in that meeting that they would reconstruct the wall on December 1, 1920 if the government did not correct its wrong action. The leading Sikh personalities who came to the meeting were Teja Singh Samundri and Sohan Singh Josh. Other leaders who had raised the issue of Rakabganj case were Master Tara Singh, Master Sunder Singh, Professor Niranjan Singh, Bhai Randhir Singh and Master Mota Singh.
The government reconstructed the wall before that date and publicized it in the press. It is important to remember that the government was seeking solution to it in 1914. The wall was reconstructed in 1920.
Before moving further, it could be evaluated here that before the Akali Dal came into existence, the social reform trend among the Sikhs had followed the same course which the earlier and other similar movement of social reform had adopted. The major methods adopted by them were raising of public opinion through press and meeting. The Sikhs also used the press and meeting methods to discuss the issues related to them. However, the writer Dr. Garewal has not touched upon such aspect at all. When in the later part of the book, he refers to national movement of which he identifies that Akali Dal also was a part, the presentation remains short of analytical approach which was expected from Dr. Garewal.
However, one feature of methodology, which stands exclusive to Sikh reform is the calling of volunteers. This is the feature which was not identified in other social reform movements. In other reform movement, it was the leader or the organizers who made it possible. It was never that a mere call could have brought a large number of one community to assemble an issue related to the community. In case of Sikhs, it is a feature, which requires further study. No doubt, they gather in the name of religion. Another aspect of their religion, that is brotherhood among the Sikh community, that is, Sikh Panth, Gurudwara, and Guru Granth Sahib, are the magnets, which bring them together. In case of Female infanticide case of nineteenth century, it was Community guild or baradari, which was used by the British administration to bring the social reform among them. Even there, the same features were sought to elicit the commitments from the Bedi baradari. The main issue is that calling of volunteers and the response which it gets is a feature which is exclusive to the Sikh community. Such aspects should be taken up by scholars and brought in to study of the history of the region and Sikh community.
The author continues to survey the events which happened before the rise of the Akali Dal. He again refers to the activities carried through the medium of press. The other issue, which the Akali te Pardesi took up was the issue of Pathnic control over Gurudwaras. Rakabganj was one issue and an episode. However, the control of Gurudwara was a wider question and issue. However, he has not taken it in chronological orders. The next event which Dr. Garewal has taken up is of Gurudwara of Sialkot known as Babe-di-Ber. The issue involved was the ownership of management of the religious which was the bigger issue for the Akali movement or the Gurudwara Movement. Gurudwara Movement was basically the issue of actual status of the Gurudwara for the Sikh community. The claim of the traditional caretaker had become an issue because of the changing legal scenario which was introduced by the British administration. Such an aspect is again not taken up by the author. He has straightaway given that the Pathnic Control of Gurudwara was intrinsic issue and based on ideological basis of the Sikhism. The control of Gurudwaras had become issue since the day of Prithi Chand. It was further became an important issue during the period of Guru Teg Bahadur. But in the ninteenth and twentieth century, it was because of the legal scenario which had been introduced by British administration which had made it an issue for the Sikh community. However, such an aspect has not dealt with here. Only justification could be that the book is about the Akali’s history not the issue of Panthic control. But it is difficult to see them separately in view of the subject matter given here. Secondly, rather the main thing is that he has not taken it in chronological order. The issue of Sialkot Gurudwara had taken place before the reconstruction of the wall. However, if we consider that the issue of Rakabganj had risen nearly five years back its settlement had taken place only in 1920 then, the order of presentation is correct. But then, the question of gradual development of the Akali movement comes which is not at all taken up like that. In that case, the whole book has to be re-written. In that, first the issues of conceptual and historic background of social reform movements in India would be taken. That seems to be more logical. But the author has started with ideological survey of the Sikhism and from there he has identified the forces which has created the Gurudwara movement. No doubt, up to this chapter, one can feel that there is something missing in whole of this survey. The author should also have taken general development of the social reform movement in India and how similar thing has been seen in Punjab and among Sikh community, should have been studied. But this what that is not done. The theme is that there are something exclusive to Sikh community. That is the main theme and thesis which comes out.
The issue of Babe-di-Ber or Gurudwara of Sialkot is the second important event after the rise of journalistic activities and reconstruction of the wall of Rakabganj Gurudwara as per the author. He has given a detailed survey and similar survey continues for the forthcoming events that ultimately led to the founding of the Akali Dal. In such a treatment, the author is quite successful in presenting the working of the social commitments of the Sikh community. But the feature of social commitment which he has been able to present here is not identified in the chapter 2 wherein the feature of social commitment has been given only an ideological basis. But, the social commitment which is surveyed here is something which is result of the social structure and social institutions as developed with time and something which the sociologist would like to discuss as a case study.
