The Babbar Akālī movement was an outgrowth of the Akali movement, which campaigned for gurdwara reform during the early 1920s. Formed in 1922 from factions that splintered from the Akālīs in 1921, they differed from the Akālīs in their rejection of non-violence and embrace of armed revolt in the struggle against British rule.
Formation Impetus The Akālī movement, which aimed to have Sikh shrines released from corrupt management, was nonviolent in character and strategy. During their campaigns, Akālīs would suffer physical injury and violence from mercenaries of priests and from government authorities. The deaths of Akālīs at Tarn Taran in January 1921 and Nankana Sahib in February 1921 would radicalize a faction, Babbar Akalis, that rejected nonviolence and adopted armed means in pursuit of their objectives.
First gatherings (March, May 1921) The Babbar Akalis, as a breakaway wing, led by Master Mota Singh of Patara and Kishan Singh Gargajj, a retired havildar major of the 35th Sikhs, made its first formal appearance during the Sikh Educational Conference held at Hoshiarpur from 19-21 March, 1921.
During martial law in the Punjab, Binning had started delivering speeches against British rule while in the army, for which he was court-martialed and sentenced to 28 days confinement, after which he left the military and joined the Akali movement. It was for his speeches that he would earn the name gaṛgajj, or "thunderer". In a secret meeting, it was decided that the Nankana Sahib Massacre would be avenged.
Another meeting on 21 May 1921 was attended by Master Mota Singh, Kishan Singh Gargajj, Amar Singh Dhaliwal, Tota Singh Peshawari, Gurbachan Singh Ambala, Buttan Singh, Bijla Singh Patiala, Amar Singh of Kot Bare Khan, Chattar Singh Jethuwal, Bela Singh of Paragpur, Ganda Singh, and others, as well as a number of returned emigrants from Canada. Other included Sant Kartar Singh, Babu Santa Singh, and Sunder Singh. According to a CID report, their objectives were:
To foment an uprising in Patiala State; To attempt contact with the Bolsheviks to synchronise an uprising across the North-West Frontier with that of Patiala; To foment trouble in Central Panjab; To recruit and gather arms; and To eliminate officials and individuals deemed enemies to the Khalsa.
Lahore Division Commissioner C.M. King, Superintendent of Police in the Intelligence department J.W. Bowring, Mahants Devi Das and Basant Das, Sunder Singh Majithia, and Kartar Singh Bedi (the nephew of Khem Singh Bedi) were held responsible for the Nankana massacre and were selected for assassination, as a lesson to collaborators and a message of defiance to the British.
Bowring attempt (May 1921) Tota Singh Peshawari was sent to the North-West Frontier, where he was able to acquire a small collection of arms and ammunition. Bela Singh and Ganda Singh then visited Lahore on 23 May 1921 to assassinate Bowring, who was out of town that day. While at the Lahore railway station to return, they raised suspicion and were arrested by the police, to whom they divulged the plot under interrogation. As a result, many other members of the group including Amar Singh of Kot Bare Khan, Narain Singh, Tota Singh, Chattar Singh Jethuwal, Chanchal Singh, Thakur Singh and Shankar Singh were arrested. Master Mota Singh, Kishan Singh, and Bijla Singh had managed to evade police; warrants were issued for their arrest as well as for Vatan Singh, Amar Singh of Delhi, and Gurbachan Singh.
The Akālī leadership, on learning about the plan to avenge Nankana, exhorted Sikhs not to associate themselves with such activities, and maintain the nonviolence policy of the SGPC, which issued communiqués to that effect. Nevertheless, despite the disawowal and arrests, the programme would continue. They would reject both the Akālī policy of passive suffering as unworkable, and the general Gandhian Congress strategy of non-violent non-cooperation as limiting the peasant struggle against imperialism. Appealing to Sikh martiality and deeming the Akālī approach as ineffective, they urged the people to resort to arms.
Public engagement Building on the tentative plan of action, Kishan Singh announced a detailed programme in his speech at a Nimani mela held at Mastuana village in Jind State, during which he was interrupted by the organizer. Invoking the Zafarnama of Guru Gobind Singh, he declared that it was legitimate to resort to arms when peaceful means had failed. There, Karam Singh Babbar also recited the following poem:
+Recited by Karam Singh Babbar Punjabi Roman transliteration Translationਖੰਡਾ ਪਕੜੋ ਸ਼ੇਰੋ ਆਖੇ ਬੱਬਰ ਵੰਗਾਰਖੰਡਾ ਪਕੜ ਸਾਣ ਤੇ ਲਾਓ, ਤੇਜ ਕਰੋ ਦੋ ਧਾਰਬਿਨ ਖੰਡੇ ਨਾ ਮਿਲੇ ਅਜ਼ਾਦੀ, ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਬੱਬਰ ਵੰਗਾਰkhaṇḍā pakaṛo śero ākhe babbar vaṅgārkhaṇḍā pakaṛ sāṇ te lāo, tej karo do dhārbin khaṇḍe nā mile āzādī kahindā babbar vaṅgārGrab the double-edged sword, O lions, so the Babbar declares aloud,Grab it and put it on the whetstone, sharpen its two edges,Without the sword freedom is not received, declares the Babbar aloud.
The colonial bureaucracy was sought to be paralyzed by targeting its supporters (zaildars, safaidpośes ("white-collars"), lambardars, paṭwārīs (village registrars), informers and other collaborators) with various forms of punishment. Kishan Singh announced his programme of "reforming" those responsible for the Nankana massacre and other atrocities.
The Babbar programme would be centered on ਸੁਧਾਰ sudhār, or "reformation," a euphemism for the elimination of British officials and those deemed their stooges and lackeys, or ਝੋਲੀਚੁੱਕ jholīcukk, meaning "robe-bearer." Jholīcukks were the loyalist elements who were to be pressurized and frightened along with the officials, in the villages.
Composition The movement had in its ranks many returned emigrants of the Ghadar Party, the prestige of which helped to popularize the Babbar jatthā. Such Ghadarites and emigrants included Karam Singh and Asa Singh. Like the Ghadarites, many Babbars similarly used 0.32 calibre revolvers and Mauser pistols, were believed to have established contact with revolutionary movements abroad, were believed by officials in Punjab to have been receiving funding for revolutionary propaganda from emigrants in the United States and Canada, and travelled throughout the province presenting their views to the populace. Also like the Ghadarites, the sphere of armed Akālī activity was mainly in Jalandhar district and Hoshiarpur district.
Besides them, the Babbars were chiefly retired and demobilized soldiers from World War I. Their time abroad had also exposed them to new ideas and an increasingly self-assured opposition to repressive British imperialism; with this exposure, many found it difficult to return to their traditional family occupation of farming. Many were disgruntled with the British for failing to receive land grants and other rewards in exchange for army service. The Babbars would also come to attract some groups of dacoits or bandits who were inspired to direct their activities towards a cause.
Cakkarvartī dals (November 1921) Dissident Akālīs would organise themselves into cakkarvartī dals. In November 1921 at Rurka Kalan, Kishan Singh formed a cakkarvartī jatthā along with Sunder Singh Mukhsuspuri and Karam Singh Jhingar, which began to incite the peasantry and soldiery towards revolt, in Jalandhar district, with frequent incursions into the villages of Ambala and Kapurthala State. Karam Singh of Daulatpur, along with Asa Singh, organized a similar band in Hoshiarpur district, in which divans were convened daily in some villages by sympathizers, who was under arrest warrants for seditious speeches.
Meetings (early 1922) Meetings were held at 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. daily at different villages, resting for the night at yet another village to evade police detection; Kishan Singh Gargajj delivered speeches and Sundar Singh recited revolutionary poetry. In 1922 more meetings were held, in Bolina, Bhojowal, Kotli, Pindori Nijjran, Ramgarh Jandala, Mahilpur, Jiani, Bari Kalan, Sirhala, Bedowal, and Jassowal, in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts, and occasionally at Anandpur Sahib and Kiratpur Sahib. They would also use Akali and Congress meetings to rally people to abandon nonviolence, which was seen as cowardly, including at Khurdpur in March 1922. Their conference at Kot Fatuhi was especially large compared to previous ones, demonstrating their growing influence.
In May 1922, Kishan Singh, Babu Santa Singh and Bela Singh met with soldiers Kirpal Singh Malakpur, Partap Singh Sialkot, Ganga Singh Naik, and other soldiers of 52nd Sikhs at Sant Kartar Singh's hermitage in Jalandhar, who agreed to spread their message and acquire ammunition for them. Kishan Singh and Santa Singh also met students at Khalsa High School in Jalandhar, who offered their services but were told to continue their studies until appropriate. As they continued to spread their message, Sunder Singh was arrested by the people of Sundh village on 11 May 1922, after which Kishan Singh's jatthā attacked its first informer, safaidpoś zaildār Harnam Singh of Mehndipur.
The decision to punish jholīcukks was only taken when the government declared rewards for these rogue Akālīs, incentivising informants upon whom warnings were not effective, and who had begun to discourage people from attending their meetings. On 19 March 1922 a conference was held at Sangowal, which was under heavy police surveillance, where jholīcukks created a disturbance and summoned the police, upon which the Babbars escaped to a well. Afterwards, Kishan Singh, Sunder Singh, Babu Santa Singh, Kartar Singh of Gondpur and Harbans Singh of Sirhala Khurd met at a well between Beas and Sangowal, where it was decided that Babbars should always be armed and jholīcukks punished, starting with notorious ones like Harnam Singh and zaildār Sham Singh of Talhan.
Merging jatthās (August 1922) Towards the end of August 1922, the various jatthās convened for a general meeting at Sant Thakar Singh's hermitage at Gajowal and merged to officially form the Babbar Akālī Jatthā. A regular working committee was elected to work out a plan of action and collect arms and ammunition. Kishan Singh was chosen as the leader or jathedar, Dalip Singh Gosal as Secretary, and Baba Santa Singh as Treasurer; nominated members included Master Dalip Singh Daulatpur, Karam Singh Jhingar (assistant to the leaders) and Ude Singh Ramgarh Jhuggian (assistant to the leaders), as well as Karam Singh Daulatpur (assistant to the leaders), Assa Singh of Phakarudi, and Atma Singh of Bika. Contacts were sought with active soldiers and students; Kishan Singh canvassed Sikh soldiers at Jalandhar Cantonment seeking to obtain arms and ammunition. Some important Babbar leaders were placed in charge of various Jatthās to organise conferences in different parts of the Panjab and the Sikh States.
The term babbar means "lion", while the historical Akālī was the military order of the Sikhs known as the Akālīs, also known as The Immortals or Nihangs, who under the Sikh Empire had been led by the fiercely anti-British Akali Phula Singh, who also served as a mentor and close advisor in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Preparation Rallying support