SIKHISM IN
POTHOHAR

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ਗਲ ਵੇਲੇ ਨੀ ਤੈੈ ਫ਼ਲ ਮੌਸਮ ਨਾ

Gal vele ni tay fal mosam na.
Speak at the right time then the result is good like fruit
which ripens at the right time only.

Establishing Sikhism

Although Sikhism began around 1500 with Guru Nanak’s teachings, it took many years for the Sikh faith to develop into the world religion that it is today. Even during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780– 1839) the Sikhs were still a minority living among the Muslim and Hindu majority population. Whilst Sikhs endured persecution for their faith, there were two notable leaders from the Pothohar region that dedicated their lives to the Sikh community and to establishing Sikhism as a major world faith.

Sir Baba Khem Singh Bedi
Master Tara Singh

“What the Sikhs desire today is only a respectable and dignified citizenship. They expect no favour and they ask for no concession. It must be clearly and definitely understood that the Sikhs do not desire a separate state, nor even necessarily a Sikh majority area.”

Master Tara Singh, 16 November 1960, Amritsar

Sir Baba Khem Singh Bedi
(1832–1905)

Khem Singh Bedi was born in Rawalpindi in 1832, and because he could claim to be a direct descendent of Guru Nanak, was a widely respected Sikh leader that supported the growth of Sikh identity and community. From 1855 he was involved with the creation of at least fifty Khalsa schools for girls and boys across the Panjab region through his generous financial donations, and he also established an important college in Rawalpindi.

Khem Singh Bedi supported the British Army in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, after which he was bestowed a robe of honour, or khill’at, and a double-barrelled rifle in recognition of his excellent marksman skills. Khem Singh Bedi increased his jagirs (a type of feudal land grant) to nearly 30,000 acres during his lifetime, and was made a magistrate in 1878 and a Companion of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1897, before being knighted in 1898. Although he often advocated for the importance of working with people of different faiths, Khem Singh Bedi was central to establishing the Singh Sabha Movement in 1873.

The movement sought to spread a message of tolerant and inclusive Sikhism in the face of increasing proselytising by Christians, Hindus and Muslims in Panjab. Around this time, many Hindu families brought up their eldest son as a Sikh and it became common for many years to find Sikh households where women kept their Hindu names.

Khem Singh Bedi’s influence as a leader was particularly acute in the Pothohar region due to his connection with Guru Nanak, although his influence waned due to different ideological differences that arose between different Sikh leaders. After his death in 1905, Sir Khem Singh Bedi’s legacy was the opening of educational opportunities for children in the Pothohar region. He was a particular champion of women’s education, and also ensured that provisions were made for the poorest students.

Master Tara Singh
(1885–1967)

Tara Singh was born in Rawalpindi to an artisanal Hindu family, but later initiated into Sikhism whilst studying at Khalsa College in Amritsar. He became a teacher, or ‘Master’, in Lyallpur in 1907, where he began to give freely from his own salary to charitable causes for the rest of his life.

This selfless sense of duty to serve his community grew rapidly following the 1921 Nankana Sahib tragedy in which more than 200 Sikhs were murdered, and he decided to leave his teaching career to work for the public. His political career began with the civil disobedience movement led by Mahatma Ghandi, for which he was eventually jailed a total of fourteen times. This only further fuelled his staunch belief in the need to promote and protect Sikhism, and he campaigned for the creation of a separate Panjabi-speaking state because he believed that would give lasting religious and cultural autonomy to the Sikh community. His message served to make his fellow Sikhs more aware of the need to organise in struggle against the injustice of foreign rule, and he eventually became leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) political party, as well as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbankhak Committee, which dealt with the management of Gurdwaras.

His most famous act of protest came in 1961, when he pledged a hunger strike to force Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru into agreeing to designate a distinct Sikh state in the Panjab region. Despite fasting for 48 days, Nehru refused Master Tara Singh’s request on the grounds that a Sikh state would violate the secular constitution of India. His strike ended in defeat. His followers became angry at this failure, he was replaced as leader in the SAD, and he died in 1967. Despite this, Master Tara Singh’s reputation has endured as an educator, spiritual leader and courageous spokesman known for his honesty and integrity.