It was common for Sikhs regiments on the march nearby Amritsar to halt for a few days to pay their respects and make a suitable gift. When the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs marched from Multan to Agra, they stopped at Amritsar in 1884 in order to visit the Harimandir Sahib:

At Amritsar Railway Station, the men paraded in white native clothing and, under their own Native Officers, marched in procession to the Temple with the band playing at the head of the Regiment. The men had subscribed among themselves nearly one hundred pounds, and this sum they presented to the Temple—a part of this money to be expended in giving food to the poor and the greater portion to purchase two golden quoits, with the name of the Regiment duly inscribed, and these are to be hung on the golden umbrella which shades the Holy Book of the Sikh religion. [1]

The tablet donated by the 35th Sikhs is situated amidst the ancient frescoes and floral patterns interspersed with animal motifs. Over three hundred different patterns could be seen on the walls in and around the Harimandir Sahib; such was their quality that from a distance they resembled hanging Persian carpets. Sadly, the loss of the old murals started at the close of the 19th century when devotees were permitted to present contributions in the form of inlaid marble slabs. These were fixed on the walls painted with frescoes. Inside the darshan deorhi, where marbles slabs have been fixed, there were fine paintings by renowned artist Mahant Ishar Singh. One of the most prominent tablets that still survive today is that contributed by the officers and men of the 35th Sikhs.

The regiment came into existence in 1885 following one of the periodic “Russian scares”, a feature of the Anglo–Russian rivalry in Afghanistan. The number of an old Bengal unit disbanded a few years earlier—the old 35th Mainpuri Levies who fought in the sepoy uprising—was resuscitated as a Sikh regiment under the name 35th (Sikh) Regiment of Bengal Infantry.

Prominently displayed at the centre of the tablet is a large Sikh quoit emblematic of the regimental badge. A translation of the inscription in Gurmukhi script written below explains its presence:

This quoit was contributed as an offering to commemorate the holy sighting of the Durbar
Sahib and the sacred bathing performed by the regiment number 35 Sikh on 16 April 1895 or 5 Vaisakh Samvat 1952.

In the upper corners of the tablet can be seen the traditional martial symbols of the Khalsa: the quoit (chakkar), a single-edge dagger (kard), and the double-edged sword (khanda). Miniature all-steel versions of these weapons were popularised by the Akali Nihangs, the armed guardians of the Harimandir Sahib, in their imposing turbans. During the British Raj, many Sikh regiments borrowed elements from this martial legacy to create distinctive regimental insignias.

1. 1 Colonel H. McRae, History of the 45th Rattray’s Sikhs: 1856-1914. Glasgow (1933), 266.

Placed in prominent positions either side were two copper gilt plaques containing notices written in English and Punjabi (in the Gurmukhi script). These were fixed in place in 1879 shortly after the death of the second British-nominated sarbarah, Mangal Singh Ramgarhia, the great grand nephew of the famous warrior-statesman, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, and a prominent soldier-administrator under Ranjit Singh.

Both of the notices commemorated the same miraculous incident that is said to have occurred early one morning in April 1877: a bolt of lightning appeared to fall from the sky and move through the Harimandir Sahib before returning to the heavens. With Queen Victoria having been proclaimed Empress of India only a few months earlier, it offered the perfect opportunity for the administration to impress the power of the British Empire on the minds of superstitious masses. As they thronged each day through the gateway, they read of a miracle ascribed to both their Guru and their Queen. Although the plaques are no longer extant, the full text of the English version read as follows:

It should be generally known that a wonderful event took place lately in the Golden Temple. This building was erected by the great Guru Ram Dass King of Kings and incarnation of Ram who gives blessings and receives worship from all creatures.

The following is an account of what occurred on the 30th of April 1877 at 4.30 a.m. about 400 persons according to ancient custom were praying in this Sri Durbar Sahib and listening to psalms whose music was almost drowned by the roar of thunder. Suddenly a flash of lightning fell from heaven and entered the holy place by the northern door close to the singers and musicians a ball of fire of about two seers in weight burst in the temple shining with dazzling terrible brightness. Then immediately after shining before the holy

book it returned to the sky through the southern entrance and although it fell with such awful violence and so loud a report yet there was no injury caused to the durbar Sahib or to human life. Therefore all who were assembled joined in ascribing this miracle to Ram Dass who dedicated this temple to Hari. We think it is also a sign of the great prosperity of the British rule also we are thankful to the Empress of India we pray to the creator of all things for a daily increase in their happy influence and for the destruction of all the enemies of her Imperial Majesty. The government inspector waited on the Comr. [Commissioner of Punjab] and informed him of this remarkable event. The following gentlemen viz the Commissioner Rajah Surat Singh Sardar General Gulab Singh Bhagowalia Sardar Mangal Singh Ramgharia and all the worshippers agreed:—That

money being collected by friends of the Golden Temple half should be given towards the support of the sacred edifice and half to pay for a dinner to the poor Sufficient money was gathered to pay for seven readings of the Granth Sahib and to feed some thousands of poor people who all expressed their gratitude. This notice is also intended as a memorial of the superintendent Sardar Mangal Singh over the Sri Darbar Sahib of Hari and as a

remembrance of the miracle of Guru Ram Dass and the prosperity of our rulers which we pray may last to the end of time B.K. [1]

The eulogy to British imperialism in the final sentence was intended to serve as a potent reminder of the permanency of the Empire’s writ. Yet neither the prosperity of the British Raj in Punjab nor the plaques themselves were to last forever. Shortly after the English notice was removed in the early part of the 20th century, the sunset of the Raj soon followed.

1. Quoted in John Campbell Oman, Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India. London: T. F. Unwin (1908), 99–100.

By the end of the 19th century the Akal Bunga was one of an estimated eighty bungas that surrounded the Harimandir Sahib.

“Bunga” is a Persian term meaning an abode, a rest house, or a place of dwelling. Broadly speaking there were four different types of bunga: those belonging to the various misls or militaristic confederacies; those built by chiefs and nobles to accommodate themselves and their families when visiting Amritsar; those belonging to rich and influential communities of towns and cities that were constructed to facilitate the stay of pilgrims; and the ecclesiastical bungas that functioned as centres of learning and spiritual and secular instruction.

The latter were managed by leaders of the traditional Sikh schools, i.e. the ascetic missionary Udasis, the scholarly Nirmalas, the selfless Sewa Panthis, and the warrior Akali-Nihangs. Free lodging was provided; students learned interpretations and commentaries of the Sikh scriptures, rag vidiya (classical vocal and instrumental music), Gurmukhi, Sanskrit, Vedant, grammar, prosody, rhetorics, ayurved (science of medicine) and calligraphy. By dispensing free education through these establishments the Sikhs were sustained as a “race of warriors and students.” [1]

The vast majority of the bungas were constructed between 1765 and 1833; the oldest and most important was the Akal Bunga. The original 17th-century structure was demolished by the Afghan invader, Ahmed Shah Abdali, in 1762 and rebuilt by the Akali-Nihangs in the years that followed. Further storeys were built from donations made by various Sikh rulers and nobles in the more settled days of Sikh rule in the early part of the 19th century.

The Akal Takht was badly damaged in the Indian Army’s action against Sikh separatists in 1984. The structure was repaired and restored amid great controversy by the Akali-Nihangs but was razed to the ground (with the exception of part of the 18th-century platform) two years later by another Sikh faction. The latter had it rebuilt but significantly modified the design. This image shows the structure as it was a century before it was rebuilt.

These flourishing centres of hospitality, learning and culture, which once encircled the Golden Temple, would attract scholars, theologians, philosophers, artists, musicians, physicians and calligraphers to study and serve at the sacred site.

Regrettably, the vast majority of these structures were pulled down by the Sikh authorities in 1947. The demolition of the buildings followed on from the dismantling of the critical system of patronage that supported their role as centres of learning. The significance of the original bunga system of learning is now little understood but the demise of this cultural institution, which once sustained a nation of warriors, scholars and pilgrims, has had a major impact on both the architectural fabric of the temple complex and the cultural landscape of the Sikhs.

1. Madanjit Kaur, The Golden Temple Past & Present. Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University Press (1983), 180; Dr G. W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in the Punjab, 28.

The head of the household, Hazara Singh, can be seen standing in the doorway. Relatively well educated, he worked as an Inspector of Girls’ Schools, an initiative of the Church Missionary Society aimed at improving educational standards for girls in the Indian territories controlled by the British.

Although Hazara Singh’s family background remains unknown, it was a general custom among Jats (agriculturalists) for brothers to live together so long as their father was alive, and to separate at his death. It was thus common to find four or five brothers, with their families, living in separate houses, arranged round a common courtyard, the whole forming one household. Each family living within the enclosure had a separate dwelling house and cooking place, while in the yard, outside the doors, much of the available space was taken up by the charpoys and water pots of the household and the spinning wheels and grindstones of the women.

Next to caste, there was no other social institution in Punjab that was more permanent than the village community. The typical village was almost always divided into wards, called pattis, pannas or thulas, each thula embracing a branch of the clan descended from a common ancestor. Elders who were in charge of each ward formed the panchayat or village council. The panchayat played an important role in the social regulations of the people, settling all questions relating to the general well-being of the village.

The houses were typically built with sun-dried bricks or large clods of caked mud taken from the bottom of a pond. Most villages also contained one or more pucka buildings, masonry houses, frequently consisting of three stories (as seen here), belonging more often than not to a well-to-do headman or a pensioned officer. The houses, crowded as closely as possible, were separated by a maze of narrow winding lanes.

The houses of a patti or ward often lay together and were entered by separate gateways. The gateways in the most prosperous Sikh villages were commodious structures, with a roofed shed to the right and left of the entrance, the roof extending over the entrance itself, the foundations of which were raised two or three feet above the level of the pathway. They were decorated with frescoes of animals, scenes from the lives of the Gurus, wrestling contests, battlefields, epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharat, and the legends of Laila Majnu, Sassi Punnu and Sohni Mahiwal. Travellers were housed in these structures.

The owners of the patti assembled when the day’s work was over, sitting on a matting spread on the floor, or on a large wooden takht or bedstead. The village was flanked by ponds from which earth was excavated for repairing houses, and where cattle were bathed and watered.

The doorways of the houses opened on the main streets, or on side lanes running off them. Ordinarily the front door led straight into an open courtyard, with cattle troughs along one or more of its sides. For the most part food was cooked in a partly-covered shelter in a corner of the yard; the villagers lived as much as they could in the open air.

Amusements generally speaking were few. After the day’s work was done, the younger men could occasionally be seen wrestling or competing with traditional heavy wooden weights and clubs close by the village. Marriage festivals and fairs came round and were eagerly attended, and visits of condolences had to be paid, but breaks in the arduous cycle of labour were few for men, and fewer still for the women.

They were the first to plant the standard of Christianity in Punjab and commence systematic efforts for the conversion of the Sikhs.

Soon after the annexation of Punjab in 1849, American Missions were established at the provincial capital, Lahore, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi. Within a few years, the Anglican Mission of the Church Missionary Society established itself at Amritsar. Success was predicted early on:

A few hopeful instances lead us to believe that the Sikhs may prove more accessible to scriptural truth than the Hindus, and Mahommedans ; that they will, like the Kurta Bhojahs of Krishnaghur, pass over in numbers, if a few leading minds be won to Christ. It may be hoped, at least, that the Sikh religion has so far broken the spell of the more ancient systems, as to loosen their hold upon the minds of the people. [1]

To aid missionary efforts, British officials at Lahore helped found a Church Mission Association in 1852. One official closely associated with the early British administration in Punjab expressed the extent of this evangelical zeal in an autobiography intended purely for private circulation:

I had belonged from the very first, 1843, to supporters of the principle, that it was our duty to Evangelize, and all leading Punjab officials were of the same school… After the Mutinies there were signs of a fanatical spirit, and a desire to introduce the Bible into state schools, to push Christians forward in Government-offices, to let the Missionaries interfere… [2]

A two-pronged strategy was employed to propagate the gospel: publishing evangelical literature in the languages of the common people (Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Persian) and the opening of mission schools.

Probably the earliest pioneer of Punjabi vernacular religious tracts was William Carey (1761–1834), a missionary who first arrived in India in 1793. He established The Mission Press at Serampur on the Hooghly River and from 1811 to 1826 had the whole of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament translated and published into Punjabi using the Gurmukhi script. Further west in Punjab, the Ludhiana Mission also acquainted themselves with Punjabi as a medium for the transmission of Christian literature by publishing a Punjabi Grammar in 1851 followed three years later by the preparation of the first ever English-Punjabi dictionary. Indeed, for many years the Ludhiana Mission Press was the proud owner of the only Gurmukhi typefaces in India. Over a period of several years, the Mission’s press released thirty-nine Punjabi works, comprising translations of the gospels and tracts on the Christian religion.

The mission schools were started at the same time as the first mission stations in Punjab. For
almost three decades, the church owned the only schools in many cities where anglovernacular
education (a prerequisite for senior administrative roles) could be had.

Following the uprisings outside of Punjab beginning in 1857, new church activities expanded at a rapid pace and by the 1880s, virtually the whole province extending from Rawalpindi in the west to Delhi in the east was covered with mission establishments. The rate of conversion was not alarmingly high, yet there were several incidents that aroused concern. In 1853, the eight-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh sovereign, adopted Christianity in the first instance of an Indian prince’s accession to the communion of the Church. The Sikh ruler of Kapurthala, Randhir Singh, invited the Ludhiana Mission to set up a station in his capital, and provided funds for its maintenance. A few years later, a Kapurthala prince, Kanvar Harnam Singh, converted to Christianity. It was reported in 1863 that the Amritsar and Peshawar missions had successfully converted sixty Sikhs to Christianity. Forty of the converts were from
the 32nd Native Infantry of the Mazhabi Sikhs. [3]

The activities of the Amritsar Mission proved pivotal in giving rise to the Sikh reform movement known as the Sri Guru Singh Sabha. At the Punjab Missionary Conference in 1862, it was reported that Mission had “done a good deal of work for the conversion of the Sikhs, by the missionaries and native assistants of the Umritsur mission, both at that place, and in the
neighbouring district of the Mánjhá,—which has the honour of being the cradle of Sikhism.” [4]

When four Sikh pupils studying at the Amritsar Mission School (which had as its direct object
“the conversion of souls to God” [5]) proclaimed in 1873 their intention to renounce their faith and
become Christians, there was outrage. Their parents and locally influential Sikhs made
strenuous efforts to persuade the boys not to carry out their intention but the matter did not end there.

An association called the Sri Guru Singh Sabha was formed to counter the impact of the Christian missionaries. The first meeting was attended by representatives of different
gurdwaras, gianis, Udasis, Nirmalas and members of Sikh society including Thakur Singh
Sandhanwalia (Maharaja Duleep Singh’s cousin), who was appointed the association’s chairman. The Singh Sabha focused on restoring Sikhism to its pristine glory, on the religious education of Sikhs and on the promotion of Punjabi as a vibrant literary language. It hoped to bring apostates back to the Sikh fold by publishing historical and religious books and circulating Punjabi newspapers and tracts. The association also sought the support of influential British
government officers in fulfilling its objectives.

The Amritsar Mission School was run by the Church Missionary Society. It had been established at Amritsar in 1851 by its senior missionary, Reverend Robert Clark. This photograph (taken two years after the formation of the Singh Sabha) shows Clark (sporting a long white beard), Reverend Baring (to his left) and a group of “native” agents, some of whom were ordained. Seated third from the right is Daud Singh, the first converted Sikh and first ordained clergyman in Punjab. He was baptised in Kanpur, and was transferred to the Amritsar Mission in 1852, where he was ordained in 1854. He died in 1884 and was remembered by the missionary community as “an honoured and faithful minister of Christ and a true friend to the people.” [6]

1. The Church Missionary Intelligencer. London: Seeleys, vol. 1, no. 8. (Dec 1849), 188.
2. Robert Needham Cust, Memoirs of Past Years of a Septuagenarian. Printed by the author for private circulation (1899), 73.
3. Rev. William Keene, “The Sikhs: All that can be said about them from a missionary point of view”, Report of the Punjab Missionary Conference held at Lahore in December and January, 1862-63, ed. the committee of compilation. Lodiana (1863), 266-7.
4. Ibid., 266.
5. Reverend Robert Clark, The Punjab and Sindh Missions of the Church Missionary Society: Giving an Account of their Foundation and Progress for Thirty-Three Years, from 1852 to 1884. London: Church Missionary Society (1885), 58.
6. Ibid., 52.

When they reached there, however, they found themselves in a very different land.

After crushing the sepoy uprising in 1858, the British Indian government then moved ahead with Lord Canning’s Arms Act of 1860. Its provisions ensured that the Indian masses would never again be capable of mounting an armed rebellion against their colonial masters. The people of India were systematically disarmed and every means of local firearm production destroyed.

To minimise the risk of uprisings, the British deemed the carrying of unlicensed weapons a criminal act. Not only weapons, but even agricultural instruments with the potential of being used as weapons, were banned at their behest.[1] “Every fort was dismantled: the manufacture of powder, the importation of sulphur and saltpetre, were controlled. In the hour of peril the people found, that their fang had been drawn: they could not, even if they would, play with edge tools.”[2] The curtain had finally dropped on the sovereign Punjab as ruled by the Sikhs. “Thus British arms and power won the cause, And all the Punjab bows to British laws.”[3]

Further reforms were introduced during the tenure of Viceroy Lord Lytton (governed 1874-80), such as the Indian Arms Act (XI) of 1878. Under this Act, no person could go armed or carry arms, except under special exemption or by virtue of a license. This included firearms, bayonets, swords, daggers, and bows and arrows, exactly the types of weaponry carried by the Akali Nihangs as a sacred duty. While Europeans were automatically exempted from the Act, no Indian, including the Akali Nihangs, could possess a weapon unless deemed to be a “loyal” and “civilised” subject of the British Empire. In the telling comment of one senior government official: “There is no surer sign of barbarism, than the habit of carrying arms, and no clearer mark of advancing civilization than the gradual disuse of the practice.” [4] Under this legislation, the Akali Nihangs suffered tremendous hardship for many years.

1. One old Akali Nihang, speaking of British restrictions on carrying weapons, explained: “You could not keep even a one and a half inch knife.” (Baba Ram Singh, interviewed 16 April 1998).
2. Robert Needham Cust, Linguistic and Oriental Essays, Written from the Year 1846 to 1878. London: Trübner & Co. (1880), 246.
3. HF Brooks, “The Victories of the Sutlej; a prize poem to which the Vice-Chancellor’s First Prize was awarded at Trinity College, Dublin, 1848,” The Calcutta Review, vol. XI (January-June, 1849), 256.
4. IOR/L/PJ/6/40, File 763, Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library, London.