ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>BHASAU&#7770 SI&#7748GH SABH&#256</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="BHASAUZ,SIDGH,SABH"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279BHASAU&#7770 SI&#7748GH SABH&#256, or to give its full name Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, Bhasau&#7771, was established in 1893 -twenty years after the first Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 came into existence in Amritsar -at the village of Bhasau&#7771 in the then princely state of Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257. The Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, a powerful reform movement among the Sikhs, was as much an urban phenomenon as it was rural. While there were very strong Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257s in cities such as R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299, Lahore, Shiml&#257 and F&#299rozpur, Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257s flourished in small villages like Ba&#7693bar and B&#257ga&#7771&#299&#257&#7749 as well. Most dynamic of them all was the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 located in the village of Bhasau&#7771. Bh&#257&#299 Bas&#257v&#257 Si&#7749gh, known as a <i>virakat</i> or recluse, was named the first president of the Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 and B&#257b&#363 Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh, then a sub-overseer in the irrigation department of Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 state, its secretary. They made a very good team. Bas&#257v&#257 Si&#7749gh was widely reputed for his piety and B&#257b&#363 Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh, a well educated person, became the ideologue and source of much of the dynamite that came from Bhasau&#7771. He brought to the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 renaissance a new verve and thrust. He was a puritan of the extremist kind and a fundamentalist in the interpretation of Sikh principles and tradition, and challenged much of the prevalent Sikh usage.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 was, from the very beginning, forthright in the rejection of caste and Br&#257hma&#7751ical customs which had infiltrated into Sikhism. It openly advocated the acceptance back into the fold of those who had been led into forsaking the Sikh faith, and it willingly converted those from other faiths, who volunteered for initiation. As the records say, at the very first annual <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> of the Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 held in 1894, thirteen Ja&#7789&#7789s, six Jh&#299vars (water-carriers), two b&#257rbers, one Khatr&#299 and one Musalm&#257n (M&#299r&#257&#7749 Ba<u>kh</u>sh of Tahs&#299l Ga&#7771hsha&#7749kar who became Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh) were initiated into the Sikh faith. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh himself published in the press a report of a subsequent year saying, "By the power of the Word revealed by the Ten Masters and in accord with Ak&#257lpurkh's wish, the Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, Bhasau&#7771, had administered the <i>gurmantra</i> and holy <i>amrit</i> to a Muslim woman and ushered her into So&#7693hba&#7749s (the family of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh who came of the So&#7693h&#299 clan; <i>ba&#7749s</i> = family, line or clan). Her Sikh name is Kishan Kaur. A Sikh who had fallen by living with a Muslim woman had been baptized and renamed Ude Si&#7749gh. " At the <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> convened in the village of Bak&#257pur near Phillaur on 13-14 June 1903 by the Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, 35 persons including Maulaw&#299 Kar&#299m Ba<u>kh</u>sh and his family of four sons and a daughter received the rites of <i>amrit</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 set up Pa&#7749ch <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n or <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Parliament at Bhasau&#7771 under sanction of a Sikh synod held at Damdam&#257 S&#257hib on 13 April 1907. In 1909, a girls school called <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Bhujhañga&#7751 School was opened at Bhasau&#7771. The Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, Bhasau&#7771, decreed that Sikh women tie turbans round their heads in the style of men. Rolling up, pressing or dyeing of beards was outlawed. It was stated that though the custom of splitting and rolling up the beards was not unknown in the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 armies, it became firmly established only during British rule after an incident in 1868 in 15th Sikh Regiment when a Muslim Havild&#257r's rifle got entangled in the flowing beard of a Sikh Havild&#257r, &#298shar Si&#7749gh, lined up next to him.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Against all evidence and authority, the Sikh term for God, "V&#257higur&#363", was replaced by "Vahugur. " The word ka&#7771&#257hprash&#257d" for Sikh sacrament was substituted by "Mah&#257prash&#257d". The Sikh code prepared by the Chief <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n was repudiated, use of the Sikh calendar beginning from the birth of Gur&#363 N&#257nak (AD 1469), and introduction of titles and honorifics such as Kirp&#257n Bah&#257dur, Kak&#257r Bah&#257dur, D&#257h&#7771&#257 Bah&#257dur, Viday&#257 Ratan, Hitk&#257r&#299 and B&#299r Ja&#7749g were propagated. A motion adopted by the Pañch <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n disclaimed the Sahajdh&#257r&#299 sect of the Sikhs. Likewise, it was proclaimed un-Sikh to install the Far&#299dko&#7789 &#7788ik&#257 by the side of Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. By a resolution of the Pañch <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n (1928), the Chief <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n of Amritsar was declared to be a body of men unfirm of conviction and Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh, the widely revered Sikh savant and scholar, was laid under penalty for what was called "his secret propagation of the cult of personal deification. " At the annual <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> of 1921, exception had been taken to Sikhs seeking advice of non-Sikh leaders in their religious matters. The instance was cited of the Ak&#257l&#299s being in touch with M&#257hatm&#257 G&#257ndh&#299 at the time of the Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib <i>morch&#257</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In his literalist zeal, B&#257b&#363 Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh, the all-powerful man at the helm of affairs of the Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, started garbling the Sikh canon. He changed the traditional Sikh <i>ard&#257s</i> or daily prayer of supplication. He jettisoned the preamble most of which is derived from Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's composition called <i>Cha&#7751&#7693&#299 d&#299 V&#257r</i>. He advocated expunging of <i>R&#257gam&#257l&#257</i> from the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib as well as the compositions of the saints and <i>bhaktas</i>, especially those of the Bha&#7789&#7789s. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh printed courses of reading for his school comprising the <i>b&#257&#7751&#299</i> contained in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, but he deleted from it the <i>Savaiyy&#257s</i> by Bha&#7789&#7789s and he added some of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's compositions. He also had copies of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib printed without the <i>R&#257gam&#257l&#257</i>. This led to widespread protest in the Sikh community. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh was excommunicated on 9 August 1928 by an edict of Sr&#299 Ak&#257l Ta<u>kh</u>t S&#257hib, Amritsar, the highest seat of Sikh ecclesiastical authority. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh now ceased to be the force he used to be and with the decline in his popularity set in the downfall of the Bhasau&#7771 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> L&#257l Si&#7749gh, <i>Itih&#257s Pañch <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n Sa&#7749bandh&#299 S&#363chn&#257v&#257&#7749</i>. Ludhiana, 1967<BR> <li class="C1"><i>V&#299r Sudh&#257r Pattar arth&#257t Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 Bhasau&#7771 de a&#7789hme te naume sal&#257n&#257 d&#299v&#257n d&#257 si&#7789&#7789&#257</i>. Bhasau&#7771, 1903<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, "The Bakapur Diwan and Babu Teja Si&#7749gh of Bhasaur, " in <i>The Panjab Past and Present</i>. Patiala, October 1975<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Sard&#257r Si&#7749gh Bh&#257&#7789&#299&#257<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>