ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>R&#256M SI&#7748GH B&#256B&#256 (1816-1885)</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="RM,SIDGH,BB,Person,Person"> <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">&#65279R&#256M SI&#7748GH, B&#256B&#256 (1816-1885), leader of the N&#257mdh&#257r&#299 or K&#363k&#257 movement in the Punjab, was born on 3 February 1816, in the village of Bh&#257&#299&#7751&#299 Ar&#257&#299&#257&#7749, in Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district. R&#257m Si&#7749gh was the eldest among the four children of Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh and his wife, Sad&#257 Kaur. R&#257m Si&#7749gh was married at the tender age of 7, such child marriages being common in the Punjab in those days. His wife, whose name was Jass&#257&#7749, bore him two daughters, Nand Kaur and Day&#257 Kaur. In the village, he learnt to read the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. At the age of 20, he joined the Sikh army under Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh and was assigned to Ka&#7749var Nau Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh's regiment.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1841, the regiment moved to Pesh&#257war, where he met B&#257b&#257 B&#257lak Si&#7749gh (1799-1862), a saintly person preaching a simple way of life in keeping with the teachings of the Gur&#363s. After the first Anglo-Sikh war (1845-46), R&#257m Si&#7749gh resigned his army service and returned to Bhai&#7751&#299. He became a sharecropper, started a grocery shop and worked for a short time in 1855-56 as a building contractor at F&#299rozpur. At the same time, he continued to disseminate the message of his mentor, B&#257b&#257 B&#257lak Si&#7749gh. On Bais&#257kh&#299 day, 14 April 1857, he laid down the code of conduct for his followers. The N&#257mdh&#257r&#299s or K&#363k&#257s as they were called (from <i>k&#363k</i>, Punjabi for a shriek or shout for, while chanting the sacred hymns, they worked themselves up to such ecstatic frenzy that they would begin dancing and shouting) were enjoined to abstain from eating meat, drinking and worshipping of tombs or <i>sam&#257dhs</i> and to lead simple and chaste lives. An elaborate agency for missionary work was set up. The name of the head in the district&#8212<i>s&#363b&#257</i>, meaning governor &#8212 had a significant, though remote, political implication. There were altogether twenty two such <i>s&#363b&#257s</i>, besides two <i>jathed&#257rs</i> or group leaders for each <i>tahs&#299l</i> and a <i>granth&#299</i>, Scripture-reader or priest, for each village. B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh remained antagonistic to the rule of the British and his prediction about its early recession was implicitly believed by his followers. The boycott of British goods, government schools, government service, law courts and of the postal service, and the exhortation to wear only home-spun cloth (khaddar) he propagated anticipated in 1860's a major thrust of the nationalist movement in the country.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A spirit of fanatical national fervour and religious zeal marked the growing K&#363k&#257 order of which the personality of B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh was the focal point. The prospect was not looked upon with equanimity by government, who after the incidents of 1857, had become extra watchful. When in 1863, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh wanted to go to Amritsar for Bais&#257kh&#299 celebrations to which he had invited his followers from all over the Punjab, the civil authorities became alarmed and permission for K&#363k&#257s to assemble for a religious fair was given only reluctantly. But two months later, when R&#257m Si&#7749gh announced a meeting to be held at Kho&#7789e, a village in F&#299rozpur district, prohibitory orders were issued banning all K&#363k&#257 meetings. The K&#363k&#257 organization was subjected to strict secret vigilance. It was bruited about that B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh was raising an army to fight the English. Bhai&#7751&#299 and Hazro were kept under constant watch, and under the orders of the Punjab government, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh was detained in his village.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Early in 1867, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh's request to be allowed to visit Muktsar on the sacred day of M&#257gh&#299 was refused by government. His alternative request was for permission to hold a fair in his own village on the occasion of Hol&#299 but the civil authority insisted on restricting the number of those who might visit Bhai&#7751&#299 on that day. Meanwhile, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh decided to celebrate the festival at Anandpur S&#257hib where Sikhs gathered for this purpose from all over the Punjab. The Lieut-Governor gave him the permission, but police and civil officers were appointed to watch over the movement of the pilgrims. B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh set out in great state. He was accompanied by twenty-one of his <i>s&#363b&#257s</i> on horseback and by more than two thousand of his followers on foot, with a large number of drums and banners. The visit went off peacefully, and the government were led to shedding much of their suspicion. All restrictions on B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh's freedom were withdrawn, but the truce did not last long. The followers of B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh, who had a deep sentiment of reverence for the cow, had strongly resented the opening of beef shops in the sacred city of Amritsar. On the night of 14 June 1871, some of them attacked the butchers, killing four and injuring another three. A similar incident took place at R&#257iko&#7789, in Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district, where three persons were killed. When the government took action against the K&#363k&#257s, they became defiant. The government charged them with sedition and the Commissioner of Amb&#257l&#257 Division recommended severe official measures against them including the deportation of their leader, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Towards the end of 1871, the Punjab Government placed a ban on the K&#363k&#257s assembling for any festival or fair outside of Bhai&#7751&#299. B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh, who was refused permission to go to Muktsar for the M&#257gh&#299 fair, issued messages to his followers to come to Bhai&#7751&#299 for celebrating the festival. K&#363k&#257s were in a state of great excitement, and the atmosphere at Bhain&#299 was tense. The storm that had been gathering burst. On the morning of 15 January 1872 K&#363k&#257s numbering more than a hundred reached M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257 and suddenly made an attack upon the treasury. In the fracas that followed eight policemen including an officer lost their lives. Sixty-eight of the K&#363k&#257s were captured who were blown off the guns on the afternoon of 17 January without any trial. B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh was exiled from the Punjab along with ten of his <i>s&#363b&#257s</i> and taken to All&#257h&#257b&#257d. From All&#257h&#257b&#257d he was taken to Rangoon where he was detained under the Bengal Act of 1818. He lived in the same place where the last Mu<u>gh</u>al emperor, Bah&#257dur Sh&#257h Zafar, had been kept, similarly charged.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For fourteen weary years, B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh suffered confinement. His deep faith in the Almighty and the undiminished devotion of his followers sustained him in that solitary state. Every now and then some bold spirits, braving many a hazarad, succeeded in circumventing the guards and seeing their leader, even though for a short while. A regular system of correspondence was maintained in this manner. Many of B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh's letters have been preserved and a representative selection was published by Dr Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh a few years before his death. The latters reveal B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh's undying faith, his strength of character and his love for his followers.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B&#257b&#257 R&#257m Si&#7749gh passed away on 29 November 1885, but many of his followers did not believe it. Long after it, they continued to hope that he would one day come to the Punjab and free India from the shackles of the English.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>K&#363ki&#257&#7749 d&#299 Vithi&#257</i>. Amritsar, 1944<BR> <li class="C1"> Fauja Singh, <i>Kuka Movement</i>. Delhi, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Ahluwalia, M.M., <i>Kukas : The Freedom Fighters of the Panjab</i>. Bombay, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1983<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">M. L. &#256hl&#363w&#257l&#299&#257<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>