The last to lay arms and foremost to raise them against deceitfulness and wrong doing, the Sikhs may not figure prominently in the galaxy of freedom fighters but the contribution of the Sikhs to India’s freedom struggle was vital and continues to remain vital in modern day India.
Despite this undeserved discredit, there were ever so many incidents of defiance of the foreign rule by the Sikh soldiers and political activists.
Amongst the many struggles that Sikhs embarked upon during the freedom struggle was the agitation launched against the Punjab Colonisation Act, 1907, under which the government sought to enhance land revenue and water charges in the canal irrigated areas. There was widespread agrarian unrest with bloodshed in all important towns like Lahore and Rawalpindi. It was during this agitation that one Banke Dyal wrote the famous song—Pagdi sambhal jatta, pagdi sambhal oye! (Mind your turban, O tiller of the land, mind your turban!) It became a popular patriotic song with the freedom fighters and continues to be sung even today. Sardar Ajit Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai were prominent among the leaders of this movement.
They were expelled from the country and imprisoned in Mandalay in Burma. After their release Ajit Singh went to Canada and joined the Ghadar Party of which he became and outstanding leader in due course.
The Ghadar Party was started by Sohan Singh Bhakna under the inspiration of Lala Hardyal. They pledged to end foreign rule in India through an armed revolution and set up a Republic of India guaranteeing liberty and equality to all its citizens.
The Gurdwara Movement of the Sikhs (1921-24) was the beginning of the national struggle for freedom. This has been accepted by more than one Indian national political leader including stalwarts like Pandit Moti Lal Nehru, Pandi Madan Mohan Malaviya, Lala Lajpat Rai, Dadabhai Naoroji and Master Tara Singh. According to the eminent historian, Dr Ganda Singh, 500 Sikhs were killed in the Gurdwara Movement and 30,000 courted arrest, the fines paid amounted to Rs 1,000,000.
The Sikhs of Punjab never allowed the foreign rulers any respite. They kept them engaged with one morcha (agitation) after another. These agitations produced a galaxy of eminent freedom fighters who earned a great name in the national struggle for India’s Independence. Some of them are: Baba Kharak Singh, Master Tara Singh, Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Sohan Singh Josh, Sardar Sardul Singh Caveeshar, Sardar Hukam Singh, Sardar Gurdial Singh Dhillon and Darshan Singh Pheruman.
The Sikhs make fine soldiers. They are as loyal as they are valiant. They got themselves enlisted in large numbers both at the time of World War I and World War II. But after the Wars were over when they found that the Foreigners had no desire to part with power, they fought them tooth and nail. They were scandalised to find that the Foreigners would deny them the freedom for which he made them fight in far-off lands. They fought the war of India’s independence shoulder to shoulder with the rest of their countrymen.
It is ironical that even though the Sikhs were hardly one and a half per cent of the total population of India at the time, their sacrifices amounted to 90 per cent.
The contribution of Sikhs to India’s development after independence can be the topic of another article from my side. In the mean time I wish you all a Happy Independence Day, a day when all of us from India should acknowledge the contribution of each and every person who contributed to the freedom struggle of India and its development post-independence.