Baba Ram Singh and the Kuka Movement

Long before Gandhi, a Punjab farmer’s son ran his own post office. His followers also stayed away from British goods and services.

He was Baba Ram Singh. The British exiled him to Burma, and the Namdharis still dispute the date of his death.

1Who was Baba Ram Singh?

He was a village-born leader who rose in a time of Sikh decline.

• He was born on 3 February 1816.
• His village was Raiyan, near Bhaini Sahib in Ludhiana.
• His family was a small farming family of the Tarkhan community.
• His mother was Sada Kaur and his father was Jassa Singh.
• He learned to read and write Punjabi.
• He served in the army of the Sikh Empire for a time.
• The empire broke up after Maharaja Ranjit Singh died.
• Namdharis say he met Guru Balak Singh at Hazro Fort.
• He became Balak Singh’s disciple and successor.
• Namdharis call him their twelfth guru.
• Mainstream Sikh groups, such as the Damdami Taksal and Nihangs, call him a saint.

2How did he reform his followers?

He tried to rebuild Sikh character first.

• He was worried about Sikh decline and British influence.
• He gave amrit to five Sikhs and then to many more.
• He forbade drink, intoxicants, meat and worship of tombs.
• His followers wore handwoven white robes.
• They carried wooden staves and wool rosaries.
• Their kirtan ended with ecstatic shrieks.
• That gave them the name Kuka, from kuk.
• He gave amrit to women too.
• He spoke against child marriage and female infanticide.
• He also opposed the sale of girls.
• In 1863 he held simple anand karaj weddings at Khote village.
• He cut the cost of marriage sharply.
• He was then placed under house arrest for some time.
• A priestly class reported the new ritual to the British.

3How did he resist the British?

He used refusal, secrecy and symbols.

• On 12 April 1857 he hoisted a white triangular flag at Bhaini Sahib.
• The flag stood for freedom and peace.
• The movement was religious, social and political from the start.
• Religious and social work was done in the open.
• The political plans were kept secret.
• He set up a private postal service of trusted couriers.
• He did not trust the British post, fearing leaks.
• He is credited as the first Indian to use boycott of British goods and services.
• Namdharis sought contacts with Kashmir, Nepal and Russia.
• In 1863 the British saw his Amritsar visit as a bid to declare himself a guru reborn.
• Police stopped him, and he was confined to his village for a time.
• It was built by demolishing older Sikh buildings, which hurt Sikh feeling.
• A Gothic clock tower began to rise near the Golden Temple in 1864.

4What happened at Malerkotla?

A local quarrel turned into a bloody crackdown.

• The conflict centred on cow slaughter.
• In January 1872 a Muslim butcher and a Sikh, Gurmukh Singh, quarrelled in Malerkotla.
• The quarrel was about harsh treatment of an ox.
• A judge ordered the ox slaughtered before Gurmukh Singh.
• A group of Namdharis then attacked the local butchers.
• Police subdued the trouble and arrested many.
• The British feared a wider uprising.
• About 65 Namdharis were executed in January 1872.
• Some sources say 66, so counts differ slightly.
• The British record says they were blown from guns.
• Namdharis say the prisoners faced cannon fire from the front.
• The Namdharis were the only group openly campaigning against the British.
• So the British kept them under strict watch.

5How did his life end?

He was exiled, and the date of his death is still disputed.

• He was sent away from Ludhiana on 18 January 1872.
• He went first to Allahabad by special train.
• On 10 March 1872 he was moved to Calcutta.
• On 11 March he was sent to Rangoon in British Burma.
• He kept in touch with followers through secret letters called Hukamnamas.
• His brother Hari Singh led the sect from 1875.
• In 1879 a Namdhari envoy reached Russian officials in Samarkand.
• The Russians declined to help.
• The British said he died on 29 November 1885 at Mergui.
• Namdharis dispute this and believe he will return.
• A telegram of 8 December 1885 reported his death.
• Some historians say later British letters contradict it.

6What are the exam traps?

Dates and claims need care.

• The movement began in 1857, and Malerkotla was in 1872.
• These are two separate events, fifteen years apart.
• Do not say he started non-cooperation in India as a mass movement.
• He is credited with using boycott first, in a small sect.
• Gandhi’s non-cooperation came in 1920–22.
• He was exiled to Rangoon, not to the Andamans.
• His death year is officially 1885, but Namdharis dispute it.
• In 2016 India marked his 200th birth anniversary.
• His portrait hangs in the Indian Parliament.
• His portrait is also at Ludhiana railway station.
• Read about Bhai Maharaj Singh.
• Read about the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• Read about the Swadeshi Movement of 1905.