Independence Day and the Sikhs: sacrifice in India's freedom struggle

India became independent on 15 August 1947, and the SGPC's calendar marks the day. For Sikhs, it is a day to remember the very large part their community played in the freedom struggle, and also, because independence came with the Partition of Punjab, a day of mixed memory.

A share far beyond their numbers

Sikhs were less than two percent of India's people, yet they were heavily represented among those hanged, imprisoned and transported for the freedom struggle. The Kuka or Namdhari movement under Baba Ram Singh resisted British rule from the 1860s, and many Kukas were blown from cannon at Malerkotla in 1872. The Ghadar Party, founded in 1913 by Indians on the Pacific coast of America, most of them Punjabi Sikhs, sent hundreds home to raise a revolt; Kartar Singh Sarabha and many others were hanged. Bhagat Singh came from a Sikh family steeped in the struggle.

Jallianwala Bagh and the morchas

The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on Vaisakhi in 1919, where hundreds were killed, many of them pilgrims, turned much of India against British rule. The non-violent morchas of the Gurdwara Reform Movement in the early 1920s, at Guru Ka Bagh, Jaito and over the keys of the Toshakhana, were among the first mass campaigns to force the government's hand. Sikh soldiers in the Indian National Army, and leaders such as Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh, also played their part.

How the day is observed

Many gurdwaras hold Ardas for those who gave their lives for freedom. The next day, the SGPC's calendar remembers the people of Punjab killed in the Partition. Read about the Partition Ardas day.