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Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Kenneth W. Jones
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Extract

Few features of modern South Asian history have received more comment than communalism, its impact on the development of nationalism and its threat to the continued existence of a secular Indian state. For many supporters of Indian nationalism, communalism was the result of British machinations, of a “divide and rule” policy used to impede and, finally, to frustrate the ambitions of those who desired a free, united India. For the proponents of Pakistan, communalism was not an issue, since they premised their actions on the concept of “two nations,” one Hindu and one Islamic, which both sought to establish themselves as political entities. Their world was defined by religion and what others called communalism was nationalism in such a world. Communalism exists as a historic reality and a common though ambiguous and increasingly pejorative analytic concept.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , November 1968 , pp. 39 - 54
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 For an alternate definition of communalism, see Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, Modern Islam in India (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1963), pp. 173–74Google Scholar. Another possible type of “communalism” can be seen in the rise of non-Brahman consciousness in Tamilnad during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This might be termed “social communalism” to differentiate it from a religiously based identity. Communalism then would become a broader concept applicable to a wide variety of historical processes and situations.

2 The British Punjab as an area of focus is particularly suited to the study of inter-communal relations in a colonial setting. Historical diversity and unique experience with British rule were combined with a series of reform-revival movements in each of the religious communities. The Arya Samaj represents such a response on the part of the Hindu community, and, while the Samaj was strong in the United Provinces and affected much of northern India, its leadership and ideological coloring were largely Punjabi. While an analysis of the Samaj will produce insights into part of the Punjab Hindu community, examination of the orthodox Hindu response, of both orthodox and reform movements in the Islamic and Sikh communities, will be needed before a total picture of nineteenth century Punjab can be created.

3 The Punjab referred to in this paper existed from 1858 to 1901 and includes both Delhi and the Trans-Indus tracts later incorporated in the North-West Frontier Province.

4 Traditionally the fusion of language, script and religion did not exist except for the Punjabi-Gurmukhi-Sikh triad and there Punjabi was utilized largely in sacred scriptures. Considerable ambiguity existed well into the twentieth century. Urdu was used widely by all communities even though strong emotional commitments to Punjabi and Hindi existed.

5 Taking the 1891 Census figures, we find in the western half of the province a Muslim population of 90% in the hills, and 82% on the plains. In the east, the Hindus were the majority community, over 94% in the hill tracts and 69% on the plains. In the central and submontaine districts there was a mixing of all three communities, 37% Hindu, 50% Muslim, and 12% Sikh. Over-all figures for the province were 12,915,643 Muslims, 10,237,100 Hindus, and 1,870,481 Sikhs. Government of India, Census of India 1891, The Punjab and its Feudatories, Part 1, The Report of the Census, by E. D. Maclagan (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, 1892), p. 59.

6 The lack of a single dominant social system must not be overlooked. With the exceptions of the Punjab and possibly Bengal, the remainder of the subcontinent is characterized by dominant Hindu social systems, regionally differentiated, with one or more minority social structures. The minority systems tend to be incomplete, containing only scattered or limited sections of the social hierarchy. The Jains, Parsis or Muslims of the West Coast exemplify such incomplete systems, as do the Muslim communities of southern India.

7 The complexity of Punjab elites can be seen in SirGriffin, Lepel H., Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab (Lahore: Government Printing, Punjab, 1940)Google Scholar, volumes I and II, where he lists along with Rajas, Nawabs, Sardars, Khan Bahadurs, Maliks, Diwans, also purely religious families such as the Sodhis and Bedis.

8 Malik, Hafeez, Moslem Nationalism in India and Pakistan (Washington, D. C.: Public Affairs Press, 1963), pp. 154–89.Google Scholar

9 Singh, Khushwant, A History of the Sikhs, Vol. II (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), 132.Google Scholar

10 Punjab Government, Gazetteer of the Ludhiana District 1888–89 (Calcutta: Calcutta Central Press Co., n.d.), pp. 74–76Google Scholar; and, Richter, Julius, A History of Missions in India, trans, by Moore, Sydney H. (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1908), p. 194.Google Scholar

11 Government of India, Census of India 1891, The Punjab and Its Feudatories, Part I, The Report of the Census, by Maclagan, E. D. (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, 1892), pp. xliv, 97Google Scholar, and Census of India, 1911 Volume XIV, Punjab, Part I, Report, by Pandit Harikishen Kaul (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1912), p. 129.

12 Sarda, Har Bilas, The Life of Dayanand Saraswati, World Teacher (Ajmer: Vedic Yantralaya, 1946), pp. 173–97Google Scholar. Contains a detailed description of Dayanand's Punjab tour.

13 Dayanand is often considered to have founded eleven Arya Samajes. The two additional branches are the Wazirabad Arya Samaj established prior to Dayanand's arrival in that city and the Jullundur Samaj which opened sometime after his second visit. Singh, Chhaju Bawa, The Life and Teachings of Swami Dayanand Saraswati (Lahore: Addison Press, 1903), pp. 363–66.Google Scholar

14 Dayanand contributed to later anti-Islamic agitation when in 1880 he published Gaukarunanidhi, an emotional appeal for the protection of cattle, based on economic grounds rather than spiritual concepts. He, also, participated in the founding of a Gaurakshini Sabha, a society for the protection of cattle. This movement, however, received little, if any, organizational suport from the Punjab Arya Samaj although individual Samajists were drawn into cow protection societies.

15 A brief biography of Guru Datt's life can be found in Datt, Guru, Wisdom of the Rishis or Works of Pt. Gurudatta Vidyarthi M.A. (Delhi: Sarvadeshik Pustakalaya, n.d.), pp. i-viGoogle Scholar; a more extensive coverage is in Rai, Lajpat, Life and Works of Pandit Guru Dutta Vidyarthi M.A. (Lahore: Virajanand Press, 1891)Google Scholar, and The Works of the Late Pandit Gurudatta Vidyarthi, M.A., with a Biographical Sketch (Lahore: The Arya Printing, Publishing and Trading Co., Ltd., 1912).Google Scholar

16 See Guru Datt, Wisdom of the Rishis, p. iii, Guru Datt, Life and Works, p. 20, and Sahni, Ruchi Ram, “Self Revelations of an Octogenarian” (Unpublished manuscript in the Punjab State Archives), p. 127Google Scholar, and Jambunathan, M. R., Swami Shraddhanand (Bombay: Vidya Bhavan, 1961), p. 94.Google Scholar

17 Guru Datt, The Works of …, pp. 29, 33; also, Jambunathan, Swami Shraddhanand, p. 94.

18 Guru Datt, The Works of …, pp. 34–35.

19 Jambunathan, Swami Shraddhanand, p. 3. This is an autobiography that was later edited and completed by M. R. Jambunathan. Numerous other biographies in a variety of languages have been written on Swami Shraddhanand. A note on his name: he was born Lala Munshi Ram and later went by Munshi Ram Jigyasu, Mahatma Munshi Ram and Swami Shraddhanand.

20 Ibid., p. 41. He again went to Lahore to study law in 1885, see p. 62.

21 Ibid., p. 49.

22 Ibid., pp. 78–79, 103–04, 112, 115.

23 Ibid., p. 78.

24 Ibid., p. 101.

25 Ibid., p. 125.

26 Ibid., p. 112.

27 Jāved, Rām Chandra, Ārya Samaj ke Mahā Purush (Jalandhar: Yūnivarsitī Pablisharz [1954]), p. 60Google Scholar. Jāved contains a short basic biography of Lekh Ram, as does Balidān-Jayantī-Smritī-Granth (Jalandhar: Ārya Pratīnidhī Sabhā Panjāb, 1962)Google Scholar; for a somewhat longer and more detailed biography, see, Shraddhānand, Swāmī, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Rām, Jīvan-Charitra (Jālandhar: Ārya Pratīnidhī Sabhā Panjāb, n.d.)Google Scholar

28 Shraddhānand, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Rām, pp. 24–25.

29 Several accounts of the Ahmadiyas can be found in the following places: Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Modern Islam in India; Farquhar, J. N., Modern Religious Movements in India (New York: Macmillian Co., 1915), pp. 137–38Google Scholar; Fuchs, Stephan, Rebellious Prophets, A Study of Messianic Movements in Indian Religions (London: Asia Publishing House, 1965), pp. 198–207Google Scholar; and, Walters, H. A., The Ahmadiya Movement (London: Humphrey Milford, 1918)Google ScholarPubMed. A self-view is available in Ahmad, Hazrat Bas Hir-ud-din Mahmud, The Ahmadiyya Movement (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1924)Google Scholar and a statement of basic Ahmadiya beliefs is given in Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam, The Kashf-ul-Ghita (Lahore: The Victoria Press, 1898), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

30 Lekh Ram published 32 works. A full list of these can be found in the Arya Musafir, I, No. 3, December 1898.

31 Shraddhānand, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Rām, pp. 30–31.

32 Ibid., p. 35.

33 Morrison, John, New Ideas in India during the Nineteenth Century, A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments (Edinburgh: George A. Morton, 1906), p. 137.Google Scholar

34 Singh, Bhagat Lakshman, Autobiography, edited by Singh, Ganda (Calcutta: Sikh Cultural Center, 1965), pp. 58 and 136Google Scholar; Singh, Khushwant, History, Vol. II, 143–44.Google Scholar

35 Chhabra, G. S., The Advanced History of the Panjab, Vol. II (Ludhiana: Parkash Brothers, 1962), 360Google Scholar; Government of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab, Received up to 6 January 1890, Vol. III, 342Google Scholar; Khair Khwah-i-Kashmir, August 6, 1889, p. 366; Khair Khawah-i-Kashmir, September 1, 1889, p. 434; Bharat Sudhar, October 19, 1889.

36 Singh, Ganga, “The Origin of the Hindu-Sikh Tension in the Punjab,” Journal of Indian History, XXXIX (April, 1961), 120–23Google Scholar, and Government of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab, Received up to 5th January 1889, Vol. II, 340; Aftab-i-Punjab, December 14, 1888.

37 Tribune, February 18, 1893, p. 4; April 8, 1893, p. 4. Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, Report Srimati Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, for the Year 1896–1897 (n.p., n. pub., n.d.), p. 39.

38 The Dev Samaj was founded in 1887 by an ex-Brahmo, Pandit Shiv Narain Agnihotri. For accounts of this movement, see, Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements, pp. 173–82; Chhaora, Advanced History, Vol. II, 361–62; Kanal, P. V., Bhagwan Dev Atma (Lahore: Dev Samaj Book Depot, 1942)Google Scholar. Kanal's work is a biography of Pandit Agnihotri.

39 Dayanand is usually credited with the first Arya Samaj reconversion. During his second visit to Amritsar he persuaded Khadasingh, a Christian convert, to abandon his new faith and join the Samaj. Sarda's version, however, makes no mention of a shuddhi ceremony, only that Khadasingh began “to preach Vedic Dharma.” Har Bilas Sarda, Life of Dayanand Saraswati, pp. 196–97.

40 Initially the Samaj used Brahmans and traditional purification ceremonies, acting merely as sponsors for the shuddhi ceremony, but by 1893 the Arya Samaj had developed their own ceremony. They no longer utilized Brahmans, nor turned to the traditional forms of purification. A new self-confidence encouraged them to act solely on their own initiative and to legitimize their own actions. Graham, J. Reid, “The Arya Samaj, As a Reformation in Hinduism with Special Reference to Caste” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1942), p. 464.Google Scholar

41 Tribune, February 18, 1893, p. 4.

42 Chhabra, Advanced History, p. 385. Chhabra mentions dissention between the Singh Sabha and the Arya Samaj over the question of shuddhi, but, unfortunately, gives no further details nor does he cite his sources.

43 Sharma, Ram, Mahatma Hans Raj, Maker of Modern Punjab (Lahore: Arya Pradeshak Pratinidhi Sabha, 1941), p. 53Google Scholar. See footnote 44, below, for additional references.

44 A wide variety of views on this division of the Samaj are available. Some of the more comprehensive are: Rai, Lala Lajpat, Lajpat Rai Autobiographical Writings, ed. by Joshi, Vijaya Chandra (Delhi: University Publishers, 1965), pp. 46–72Google Scholar; Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India, p. 124; Sharma, Mahatma Hans Raj, pp. 57–68; Heimsath, Charles H., Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 295–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jones, Kenneth W., “The Arya Samaj in the Punjab: A Study of Social Reform and Religious Revivalism, 1877–1902” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1966), pp. 113–14, 116–18, 143–45, 171–78.Google Scholar

45 The Punjab Ved Prachar Fund received Rs. 11,000 in donations during the 1895–96 year. Ved Prachar funds were also started in Rajasthan, Bihar and Bengal. Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, Report of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, for the Year 1895–96, p. 48.

46 Ibid., pp. 10–11.

47 Ibid., pp. 7–12, 34, 41–43; Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, Report of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, for the Year 1896–1897, pp. 9–12; Jones, “The Arya Samaj in the Punjab,” pp. 193–98.

48 J. Reid Graham, “The Arya Samaj as a Reformation in Hinduism,” p. 466.

49 The first Singh Sabha was founded in Amritsar in 1873. The initial Sabha was largely concerned with defending Sikhism from Hindu and Christian criticism. In 1879 the Lahore Singh Sabha was organized with the goals of social reform, education and religious revivalism. The Singh Sabhas, which cooperated with the Samaj, were associated with the Lahore movement. See, Singh, Khushwant, History, Vol. II, 141–44, or Chhabra, Advanced History, pp. 380–85.Google Scholar

50 Accounts of individual and group shuddhis have been taken from the Lahore Tribune. The Selections form the Vernacular Newspapers of the Punjab do not provide additional data either because the newspapers did not carry such information or, more likely, because it did not interest the British officials who determined the criteria of selection. The Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, Report for 1895–1896, p. 27, states that Arya papers listed 15 reconversions during the year. This figure agrees closely with the number reported in the Tribune and indicates that the Tribune did report nearly all shuddhis as they occurred.

51 Tribune, April 8, 1896, p. 4; July 1, 1896, p. 4; September 2, 1896, p. 4.

52 Tribune, August 31, 1901, p. 1; Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, p. 163.

53 Evidence of tensions between Sikhs and Hindus comes from a wide variety of sources and still awaits a definite analysis. See the Lahore Tribune for January through March, 1897, and entire years of 1899–1900. A major contributor to this separatist movement was the civil suit over Dayal Singh Majithia's will in which the courts decided that there was no legal difference between Sikhs and Hindus. A reaction to this case produced the Tatya Khalsa movement in 1900, Tribune, June 2, 1900, p. 3, and echoed in the press throughout the year. Publications of importance were Risala Sat Prakash by Bhai Jagat Singh, a Sikh Arya Samajist who drew a close analogy between the Arya Samaj and Sikh teachings, reviewed in the Tribune, February 7, 1899, pp. 3–4, and the pamphlet Hum Hindu Nahin by Bhai Kaha Singh of Nabha. See Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, p. 137, and Singh, Khushwant, History, Vol. II, 146–47Google Scholar. Additional tensions arose over the question of language. Sikhs and Hindus might both oppose Urdu, but still disagreed over which language should be utilized and in which script. See, Tribune, September 20, 1900, pp. 2–3.

54 Lahore Tribune for 1897.

55 See footnote 30.

56 Pandit Lekh Ram, Jihad, or the Basis of the Mohammedi Religion (n.p., n. pub., 1892).

57 Government of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab, Received up to 2nd January 1897, Vol. X, 574, Punjab, September 22, 1896; Chaudhwin Sadhi, September 23, 1896.

58 The assassin of Pandit Lekh Ram was never apprehended and so the crime remained open for a variety of interpretations, rumors, and theories.

59 Goverment of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab, Vol. XI, 182, Bharat Sewak, March 10, 1897. Lala Rala Ram was not murdered, but the report was believed at the time and only later was it known that he had merely received a beating.

60 Tribune, March 13, 1897, p. 4.

61 Government of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab, Vol. XI, 180–81, Bharat Sudhar, March 13, 1897. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had first prophesied the death of Lekh Ram on February 20, 1886, and he repeated prophecy on February 20, 1893.

62 Ibid., p. 295; Sada-i-Hind, April 12, 1897; Paisa Akhbar, April 19, 1897, p. 317; Punjab Samachar, May 8, 1897, p. 370.

63 Ibid., p. 203; Paisa Akhbar, March 17, 1897; Nazim-ul-Hind, May 22, 1897, p. 423.

64 Tribune, November 17, 1897, p. 4; November 27, 1897, p. 4.

65 In the Samaj histories Pandit Lekh Ram was the second martyr to fall to the enemy, Islam, with Dayanand the first. See, Balidan-Jayanti-Smriti-Granth (Jalandhar: Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Panjab, 1962)Google Scholar which lists Samaj martyrs. The Arya Musafir, a monthly journal, was founded by Lala Munshi Ram in October 1898 in memory of Lekh Ram. This journal clearly attempted to continue the work of the late Pandit, both as to goals and methods. The Arya Musafir was primarily devoted to criticisms of other religious views in the strongest possible terms.

66 Jones, Kenneth W., “The Bengali Elite in Post-Annexation Punjab” The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. III, No. 4 (December 1966), 382–83.Google Scholar

67 Prasad, Ganga, Swami Dayanand's Contribution to Hindu Solidarity (Allahabad: Arya Samaj, Religious Renaissance Series No. 2, 1939), p. 119.Google Scholar

68 The annual number of riots increased from 653 in 1891–92 to 855 in 1896–97. Times of India, Overland Edition, September 25, 1897, as quoted in John R. McLane, “The Development of Nationalist Ideas and Tactics and the Policies of the Government of India, 1897–1905” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1961), p. 62.

69 Barrier, Norman G. has noted the weakness of nationalist commitment among Punjabi Hindus in his article, “The Arya Samaj and Congress Politics in the Punjab, 1894–1908,” The Journal of Asian Studies, XXVI, No. 3 (May 1967), 363–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar