When was the last time you heard the hum­bling Akali cry of com­mit­ment –“Main maran, Panth jeeve” -Let Panth live, I am ready to die, asks writer-ac­tivist Jagdeesh Singh as he pin­points salient fea­tures of the rise and fall of the Akali Dal -from a vi­brant, vig­or­ous, Pan­thic, fight­ing van­guard, to its de­cay and de­scent into a cur­rent day anti-Panth, anti-Pan­jaab, sin­gle-fam­ily out­fit, with mul­ti­ple fac­tions which also do not ad­here to the glo­ri­ous de­mo­c­ra­tic tra­di­tions of the party. The WSN colum­nist ex­am­ines the con­tri­bu­tion of Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal in the con­text of its re­la­tion­ship with the peo­ple of Pan­jaab and its chang­ing pol­i­tics within the In­dian polity.

AS WE AP­PROACH THE 100TH FOUN­DA­TION DAY OF THE SHI­RO­MANI AKALI DAL ON 14 DE­CEM­BER 1920, it is time to look at the jour­ney of a party which once cham­pi­oned the com­mu­nity and en­deav­oured to se­cure a po­lit­i­cal po­si­tion for the Sikhs dur­ing the tu­mul­tuous par­ti­tion of the In­dian sub­con­ti­nent in 1947.

This well-known po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­sa­tion with the Panth and Pan­jaab, to­day on its 100th an­niver­sary, stands in clear cri­sis and the wide­spread sense of dis­en­chant­ment and dis­af­fec­tion across both the Panth and Pan­jaabis. Post-1984, this once glo­ri­ous or­gan­i­sa­tion formed through in­tense strug­gles and sac­ri­fices, has be­come con­t­a­m­i­nated and scan­dalised for be­ing dom­i­nated and sin­gu­larly con­trolled by the Badal fam­ily and be­ing made into an en­tirely per­son­alised in­stru­ment for the Badal po­lit­i­cal em­pire and self-in­ter­est.

Post-1984, the story of the ‘Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal’ has been one of fail­ure, be­trayal and scan­dal; in sharp con­trast to its staunch, ag­i­tat­ing, cam­paign­ing, pa­tri­otic, pro-Panth, pro-Pan­jaab pre-1984 char­ac­ter.

The de­ci­sion to form the Akali Dal as a po­lit­i­cal body for the rep­re­sen­ta­tion and ad­vo­cacy of Sikh con­cerns and as­pi­ra­tions, in De­cem­ber 1920, came about from the clearly grow­ing and rapidly emerg­ing con­scious­ness amongst Sikh ac­tivists and lead­ers in re­sponse to their acutely sub­ju­gated and state­less po­si­tion as a po­lit­i­cal ‘mi­nor­i­ty’ un­der British In­dia.

The Sikhs needed and the cir­cum­stances ne­ces­si­tated a po­lit­i­cal body to pro­ject their point of view in the pre­vail­ing British power struc­ture. Hav­ing been ren­dered a to­tally-sub­ju­gated and sub­dued na­tion with the British-In­dian em­pire (af­ter the in­tense British-Pan­jaab wars of 1845-1849), the Pan­jaabi-Sikh na­tion was now at the mercy and mis­ery of what­ever the British In­dian es­tab­lish­ment wanted to do.

Fol­low­ing the post-1849 decades of in­tense strug­gle and re­sis­tance to re­trieve their stolen sov­er­eign state­hood by the likes of Bhai Ma­haraj Singh, Bhai Kharag Singh, Kuka Lehar, et al, and the oc­cu­py­ing British power which wanted to crush any idea of a re­turn to an in­de­pen­dent Pan­jaab. The Pan­jaab and Panth ap­pear to have set­tled into a sub­dued ac­cep­tance of its con­di­tions of sub­ju­ga­tion and state­less­ness. This was fol­lowed by phases like the Singh Sabha Lehar (in the late 1800s) and then the Gur­d­wara Sud­har Lehar (1900-1925 circa). Along­side, came the rad­i­cal, pro-in­de­pen­dence Gadhr Lehar and the Bab­bar Akali Lehar be­tween 1910-1920 circa.

Into this mix, emerged the for­ma­tion of the ‘army of im­mor­tal’ Sikhs, with their iconic Khalsa blue tur­bans (banned post-1849 by the British power). The dar­ing and fiery ‘Akali Dal’ took its ti­tle and sym­bol­ism from the blue-at­tired Akali Ni­hangs who have fear­lessly fought for the Panth for cen­turies be­fore­hand and from their de­fi­ant brav­ery in the Khalsa Army which fought the in­com­ing British en­croach­ers dur­ing the 1845-1849 wars.

The British had seen the colour blue in bat­tle. It had made a dev­as­tat­ing im­print on the British psy­che, who sub­se­quently banned it al­to­gether to­gether with the Akali Ni­hang damalla -vivid, staunch cir­cu­lar tur­ban, and the en­tirety of Akali Ni­hang life and ex­is­tence in the land of Pan­jaab which they had seized and oc­cu­pied.

Akaali Ni­hang Singhs

The Ni­hang van­guard of Pan­jaab was phys­i­cally dis­si­pated, dis­persed and de­feated, though the in­nate feel­ings raged on in­side. The British thought that they had bro­ken the blue spirit of the Sikhs and Pan­jaab. Pa­tri­o­tism can be sup­pressed, but not de­stroyed. The same vig­or­ous blue colour re-emerged in the for­ma­tion of the Akali Dal in 1920. A his­toric step for­ward for Sikhs and Pan­jaab.

This army of re­born Akalis was go­ing to fight with the same pas­sion and in­ten­sity for Sikh rights and pro­tec­tion, which the pre­ced­ing Akali Ni­hangs had done.

The Akali Dal, later adopt­ing the name of ‘Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal’, rapidly be­came a grow­ing force in Pan­jaab.

Un­for­tu­nately, rather than try­ing to unite and com­bine all Pan­jaabis away from the di­vi­sions which the British im­pe­ri­al­ists had im­planted, through their de­vi­ous di­vide and rule and frag­ment method­ol­ogy; the Akali Dal ap­peared to have adopted that same sec­tar­ian state of af­fairs. It be­came pre­dom­i­nantly and sin­gu­larly a party for the Sikhs, rather than all Pan­jaabis.

A crit­i­cal flaw, which would af­fect its di­rec­tion and pro­gres­sion over the com­ing decades. Sikhi is uni­fy­ing force for all Pan­jaabis; and a demon­stra­ble sav­iour for all Pan­jaabis. How­ever, we had be­come vic­tims of British colo­nial games.

Un­for­tu­nately, rather than try­ing to unite and com­bine all Pan­jaabis away from the di­vi­sions which the British im­pe­ri­al­ists had im­planted, through their de­vi­ous di­vide and rule and frag­ment method­ol­ogy; the Akali Dal ap­peared to have adopted that same sec­tar­ian state of af­fairs. It be­came pre­dom­i­nantly and sin­gu­larly a party for the Sikhs, rather than all Pan­jaabis.

Over the en­su­ing decades, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal fought var­i­ous cam­paigns with the British es­tab­lish­ment, se­cur­ing var­i­ous piece­meal con­ces­sions. In the messy and chaotic 1946-1947 British Trans­fer of Power process, it was ren­dered into a sec­ondary and in­con­se­quen­tial voice by the British es­tab­lish­ment who was pri­mar­ily and pre­dom­i­nantly con­cerned with se­cur­ing an easy, un­com­pli­cated and rapid exit strat­egy from an in­creas­ingly re­dun­dant, bur­den­some and fail­ing British In­dian em­pire. The Akali Dal came out of the whole gi­gan­tic mess of 1947 in a de­jected and de­mor­alised man­ner, with the dev­as­tat­ing dam­age done to Sikh lives and Pan­jaab as a whole.

Hand­ing power en bloc to a sin­gle In­dian Na­tional Con­gress po­lit­i­cal elite, to do as they please with the mass-scale sub­con­ti­nent In­dian em­pire that the British had forged in the first place by con­quer­ing and sub­sum­ing so many in­de­pen­dent ter­ri­to­r­ial na­tions: this would have been the eas­i­est and most con­ve­nient op­tion for the out­go­ing British. How­ever, the nu­mer­i­cally strong, vo­cal and vi­o­lent Mus­lim League-led Mus­lims were not go­ing to let such a ‘one-na­tion’ In­dia hap­pen. They ag­gres­sively in­sisted on their ‘two-na­tion’ pol­icy of a Hindu In­dia and Mus­lim Pak­istan di­vide, or fire and fury would take place – which it did all the same!

This pre­ced­ing jour­ney of the Akali Dal should pro­vide Sikhs and Pan­jaabis with key lessons and op­por­tu­ni­ties to form a new eth­i­cal-po­lit­i­cal force – one which is de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally and pop­u­larly en­gaged with all sec­tions and strands of the Pan­jaabi na­tion -women, Dal­its, Kisans, Sikhs and Pan­jaabi trad­ing classes.

The nu­mer­i­cally minute Sikhs were viewed sim­ply as an ir­ri­tant and nui­sance in this whole scheme.

The cries of in­jus­tice and de­mands for ‘Azad Pan­jaab’, a re­turn of Pan­jaabi state­hood and Sikh state­hood met with whole­sale re­jec­tion from the British, Hindu In­dian Na­tional Con­gress and Mus­lim League. Pan­jaab and the Sikhs were on their own, at the mercy of these big­ger forces.

The British con­ceded to this rel­a­tively easy op­tion of draw­ing lines across the map of South Asia and cre­at­ing the twin states of In­dia and Pak­istan. The ‘mi­nor­i­ty’ Pan­jaab and many other re­gional na­tions, did not mat­ter. They could be dealt with by the suc­ces­sor states. The out­go­ing British had no time to waste or fuss over them.

The Akali Dal came through this bit­ter, geno­ci­dal, par­ti­tion episode; bat­tered and be­lea­guered. It had failed to se­cure any­thing for the Sikhs -vic­tims of the British power games and exit strate­gies.

From 1947 on­wards to 1984, the Akali Dal strug­gled bit­terly with the new tren­chant power of In­dia for jus­tice and rights for Sikhs and Pan­jaab. It con­tin­ued in the lim­ited and re­stric­tive groove of be­ing a po­lit­i­cal party for Sikhs, rather than for all Pan­jaabis.

Come the cul­mi­nat­ing events of June 1984, with the In­dian state’s two-pronged fi­nal so­lu­tion to the burn­ing Sikh ques­tion, in the form of two phases of the geno­ci­dal on­slaught. Firstly, di­rectly on the Sikh pop­u­la­tion in­side Pan­jaab. Then, in No­vem­ber 1984, on the Sikh pop­u­la­tion in Delhi and other ma­jor Sikh hotspots around In­dia.

In the iconic events of June 1984, whilst the heroic fig­ures like Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale and his col­leagues vowed to die fight­ing the In­dian army on­slaught on the holi­est and most sov­er­eign in­sti­tu­tion of Pan­jaab and the Panth; the lead fig­ures of the Akali Dal – Harc­hand Singh Lon­gowal, Bal­want Singh Ramoowalia, Parkash Singh Badal, Gur­cha­ran Singh Tohra, sig­nally sur­ren­dered them­selves into the safe cus­tody and in­car­cer­a­tion of the In­dian state. None of them died. None were tor­tured. They were re­leased to con­tinue their po­lit­i­cal spree on Pan­jaab, with Badal emerg­ing as the most pro­lific and promi­nent.

It was from that crit­i­cal junc­ture, that we see the spi­ralling down­fall of the once rad­i­cal, de­ter­mined and dogged Akali Dal, into a dis­rep­utable, scan­dalised, band­wagon of the al­ready du­bi­ous Parkash Singh Badal who is en­abled and fa­cil­i­tated into a po­si­tion of full dic­ta­to­r­ial con­trol over this po­lit­i­cal party by the In­dian state.

Whilst all other Sikh groups and or­gan­i­sa­tions are be­ing vi­o­lently sub­dued, crushed and their lead­ers wiped out as en­e­mies of the state; Badal and his cronies are given space to grow and emerge as a po­lit­i­cal force. He be­comes the com­plete dic­ta­tor of the Akali Dal, col­lab­o­rat­ing with the In­dian state on mul­ti­ple lev­els to dam­age and de­stroy Pan­jaab and its peo­ple.

To­day, that once glo­ri­ous en­tity, is now a dis­fig­ured and ter­mi­nally-ill body politic, with im­mi­nent death and col­lapse in the wait­ing.

The rise and fall of such en­ti­ties are en­tirely nat­ural, in cor­re­spon­dence with the ebb and flow of chang­ing po­lit­i­cal cir­cum­stances and fac­tors. No sin­gle po­lit­i­cal body or group en­dures for­ever. Change, tran­si­tion, de­cay, de­vi­a­tion and dec­i­ma­tion: are all fre­quent hap­pen­ings.

It is worth com­par­ing this rise and fall of the Akali Dal with that of the sim­i­lar jour­ney of the All In­dia Mus­lim League founded in 1906 and the In­dian Na­tional Con­gress founded in 1885. Where are they now? In all three cases, the per­verse and fan­ci­ful be­lief that they would sur­vive for­ever and be on the top stage has blinded them all and led to their down­fall and self-im­plo­sion.

The rise and fall of such en­ti­ties are en­tirely nat­ural, in cor­re­spon­dence with the ebb and flow of chang­ing po­lit­i­cal cir­cum­stances and fac­tors. No sin­gle po­lit­i­cal body or group en­dures for­ever. Change, tran­si­tion, de­cay, de­vi­a­tion and dec­i­ma­tion: are all fre­quent hap­pen­ings.

The once buoy­ant, very pop­u­lar All In­dia Mus­lim League has long ago frag­mented and dis­ap­peared into near obliv­ion. The In­dian Na­tional Con­gress which re­mains af­flicted with its supreme sense of en­ti­tle­ment to rule for­ever is to­day so elec­torally emas­cu­lated and dec­i­mated that, an ex­cru­ci­at­ing death ap­pears to be its cer­tain fu­ture. The cur­rent Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal with all its sim­i­lar du­bi­ous and dis­rep­utable traits is now on its last legs too.

The pierc­ing motto vo­calised by the for­mer, pas­sion­ate leader of Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Mas­ter Tara Singh, that ‘Main maran te Panth jeeve’ (I may die so that the Panth lives on); has com­pletely dis­ap­peared from the blood­stream of the cur­rent Badal-dom­i­nated Akali Dal. Its blood-stream has be­come can­cer­ous. It has now been ren­dered into a sink­ing ship with the Pan­jaabi masses now acutely fed-up with the pen­du­lum of con­tin­u­ing de­cay and de­struc­tion caused by os­cil­lat­ing Akali and Con­gress gov­ern­ments in In­dian con­trolled Pan­jaab.

This pre­ced­ing jour­ney of the Akali Dal should pro­vide Sikhs and Pan­jaabis with key lessons and op­por­tu­ni­ties to form a new eth­i­cal-po­lit­i­cal force – one which is de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally and pop­u­larly en­gaged with all sec­tions and strands of the Pan­jaabi na­tion -women, Dal­its, Kisans, Sikhs and Pan­jaabi trad­ing classes.

The orig­i­nal and com­pre­hen­sive Sikh ide­al­ism and strug­gle which has ben­e­fited and nur­tured Pan­jaab through­out the cen­turies, which has the qual­i­ties, ef­fi­cien­cies and in­cli­na­tion of per­form­ing as an ex­cit­ing, for­ward-mov­ing, mod­ern po­lit­i­cal elec­toral force for Pan­jaabi na­tional em­pow­er­ment, self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and pos­i­tive gov­er­nance should be the key bench­marks.