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Baba
Raam Singh
Baba
Ram Singh was born at village Bhaini Raiyan, district Ludhiana on the 3rd
February, 1816 A.D. His father Bhai Jassa Singh, was a carpenter. His
brother-in-law, Sardar Kabul singh was a gunner in the artillery of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1837 A.D., He took Baba Ram Singh with him to
Lahore and got him recruited in the regiment of Kanwar Naunihal Singh. On the
18th December, 1845 A.D. the Sikh army suffered a defeat in the battle of Mudki
due to mean settlement of some Dogra Generals of Sikh army with British. Baba
Ram Singh could not bear the defeat of the Sikh army in this manner. He left the
service of the army at Mudki and came straight to his village Bhaini.
On
arrival at his village, Baba Ram Singh started preaching, "Worship of eternal
Being, giving up worship of the dead, keeping off the intoxicants, giving up
meat, minimum expenditure on marriages and widow remarriage etc." He used to
say, "I am only a messenger or a reporter and not a guru." His followers
starting calling themselves 'Namdharis'. Baba Ram Singh was a supporter of
reform of the 'Mahants' and priests of the gurudwaras as a result of which they
were against him. Every year, on the occasion of Diwali or Baisakhi fairs he
used to go to Amritsar and put his views before the congregation. The number of
his audience used to touch twenty thousand. He started a movement in 1848 A.D.,
to force the British to leave India. He called upon his followers to boycott
foreign goods and Government departments due to which people stopped buying
imported cloth, gave up taking their disputes to courts and started deciding
these in villages.
The
boycott movement of Baba Ram Singh had great effect on the work of the
Government. In 1863 A.D., the Government setup a police post at his village
Bhaini. Cow Slaughter was banned in Amritsar during Sikh rule. In 1870 somebody
spread a false rumor in Amritsar that the Government was about to give
permission to the butchers to slaughter cows in the holy city of the Guru. On
the 14th June, 1870 A.D., a group of Namdharis beheaded four butchers at
Amritsar. Four Namdharis were hanged and two were imprisoned for life for that
crime. On the 15th July, 1872 A.D., some Namdharis had quarrel with the butchers
of Malaud and Malerkotla over cow-slaughter in which ten people were killed and
seventeen were injured. The deputy commissioner of Ludhiana, Mr. Crown
pronounced death sentence on sixty-eight Namdharis. Forty-nine of them were
blown by cannon fire and nineteen were hanged. Baba Ram singh was exiled to
Burma. He went to his heavenly abode on the 29th November, 1885 A.D., in jail of
Margee Island. Although the Government crushed the Namdhari movement, yet they
could not extinguish the light of freedom lit by Baba Ram Singh.
Copyright © Santokh
Singh Jagdev "Bed Time Stories-7"
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