Ram Singh

Ram Singh (born 1816, Bhaini, Punjab, India—died 1885, Mergui, Burma [Myanmar]) was a Sikh philosopher and reformer and the first Indian to use noncooperation and boycott of British merchandise and services as a political weapon. As a young man, he became a disciple of Balak Singh, the founder of the austere Namdhari movement, from whom he learned of the great Sikh Gurus and heroes and of the Khalsa (Sikh military brotherhood). Before his death, Balak Singh appointed him leader of the Namdharis.

Ram Singh was born into a respected small-farming family. At the age of 20 Ram Singh entered the army of the maharaja Ranjit Singh, the mainstay of the Sikhs. Three years later, on the death of Ranjit Singh, his army and domain fell apart. Worried about British power and Sikh weakness, Ram Singh determined to help Sikhs regain their self-respect. He introduced new practices among the Namdharis, who came to be called Kukas (from Punjabi kuk, “scream” or “cry”) because of the shrieks they emitted after the frenzied chanting of hymns. His sect was more puritanical and fundamental than other Sikh sects were. Namdharis wore handwoven white robes, bound their turbans in a distinctive way, carried wooden staves and rosaries of wool, and used special greetings and passwords. Their temples, known as gurdwaras, were Spartan in their simplicity.

Ram Singh instilled a sense of worth and dignity into his disciples (many of humble origin) by telling them that they were the elite of God and that other sects were mleccha (“unclean”). His private army even had its own couriers, in order to boycott the British postal service and to prevent messages from falling into enemy hands.

In 1863 Ram Singh attempted a grand gesture: his followers were to meet him at Amritsar (the Sikh holy city), where he would proclaim himself the reincarnation of Gobind Singh, the 10th and traditionally the last of the Sikh gurus, and declare that he had come to form a new Kuka Khalsa. The police intervened, however, and Ram Singh was restricted to his native village for an indefinite period. As the years passed and his prophecy of breaking British rule remained unfulfilled, internal trouble broke out. Cows were revered by the Kukas, who were offended by some beef shops in the holy city of Amritsar. A group of Kukas attacked and killed four butchers in Amritsar one night in June 1870. Following this and another similar incident in Ludhiana district, many Kuka rebels were imprisoned and a few of them were hanged.

In another bloody incident that followed in January 1872, armed bands of Sikhs attacked Maler Kotla, a Muslim community, and a large number of the attackers were captured by the British. The British, sensing that this was no mere bandit raid but the start of a revolt in the Punjab, dealt with the Kukas in a cruel way: according to some accounts, the prisoners were bound over the mouths of cannons. They were blown to bits by the cannons.

Thereafter Ram Singh even appealed to Russia for aid in driving the British out of India, but Russia, not wishing to risk war with Great Britain, refused. Ram Singh spent the remainder of his days in prison and exile. After his release from prison, he was exiled to Rangoon, where he lived for almost 14 years as a state prisoner. Namdharis believe that Ram Singh is still alive and will return one day to lead their community.