BHAI PHERO PHOOL NAGAR SIKH GURDWARA HISTRY

Bhai Pheru Morcha

Bhai Pheru Morcha, was one of a series of the campaigns of Sikh agitations, in the 1920s, for the reformation of their holy places.

Gurdwara Sangat Sahib, located in Mien ke Maur in Lahore district, about 15 km from Chhanga Manga railway station, dedicated to the memory of Bhai Pheru (1640 - 1706), a masand or parish leader in the time of Guru Har Rai who was honoured for his devotion by Guru Gobind Singh with the titles of Sachchi Dahri (lit. True Beard) and Sangat Sahib, was an important shrine, with 2,750 acres of land attached to it. At the time of the morcha it was being managed by Mahant Kishan Das.

After the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a representative society of the Sikhs, had taken over management of some of the major shrines and mahants or priests had started voluntarily handing over gurdwaras under their control, Mahant Kishan Das, on 28 December 1922, transferred Gurdwara Bhai Pheru to the Committee. He later went back on the agreement he had signed and petitioned the government to have the shrine and the lands restored to him. On 7 December 1923 the police arrested the manager appointed by the SGPC, Jagat Singh, and eleven other representatives of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

The possession of the shrine and its estate was restored to the Mahant and his tenants. However, the decision of the deputy commissioner of Lahore on the Gurdwara lands went in favour of the Shiromani Committee and, as its representatives arrived to take charge of these Mahant Kishan Das and his tenant Pala Ram (brother of Mahant Narain Das the Mahant of Sri Nankana Sahib) lodged a complaint with the police that the Akalis were forcibly taking possession of his property. Acting on his complaint, the police arrested 34 Akalis on 2 January 1924. The government revised its earlier decision, in favour of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, and passed fresh orders declaring Pala Ram to be temporarily in possession of the land.

The Akalis launched a morcha in protest, even as the morcha at Jaito was still continuing. Jathas or batches of Akali volunteers started marching to Bhai Pheru from different parts of the district. On 5 January 1924, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee took the campaign into its own hands. By 10 September 1925, the number of arrests had reached 6,372. An unsavoury incident, however, led the local organizer, Arjan Singh, to suspend the morcha on 20 September 1925. The Gurdwara and the lands attached to it came under the Committee`s control after the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 was passed by the Punjab Legislative Council, and the court case too was decided in the Committee`s favour in June 1931.

After Partition

Known also as Gurdwara Sangat Sahib, Gurdwara Bhai Pheru had about 2,000 acres of land attached to it during Sikh Rule. The settlement that grew around the shrine also came to be called Bhai Pheru. It had to be abandoned in 1947. The management of the shrine and the attached estate is now under the local Panchayat Committee.

References

1. Josh, Sohan Singh, Akali Morchian da Itihas. Delhi, 1972
2. Pratap Singh, Giani, Gurdwara Sudhar arthat Akali Lahir. AMRITSAR, 1975
3. Mohinder Singh, The Akali Movement. Delhi, 1978
4. Sahni, Ruchi Ram, Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines. Ed. Ganda Singh. Amritsar, n.d.

Category: 

• Morcha