Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution

Author(s): Kenneth W. Jones

Source: The Journal of Asian Studies , Nov., 1968, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Nov., 1968), pp. 39-54
Published by: Association for Asian Studies

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 Communalism in the Punjab
THE ARYA SAMAJ CONTRIBUTION

KENNETH W. JONES

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 na-
tionalism, 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 ambigu-
ous and increasingly pejorative analytic concept.
In this study communalism is defined as a consciously-shared religious heritage
which becomes the dominant form of identity for a given segment of society. In the
South Asian experience, this identity has generally been expressed through a specific
language with its own unique script.' Religion, language, and script are the basic
triad of self-awareness to which are fused a reinterpreted history, coupled with a
new conceptualization of the world and the position of the identity group in that
world. Expression of this consciousness in demands for a state, a nation which
would embody the unique qualities of the religious group, mark the transition
from communalism to religious nationalism.
Religious identity has persisted into the post-independence world, a world now
dominated by nation states. Present forms of communalism are opposed not only
to the formal governmental structure under which they exist but also to the na-
tionalism supporting that structure. Communalism possesses the potentiality of a
new nationalism, a rival ideology that may divide or destroy the state. The re-
cently successful drive for a Punjabi Subha in India and the continual tension
between Singhalese and Tamils in Ceylon attest to the vitality of contemporary
communalism.

Communalism is not new, but is part of traditional South Asian civilization,

modified during the nineteenth century by the dual influences of modernization
and Westernization. The self-conscious aspect of communalism was heightened by

Kenneth W. Jones is Assistant Professor of History at Kansas State University.

1 For an alternate definition of communalism, see Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Modern Islam in India
(Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, I963), pp. 173-74. 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.

39

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 40 KENNETH W. JONES

new modes of communicatio

Christian missionaries and, in
cies. The degree to which the
ized communalism, the quest
vide and rule" is not at issu
the Arya Samaj to the worse
province, the Punjab, during
ernizing Hindu movement th
affected the previous struct
terns of religious identity.2
Traditionally the Punjab3 ha
mainder of the subcontinent
three languages, Hindu, Urdu and Punjabi, each with its own script, coexisted
in an uneasy balance.4 Muslims were most prevalent in the west, Hindus to the
east, and Sikhs grouped roughly in the center, while a near balance existed with
the number of Hindus and Sikhs almost equalling the number of Muslims.5 This
population distribution, with its east-west division, gave no community a control-
ling position by weight of numbers or by advantageous distribution. No single
group dominated politically, economically or socially, nor was there a single over-
riding social system.6 There were, instead, three separate but interconnected sys-
tems, one in each religious community. Each group possessed a complete social
hierarchy, ranging from outcastes to religious and aristocratic elites.7 Added to this

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 move-
ments 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 I858 to I9OI 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 I89I 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 I2% Sikh. Over-all figures for
the province were I2,915,643 Muslims, IO,237,IOO Hindus, and I,870,48I Sikhs. Government of
India, Census of India I89I, The Punjab and its Feudatories, Part I, The Report of the Census, by
E. D. Maclagan (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, I892), 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 sys-
tems 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 Sir Lepet H. Griffin, Chiefs and Families of Note
in the Punjab (Lahore: Government Printing, Punjab, I940), 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.

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COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 41

diversity were past migrations and invasions which gave the province a history
of continual change unparalleled in South Asia.
The traditional varieties of religious competition and conflict in the Punjab
were several: a struggle for converts introduced by the two proselytizing religions,
Islam and Sikhism; political rivalry between the aristocratic elites in each com-
munity; economic tensions where class and religious differences overlapped; and,
periodic mob violence arising from points of tension inherent in the communal
structure. The British annexation in I849 ended one form of competition-that
between the ruling aristocracies. No longer could a Nawab or Raja hope to make
himself the paramount power of the province through war or intrigue; the only
sphere of competition left for those who once ruled was the sterile quibbling over
honors and precedence granted to each by the new political power, the British.
Competition was limited to other, apparently less dangerous, spheres of activity.
Religious movements continued to develop, freely and only felt the restricting
hand of the government when they threatened or appeared to threaten the stability
of the state. One such religious movement that directly challenged British
rule was a jihad, or holy war, led by Saiyad Ahmad Shahid. Originally begun as an
attempt to wrest the Punjab from Sikh rule, the war continued into the eighteen
sixties against the newly organized British administration. While the fighting took
place on the northwestern border of the Punjab, the jihad did not receive sig-
nificant support from Punjabi Muslims but gained most of its strength from the
hill tribesmen of the frontier with leardership and support from the Islamic com-
munities of the Gangetic Plain and Bengal.8
The only Punjabi religious movement suppressed by the British during the
nineteenth century was the Sikh revivalist and reform sect, the Namdharis.
founded in the eighteen fifties by Balak Singh as a social reforming sect, it was not
until Ram Singh assumed leadership in I862 that it turned toward a course of
potential conflict with the government. In that year Ram Singh prophesied the
rebirth of Guru Gobind Singh and the establishment of a new Sikh dynasty to
replace the British. Surprisingly enough, it was not this clearly political challenge of
the Namdharis that produced government reaction but the results of their intense
desire to protect cattle from slaughter. Veneration of the cow was characteris-
tically a Hindu attitude and a long standing point of tension between Hindus
and Muslims, who ate beef and sacrificed cows in certain religious ceremonies.
The defense of kine became a major element in Namdhari ideology, and so strong
was their belief that in i871 Namdhari extremists murdered several Muslim
butchers in the Amritsar and Ludhiana districts. This violent outbreak was fol-
lowed in I872 by an attempt to seize arms in the state of Malerkotla. The British
responded to these acts with their own form of violence. Following the Malerkotla
affair, 66 Namdharis were arrested and summarily blown from guns by the Deputy
Commissioner of Ludhiana. Ram Singh was arrested and deported to Burma. Fol-
lowing this decisive action by the British the Namdhari movement subsided continu-
ing to exist only as a shadow of its earlier self.

8 Hafeez Malik, Moslem Nationalism in India and Pakistan (Washington, D. C.: Public Affairs
Press, 1963), pp. I54-89.
' Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Vol. II (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
I966), I32.

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 42 KENNETH W. JONES

The effective suppression of both the followers of Saiyid Ahmad and those
of Ram Singh, as well as the reestablishment of British power after the I857 up-
rising, clearly demonstrated that direct challenges to existing authority were impos-
sible. No religious movement commanded sufficient popular support to openly op-
pose the British and by the eighteen seventies religious nationalism was no longer
a feasible goal. Competition between the religious communities could only proceed
under the umbrella of British power and could not hope to challenge that power.
Communal competition continued, as did communal violence but under new rules
and an altered set of conditions.

Another feature of Punjab society was exemplified by the Namdhari movement,

the pattern of casual and accidental violence arising from points of tension between
the Muslim community on the one side and the Sikhs and Hindus on the other.
Various forms of activity caused sporadic communal rioting. The greatest cause
of such riots was the same as that which triggered the Namdhari clash with the
British government, the issue of cow-killing. The sacrifice of cows at I'd, a major
Muslim celebration, created periodic outbursts and, on occasion, the public sale or
carrying of meat through a Hindu or Sikh section of town would produce vio-
lence. Religious festivals, particularly Holi or Muharram, were often marked by
disorders and on those unlucky days when two festivals-one Muslim and one
either Sikh or Hindu-would be celebrated, then rioting was almost inevitable.
Hindu processions, playing music in front of a mosque, pipal trees cut to allow
the passing of tazias on Muharram, a Brahman bull wandering into a Muslim
procession, these and numerous other events created outbursts. Such occurrences,
however, were accidental. They happened sporadically and seemed implicit in the
nature of Punjab society.
Into this diverse province the British introduced a new element of communal
conflict and competition-the Christian missionaries. In I839 the missionaries es-
tablished their first headquarters in the Punjab at Ludhiana.10 The Christian mis-
sionaries moved forward with each new British annexation. In i846 mission sta-
tions were opened in Jullundur and in I849 in Lahore. By the eightenn eighties
a network of missions covered the Punjab, from Delhi north to Simla, from Ambala
west to Peshawar, from Lahore south to Multan, and from Peshawar south along
the border to Dera Ghazi Khan. The number of Christian converts rose rapidly
from 3,912 in I88i to over I9,000 a decade later, and by I9OI had reached nearly
38,000.11 While numerically conversions were insignificant, they struck at two seg-
ments of the Hindu social structure-outcastes and upper caste students attending
the newly established Christian schools. The former threatened Hindu society at
its weakest point. Already lost were masses of outcastes who had converted to
Islam and Sikhism. The latter caused the greatest public and private concern, as it

10 Punjab Government, Gazetteer of the Ludhiana District 1888-89 (Calcutta: Calcutta Central
Press Co., n.d.), pp. 74-76; and, Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India, trans. by Sydney
H. Moore (New York: Fleming H. Revell, I908), p. I94.
11 Government of India, Census of India I89I, The Punjab and Its Feudatories, Part I, The
Report. of the Census, by E. D. Maclagan (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, I892), pp. xliv
and Census of India, 1911 Volume XIV, Punjab, Part I, Report, by Pandit Harikishen Kaul (Lahore:
Civil and Military Gazette Press, I9I2), p. I29.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 43

threatened the integrity of the rising H

sary for economic success, but carried with
The missionaries brought both a new aggressiveness and new methods of ac-
tion. They introduced the first printing press in the Punjab and along with it,
the tract, the pamphlet, and the religious newspaper. Missionaries began preaching
in the streets and bazaars and even took part in shastrarths, a form of traditional
religious debate. They developed and maintained a widespread network of schools,
orphanages, medical missions, and introduced the zenana mission designed to
reach women and girls in the seclusion of their homes. The missionary, himself
a disciplined, paid professional preacher, added a new dimension to religious propa-
gation. In short, the Christian missionaries introduced Western institutions and
methods of religious competitiveness. The success of these methods in converting
Indians to Christianity, plus the close ties between missionaries and the govern-
ment, created in the minds of many Indian religious leaders a deep fear of the
"Christian threat," a fear which became one of the major motivating forces for
religious revivalism throughout the Punjab.
It is into this province, traditionally the home of conflicting communities-
communities which were just beginning to adjust to the new world created by
British rule, by Christian missions, and by the impact of Western concepts-that
the ideology of the Arya Samaj was introduced. Swami Dayanand, a wandering
ascetic from central Kathiawar in western India, proclaimed a purified and revived
form of traditional Hinduism. After various attempts to achieve reform by persuad-
ing other Brahmans to accept his ideas, he turned to the literate, semi-Westernized
segment of the Hindu community, and here he found significant support. In I875
he founded the Arya Samaj (Aryan Society) in Rajkot, Gujerat, as an organiza-
tional vehicle to promote his new Hinduism. The Arya Samaj met with limited
success in Gujerat and Maharashtra-widespread support came only in the north,
from the Punjab and the United Provinces. Swami Dayanand arrived in Lahore
on April i9, I877, and left the province I5 months later in July, i878.12 During
this one trip he simplified and reorganized the basic tenets of the Samaj and
founded nine local Samajes.13 He held public meetings, private discussions, and
entered several shastrarths (public debates) with orthodox pandits and Christian
missionaries. While he met with strong and, at times, violent opposition, it was al-
most solely from the forces of Hindu orthodoxy. Seldom did he criticize Islam or
Sikhism, as his main targets, outside of Hinduism, were the Christian mission-
aries.14 Following this trip and up to his death in I883 there was only the begin-
nings of organizational and proselytizing activity by the various Arya Samaj
branches.

12 Har Bilas Sarda, The Life of Dayanand Saraswati, World Teacher (Ajmer: Vedic Yantralaya,
I946), pp. I73-97. 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. Chhaju Bawa Singh, The Life and Teachings of
Swami Dayanand Saraswati (Lahore: Addison Press, I903), pp. 363-66.
14Dayanand contributed to later anti-Islamic agitation when in i88o he published Gaukarunanidhi,
an emotional appeal for the protection of cattle, based on economic grounds rather than spiritual con-
cepts. 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.

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 44 KENNETH W. JONES

The years immediately following the death of Dayanand saw two major changes
in the Samaj: one, the attraction to the movement of young Punjabis who were
to lead and dominate it for the next three decades and, secondly, the development
of a new interpretation of Dayanand. Three men played determinant roles in creat-
ing these new trends: Pandit Guru Datt, Pandit Lekh Ram, and Lala Munshi Ram
(later known as Swami Shraddhanand). Pandit Guru Datt joined the Samaj in his
native Multan on June 20, i88o.15 A brilliant student and writer, he dominated the
small group of students at the Government College, Lahore, a group which included
two future Samaj leaders, Lala Lajpat Rai and Lala Hans Raj."6 Between I885
when he received his M.A. and his death in i89o, Guru Datt played an increasing
role in the reinterpretation of Dayanand that began after his death. In his writings
and public speeches Guru Datt stressed the religious nature of Dayanand's work;
for him, Dayanand was not merely a reformer but a rishi, or saint, on par with the
sages of ancient India, while the Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth), Dayan-
and's main polemical and ideological work, became a sacred text to be followed
without question.'1 In Guru Datt there was a growing, emotionalism and an intense
religious fervor. He turned his attention increasingly to the propagation of Arya
Samaj tenets. In i888, he founded an Updeshak class to train ministers and the
following year began the Vedic Magazine as a vehicle for publicizing his views.18
Guru Datt's main contribution to the Samaj was ideological. His elaboration of
the Aryan conceptualization of the past counteracted Western scholarly interpreta-
tion of the Vedic period as well as orthodox views of traditional Hinduism. In
addition, he carried on Dayanand's struggle with Christian missionaries and criti-
cized Sikh leaders and Sikh ideology. Guru Datt became the leader of a devoted
and worshipful group who accepted him as their spiritual guide. These disciples-
socially radical and religiously militant-soon began to press for changes in both
the direction and methods of the Samaj.
The second figure in this group of radicals, Lala Munshi Ram, was born in
Jullundur District in I856.'9 Young Munshi Ram came to Lahore in I882 to sudy
for the law examinations,20 accepted Guru Datt's leadership and, in I885, joined
the Arya Samaj.2' Munshi Ram returned to Jullundur and became president of the
local Arya Samaj. This Samaj provided him with a base of power and strength for the
next two decades. Munshi Ram, like Guru Datt, was a religious militant and, as such,
soon experimented with new methods to promote Samaj ideology. Under Munshi

15 A brief biography of Guru Datt's life can be found in Guru Datt, Wisdom of the Rishis or
Works of Pt. Gurudatta Vidyarthi M.A. (Delhi: Sarvadeshik Pustakalaya, n.d.), pp. i-vi; a more
extensive coverage is in Lajpat Rai, Life and Works of Pandit Guru Dutta Vidyarthi M.A. (Lahore:
Virajanand Press, I89I), and The Works of the Late Pandit Gurudatta Vidyarthi, M.A., with a
Biographical Sketch (Lahore: The Arya Printing, Publishing and Trading Co., Ltd., I9I2).
16 See Guru Datt, Wisdom of the Rishis, p. iii, Guru Datt, Life and Works, p. 20, and Ruchi Ram
Sahni, "Self Revelations of an Octogenarian" (Unpublished manuscript in the Punjab State Archives),
p. I27, and M. R. Jambunathan, Swami Shraddhanand (Bombay: Vidya Bhavan, I96I), p. 94.
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. 4I. He again went to Lahore to study law in I885, see p. 62.
21 Ibid., P. 49.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 45

Ram's leadership the Jullundur Samaj pioneered in missionary work. Money was
collected through the sale of surplus grain, donated by each Arya household, Nagar
Kirtan or street processions accompanied by devotional singing were instituted,
and Aryas, including Munshi Ram, began to travel to the surrounding villages
in search of converts.22 At the Hindu celebration of Dusehra the Jullundur Samaj
publicly challenged the Christian missionaries with lectures and an open display
of Samaj symbols. Munshi Ram reports that "Intense propaganda was carried on
there on behalf of the Arya Samaj ... Even the sons of Zamindars and Sowcars
who were wasting their lives in vice were moved by our lectures. The two or three
Hindu boys who were attending Christian lectures also came of their own accord
to our camp. That year's Christian propaganda was a distinct failure."
In I888-I889 Munshi Ram took two important steps toward more effective propa-
gation of Arya Samaj ideology. He founded the Sat Dharam Pracharak (Herald of
the True Religion), an Urdu weekly,24 and toward the end of I889 he started the
Doab Updeshak Mandal (Doab Missionary Circle).25 Munshi Ram also advocated
the use of shuddhi-a form of traditional purification ceremony-to reconvert
Hindus from Islam or Christianity.26 The activities of both Guru Datt and Munshi
Ram came increasingly into conflict with the more conservative members of the
Samaj. The conservatives were primarily interested in the educational movement
begun in I883. By i886 the Samaj had succeeded in opening a high school in Lahore
and three years later college classes were added. This was the basis for the Dayanand
Anglo-Vedic educational movement that spread throughout northern India and as
far south as Maharashtra. Both "radicals" and "conservatives" participated in this
movement, but gradually the Lala Hans Raj-Lajpat Rai faction gained control and
the radicals found themselves gradually excluded from positions of leadership in
educational affairs.
A third leader of this group of young radicals was Pandit Lekh Ram. Born
in the village of Sayydpur in the district of Jhelum,27 educated there and later in
Rawalpindi, he did not share in the Western education that was typical of most
Samaj leaders, nor did he travel to Lahore and partake of the new culture de-
veloping in that city. He became interested in the Arya Samaj while living in
Peshawar and in i88o traveled to Ajmere to meet Dayanand. Bold, aggressive,
outspoken, Lekh Ram knew both Persian and Arabic which he used with deadly
effect in his later career. Unlike Dayanand or Guru Datt, his prime opponent was
not orthodox Hinduism or Christianity, but Islam. Growing up in a Muslim area
and serving under Muslim officers in the police, Lekh Ram reacted by becoming
self-consciously and militantly Hindu. From the beginning he entered into activi-
ties which were either directly or indirectly anti-Muslim. When he joined the
Samaj in i88o he took up three causes: (i) cow protection, (2) the advocacy of
22 Ibid., pp. 78-79, 103-04, II2, II5.
23 Ibid., p. 78.
24 Ibid., p. ioi.
25 Ibid., p. I25.
26 Ibid., p. II2.
27 Ram Chandra Javed, Arya Sama; ke Mahd Purush (Jalandhar: Yiinivarsiti Pablisharz [I954]
p. 6o. Javed contains a short basic biography of Lekh Ram, as does Baliddn-Jayantzi-Smriti-Grant
(Jalandhar: Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Panjab, I962); for a somewhat longer and more detailed biography
see, Swam; Shraddhanand, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Rdm, Jivan-Charitra (Jalandhar: Arya Pra-
tinidhi Sabha Panjab, n.d.)

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 46 KENNETH W. JONES

Hindi as a medium of inst

propaganda. In I884 he left the police service in order to devote his full time to
the Samaj,28 and soon afterward he came into conflict with Mirza Ghulam Ah-
mad, founder of the Ahmadiyas.

The Ahmadiya movement has many close parallels with the Arya Samaj. It too
was concerned with modernizing and reinterpreting a religious tradition, this
time Islam, and it too became involved in serious competition with orthodox Islam,
with the Christian missionaries and with a variety of reformist societies in all three
religious communities. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad proclaimed himself both the Madhi
of Islam and the Messiah of Christianity. He began to proselytize in i879 but did
not become prominent until the later eighteen eighties.29 It was inevitable that an
aggressive Islamic movement would clash severely with both Christians and Aryas,
but the struggle that developed between Lekh Ram and Mirza Ghulam took a
personal quality that went beyond ideological animosity. Their conflict took the
form of a pamphlet war, a war maintained with increasing violence until Lekh
Ram's death in i897.30 In I885 Lekh Ram visited Qadian, the home of the Ahma-
diya movement.31 Here he preached publicly against the Ahmadiyas and managed
to found a branch of the Arya Samaj. In I887 he accepted the editorship of the
Urdu paper, the Arya Gazette published in Ferozepore.32 For two years he re-
mained as editor and during this period became known throughout the Arya Samaj
for his writings as a combative exponent of Arya tenets.
By i888 the militant wing of the Arya Samaj intensified its criticism of the
three great enemies: the "kernanis," "kuranis," and "puranis"-Christians, Mus-
lims and orthodox Hindus.3 In addition, there was considerable anti-Sikh agita-
tion throughout the late eighteen eighties. Pandit Guru Datt chose the eleventh
anniversary celebration of the Lahore Samaj to publicly attack Sikhism. His speech
met with approval of the majority, but resulted in immediate loss of Sikh support
for the Arya Samaj. Bhai Jawahi Singh, Vice President of the Lahore Samaj,
Bhai Dit Singh Gyani and Bhai Maya Singh left and later joined the Singh Sabha
movement.4 Competition between the Arya Samaj and Singh Sabhas for the com-
mitment of Sikh intellectuals developed and is reminiscent of the earlier struggle

28 Shraddhanand, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Ram, pp. 24-25.

29 Several accounts of the Ahmadiyas can be found in the following places: Wilfred Cantwell
Smith, Modern Islam in India; J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India (New York:
Macmillian Co., I915), pp. I37-38; Stephan Fuchs, Rebellious Prophets, A Study of Messianic Move-
ments in Indian Religions (London: Asia Publishing House, I965), pp. I98-207; and, H. A. Walters,
The Ahmadiya Movement (London: Humphrey Milford, I9I8). A self-view is available in Hazrat
Bas Hir-ud-din Mahmud Ahmad, The Ahmadiyya Movement (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette
Press, I924) and a statement of basic Ahmadiya beliefs is given in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Kashf-ul-
Ghita (Lahore: The Victoria Press, I898), pp. 6-7.
30 Lekh Ram published 32 works. A full list of these can be found in the Arya Musafir, 1, No. 3,
December I898.
31 Shraddhanand, Dharmvir Pandit Lekh Rdm, pp. 30-3 I.
32 Ibid., P. 35.
33 John Morrison, New Ideas in India during the Nineteenith Century, A Study of Social, Political,
and Religious Developments (Edinburgh: George A. Morton, I906), p. I37.
34 Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, edited by Ganda Singh (Calcutta: Sikh Cultural
Center, I965), pp. 58 and I36; Khushwant Singh, History, Vol. II, I43-44.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 47

between the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj. In i889 Radh Kishen, a promi-
nent Arya, published Granthiphobia, a highly critical review of Sikhism,35 while
Lekh Ram and Guru Datt continued these attacks, using the newspapers they
controlled as effective means of expression. Street preaching, in which the Sikh
Gurus were denounced as "illiterate, self-conceited and hypocritical," did much
to embitter relations between Aryas and Sikhs.36 Yet in the later years there was
often close cooperation between Sikh and Arya organizations and the total picture
of Sikh-Arya relations,37 as with the problem of overall relations between Sikhs
and Hindus, is still unclear; however, relations between Aryas and other groups
were quite explicit.
The eighteen eighties saw a gradual worsening of relations between Hindus
and Muslims, between Aryas and non-Aryas. Modern methods of communication
and organization, coupled with rising literacy, created an increased potentiality
for ideological debate. The printing press became a major weapon of religious
controversy. Books, pamphlets, and periodicals appeared in a widening stream
which carried in it the rising consciousness of communal identity. The Arya Sa-
maj participated in this revolution of communications. Aryas founded a series of
newspapers, as did their opponents. Samaj missionaries and volunteers proclaimed
the new gospel in the cities and towns of the province. They preached in the ba-
zaars and on street corners, marched with songs and banners throughout towns
and cities, and publicly debated with their critics at religious fairs wherever they
were held. Arya aggressiveness met with opposition from protective associations
of Muslims orthodox Hindus and Sikhs, as well as from aggressive sects, such as
the Dev Samaj38 and the Ahmadiyas.
During the period from I889 to I89I the Samaj, led by Munshi Ram, began
to consider using a new type of institution, shuddhi, or purification. In its earliest
forms shuddhi was aimed at reconverting Hindus from either Christianity or Islam.
Later it was broadened to include the conversion of non-Hindus and even those
whose ancestors had never been Hindus. Also, it was used as an institution for
caste reform. Outcaste groups could, through shuddhi, be purified and raised to
the level of the twice-born, or pure caste Hindus. Although earlier cases of shuddhi
occurred,39 it was not until I89I that regular reports began to appear. At this time

35 G. S. Chhabra, The Advanced History of the Panjab, Vol. II (Ludhiana: Parkash Brothers, I962),
360; Government of India, Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers Published in the Punjab,
Received up to 6 January 1890, Vol. III, 342; Khair Khwah-i-Kashmir, August 6, I889, p. 366; Khair
Khawah-i-Kashmir, September i, I889, p. 434; Bharat Sudhar, October i9, I889.
36 Ganga Singh, "The Origin of the Hindu-Sikh Tension in the Punjab," journal of Indian
History, XXXIX (April, I96I), I20-23, 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 I4, i888.
37 Tribune, February i8, I893, p. 4; April 8, I893, p. 4. Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab,
Report Srimati Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, for the Year I896-I897 (n.p., n. pub., n.d.), p. 39.
38 The Dev Samaj was founded in I887 by an ex-Brahmo, Pandit Shiv Narain Agnihotri. For
accounts of this movement, see, Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements, pp. I73-82; Chhaora,
Advanced History, Vol. II, 36I-62; P. V. Kanal, Bhagwan Dev Atma (Lahore: Dev Samaj Book Depot,
I942). Kanal's work is a biography of Pandit Agnihotri.
39Dayanand 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. I96-97.

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 48 KENNETH W. JONES

the institution was still new

of the more conservative leade
his, and many in the Samaj i
munity. By I893, the Samaj
ceremony to have the newly
by all present.41 By this tim
in the performance of shuddh

The growing militancy appa

was echoed by growing stra
cated this militancy and thos
less emotional and less relig
groups clashed over the presidency of the new Dayanand Anglo-Vedic
College.43 At this time the conservatives, led by Lala Sain Das, Lala Hans
Raj and Lala Lajpat Rai, won-but the Guru Datt-Munshi Ram faction continued
to advocate their own program. This internal competition subsided somewhat with
the death of Guru Datt in I890 but was revived again as Lala Munshi Ram took
the position of leadership left vacant on Guru Datt's death. Tensions within the
Samaj broke into an open struggle for power in I893, with the conservative wing
retaining control over the college movement, its organizational structure and physi-
cal assets, while the radicals, led by Lala Munshi Ram and Pandit Lekh Ram,
captured the provincial organization, the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of the Punjab,
and a majority of the local Samaj branches.44
With this split two important developments took place. First, the radical wing
was freed to follow their own policies and was no longer restrained by the more
conservative elements, elements now almost solely concerned with the Dayanand
Anglo-Vedic College movement. Second, the radicals, after deciding to end their
support of the college, needed to find new avenues of activity. They came out of
the contest with an organization but no cause to take up the energies and re-
sources of that organization. As victors, they possessed an organization without
a cause, resources without goals. The resulting vacuum was filled by Ved Prachar,
the preaching of the Vedas, and missionary work replaced education as the major
40 Initially the Samaj used Brahmans and traditional purification ceremonies, acting merely as sponsors
for the shuddhi ceremony, but by I 893 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.
J. Reid Graham, "The Arya Samaj, As a Reformation in Hinduism with Special Reference to Caste"
(unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, I942), p. 464.
41 Tribune, February I8, I893, 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 Ram Sharma, Mahatma Hans Raj, Maker of Modern Punjab (Lahore: Arya Pradeshak Pratinidhi
Sabha, 1941), p. 53. See footnote 44, below, for additional references.
44A wide variety of views on this division of the Samaj are available. Some of the more com-
prehensive are: Lala Laipat Rai, Laipat Rai Autobiographical Writings, ed. by Vijaya Chandra Joshi
(Delhi: University Publishers, I965), pp. 46-72; Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India,
p. 124; Sharma, Mahatma Hans Raj, pp. 57-68; Charles H. Heimsath, Indian Nationalism and Hindu
Social Reform (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I964), pp. 295-96; Kenneth W. Jones, "The
Arya Samaj in the Punjab: A Study of Social Reform and Religious Revivalism, x877-1902" (un-
published Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1966), pp. II3-14, ii6-i8, 143-45, I7X-78.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 49

goal of the radicals. In June I894 the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, now under radical
control officially, decided to cease supporting the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College
movement. A Ved Prachar committee and fund were begun.45 The casual sending
of updeshaks (missionaries) was now organized and put on a systematic basis. By
I895-96 the entire province, plus Sind and Baluchistan, had been divided into
Mandals (Circles) with an officer-in-charge and paid ministers for each circle.
Every updeshak was expected to make a ten-month circuit of his mandal, visiting
all towns and cities in it. The officer-in-charge reported to the Arya Pratinidhi
Sabha which places were visited and when. It was the duty of the ministers to
aid the local Samajes and particularly to be available to refute and hold public dis-
cussions with missionaries of other religions. Also, he was to aid in performing
shuddhi ceremonies, since some of the smaller Samajes did not have the resources
or confidence to engage in this activity.46
This system was difficult to maintain, and the elaborate organizational struc-
ture created by Samaj planners was never fully translated into reality. Thirty full-
time ministers were needed, plus extensive funds and supporting activities. While
the ideal number of missionaries could not be found, the Samaj did provide a core
of professionals whose effectiveness was augmented by considerable volunteer and
part-time work. Money was collected for the Ved Prachar Fund, using the skill
and sophistication developed previously in the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College
movement. The radicals opened a central tract department to supply Arya mis-
sionaries with a wide variety of literature, adopting successfully the patterns of
organization introduced by the Christian missions. Although few in number, the
Samaj missionaries spread throughout the province. They toured branch societies, ap-
peared at religious fairs, participated in public debates, and preached in bazaars
and in the streets, providing an expertise and presence that greatly strengthened
the entire sphere of Arya activities.4

This emphasis on proselytizing resulted in the establishment of new branch

samajes and in the rise of the number of shuddhis performed. With the division
of the Arya Samaj the debate over shuddhi had ended and, after i893, reconversion
became one of the major activities of the radical wing. The Aryas were not alone
in their desire to protect themselves from Christian and Islamic campaigns of con-
version. Allies appeared from within the Sikh community. During the early eight-
een nineties a Shuddhi Sabha had been founded in Lahore by both Sikhs and
Aryas.48 This organization, along with the Samaj and the Singh Sabhas, performed
a growing number of purifications.49 The Lahore Tribune reported two shuddhis in

45The Punjab Ved Prachar Fund received Rs. iI,ooo in donations during the I895-96 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 I895-96, p. 48.
46 Ibid., pp. Io-II.
47 Ibid., pp. 7-12, 34, 4I-43; Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab, Report of the Arya Pratinidhi
Sabha, Punjab, for the Year I896-I897, pp. 9-I2; 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 I873. The initial Sabha was largely con-
cerned with defending Sikhism from Hindu and Christian criticism. In I879 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, Khushwant Singh,
History, Vol. II, I4I-44, or Chhabra, Advanced History, pp. 380-85.

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 50 KENNETH W. JONES

I89I and two in 1892. The num

226 in i896.50 The sudden increase in I896 grew out of the change from individual
to group reconversions. The Shuddhi Sabha of Lahore purified several small
groups, five in March, six in April, and nine in June. Then in August it took the
radical step of purifying a family of over two-hundred outcaste Sikhs.5- Hence-
forth shuddhhi functioned both as a weapon of conversion and a method of social
reform. Because the Shuddhi Sabha and the Singh Sabhas were largely under Sikh
control, the Arya Samaj lessened its cooperation with them. More and more the
Samaj acted on its own in an attempt to insure that the reconverted would them-
selves become Samaj members.
Growing Samaj independence within the shuddhi movement contributed to
rising Sikh self-consciousness. In I900 the Arya Samaj purified a group of outcaste
Rahtia Sikhs and as part of the ceremony shaved their heads and beards, trans-
forming them into pure caste Hindus. Many in the Sikh community now saw
Aryan reconversion as a direct threat, potentially as dangerous as Christian or Is-
lamic conversion. Disillusionment with the Arya Samaj paralleled Sikh question-
ing of their identity vis-a-vis Hinduism.52 Beginning in I897 letters appeared in the
Lahore Tribune which raised the question of "Are Sikhs Hindus?" A public de-
bate ensued which generated a series of books, pamphlets and letters supporting
a wide variety of opinions on Sikh-Hindu relations. No consensus was reached,
but by I9oo Sikhs were less and less willing to class themselves automatically with
the Hindu community.53
The shuddhi movement acted on relations between Hindus and Muslims, not
to clarify overlapping identities, as with Hindus and Sikhs, but to reenforce existing
communal separatism. The record of individual shuddhis illustrates a preponderance
of reconversions from Islam. In I893 thirteen were reconverted from Islam, two
from Christianity."4 As Samaj attention focused on the purification of outcastes
a vast section of the Islamic community became available for proselytization and
reconversion. The rising radicalism of the Samaj, plus its growing organizational

50 Accounts of individual and group shuddhis have been taken from the Lahore Tribune. The
Selections from 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 I895-I 896, p. 27, states that Arya papers listed I5 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, I896, p. 4; July I, I896, p. 4; September 2, I896, p. 4.
52 Tribune, August 31, I9OI, p. i; Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, p. i63.
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, I897, and entire
years of I899-I900. 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 I900, Tribtune, 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, I899, pp. 3-4, and the pamphlet
Hum Hindu Nahin by Bhai Kaha Singh of Nabha. See Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, p.
137, and Khushwant Singh, History, Vol. II, I46-47. 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, I900, pp. 2-3.
54 Lahore Tribune for I 897.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 51

strength, combined to turn Arya against Muslim, and to reinforce existing com-
munal divisions.
The Arya contributions to the worsening of inter-communal relations can be
illustrated best by Pandit Lekh Ram's career as a militant defender of the new
Aryan faith. Beginning with a strongly anti-Muslim bias, Lekh Ram made a career
of his prejudice. During his life he wrote 32 books and pamphlets on religious
subjects, many of which were violently critical of Islam.55 Examples can be seen
in his Takzib-e-Burahin Ahmadiya (Refutation of the Ahmadiya Arguments);
Volume I subtitled "A Gun-fire to break the flanks and tyranny of Mohammad's
Islam." Takzib-e-Burahin was published in response to a book authored by Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad, and was the beginning of a lengthy pamphlet debate between
the two religious leaders. Lekh Ram also wrote Nuskha-e-Khabt-e-Ahmadiya (A
Prescription for the Madness of Ahmadiyas), Radd-e-Khilaat-e-Islam (Rejection
of the Islamic Robe of Honor), Ibtal-e-Bashart Ahmadiya (Refutation of Ahma-
diya Statements), and his most famous anti-Islamic work, Jihad or the Basis of
Mohammadi Religion.5O In lihad Lekh Ram maintained that Islam was a religion of
violence and tryanny, which engaged in holy war only as an excuse for the seizure
of booty, women, children and slaves. He traced the rise of Islam throughout the
world and particularly in India, seeing it as a bloody tale of slaughter and destruction.
The activities of Lekh Ram outraged all segments of the Muslim community-
orthodox, Ahmadiya, and reform. He was threatened with law suits by Muslims
from Bombay and Lahore, and was attacked in Muslim, Sikh and Christian news-
papers. He was accused again and again of using insulting and vile language in
referring to Islam. The threat of legal action and public criticisms of Lekh Ram
did not intimidate him and in I896 a court case lodged against him by several Mus-
lims was dismissed.57 There appeared no legal way of silencing his constant attacks,
but one method did bring an end to his career, violence; on March 6, I897, while
staying in Lahore, Pandit Lekh Ram was assassinated.58
The next few months saw the welling up of hatreds and fears usually hidden
below the surface of normal life. Within three days of Lekh Ram's assassination,
Lala Rala Ram, an Arya Samaj leader in Peshawar, was reported murdered.59 Ru-
mors spread throughout the province that all leading Aryas would be assassinated and
that Muslims were conspiring to kill Sikh and Hindu leaders of the Shuddhi
Sabhai6? Reports from both the Hindu and Muslim communities exacerbated the
tense situation. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who had predicted that Lekh Ram would
die a sudden death, was stated to be jubilant over the fulfillment of his prophecy.61
55 See footnote 30.
56 Pandit Lekh Ram, Jihad, or the Basis of the Mohammedi Religion (n.p., n. pub., I892).
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, I896; Chaudhwin Sadhi,
September 23, I896.
58The 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, I82, Bharat Sewak, March Io, I897. 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 I3, I 897, p. 4.
61 Government of India, Selections from the Vernactular Newspapers Published in the Punjab,
Vol. XI, i8o-8i, Bharat Sudhar, March I3, I897. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had first prophesied the death
of Lekh Ram on February 2o, i886, and he repeated prophecy on February 20, I893.

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 52 KENNETH W. JONES

Rumors of impending Hindu revenge spread rapidly and were accompanied by

instances of violence. On March 27, a Muslim meeting hall was burnt, Muslim
editors were threatened and a growing number of poisoning cases reported, usually
poisonings of Muslims by Hindu food vendors.62 Both communities urged their
members to cut all economic relations with the opposing community.03 There
was a sudden rending of the social fabric by a deliberate move toward communal
independence and self-sufficiency.
Within three months, the more violent passions had quieted and on the surface
life returned once more to its normal channels. Yet the assassination was not for-
gotten. Rumors continued and in November, when Lekh Ram's assassin was sup-
posedly arrested, signs of unrest returned in an aftershock to the earlier quake.64
For the Samaj and particularly the radical section, Lekh Ram was a martyr.65 He
was the latest in a long list of FHindus who had fallen fighting the arch enemy,
Islam. His memory was revered and his communal aggressiveness carefully main-
tained. The legacy of Pandit Lekh Ram left a permanent anti-Muslim bias in the
Arya Samaj, a bias that was to find added justification in the coming years. The
Arya-Muslim clashes of the eighteen eighties and eighteen nineties were seen, in
retrospect, as forerunners of the Hindu-Muslim struggles of the twentieth century.
The divisions within British India that were stimulated in part by Arya Samaj
activity returned to legitimize Samaj attitudes underlying those same divisions.
Because the Arya Samaj helped to set Hindus against Muslims, later Hindu-
Muslim rivalry proved the correctness of Aryan attitudes. The spiral of growing com
munal tension had begun and once in existence tended to feed on itself.

The Arya Samaj contribution to this climate of communalism was immense

and varied. The Samaj provided an ideology of militant Hinduism that had a
wide appeal to Punjabi Hindus. As a minority community who, in the past, ex-
perienced Muslim and Sikh rule and who suffered from the effects of proselytization
by Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians, Punjabi Hindus needed a new ideology to unify
and defend their community. The aggressive stance of the Arya Samaj, its insistance
on the unique and superior qualities of Hinduism, and its willingness to do battle
for acceptance of these claims provided such an ideology. The Samaj differed sharply
in these qualities from the syncretistic and overtly Western Brahmo Samaj, a
difference which accounts for the rapid decline of the Punjab Brahmo Samaj after
1877.66
Building on the techniques of Christian missionaries, of the Brahmo Samaj,
and on elements of traditional culture, the Arya Samaj added a new and extremely

62 Ibid., p. 295; Sada-i-Hind, April I2, I897; Paisa Akhbar, April I9, I897, p. 317; Punjab
Samachar, May 8, I897, p. 370.
63 Ibid., p. 203; Paisa Akhbar, March I7, I897; Nazim-ul-Hind, May 22, I897, p. 423.
64 Tribune, November 17, I897, p. 4; November 27, I897, 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-layanti-Smriti-Granth (Jalandhar: Arya Pratinidhi Sabha Panjab
1962) which lists Samaj martyrs. The Arya Musafir, a monthly journal, was founded by Lala Munshi
Ram in October i 898 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 Kenneth W. Jones, "The Bengali Elite in Post-Annexation Punjab" The Indian Economic and
Social History Review, Vol. III, No. 4 (December I966), 382-83.

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 COMMUNALISM IN THE PUNJAB 53

significant dimension to the Hindu re

dharm, a conversion religion. No longer did the Hindu community face threats
of conversion empty handed. Shuddhi provided the capacity for defense and of-
fense. Aryan efforts to proselytize, convert, educate and reform were supported
by a variety of modern and traditional techniques. Contemporary forms of com-
munications, sophisticated methods of fund raising and organization enabled the
Samaj to effectively mobilize support for its programs. The Samaj stood boldy in
defense of Hinduism, but only in its Aryan reinterpretation.
The initial Samaj impact on the Hindu community was divisive, pitting mili-
tant reformers against the orthodoxy. But with the increasing polarization of the
Indian world between Hindus and Muslims, the Samaj moved closer to its past
enemies. Shuddhi received tacit approval of the pandits, Samaj insistance on the
glories of Arya Bhasha (Hindi) and Ved Bhasha (Sanskrit) was echoed by lead-
ing orthodox figures, while many of the reforms demanded by Aryas were in
later years accepted. Writing in I939, Ganga Prasad, a leading Arya, commented
that, "Forty years ago the Arya Samaj was looked upon as a great defiler of the
Hindu religion by bringing in an alloy from outside. Today the Arya Samajist
is counted as a great defender of the faith."67 With the blending of Aryas and
orthodox, the forces of Hindu communalism possessed a modernized identity based
on a reinterpreted tradition. This new consciousness possessed a variety of tech-
niques to defend and maintain itself from external challenges. The concepts and
forms that appealed to a defensive Hindu minority of the Punjab found accept-
ance throughout much of north India among both reform- and orthodox-minded
Hindus who shared a similar Islamic past and Christian present.
While Arya Samaj ideology and techniques were exported from the Punjab,
within that province communal identity was greatly strengthened by Samaj activi-
ties. By the eighteen nineties, the Punjab possessed an impressive array of societies,
sects, and organizations-Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh-orthodox, heterodox and
reform, each with its own ideology and program, each caught up in a struggle
with one or more opponents. These organizations were fully equipped with news-
papers, tracts and ministers to publicize their programs, to seek converts, and to con-
demn their opponents. Modern communications and organizational techniques had
been widely accepted and, with this acceptance, came a hardening of religious divi-
sions. Doctrinaire controversy rapidly increased throughout the province.
The three major communities exhibited a growing insistence on their "rights,"
such as the "right" to kill cows or to play music anywhere at any time. Activities
in the past which had sporadically resulted in violence were now openly practiced
and even flaunted before the opposing community. Offense was intended and was
taken. Converts and reconverts represented victories over an opponent and each was
celebrated with due publicity. This attitude of provocation and retaliation resulted in
a steady rise in communal violence68 and, by I897, the divisions between Hindus
and Muslims had hardened. Patterns of conflict became institutionalized; provoca-
67 Ganga Prasad, Swami Dayanand's Contribution to Hindu Solidarity (Allahabad: Arya Samaj,
Religious Renaissance Series No. 2, I939), p. II9.
68 The annual number of riots increased from 653 in I89I-92 to 855 in I896-97. Times of Ind
Overland Edition, September 25, I897, as quoted in John R. McLane, "The Development of Nationalist
Ideas and Tactics and the Policies of the Government of India, I897-I905" (unpublished Ph.D. dis-
sertation, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, I96I), p. 62.

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 54 KENNETH W. JONES
tion produced set responses. W
now became explicit. Tensions might increase or decrease, but beneath the surface
fears, suspicions and hatreds remained. The existent divisions of Punjab society
between religion, language, and script were deepened. By I900 communalism be-
came the dominant form of identity in the Punjab. This does not mean that one
form of identity dominated a religious community, that all Hindus were Aryas,
or all Muslims Ahmadiyas, but that in one form or another religious identification
tended to receive greater loyalty than any type of secular identity.69 The resulting
religious competition so pre-empted the consciousness and energy of Punjabs that
external issues received little attention and little commitment. Religious identity
dominated and Punjabis became lost in a world of their own creation, emerging
only when an overriding national issue penetrated their communal consciousness.

69Norman G. Barrier has noted the weakness of nationalist commitment among Punjabi Hindus
in his article, "The Arya Samaj and Congress Politics in the Punjab, I894-I908," The Journal of
Asian Studies, XXVI, No. 3 (May I967), 363-79.

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