The Babbar Akali movement was a 1921 splinter group of "militant" Sikhs who broke away from the mainstream Akali movement over the latter's insistence on non-violence over the matter of the restoration of Khalsa Raj (Sikh rule) in Punjab as under the prior Sikh Empire[9] as well as gurdwara reforms in restoring pre-colonial gurdwara environments.[10]
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The original Akali movement was established to peacefully get control of gurdwaras from heredity mahants (priests) who were accused of enriching themselves.[1] The Akalis took vows of non-violence and observed them; at Tarn Taran and Nankana Sahib in early 1921, however, the priests' hired security killed a number of Sikhs. This resulted in the radicalization of the people who would form the core group of the Babbar Akalis.[1] The Battle of Babeli was fought by this movement. The group takes its name from merging two Punjabi words, “Babbar” meaning Tiger and the Akali being the military order of the Sikhs known as the Akalis, also known as The Immortals or Nihangs, who under the Sikh Empire had been led by the fiercely anti-British Akali Phula Singh, who also served as a mentor and close advisor in the court of Sikh King Maharaja Ranjit Singh.[11]
Front page of an issue of 'Babar Sher', 12 March 1926 issue. This issue reports an interview of six Babbar Akalis a day before their martyrdom.
The militant unit was established as Chakravarti Shaheedi Dal (Sovereign Martyrdom Brigade) in September 1920, later evolving into the Babbar Akali movement. By 1922, they had organized themselves into a military group and began killing British officers, informers, government officials, and ex-officials.[10] They also published an illegal newspaper describing British exploitation of India. It was declared an unlawful association by the British in April 1923.[12] They used religious imagery and discussed the loss of Sikh sovereignty in the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars, which helped them enjoy popular support. The Babbar Akali movement recruited from World War I veterans dissatisfied with broken land grant promises and former members of the Ghadar Party.[10] Many of its members who were suspected of being involved in the Punjab police bombing conspiracy case were killed in police encounters and 67 were taken alive and "5 were sentenced to death, 11 to transportation for life and 38 to various terms of imprisonment" in only the Punjab conspiracies situation.[13]Babbar Khalsa International was established in an attempt to emulate the Babbar Akalis.
^Choudhary, Darshan Lal; Choudhary, D. L. (1986). Violence in the freedom movement of Punjab: 1907-1942. Delhi: B. R. Publ. Corp. ISBN978-81-7018-332-7.
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