Following Gandhi's pressure on Ambedkar to abandon his demand for separate electorates for Dalits in British India, through a fast that carried an implicit threat of mass violence against Dalits should the fast prove fatal. Ambedkar relented as violence against Dalits gripped the nation. Three years after the demand's defeat, on October 13, 1935, at the Yeola conference of the depressed classes, he made a solemn declaration: though he had been born a Hindu untouchable, he would not die one:

>"I solemnly assure you that I will not die a Hindu"

This rightly came as 'a thunderbolt', for it rocked political parties and social institutions in India. It was not simply a question of Ambedkar's personal choice for spiritual or religious reasons. He exhorted his followers to change their religion en masse:

>"You have nothing to lose except your chains, and everything to gain by changing your religion"

This made it a political question. Leading figures from other religions approached Ambedkar separately, inviting him to convert to their religion and promising different rewards. After serious thought and consultations with many people, Ambedkar decided in June 1936 to embrace Sikhism along with his followers. The leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and Shankracharya Kurtakoti approved. Ambedkar argued that conversion to Sikhism was the best choice from the Hindus' standpoint. After participating in the Sikh Missionary conference at Amritsar in April, Ambedkar sent his son, Yashwant Rao, and nephew to the Golden Temple in May, where they stayed for one and a half months to observe the situation and meet with community leaders. On September 18, a group of 13 followers was deputed to visit Amritsar to meet the 'Sikh Mission'. There was already an understanding that the Sikh Mission would start a college in Bombay in the interest of those Depressed Classes who would convert to Sikhism.

The Historical Reasons Explaining Why This Failed:

1. The Resistance of the Political Establishment: The first involved a rethinking of, and opposition to, the move among the Sikh political class. It was inevitable that the leading men of the Sikh political parties would consider their own fate and position in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Gurdwaras after six crore (60 million) untouchables became Sikhs. Sardar Kapur Singh offers this evidence in his well-known but controversial book, Saachi Sakhi. According to him, there was an apprehension that once Ambedkar became a Sikh with all his followers, no one from the existing Sikh leaders like Baldev Singh would be nominated to the Viceroy's executive council as a representative of the Sikh community. Master Tara Singh and his supporters had to consider their position, as well as that of other leaders in the Sikh community, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the SGPC, and control of gurdwaras. Kapur Singh recounted a story Sardar Inder Singh Karwal, an advocate and Akali leader, told to a small gathering of advocates in the bar room of the Punjab High Court at Chandigarh in September 1964. He stated that, because of differences between Akali leaders and Ambedkar, the six crore untouchables publicly dropped the idea of adopting the Sikh religion. He asked his neighbor in Lahore, Sardar Harnam Singh Jhalla, MA, LLB, advocate (judge of the High Court), who was then a prominent Akali leader, the real reason for this 'tragedy'. Sardar Harnam Singh then replied, "Oh, you don't have an understanding of these matters. By making six crore of untouchables, Sikhs, should we hand over the Darbar Sahib to Chuhras?" 'This way,' says Kapur Singh, 'six crore of Rangretas - Guru Ka-Betas - who had come to the door of the Guru were pushed out; the same way as Guru Tegh Bahadur was not allowed to enter Harimandir Sahib (Golden Temple).' But, according to him, the actual truth of the matter is even "more crude and despicable". His argument is that when the 'Akali party' understood the full implications of six crores untouchables entering the Sikh community, they unanimously devised a strategy to deal with this 'emergency'. Then "they unanimously decided that Ambedkar and his follower untouchables must be dissuaded and stopped from becoming Sikhs for all time". Master Tara Singh, whose leadership of the Sikh community was threatened by Ambedkar's entry, sent Sardar Sujan Singh to Bombay 'with specific instructions' to tell Ambedkar 'clearly' the mind of the Akali leaders, so that he would drop the idea.
2. Allies in the Babbar Akalis and Red Akalis: The second involved the British. Ambedkar considered converting to Sikhism for a few reasons. Primarily, it was Sikhism's theological abolition of caste. Now, in practice, there was plenty of caste discrimination in the Sikh community, but theologically Sikhism was the most anti-caste religion, and theologically it was completely forbidden and abolished. Moreover, in pre-1947 Punjab, endogamy between castes was much more fluid in the Sikh community and was more class-based compared to the rest of Hindu and even Muslim/Christian India (though it was still plenty caste-based and the discrimination of untouchable castes was very real). Furthermore, within the SGPC, a fierce battle raged over this issue and many others. The more radical left (Kirti Akalis, also known as the "Red Akalis") and the more religiously zealous men in the Akali Dal and SGPC, who were much more militant and much more committed to the Caste-abolition goals of Sikhi, saw this as an opportunity to dislodge Sikhi of the "Heresy" of the mahant-backed administration of the gurdwaras and the capture of the party by "Landlord Raj"; as was stated by Master Mota Singh, the leader of the Babbar Akali faction of the SGPC. These Babbar Akalis grew skeptical of the Sikh community's reigning leaders. They were much closer to the radical socialist Ghadar tradition floating around at the time, with many of these "Babbar Akalis" either joining or associating with Kirti Communists (the Ghadar Party's successor in Punjab), such as Master Mota Singh (who joined the Kisan Movement), Teja Singh Suatantra, Bhuja Singh, etc. Some also opposed Congress's methods; most were radically left-wing on property and democracy in the Gurdwaras, etc. Ambedkar wanted to ally with these elements and possibly move towards their emancipatory goals, and they sought an ally in Ambedkar who would bring more Sikhs to the fold to help dislodge the reigning elites. The British ofc, were petrified of this. The Kirti Akalis and Babbar Akalis were among the most militant elements in Punjab. These groups had tried to stage an insurgency many times before and were still trying to in 1936: the Ghadar Revolt in 1914 & 1915, led by the Red Akalis and the Bowring attempt by the Babbar Akalis. As such, the British often detained leaders who could move such a resolution within the SGPC and force the issue into a theological conflict which the established leaders were bound to lose on religious grounds. Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksWZZyVgUt0, to see what I mean.
3. Exclusion from the Poona Pact: The third reason was the separate electorate, and this was the most important reason. To explain (please note this is incredibly simplified), in British India, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians had separate electorates from what was deemed the "General Category" in Provincial elections in British India. This meant separate constituencies were created where only members of one of those groups could vote for a representative. So, for example, Muslims had 29 seats out of the 175 seats in the Bombay Provincial legislature. Only Muslims could stand in these seats, and only muslims would vote in these constituencies. The same thing applies to Sikhs and Christians for their seats, with all others voting in the general seat. The reasons for this are complex; for one, these weren't elected via universal suffrage, and the landed suffrage granted to each community meant that, in some provinces, the voter base didn't reflect the demographic base. For example, in Bengal, Muslims were the majority, but more Hindus held land and thus were given a larger share of the vote if the pure suffrage rules applied. So, instead of introducing universal suffrage, the British weighted the seats to "communal groups" while introducing separate electorates. So even though fewer muslims were enfranchised, for instance, they would get a larger share of the seats. Again, it's a lot more complicated, but this is a simplification. In this scheme, Sikhs, who were largely concentrated in Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, were also given a separate electorate. They didn't have a high enough population in any of the other provinces, so they didn't qualify anywhere else. Ambedkar banked on the idea that if enough Dalits converted to Sikhism, they would be granted a separate electorate, and this was technically true. This was a reaction to Gandhi's fast, which used the threat of a Dalit genocide to force Ambedkar to abandon the Dalit separate electorate. But the results of this conversion would take much longer to materialize. In the meantime, Ambedkar hoped the British would still allow Dalit Sikhs to qualify for the Poona Pact, where Dalit Sikhs would be given reserved seats under a joint electorate (basically, everyone who didn't qualify for a separate electorate voted in the joint electorate, called the general electorate). The British denied this request, and thus Ambedkar's idea died. Eventually, he converted to Buddhism but that is another story.

The Alt-Hist Question:

The question thus is simple. What if the British allowed the Non-Khalsa Sikh formula to qualify for the Poona Pact (until enough Dalits had converted to Sikhism, allowing them to qualify for a separate electorate) to stand?

What if Ambedkar, and crores of dalits, followed him into Sikhi. What would be the consequence? What would its implications be for the SGPC, the Akali Dal, caste relations, and the 1946 Provincial elections? What about the All-India SGPC Act and its implications? What about the partition?

Sources:

[1]: Scheduled Castes in Sikh Community: A Historical Perspective: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4413731?seq=1

I know people are all going to say that how does this matter, and uh so backward and all, but this is about representation and yes it definitely matters and also because our society is pretty intertwined with caste/community, so it definitely matters, sociology 101.

The loss we suffered on partition in 1947 was immense. The village of Thoha Khalsa near Rawalpindi is where in 1947, around 90 Sikh women committed suicide by leaping into a well, rather than being captured by mobs

I read about this massacre when I was at university, and never did I imagine that 20 years later I would be standing at that exact place

This was such an emotional and tearjerking journey for me, knowing what had happened here. The eerie feeling one got from here was indescribable

In March 1947, Thoha Khalsa a village with a Potohar Sikh community was ambushed by frontier mobs who were hell bent in slaughtering the villages Sikh and Hindu community. After resisting for three days, the Sikhs hoisted white flags and negotiated truce with the Muslim mobs. Under the agreement, the mobs will loot their houses but will not burn them, kill men, or dishonor the women. The Sikhs collected large sums of money and gave to the mob leaders as demanded. They then abandoned their own houses and all gathered in the central Haveli of Sardar Gulab Singh. Others took shelter in the nearby Dukh Bhanjani Gurdwara located next to Gulab Singh’s mansion

From Gulab Singh’s Haveli, they saw their houses being looted and burned for days. After looting the houses, the Muslim mob turned to Gulab Singh’s Haveli and surrounded it. Their intentions appeared menacing and it was clear that they do not intend to honour the terms of the truce

On the 12th March 1947, defeat and dishonor was imminent, Sikh men started to prepare for the battle till death. While the men fought, women began to line up and bow down to be beheaded by the Village head, rather than being captured. When this got too much the Sikh women started gathering at the nearby Gurdwara and the Village elder Maan Kaur led all the women to a large well. One by one they jumped inside the well. Around 90 Sikh women followed her and all committed mass suicide in order to save their honour. Witness accounts stated that so many women jumped that bodies were lying on one another above the water’s surface and then those came out and jumped into a second well

On Aug. 13, the Alberta Prosperity Project revealed a proposal via livestream of what an Alberta constitution could look like if the province separated from Canada. That message has been overshadowed by the use of a racial slur by one of the speakers, who has since resigned.

Warning: This video does include that racial slur.

I've been seeing posts popping up about incidents against Sikhs recently, including Walmart Edmonton, so I wanted to highlight something uncovered last week to prove that this social media wave against Sikhs isn't just on the internet or social media. CBC has investigated the network and has been releasing all the evidence and information. The group has been identified as "Second Sons".

Sources: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/second-sons-leaders-livestreams-9.7022853

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/large-white-supremacist-meeting-shakes-residents-of-alberta-town-9.7297070

This post is not political, this is not a right or left thing. This is about awareness and making sure we all have resources to understand what's going on, to validate that this isn't just in your head or online and to seek assistance. We have lots of support and political lines do not define who we are. The Sikh Conservative shadow deputy PM, finance minister, Liberal Cabinet Ministers and ONDP/Alberta's NDP all have members you can email or even call from their HOC or MLA websites if you require assistance or have seen something.

I also wanted to highlight comments I've been getting since I've started to post about incidents and networks against Sikhs in Canada, and I think this is a opportunity to highlight the views and presence they hold on social media.

Special turban, not One but TWO saropas, AND a flower garland.

His wife also gets the same treatment.

Everyone else gets TWO saropas each.

Is Hazur Sahib compromised? wtf is going on here