§ LORD SYDENHAM rose to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he could give the House information as to 406 the causes and extent of the recent deplorable loss of life at Nankana Saheb. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I think it is important, for two main reasons, that the true facts about the tragedy at Nankana Saheb should be made public in the first place, the blame for all the heavy loss of life which occurred there has beep thrown upon the Government. Mr. Gandhi, directly after the event, went to Nankana Saheb and made a speech in which he deprecated the prosecution of offenders. In other words, he suggested that the law should not take its course, because the only means of preventing these occurrences was to get rid of this Satanic Government. This speech was intended to give a lead to extremists in exploiting the tragedy for political purposes, and it has been perfectly successful.
§ In April, at a crowded meeting in Beadon Square, Calcutta, a resolution was unanimously passed stating that "such horrible deeds as the Nankana Saheb massacre will not cease so long as the present system of government exists in this country," and that "the massacre could not have taken place if the police and other officials had been true to their unties." There are a number of other Sikh shrines in the Punjab which have been seized by the Akali party, and in the case of the Taran Taran, at least, loss of life occurred. So far as I know no attempt has been made by the Government of India to reply to the charges to which I have referred, and. I am sure that the noble Earl will deal with this point in his reply to me.
§ In the second place, the whole incident is another warning of the very violent forces which are always alive in India and ready to assert themselves if it is considered that the power and authority of the Government are weakening. Not long ago we had the very shocking occurrences in Behar and at Katapur, where harmless villagers were murdered and outraged by Hindu mobs at a time when the titular leaders of their communities were engaged in friendly conferences. When I drew attention to these very disgraceful proceedings the then Under-Secretary of State said they were due to the fanaticism of ignorant people of the lower classes. Unfortunately, the inquiries proved that the mobs were led by upper caste Hindus, who had not the excuse of ignorance. Since then serious outbreaks have occurred 407 at Malegaon, in the Bombay Presidency, and on the Bengal coalfields, to which I referred the other day. Details of these grave occurrences, and of their causes, have not yet been made public, and there have been other incidents of the same kind which have never been reported in this country.
§ Among the 315,000,000 people of India barely 3,000,000 are Sikhs, and yet the slaughter at Nankana Saheb occurred as a result of domestic quarrels among this small sect. It has been stated that between 200 and 300 lives were lost, but, as many bodies were burned immediately, the exact figures will probably never be obtained. At any rate, it seems clear that this sectional quarrel caused the loss of more than half the number of lives sacrificed in suppressing the most dangerous conspiracy since the Mutiny. At the present time it seems the fashion for mobs to shout "Hindu-Musulman ki Jai" on all occasions, but if any one believes that the dangerous antagonisms—racial, religious, sectarian—always latent in India, are passing away, he will be bitterly disappointed. These forces have their roots deep in the long distant past, and nothing but the knowledge that the Government is powerful enough, and determined enough, to suppress them will enable the peace of India to be maintained. We have now had warnings in abundance, and I can only hope that they will be taken to heart. For the reasons I have given I trust that your Lordships will consider that I am justified in asking for information.
THE EARL OF LYTTONMy Lords, the deplorable incident at Nankana Saheb to which the noble Lord has referred was the result of a religious dispute between two sections of the Sikh community. It had no political significance, and the Government were in no way concerned in the matter, except to restore order and take such steps as might he necessary to prevent further bloodshed. They were in no way responsible for the casualties which occurred, and the suggestion that Government officials had any complicity in the matter was a mischievous libel (originating, I think, in Lajpat Rai's paper), which was afterwards withdrawn with apologies, although no doubt the purpose for which it was made—namely, to discredit the Government in the eyes of the Sikhs—had been accomplished before it was withdrawn and the apology made. I am sure 408 that the noble Lord does not think that the Government had any complicity in the matter, but before I give him the information for which he asks I desire to make that perfectly clear.
As my noble friend is aware, the cause of the disputes which have led to affrays among the Sikh is the declared intention of the Religious Reform Party to obtain control over the management of all Sikh Gurdwaras and shrines. The main complaint of the Reform Party is that under the arrangements countenanced by the Old Sikh or Sanatanist Party, practically all the Sikh Gurdwaras have been for years controlled by Mahants, or resident priests, who had a wide discretion as to the management of the revenues, and were not necessarily Sikhs themselves, being in some cases Hindus. Without attempting to pronounce upon the merits of the disputes, it is safe to say that this is one of those cases in which a party, which takes the reformation of worship as its principle, alleges mismanagement, malversation and general laxity leading to great abuses on the part of the existing guardians of the shrines, while the party in possession regards the malcontents as inspired by a desire for plunder.
The Akali Jathas, bands of volunteers who form the more violent section of the reformers, are reported to include a number of lawless and disorderly persons as well as genuine religious zealots, and their recourse to violent action is perhaps, to some extent, due to the failure some years ago of suits brought in the Civil Courts to dispossess certain Mahants of their shrines. In November and December last the reforming party seized several shrines at Sialkot and elsewhere, and in January a serious fight took place at Taran Taran, near Amritsar. Unfortunately, non-co-operating agitators induced both parties on that occasion to refrain from giving any evidence to the authorities.
It appears that the Mahant of the shrine at Nankana, which is famous as the reputed birth-place of the Guru Nanak, and is very rich, was much alarmed at the success of the Akali Jathas in other places. On November 27 a band of reformers came to the temple armed with kirpans and axes, and a party of Sadhus, friends of the Mahants, prepared to oppose them, but violence was prevented by the tactful action of the police. The Punjab Government, desiring to maintain an attitude of 409 strict religious neutrality, considered that it should be left to the interested parties to move the Courts. If the Mahant had reason to fear violence he could either furnish information to a magistrate and ask that his opponents should be made to give security to keep the peace, or he could apply to the Civil Courts for an injunction to restrain persons carrying weapons from entering the shrine. The authorities were ready to supply police protection to the Mahant. He had, early in January, telegraphed to the Government that there would be a forcible attempt to seize the shrine, but no such attempt was then made, and he does not appear to have taken any step to obtain protection from the Courts.
As the case is sub judice, it is impossible to express an opinion on the culpability of different parties for the deplorable events of February 20. But it seems clear that on that day an Akali Jatha of about one hundred men entered the temple soon after daybreak and was fired upon from the roofs of the buildings which surround the courtyard. The assailants then came down and attacked the Akalis with axes and lathis: the dead bodies were smeared with kerosene and set on fire. The flames were still burning when the Deputy Commissioner, who was in camp at a village some miles off when he heard of the affray, arrived on the scene. The Sikhs state that 135 persons were killed, and the total may amount to this number, though the latest information in my possession shows that the police were certain of 410 88 deaths. Troops were at once summoned from Lahore, which is 50 miles away, and they arrived that evening, accompanied by the Commissioner of the Division. The shrine was taken over by the authorities, but subsequently transferred by the Commissioner to a representative committee of Sikh gentlemen. The Mahant and a retinue of twenty-six Pathans, whom he had recently engaged, were arrested and sent to Lahore, where they arc being tried.
General orders were issued on February 22 that when a dispute likely to cause violence arose over any shrine the subject of the dispute was to be temporarily "attached" by the district magistrate, due provision being made for the continuance of customary worship. In several subsequent cases bands which have seized shrines have been ejected by the authorities, and bands wandering about the Province are being dealt with either by disarming at once, if practicable, or by prosecution under the Arms Act. Meanwhile, legislation for amending the law regarding shrines has been prepared, but I understand that, the draft Bill has given rise to much diversity of opinion in India.
§ LORD SYDENHAMI thank the noble Earl for his very clear statement, which will completely dispose of the charges to which I have referred.
§ House adjourned at five minutes past six o'clock.