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DURLI JATHA was an impromptu band of Sikh volunteers active during
the Jaito agitation, 1923-24, to force their way through in contrast
to the Akali jathas vowed to a nonviolent and passive course. Durli
is a meaningless word: whatever sense it possesses is communicated
onomatopoetically. At Jaito, on 14 September 1923, an akhand path
(nonstop end-to-end recital of the Guru Granth Sihib) being said
for the Sikh princely ruler of Nabha state, Maharaja Ripudaman Singh,
who had been deposed by the British, was interrupted which, according
to the Sikh tradition, amounted to sacrilege, and the sangat had
been held captive, no-one being allowed to go out or come in, not
even to fetch food or rations for those inside. Jathedar Dulla Singh
and Suchcha Singh of Rode village, in Moga tahsil, then in Firozpur
district, organized a small band of desperadoes, naming it Durli
Jatha, who collected the required rations and managed to smuggle
these in through feint or force. When large-sized shahidi jathas
began to be sent to Jaito by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
from Amritsar, the Durli Jatha also mobilized support and sustenance
for them en route. When the first Shahidi Jatha, sworn to non-violence,
was fired at by government troops on 21 February 1924 resulting
in 19 dead and 30 injured, the government in order to justify its
action held fake enquiries by two magistrates, first by Lala Amar
Nath and then by Balvant Singh Nalva, who gave the verdict that
Durli Jatha personnel who had accompanied the Shahidi Jathi were
armed and it was they who fired the first shot forcing the troops
to open fire.
Twenty-two members of Durli Jathi including
Jathedar Dulls Singh, Suchcha Singh and Mai Kishan Kaur were tried
in the court of Lala Amar Nath, who had meanwhile been elevated
to sessions judge, on 17 May 1924. They were sentenced to rigorous
imprisonment for seven years each.The Durli Jatha, however, remained
active until the Jaito morcha ended successfully for the Akalis
in August 1925.
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