This chapter examines the emergence of modern Sikh nationalism against the background of colonial modernisation of the Punjab’s economy from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It reviews the competitive social mobilisation that led to religious reform movements among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. It examines the role of the Singh Sabhas in the late nineteenth century that were at the forefront of the religious renaissance among the Sikhs, shaping a distinct non-Hindu identity which culminated with the Akali movement in the early 1920s and the Sikh Gurdwaras Act (1925). It then reviews the cultural expressions of this new consciousness in the growth of the Punjabi press, Punjabi language, literature and material culture. This is followed by an outline of the dominant narratives of Sikh politics during colonial democratisation that ended with the Government of India Act (1935) and its immediate aftermath before the outbreak of the Second World War. The conclusion summarises the internal cleavages within Sikh society dating from this period that underlay the overarching sense of Sikh identity and continue to provide competing conceptions of Sikh identity and the nationalist ideal.

This chapter examines the Muslim League’s demand for Pakistan after the passing of the Lahore Resolution in March 1940 and the drive for independence by the Congress – processes which turned the Sikh world upside down. It examines Sikh leaderships’ opposition to the division of the Punjab and its articulation of a minority nationalism that accommodated a multicultural, consociationalism governance in a multi-religious and multi-ethnic (resized) province. It assesses how the failure to reach an agreement between the Congress and the Muslim League, and the determination of the British government to cede power to only two dominions, led the Sikh leadership to then demand a Sikh state, and then, as violence engulfed the province, to ensure the ethnic consolidation of the community in East Punjab. The partition holocaust revived memories of persecution and massacres in the eighteenth century, permanently dividing the Sikhs’ homeland and holy land. It would also shape profoundly the outlook of the community in post-independence India and abroad after 1947.