Khalsa Vidyarthi Sabha

Who: Young Sikh men of Amritsar, formed into a club on the initiative of Dr Sundar Singh Sodhbans, in the years when the Singh Sabha movement was urging Sikh youth to return to Sikh ideals.

What: In 1891 the Khalsa Vidyarthi Sabha, also called the Sikh Students Club, came into being. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism text reproduced by AllAboutSikhs calls it the first association of its kind for Sikh young men. Members met every Saturday, walked to Sri Harmandir Sahib, circled the sarovar reciting hymns from Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and held programmes on the anniversaries of the Gurus' lives.

The Encyclopaedia's entry on the Sikh Students Federation dates the very first Sikh Vidyarthi Sabhas, or Khalsa Clubs, to 1888, so the sources differ on who came first. The same entry adds that most Sikh schools had a youth society of their own, called a Bhujangi Sabha, before the Federation was founded in 1944.

Where: Amritsar, at Sri Harmandir Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib.

Why it mattered: The Sabha's annual meeting in September 1893 shows the friction of the time. The students left Bunga Mananwalian reciting shabads and went to Sri Akal Takht Sahib to offer ardas. Bhai Multana Singh Ardasia refused to lead the prayer. The source gives two reasons: the students sympathised with the Singh Sabha, and they had criticised the Golden Temple's priests in a local newspaper.

That refusal came while Khalsa College was being built (foundation stone laid on March 5, 1892, first classes on October 22, 1893). The same text says the Singh Sabha then began a non-violent movement to free gurdwaras from hereditary mahants, and that almost all of Punjab's gurdwaras were freed by 1928.

It matters as an early case of Sikh students organising themselves around Gurbani, Sikh history and the way their own shrines were run.