Sikh Prachar Conference (Sarb Hind Sikh Mission)

The Sikh Prachar Conference was a preaching gathering called by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) at Amritsar in April 1936. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names it the Sarb Hind Shiromani Sikh Prachar Conference. It was the SGPC's answer to a declaration Dr B. R. Ambedkar, the leader of the so-called untouchable classes, made in 1935: that he and his followers would leave the Hindu fold for a faith that did not practise untouchability.

How it began: The SGPC executive first took up the matter on 25 January 1936. Its general session of 1 March 1936, held at Sri Akal Takht Sahib under Sardar Partap Singh of Shankar, passed four resolutions on initiating the so-called untouchable classes and asked for a big preaching conference on the coming Vaisakhi.

Who ran it: The conference met on 11, 12 and 13 April 1936. Rai Bahadur Vasakha Singh of Delhi presided and Sardar Hukam Singh, a retired sessions judge of Amritsar, chaired the reception committee. Master Tara Singh, Sundar Singh Majithia and Dr Ambedkar himself attended. The conference formed a permanent society, the Sarb Hind Sikh Mission, headquartered at Amritsar, to preach the Gurus' message to people of all classes and castes and to improve the economic and social condition of converts from the so-called untouchable classes.

Key moments

• 13 October 1935: Ambedkar tells a conference at Yeola that he will not die a Hindu.
• 11 to 13 April 1936: the conference at Amritsar. Ninety-four people took Khalsa initiation, at least 43 of them non-Sikhs from outside Punjab, and several lakh rupees were collected or promised. Frances Pritchett's Ambedkar timeline has him addressing it on 13 and 14 April and repeating his intention to renounce Hinduism.
• Summer 1936: Mahatma Gandhi calls the plan "A Dangerous Proposal" in Harijan, and the Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Moonje writes that the Mahasabha would not object to conversion to Sikhism on conditions, including that Ambedkar cooperate with Hindus and Sikhs. Sikh Research Institute quotes contemporary figures of thirty million and sixty million people.
• 18 September 1936: Ambedkar sends thirteen men to the Mission at Amritsar to study Sikh teaching.
• 1937 and 1938: a Khalsa College is founded at Bombay; in 1938 Ambedkar drops the idea of embracing Sikhi and hands the college property to the Mission.

Its work and where it stands: Preachers went as far as Malabar and Travancore-Cochin, and centres opened at Hapur, Aligarh, Burhanpur, Nagpur, Ernakulam and Rani. Dr Ambedkar and his followers did not adopt Sikhism, but the centres, especially those at Hapur, Aligarh, Akola and Nagpur, kept doing useful work, and the Encyclopaedia says the Mission's activity dwindled over the years. Ambedkar became a Buddhist at Nagpur in October 1956.