Ramgarhia

The Ramgarhia are a community of Sikhs from the Punjab region of northwestern India, encompassing members of the Lohar (blacksmiths) and Tarkhan (carpenters) subgroups. In Punjab, they are concentrated in the regions of Phagwara, Kartarpur, Batala, and Goraya, which are known for industry.

Originally called Thoka, meaning carpenter, the Ramgarhia are named after Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, whose birth surname of Thoka became Ramgarhia in the 18th century due to him rebuilding near Amritsar a fortress named Ramrauni, renaming the rebuilt fortress as Ramgarh and becoming its governor. Thus, the term Ramgarhia became associated with Jassa Singh. The term Ramgarhia now is a honourifical title for Sikhs of the carpenter caste. East African Ramgarhias dislike being referred to as Tarkhans and much prefer being called Ramgarhias.

Ramgarhia Sikhs originate from the Tarkhan (carpenter) caste. The Tarkhans entered Sikhism over a prolonged period of time. The Ramgarhia Sikhs trace their origin to Bhai Lalo of Eminabad, a Sikh of Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak is believed to have stayed with Lalo and shared a hymn with him where he chastises Babur for his invasion of India. According to Gurdial Singh Reehal (1979), at-least seventy-two Ramgarhia Sikhs are recorded in Sikh history working for the Sikh gurus. According to Reehal, Bhai Rupa was a Tarkhan who officiated the wedding of Guru Gobind Singh, with the descendants of Bhai Rupa being known as the Bagrian-wale. The Bagrian-wale served as priests for the later Phulkian states, by conducting the coronation ceremonies (tilak) and presiding over the royal weddings.

There were also two notable Tarkhan Sikhs who served in the military forces of Guru Gobind Singh named Hardas Singh Bhanwra and his son Bhagwan Singh Bhanwra. Bhagwan Singh later served as the governor of the Doaba region (consisting of modern-day Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts) during the short-lived Sikh-rule that had established by Banda Singh Bahadur. Jassa Singh was the son of Bhagwan Singh and later established a Sikh Misl known as the Ramgarhia Misl and was respected by other Sikh leaders of the 18th century.

The Ramgarhias also played a prominent role in the Namdhari movement of the 19th century, as a prominent leader of the movement, Baba Ram Singh, was of a Tarkhan background. Ram Singh and his followers were one of the first anti-British rebels after the British had annexed the Punjab in 1849. Many Namdharis were killed in the movement. Due to this association with the Namdharis, some Ramgarhias follow the dehdhari (living guru) practice, which is not permitted in mainstream Sikhism.

Since the British colonial-period, the Ramgarhias have established diasporas in East Africa and the West. This was motivated by changes to the economic environment and reality of the social atmosphere in Punjab. In Punjab, the Ramgarhias struggled to improve their social-standing despite their skilled-labour and artisanry, with the Jatt Sikhs landowners holding them back and opposing their caste-consolidation. Their traditional occupation was in decline due to a decline in real wage rates, oppressive village structure, and a denial of owning land enshrined in the law (Act XIII of 1900). The gap between rural Ramgarhias and urban Ramgarhias also grew, as an educated, middle-class of Ramgarhias had developed in the cities of Amritsar and Shimla.

In East Africa in-particular, they consisted of up to 90% of the local Sikh population in the region and were valued for their technical skills, which were utilized to construct railways, canals, and other infrastructure projects. When they settled in East Africa, they founded their own Ramgarhia-dedicated instituitons. A revered saint of the East African Ramgarhia Sikhs was Baba Puran Singh Karichowale. By the 1960s, they were no longer engaged in their traditional, menial roles but had found work in business, contractors, administration, and technology, with a local African Ramgarhia Sikh identity being formed that was independent from the Punjabi Ramgarhia Sikh identity back in the Punjab. In urban areas of Africa, the Ramgarhias had connections to the Khatri Sikhs. The Ramgarhias of Africa also provided financial support to the Ramgarhias back in Punjab, such as in the case of the construction of a gurdwara in-memory of Bhai Lalo at the village of Tatlewali in 1931. Ramgarhias also established themselves in Assam during the early 20th century.

In Punjab, by the late 19th century, increasing wealth of the Ramgarhias allowed them to establish their own biradari organizations, such as in 1883–84 in Shimla and 1893 in Lahore. In 1900, the Punjab Land Alienation Act came into force, which categorized Ramgarhia Sikhs as non-agricultural and therefore they were barred from buying and owning agricultural land, which motivated them to achieve in non-agricultural aspects. However, land ownership was a status-marker and seen as a sign of success in colonial Punjab so the Ramgarhias attempted to change their classification of being non-agricultural but this was opposed by the Jat Sikhs. This movement helped consolidate the Ramgarhias as a united force. In 1901, a Ramgarhia confederence led by Ram Singh Thekedar was held in Gujranwala which opposed the Land Alienation Act. In 1909, another confederence of the Tarkhan biradari was held by Arjun Singh, which resulted in the Vishvakarma Vans Sudhar Sabha, Punjab (Vishvakarma Brotherhood Reform Society, Punjab) being established, which campaigned against the Land Alienation Act. In 1911, the organization changed its name to Ramgarhia Sabha, Punjab. The Akali movement of the 1920s motivated the Ramgarhias but they were loyal to the British and hesitant to fully participate or align themselves with the Akalis' anti-imperial position.