Tat Khalsa

The Tat Khalsa (Gurmukhi: ਤੱਤ ਖਾਲਸਾ, translit. Tata khālasā), also romanised as Tatt Khalsa, known as the Akal Purkhias during the 18th century, was a Sikh faction that arose from the schism following the passing of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708, led by his widow Mata Sundari, opposed to the religious innovations of Banda Singh Bahadur and his followers. The roots of the Tat Khalsa lies in the official formalization and sanctification of the Khalsa order by the tenth Guru in 1699.

Quotes

• Those who represented the reformist sector of the Singh Sabha movement came to be known as the Tat Khalsa (the ‘True Khalsa’ or the ‘Pure Khalsa’). Opposing them, and increasingly disadvantaged by the strength of Tat Khalsa ideals and determination, were the conservatives of the so-called Sanatan Khalsa. By the turn of the century the exponents of Tat Khalsa theory had asserted an effective claim to interpret the nature of tradition and to enunciate the approved pattem of Sikh behaviour.
  • W. H. McLeod - Who is a Sikh_ The Problem of Sikh Identity (1989, Oxford University Press)

• Prominent amongst the Tat Khalsa reformers were scholars such as Bhai Kahn Singh of Nabha and the prolifically versatile writer Bhai Vir Singh. Closely associated with them was the Englishman M. A. Macauliffe.*? Together with others who shared the same attitudes and concerns, these authors were responsible for moulding and recording a version of the Sikh tradition which remains dominant in intellectual circles to the present day. It is important to remember that, when we read literature dealing with the Sikh tradition, we are usually reading perceptions which have been refracted through a Tat Khalsa lens. The reminder is essential if we are to achieve genuine detachment in any analysis of Sikh history, doctrine, or behaviour. Repeatedly we must draw attention to the impressive success achieved by scholars and writers associated with the Singh Sabha movement, for only thus can we hope to disengage our own interpretations from their continuing influence.
  • W. H. McLeod - Who is a Sikh_ The Problem of Sikh Identity (1989, Oxford University Press)

• The Tat Khalsa were particularly bitter about any custom that even remotely smacked of Hinduism and, quite often, things that did notstrike their fancy were relegated to that blanket label ‘Hindu’. Such labelling climaxed, in the long run, with the category Hindu becoming a term of opprobrium in the Sabha’s literature.
  • Harjot Oberoi - The Construction of Religious Boundaries_ Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (1994, University of Chicago Press) 314ff