In the period from 1940-1947, the Sikh community experienced a profound struggle to situate itself vis-à-vis the other major constituents in the country—the Indian National Congress, All Muslim League, and the British Government—as the idea of Pakistan came to fruition. The Sikhs presented an incoherent front in these years and ultimately saw their homeland vivisected. Little weight has been placed on the period from 1920–1940, during which the Sikhs mobilized as a whole community, as the cause for the divisive and incoherent Sikh responses in the wake of Partition. From 1920-1925, the Sikh community mobilized to reclaim their Gurdwaras from their mahants (managers). In doing so, the Sikh community solidified its Khalsa Sikh religious identity and gained a nationalist political consciousness in joining with the INC for support. Meanwhile, it began to develop a communal identity due to its struggle to pass legislation to reclaim its Gurdwaras. While the extremist Sikh leadership was successful in mobilizing the rural populace during the Gurdwara Reform Movement, it created a struggle for the Sikh community in the following decades when it attempted to increase its political representation. The incompatible communal and nationalist rhetoric that evolved out of the Gurdwara Reform Movement led the Sikh community to alienate the British government and the Indian National Congress, all the while causing internal rifts among themselves. The inability of the Sikh community to balance its two identities as both a religious group and a part of the Indian nation presented the Sikh community with significant problems in the struggle for India’s independence.
