Minister of State – Culture & External Affairs Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi, on 11 February 2024 released a commemorative coin of Rs 200/- and a currency coin of Rs 10/- on the occasion of the bicentennial birth anniversary of Sri Satguru Ram Singh Ji.
Key points
- Satguru Ram Singh Ji was a great philanthropist, a thinker, seer and a great social reformer. Satguru was the first to use Non- cooperation and swadeshi as a tool to liberate the country from the yokes of British rulers.
- He formed “Sant Khalsa”, which later developed into great historical Kuka movements.
- He founded the Namdhari Sect on 12 April 1857 at Bhaini Sahib.
- The Namdhari Movement, of which the Kuka Movement was the most important phase, aimed at overthrowing the British rule.
- The Namdharis were also known as “Kukas” because of their trademark style of reciting the “Gurbani” (Sayings/Teachings of the Guru). This style was in a high-pitched voice called “Kook” in Punjabi. Thus, the Namdharis were also called “Kukas”.
- Satguru Ram Singh Ji asked his followers to boycott everything which bore the stamp of the British Government.
- Satguru Ram Singh Ji preached and practiced among the people to be Indian, remain Indian and buy Indian.
- He fixed the age of marriage at 18 and 20 for girls and boys respectively in 1857.
- He was exiled to Myanmar in 1872.
- He was the first to get the Holy Sri Guru Granth Sahib printed on lithography in India and then many other countries in the world by adopting the path shown by Satguru Ram Singh Ji.
