15 January 1872[EoS][EoS][Arch]
The Kuka rising and its suppression at Malerkotla
More than a hundred Kukas attacked the treasury at Malerkotla on 15 January 1872. In the following days prisoners were put to death by cannon without trial on British orders, and Baba Ram Singh was exiled to Burma.
Tension had risen over beef shops. In June 1871 Kukas attacked butchers at Amritsar, killing four, and a month later three more were killed at Raikot. Death sentences followed. Late in 1871 the government barred Kuka gatherings outside Bhaini, and Baba Ram Singh was refused leave to go to Muktsar.
After the Maghi gathering at Bhaini, a band set out for arms, raiding the house of the chief of Malaud on the way. On the morning of 15 January they were challenged as they scaled the Malerkotla wall. Eight police and seven Kukas fell in the fight. An officer of Patiala state then caught sixty-eight at Rar.
The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's two entries differ on what came next. One says all 68 were blown from guns on 17 January without trial. The other says the two women among them went to Patiala, 49 men were blown from guns and one was killed by the sword on 17 January, and 16 more were blown from guns afterwards. It says the orders came from Ludhiana's British deputy commissioner.
Baba Ram Singh was deported with ten subas to Allahabad and then to Burma, where the Encyclopaedia says he was held at Rangoon under the Bengal Act of 1818. A government telegram reported that he passed away at Mergui on 29 November 1885, but many followers did not accept this and expected his return. Assemblies of more than five Kukas were banned, and a police post was set up at Bhaini. The Encyclopaedia presents the Kukas both as religious reformers and as early nationalists. The era history gives that debate.[EoS][EoS][Arch]