Gurudwara Reform Movement
Before 1920, the Sikh Gurudwara were governed by the Udasi Sikh mahants, who treated the Gurdwara offerings and other income of the Gurudwaras as their personal income.The British government supported these mahants as a counterpoise to the rising tide of nationalism among the Sikhs. Matter came to such a pass that the priest of the golden temple issued a hukamnama (injunction) against Ghadarites, declaring them renegades, and then honored General Dyer, the butcher of Jallianwala massacre with a saropa. The Gurdwara Reform Movement launched an agitation for freeing the Gurudwaras from these corrupt mahants and for handing over the Gurudwaras to a representative body of Sikhs. Under the growing pressure of the nationalist and Gurudwara agitators, the Gurudwaras came under the control of an elected committee known as the Shiromani Gurdwara Prablandhalk Committee, in November 1920.