[7] The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919 during the course of the national independence movement, subsequent words of support from Arur Singh Shergill, the head priest of the Golden Temple, to General Dyer, and the general disturbances in Punjab in 1919 provoked an outcry among Singh Sabha circles, and increased Sikh urgency to reclaim control of the gurdwaras.

[8] To pacify these sentiments, the colonial Punjab Government appointed a provisional committee of 36 members, entirely from Sikh landed aristocrat families, to formulate proposals regarding the operation of the Golden Temple.

[8] By the early 20th century, a number of Sikh gurdwaras in British India were under the control of the Udasi mahants (clergymen) or managers appointed by the Governors.

[15] Kartar Singh Jhabbar walked to the Akal Takht in the temple premises, urging the Sikhs to give up the caste-based restrictions and reform the gurdwaras.

[citation needed] Next, the Akalis headed to Hasan Abdal, where Gurdwara Panja Sahib was under the control of Mahant Mitha Singh.

They then turned their attention to the Gurdwara Sri Tarn Taran Sahib, whose clergymen were accused of allowing dancing girls, smoking and drinking inside the shrine's premises.

[19][20] The mahant's conduct had been widely condemned by the local congregation, though the large revenue from the gurdwara estates insulated him from public pressure.

[18] With the movement gaining momentum, public meetings passed resolutions condemning his conduct, and worried about being ousted by the Akalis, he turned to the government for help.

[18][13] Two days later, Mahatma Gandhi and the Governor of the Punjab province visited the site, accompanied by a number of Sikh and Hindu leaders.

[18][13] As the Sikh reformers were now aligned with the national movement, colonial administrators began to rethink its position on non-interference in gurdwara management and acceptance of the increasing control of the SGPC.

Several organizations, including the Central Sikh League, would issued appeals to raise funds for the families of those killed and hanged, and they would be celebrated in poetry and literature.

The Jagat Guru Shankaracharya urged the Hindus to join the Sikhs in the struggle for taking control of the gurdwaras from mahants with personal interests.

[25] In October 1921, the SGPC executive committee passed a resolution asking Sunder Singh Ramgharia, a mahant previously appointed by the government[26] who subsequently assumed a position as an SGPC secretary,[27] to relinquish the keys of the Golden Temple's toshakhana, or vault, to the committee, as he represented government control over the temple's treasures and artifacts.

[27] To prevent unrest, the government relented, handing over the toshakhana keys to the Baba Kharak Singh of the SGPC on 17 January 1922, and agreed to the unconditional release of all Sikhs arrested, the number of whom had been increasing up to that point.

[27] As Sikh concerns were now linked with the wider non-cooperation movement, Gandhi would telegraph the SGPC in January 1922 with "Congratulations, first decisive battle for India's freedom won.

[26] A year later in August 1922, Akali volunteers chopped wood on land to fuel the fires of the gurdwara's free community kitchen, for which the mahant had them arrested for theft at the encouragement of the authorities,[27] provoking a major struggle with the Akalis, who contended that the mahant could not claim private possession of the property, as it belonged to the Sikh panth, or congregation.

[28] National Non-cooperation leaders rallied to the cause by making speeches at the site, though support from Congress would wane after Gandhi's release in February 1924 as he wanted to separate the political issue of independence from religion.

"[2][27] He protested to Edward MacLagan, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, and the conflict was settled by having the mahant sell the land to Sir Ganga Ram, a private Hindu philanthropist,[2] who handed it over to the Akalis on 17 November 1922.

The erstwhile Maharaja (ruler) of Nabha Ripudaman Singh had been sympathetic to the Akali and the Indian nationalist cause, but was deposed by the British Government,[29] made to abdicate to his minor son on 9 July 1923.

[28] A jatha of 500 Akalis, seen off from Amritsar by a crowd of 30,000, was sent to mark the third anniversary of the Nankana massacre, and was fired upon by on the command of British administrators in Nabha, with about 300 injured, resulting in about 100 deaths.

The gurdwara was controlled by Udasi mahants including Pala Ram, the brother of Narain Das (who was responsible for the Nankana massacre).

[25] In December, the Government recognized the SGPC as the manager of the gurdwara, but also ordered the Akalis to follow the legal process for ejecting the Udasi mahants out of the premises.

A 1921 memorandum signed by D. Petrie, the Assistant Director of CID, Punjab states:[12] Gandhi's propaganda makes its appeal mainly to the urban classes, which lack both the stamina and physical courage to oppose successfully even small bodies of police; the Akali campaign is essentially a rural movement, and its followers are men of fine physique with a national history of which the martial characteristics have been purposely kept alive both by Government and by the Sikhs themselves.In 1925, after further demands and protests from SGPC, a new "Sikh Gurdwara Bill" was introduced in the Punjab Legislative Assembly on 7 May and adopted in July.

It also led to an anti-Hindu sentiment among a section of Sikhs, who identified the pro-Udasi mahants such as Narain Das and their supporters with the Hindu community.

[31] The movement found support from almost all sections of the Sikh community, especially the peasantry, artisans, laborers, ex-soldiers, and emigrants returning from abroad.