Amritsar Singh Sabha

[5] Non-Khalsa factions had gained social prominence following Khalsa persecution and loss of institutional control in the 1700s,[1]: 86  and guided the operations of Sikh gurdwaras in the pre-British 18th- and colonial-era 19th-century Punjab because of support from Sikh elites and later the colonial British empire,[1] remaining under the control of a "loyalist, landed elite with extensive ties to the British Raj.

"[6] They were most prominent in the 1800s, and self-identified as Hindu,[1]: 83  and were also the significant molders and primary participants among the rural masses of Sikh population.

[1][9] They had rejected the Khalsa initiation practices like the Khande di Pahul ceremony on the grounds that it threatened their caste and polluted their ritual boundaries which they considered as primary.

[1] The Tat Khalsa's monotheism, iconoclastic sentiments, egalitarian social values and notion of a standardized Sikh identity did not blend well with the polytheism, idol worship, caste distinctions, and diversity of rites espoused by the Sanatan faction.

[12] For these groups the principle of authority of Sikh tradition was invested in living gurus (as Khem Singh Bedi, leader of the Amritsar faction, liked to be regarded) rather than the principle of shabad-guru, or the Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru, which was upheld by the dominant Khalsa tradition.