DURLI JATHA was an impromptu band of Sikh volunteers active during the Jaito agitation, 1923-24, to force their way through in contrast to the AkaliJ`at has vowed to a nonviolent and passive course. Durii is a meaningless word: whatever sense it possesses is communicated on omatopoetically. At Jaito, on 14 September 1923, an akhandpath (nonstop end to end recital of the Guru Granth Sahib) being said for the Sikh princely ruler of Nabha state, Maharaja Ripudaman Singh, who had been deposed by the British, was interrupted which, according to the Sikh tradition, amounted to sacrilege, and the sangat had been held captive, no one being allowed to go out or come in, not even to fetch food or rations for those inside. Jathedar Dulla Moga tahsfl, then in Firozpur district, organized a small band of desperadoes, naming it Durii Jatha, who collected the required rations and managed to smuggle these in through feint or force.
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