Satguru Ram Singh Ji founded the Namdhari or Kuka movement at Bhaini Sahib in Ludhiana district, with 12 April 1857 given as its founding date. Its members wore white homespun, took a straight turban, and were known as Kukas from the cry raised in their devotions.
Its programme included refusal of British courts, schools, posts and goods; the boycott of foreign cloth; the revival of Punjabi and Gurmukhi; opposition to caste, to female infanticide, to dowry and to child marriage; and mass inter-caste marriages conducted at nominal cost.
The non-cooperation programme predates Gandhi's by fifty years, and the Namdharis ran their own postal arrangement because they would not use the government's.
Cow protection actions against butchers at Amritsar, Raikot and Malerkotla in 1871 and 1872 led to the executions at Malerkotla, where sixty-six were blown from cannon over two days without trial. Satguru Ram Singh Ji was deported to Rangoon and died there in 1885.
The community continues, with its seat at Bhaini Sahib, and has kept a distinctive classical music tradition, including the revival of instruments such as the taus and the rabab.
The succession after him ran through his brother, Satguru Hari Singh Ji, and the seat continues at Bhaini Sahib. The community holds that Satguru Ram Singh Ji did not die at Rangoon and will return, and the Government of India's own file on the death did not settle the question to their satisfaction.
The white homespun, the turban tied flat and straight across the forehead, and the woollen mala are the visible marks, and Namdharis are strict vegetarians. The community is concentrated in the Malwa, around Ludhiana and Sirhind, with substantial populations in Thailand and Kenya built by trading families that went out early.
The executions were ordered by L. Cowan, the Deputy Commissioner at Ludhiana, who acted with no trial and no authority from above him. He was removed from the service for it and the Commissioner who backed him was removed too, which is close to the only instance of that happening in Punjab in the whole period.