AKĀLĪ DAL KHARĀ SAUDĀ BĀR, an organization of Akālī reformers working for the liberation of Sikh shrines from the control of conservative Udāsī priests or mahants. The organization was originally called Khālsā Dīwā Kharā Saudā Bār set up in 1912 and comprised volunteers mostly from a cluster of villages inhabited by Virk Jaṭṭ Sikhs in the Lower Chenāb Canal Colony in Sheikhūpurā district, now in Pakistan. Canal colonies in West Punjab were usually called bārs, lit. semi-forests, which these areas really were before the introduction of canal irrigation. The name Kharā Saudā came from the historical Gurdwārā Sachchā Saudā, also called Kharā Saudā, near Chūhaṛkāṇā town around which the Virk villages were situated. The Dīwān was in the beginning purely reformist in its aim, and was engaged in the spread of Sikh religion and education. But with the heightening up of the political tempo after the implementation of Rowlatt Acts and particularly after the Jalliāṅvālā Bāgh tragedy in April 1919, the Dīwān became active politically, too, and came to be called Akālī Dal Kharā Saudā Bār. The reorganization took place at a convention held at Gurdwārā Mahārāṇī Nakaiṇ at Sheikhūpurā on 24 December 1920 when Akālī Jathā Kharā Saudā Bār was set up with Kartār Siṅgh Jhabbar as its Jathedār. Among other top-ranking leaders were Tejā Siṅgh Chūhaṛkāṇa and Maṅgal Siṅgh Serokā. The Dal played a leading part in the liberation of several historical gurdwārās, most notable among them being Bābe dī Ber at Siālkoṭ, Pāňjā Sāhib at Hasan Abdāl, Janam Asthān at Nankāṇā Sāhib, and Gurdwārā Sachchā Saudā, Chūhaṛkāṇā, where the Dal had its headquarters. The Dal was ultimately amalgamated with the Shiromaṇi Akālī Dal (q. v).

        Akālī Dal Kharā Saudā Bār worked in close co-operation with the Akālī Jathā of Bhāī Lachhmaṇ Siṅgh of Dhārovālī, one of the Nankāṇā Sāhib martyrs. According to the C. I. D. report of 22 February 1922, the "combined membership of these two jathās of the Sheikhūpurā district is about 2, 200. "