AKALEE

or Nihang ('the naked one'), s. A member of a body of zealots among the Sikhs, who take this name 'from being worshippers of Him who is without time, eternal' ( Wilson ). Skt. a privative, and kāl , 'time.' The Akālis may be regarded as the Wahābis of Sikhism. They claim their body to have been instituted by Guru Govind himself, but this is very doubtful. Cunningham's view of the order is that it was the outcome of the struggle to reconcile warlike activity with the abandonment of the world; the founders of the Sikh doctrine rejecting the inert asceticism of the Hindu sects. The Akālis threw off all subjection to the earthly government, and acted as the censors of the Sikh community in every rank. Runjeet Singh found them very difficult to control. Since the annexation of the Panjab, however, they have ceased to give trouble. The Akalee is distinguished by blue clothing and steel armlets. Many of them also used to carry several steel chakras ( CHUCKER ) encircling their turbans. [See Ibbetson , Panjab Ethnog. , 286; Maclagan , in Panjab Census Rep. , 1891, i. 166.]