Dominant Sikh political leader from the 1930s to 1962; 1885-1967
Master Tara Singh
Born a Hindu and initiated as a schoolboy, Tara Singh rose through the gurdwara reform movement to lead the SGPC and the Akali Dal for three decades. He spoke for Sikhs at partition and led the campaign for a Punjabi-speaking state until Sant Fateh Singh displaced him.
Teacher and reformer
He was born Nanak Chand on 24 June 1885 at Haryal in Rawalpindi district and took the vows in 1902. He studied at Khalsa College, became headmaster of the Khalsa school at Lyallpur at 23, which gave him the title Master, and became secretary of the new SGPC in March 1921. He was held from 1923 to 1926 with other Akali leaders.[EoS]
Leader of the Panth
The dispute over the Nehru Report of 1928 made him a leading figure, and he went to jail in the 1930 civil disobedience. From then until 1962 he largely controlled the SGPC and the Akali Dal. He led protest over the Communal Award and the Shahidganj, and the Azad Punjab scheme of 1943 came under his leadership.[EoS]
Partition
The Punjabi Suba
He led the 1955 and 1960 campaigns. His forty-eight-day fast in 1961 ended without the demand being met, and a panel of Panj Piare set him a penance. Sant Fateh Singh set up a rival Akali Dal in 1962 and won the 1965 gurdwara elections. Tara Singh passed away on 22 November 1967, a year after the state was formed.[EoS][EoS]
What the sources disagree on
- A plot in 1947
The Encyclopaedia's partition entry mentions a secret intelligence report that he was plotting sabotage and the assassination of Jinnah. No proof is given, and no charge followed.[EoS]
Images
Master Tara Singh with other Akali leaders after release from jail in 1926, with a portrait of Teja Singh Samundri on a chair at the centre.
Unknown, c. September 1926. Public domain. Source
_with_some_Akali_leaders_after_their_release_from_jail_in_September_1926.jpg)