JAGAT SINGH NARAG

JAGAT SINGH NARAG (1883-1942), businessman and legislator of North-West Frontier Province, was the son of Lala Kanhaiya Lal, a practising lawyer of Peshawar. As he grew up, Jagat Singh went into business and started taking interest in social and civic affairs. On 7 January 1924, he was arrested in connection with the Gurdwara Reform movement. He became a member of the Municipal Committee of Peshawar in 1925 and was appointed an honorary magistrate in 1929.

In 1936 he was elected to the only seat reserved for the Sikhs in the partly elected provincial legislative council under the Government of India Act, 1919. When elections were held for the first elected legislative assembly provided under the Government of India Act, 1935, he was again elected a member from Peshawar district. Jagat Singh, along with Mchar Chand Khanna and Rai Bahadur Tshwar Das formed the Hindu Sikh Nationalist Party, which functioned within the assembly until it was suspended when the ministry under Dr Khan Sahib resigned at the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Jagat Singh Narag died in 1942.