JASWANT SINGH

JASWANT SINGH (1896-1964), the youngest of the trinity of Jhabal brothers who were all active in the Gurdwara Reform movement, was born on 17 June 1896 at the village of Jhabal, in Amritsar district of the Punjab. After matriculating from Khalsa High School, Lahore, in 1916, Jaswant Singh joined Khalsa Gollcge, Amritsar, but had to discontinue his studies owing to his father`s death in 1918. Like his elder brothers,. Amar Sirigli and Sarmukh Singh, Jaswant Singh began to devote his time to religious and social work while still very young. At the age of 23, he was elected president of the village Sri Guru Singh Sabha.

Side by side with his brothers, he participated in the agitations for securing the resignation of the manager of Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, appointed by the British, for rebuilding the Gurdwara Rikabganj wall and for the reformation of Gurdwara Babe di Ber at Sialkot in October 1920. In 1920, he was elected joint secretary of the newly established district branch of the Sikh League. He was nominated a member of the first Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1920, and he headed the first Local Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee formed for the management of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar after the control of the Sikh shrines had passed into the hands of the Shiromani Committee.

He was also a member of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee. In Akali and Congress movements, he courted arrest several times. On 11 May 1921, he was jailed for six weeks for a public speech he delivered at Tarn Taran following the Nankana Sahib tragedy. On 26 November 1921, he was arrested for convening a divan at Ajnala in support of the morchd for reclaiming from the British keys of the Golden Temple treasury. He was arrested again in February 1922, for an alleged seditious speech he had delivered, and sentenced to jail. He was sent to the Dera Ghazi Khan Jail, where he was asked to remove his black turban.

He protested against this for which reason his sentence was enhanced by nine months. He was set free in February 1925. On 4 November 1925, he was elected general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. In the elections of 1926, he was elected a member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and president of the Local Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar. He became president of the Darbar Sahib Committee in the elections of 1933 as well, but he broke away from the Shiromani Akali Dal and joined hands with its rival, Central Akali Dal. Gradually, he receded from the political scene and died in obscurity on 14 July 1964 at Chandigarh.

References :

1. Asliok, Shamsher Singh, Shiromnm Gurdwara Prnbandhak Knmefi da Pnhjdh Said Itihds. Amritsar, 1982
2. Pratap Singh, Giani, Gurdwara Sudhar arl.hdt AkdH Lahir. Amritsar, 1975
3. Piar Singh, Tejd Singh Samundn. Aniritsar, 1975
4. Tcja Singli, Gurdwara Reform Movement and the Sikh Awakening. Jalandhar, 1922
5. Mohinder Singh, The Akali Movement. Delhi, 1978