MUNSHA SINGH DUKHI

MUNSHA SINGH DUKHI (1890-1971), poet and revolutionary, was born the son of Subedar Nihal Singh on 1 July 1890 at Jandiala, in Jalandhar district of the Punjab. He had little formal education, but had acquired a good working knowledge of English, Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi. In 1908, he migrated to the U.S.A. and settled down in San Francisco. While in the States, he became a member of the Ghadr party.

On the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to India like many others of his compatriots to make an armed revolt, but was arrested upon arrival in the country. He was tried in second Lahore supplementary conspiracy case and was awarded life imprisonment with forfeiture of property. He served his term of imprisonment in jails at Hazaribagh, Lahore, Campbellpore and Multan and was released in 1920 under royal clemency.

Munsha Singh Dukhi was also a poet and journalist. He edited the prestigious Punjabi magazine devoted to poetry, called the Kavi, which he published from Calcutta. In 1950, he started from Bombay a monthly journal, the jivan. He himself published more than a dozen collections of verse. Among his prose works the biography of Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid is well known. Munsha Singh died at Phagwara on 26 January 1971.

References :

1. Deol, Gurdev Singh, Ghadar Parti ate Bharat da Qaumi Andolan. Amritsar, 1970
2. Sainsara, Gurcharan Singh, Ghadar Parti da Itihas. Jalandhar, 1969