In every era Lahore has had its peculiar political characters, colourful as they come. Give them half an issue and then watch the fun. In the history of Lahore few can match the colour and controversy generated by the famous Master Tara Singh.
Most older people in Lahore recollect this Sikh leader as the man who stood on the stairs of the Punjab Assembly in 1947 and pledged that he would never allow Pakistan to be made, drawing his ‘kirpan’ in the process. The result of that defiant gesture was that hundreds of innocent Sikhs were butchered the next day. That is the abiding image of the man in Lahore. But then he was a much more serious politician. It would be interesting to trace his life and see how he fared, for after 1947 little is known of his ways.
Born to a Hindu Malhotra family in 1885 in the village Harial in Rawalpindi District, his childhood name was Nanak Chand. His father was Bakshi Gopi Chand the village ‘patwari’. His was a religious family, but tolerant as all Punjabis once were of other religions. Having passed his primary examination from a school near his village, he moved to Rawalpindi to join the Mission School. His interest in the Sikh faith resulted in him, during holidays, going to listen to a well-known Sikh ‘saint’ Attar Singh at Dera Khalsa.
In 1902 Baba Attar Singh initiated him into the Khalsa order and named him Tara Singh – ‘the star with the love of the Almighty in his heart’. The following year he passed his matriculation and joined Khalsa College, Amritsar. At college he organised a few strikes over trivial matters and soon was known as a rabble rouser. In 1907, Tara Singh joined the peasant movement in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) against the passage of the Colonization Bill.
Strangely, he concluded that people were trying to portray the Sikhs as anti-British. In an amazing flip, which would be the hallmark of his life, he supported what he set out to oppose. But then he sought solace in educating Sikh farmers of the benefits they stood to gain. It was, by any measure, a progressive leap of faith.
After graduating in 1907 he decided to become a teacher and joined the Teacher Training College, Lahore. In 1908 after completing his teacher training, he opened the Khalsa High School, Lyallpur. From this school he rose to become a national leader, preaching that Sikhs educate other Sikhs for free. He formed ‘The Lyallpur Group’, which brought out a magazine called ‘Sach Dhandhora’.
In 1914 he returned to Lyallpur as headmaster for his own school when the Gurdwara Reform Movement started. He was thus called Master Tara Singh. Elected to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, his life as a progressive religious politician had started.
In 1921 took place the infamous Nankana Sahib massacre. It all started with complaints of immoral practices in the Janam Asthan Gurdwara at Nankana Sahib by the Udasi mahant (priest) Narain Das and his companions. The Sikhs resolved to take the management of the gurdwara in their own hands. A group of 150 Sikhs entered the gurdwara as ordinary pilgrims, unarmed and peaceful. But the priest, apprehending a takeover, had hired a few armed Pathans, who opened fire on the ‘peaceful’ posse. According to an official report about 130 devotees were massacred inside the gurdwara.
The next day Master Tara Singh joined a group of over 1,000 Sikhs and after negotiating with the British administration took over control. He was truly into active Sikh religious politics, which he would pursue for the rest of his life. Leaders like Gandhi, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Saifuddin Kitchlew, Lala Dhuni Chand and Lala Lajpat Rai visited the scene of the tragedy and expressed sympathy for the Akalis.
This exposure Master Tara Singh had never experienced, and he pledged before the Sikh community to devote his whole life to the cause of the Sikhs. He was immediately invited to become the secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee at Amritsar. Master Tara Singh had truly arrived.
He immediately was engulfed in a dispute over possession of the Golden Temple, and after a brush with the local administration was arrested under the provisions of the Seditious Meetings Act, tried and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. He immediately resigned from his job as a headmaster and devoted himself to the Akali Dal. The Sikhs resolved to not cooperate with the British and soon everyone was released. Mahatma Gandhi sent a telegram which said: “First battle for India’s freedom won, congratulations”. Master Tara Singh was propelled to a much higher pedestal.
In March 1922, Master Tara Singh was again arrested alongside 1,400 others for wearing extra long swords publicly. In this he again emerged an even bigger Sikh leader. Then followed a series of Sikh related issues, and every time he was arrested his stature grew. Very soon he was to be dubbed ‘Sole Spokesman of the Sikhs’. The ‘patwari’s’ son from Rawalpindi had made it to become a headmaster in Lyallpur, and from there to a national leader in Lahore, all in a matter of 15 years.
