ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>GURDI&#256L SI&#7748GH &#7692HILLO&#7748 (1915-1992)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="GURDIL,SIDGH, HILLOD,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279GURDI&#256L SI&#7748GH &#7692HILLO&#7748 (1915-1992), parliamentarian, diplomat and statesman, was a scion of the Bha&#7749g&#299 Sard&#257rs who had ruled over the central Punjab during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Born at Sarh&#257l&#299, in Jalandhar district of the Punjab, at his <i>n&#257nke</i>, mother's village, on 6 August 1915, the son of Sard&#257r Hardit Si&#7749gh of Pañjva&#7771, in Amritsar district, Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh was educated at the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Collegiate School, Amritsar, and at Government College, Lahore, from where he graduated in 1935. He took the Law degree from the University Law College in 1937 and set up practice under the apprenticeship of the well-known nationalist leader of Amritsar, Dr Saifudd&#299n Kitchlew. He was selected for a commission in the army and, though he completed the training, he did not join the service owing to his patriotic proclivity. The pull of the nationalist sentiment proved decisive and, in spite of his aristocratic birth, he was led to join the ranks of the Indian National Congress. Soon after passing out of the university's portals, he faced his first political test. A mass demonstration by students was then rocking the Punjab and it offered Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh a ready passage into activity which remained his life-long passion. For his participation in the students' agitation he was awarded a brief spell in jail. Soon thereafter, he was participating in a much larger protest which came to be known in the annals of the Punjab as Hars&#257 Chh&#299n&#257 <i>morch&#257</i> and which cost him a whole year in jail. This established his reputation as a youth leader of true calibre.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; After this active brush with politics, Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh did a stint in journalism. He became editor of two newspapers, the daily <i>Vartm&#257n</i> (Punjabi) and the daily <i>Sher-i-Bh&#257rat</i> (Urdu) . This gave Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh an opportunity to broaden his political contacts. He earned close kinship with politicians of the weight of &#362dham Si&#7749gh N&#257goke and Darshan Si&#7749gh Pher&#363m&#257n. At the younger level were his comrades of the vintage of &#298shar Si&#7749gh Majhail.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; At the first general elections in Independent India, in 1952, Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh was elected a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. After a brief spell as Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, he was elected Speaker. In 1965, he became a memeber of the Punjab cabinet holding the portfolios of transport and rural electrification and irrigation. Translating himself to Delhi, after his election as a member of the Lok Sabh&#257, lower house of Indian Parliament, he maintained his position as an ace parliamentarian, leading to his election as speaker of the Indian Parliament. This office he relinquished to become a member of Indian cabinet in which he was assigned to the portfolios of transport and shipping. He then carried a diplomatic assignment as India's High Commissioner in Canada.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh &#7692hillo&#7749's parliamentary career was studded with the highest national and international honours. As chairman of the conference of leaders of legislative bodies of India, he attended 17 of their annual conferences, seven of which he presided. He was awarded the Medallion of the Parliament of Canada. He was a familiar, much-honoured figure in world parliaments including the mother of parliaments, the British House of Commons. He was elected acting president of Inter-parliamentary Union Conference at Geneva in 1973 and president at Tokyo in 1974. Dr Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh was very lively and humorous man and some of his <i>bon mots</i> continued to reverberate in parliamentary halls of the world long after he had left them.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His family house in the village of Pañjva&#7771, in Amritsar, bore the evocative name, Missal House. Missal was the term for 12 eighteenth-century Sikh chiefships into which Punjab had become divided before it was consolidated into a unitary power under Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh &#7692hillo&#7749 valued his association with the academic forums in his own country more than anything else. He was a member of the syndicate and senate of the Pañj&#257b University, Cha&#7751&#7693&#299ga&#7771h, for many years. He also served as a member of the syndicate and senate of Gur&#363 N&#257nak Dev University, Amritsar. He carried a D. Litt. (<i>honoris causa</i>) from Punjabi University, Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, which enjoyed pride of place on the roster of his academic honours. He was a trustee of Gur&#363 N&#257nak Engineering College, Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257, and a member of the board of governors of the Punjab Public School, N&#257bh&#257. He was president of M&#257t&#257 Ga&#7749g&#257 Girls College, Gur&#363 Arjan Dev College and <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Higher Secondary School, Tarn T&#257ran. He was a member of the managing committee of B&#299&#7771 B&#257b&#257 Bu&#7693&#7693h&#257 College and a trustee of the Shah&#299d Pher&#363m&#257n College. He was chairman of the trust sub-committee and managing committee of Jalli&#257&#7749v&#257l&#257 B&#257<u>gh</u> National Memorial Trust, 1973-81.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He held doctorates from international universities such as Humbolt (Germany) and Sung Kyun Kwan (Korea) . He was plied with offers of <i>honoris causa</i> degrees by universities in India such as Punjabi, Cha&#7751&#7693&#299ga&#7771h and Kurukshetra.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This bare account of his career tells but part of the story. Much more important than the offices he reached and held was the man himself. He was a person of great charm and wit and of great nobility of mind and purpose. Dr Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh &#7692hillo&#7749 throughout maintained an independent and statesman-like course. He was a man of acknowledged personal dignity and honour. He was known for his frankness and for his integrity of word and character. As a politician, he claimed the cleanest reputation.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He was much in demand in Sikh literary and social forums. He was especially attached to his <i>alma mater</i>, the Pañj&#257b University and remained a member of its senate and syndicate for more than three decades. He was known not to have missed a single meeting of these bodies during his long association with the university.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sard&#257r Gurdi&#257l Si&#7749gh died at Delhi, on 23 March 1992, following a heart attack.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"><i>Fifth Lok Sabha: Who's Who</i>. Delhi, 1971<BR> <li class="C1"><i>The Tribune</i>. Chandigarh, 24 March 1992<BR> <li class="C1"><i>The Hindustan Times</i>. New Delhi, 25 March 1992<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Iqb&#257l Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>