ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HARCHAND SI&#7748GH LAU&#7748GOV&#256L SANT (1932-1985)</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="HARCHAND,SIDGH,LAUDGOVL,SANT,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">&#65279HARCHAND SI&#7748GH LAU&#7748GOV&#256L, SANT (1932-1985), a holy man of shy habits who became in the course of years a vital political figure in the annals of modern Sikhism. He was born on 2 January 1932, the son of Mans&#257 Si&#7749gh and Karam Kaur, a couple of modest means living in Gida&#7771i&#257&#7751&#299, a village then in the princely state of Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 but now a part of Sa&#7749gr&#363r district in the Punjab. At the age of five, Harchand Si&#7749gh started attending the local <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> school, but soon transferred himself to the seminary at Maujo close by. There, under the tutelage of Sant Jodh Si&#7749gh he studied Sikh theology and Sikh texts and practised Sikh music. Although his active participation in political matters was to commence much later, the seed had been sown by his religious mentor Sant Jodh Si&#7749gh, who as a member of the Ak&#257l&#299 Dal took interest in current Sikh affairs.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leaving Maujo at the age of 21, Harchand Si&#7749gh served as a <i>granth&#299</i>, scripture-reader and custodian at the village <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> at K&#299ro&#7749 Kal&#257&#7749, moving the following year to Lau&#7749gov&#257l, a small town 16 km southwest of Sa&#7749gr&#363r. There he rasied a <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> in memory of the celebrated eighteenth-century Sikh scholarly personage and martyr, Bh&#257&#299 Man&#299 Si&#7749gh, who was a native of Kaimbov&#257l village, then a ruined mound. In 1962, Harchand Si&#7749gh was named Jathed&#257r or head of the shrine at Damdam&#257 S&#257hib (Talva&#7751&#7693&#299 S&#257bo) but he carried to the new station the word "Lau&#7749gov&#257l" which had got permanently suffixed to his name. In June 1964 he led out a <i>jath&#257</i> or band of Ak&#257l&#299 volunteers to P&#257o&#7751&#7789&#257 S&#257hib, in Him&#257chal Pradesh. This was the beginning of a dramatic political career. In 1965, he became the president of the Ak&#257l&#299 Jath&#257 of Sa&#7749gr&#363r district and a member of the working committee of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal. In the mid-term poll held in 1969, he was elected, as a nominee of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal, to the Punjab Legislative Assembly, defeating the Congress heavyweight, B&#257b&#363 Brish Bh&#257n, who had been chief minister of Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 and East Punjab States Union. In the 1977 general elections in the country he was given the Ak&#257l&#299 nomination for Parliament from a constituency in the Punjab, but he declined the offer which enhanced his political reputation and stature. In 1975 when he was the acting president of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal, he was called upon to run the agitation against the national emergency clamped down upon the country by the prime minister Indir&#257 G&#257ndh&#299 in 1975 extinguishing all civil liberties. As the emergency was lifted in 1977, Harchand Si&#7749gh retired from active politics, but was recalled in 1980, this time to take up the reins of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal as its president.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His presidentship of the party was a period of extreme turmoil and trial for the Sikhs. The worst came when the army was ordered by the prime minister into the Golden Temple premises and the holy shrines suffered attack and desecration. The assassination of prime minister Indir&#257 G&#257ndh&#299 by two of her Sikh security staff on 31 October 1984 brought in its wake heavy reprisals for the Sikhs. However, the general elections of January 1985 saw the Sikhs busily involved in electioneering. Sikhs who had been in an angry mood and had felt totally disenchanted since the army's attack on their sacred shrines were drawn into the political arena once again. Then followed the signing of an accord between the new prime minister of India, R&#257j&#299v G&#257ndh&#299, and the president of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal, Sant Harchand Si&#7749gh Lau&#7749gov&#257l. But before the process had come full circle, the Sant was shot by an unidentified young man presumed to be an extremist Sikh youth. This happened on 20 August 1985 at the <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> in Sherpur, not far from Lau&#7749gov&#257l.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Kalia, D.R. <i>Sant Harchand Singh Loungowal : A Martyr for Peace</i>. Jalandhar, 1985<BR> <li class="C1"> Tully, Mark and Satish Jacob, <i>Amritsar, Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle</i>. London, 1985<BR> <li class="C1"> Sarhadi, Ajit Singh, <i>Punjabi Suba</i>. Delhi, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1993<BR> <li class="C1"> Samiuddin, Abida, ed., <i>The Punjab Crisis, Challenge and Response</i>. Delhi, 1985<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Surj&#299t Si&#7749gh G&#257ndh&#299<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>