ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HUKAM SI&#7748GH SARD&#256R (1895-1983)</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="HUKAM,SIDGH,SARDR,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">&#65279HUKAM SI&#7748GH, SARD&#256R (1895-1983), politician, parliamentarian and jurist, famous for his ready repartee, was born at Montgomery (Sah&#299w&#257l) on 30 August 1895, the son of Sh&#257m Si&#7749gh, a businessman of moderate means. Hukam Si&#7749gh had his preliminary acquaintance with Punjabi letters at the local <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> and matriculated in 1913 from Government High School, Montgomery, under its headmaster, B&#257w&#257 Dasaundh&#257 Si&#7749gh, father of the famous Ak&#257l&#299 leader and teacher of English literature, B&#257w&#257 Harkishan Si&#7749gh, who had influential contacts in the Ak&#257l&#299 party. He graduated from <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar, in 1917. At the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College he distinguished himself as a member of the College Hockey XI. He was a contemporary of the legendary hockey player L&#257l&#299 or L&#257I Si&#7749gh who died prematurely falling a victim to hockey rivalry. Hukam Si&#7749gh used to say that had L&#257l Si&#7749gh lived, no one would possibly have heard of the second maestro, Dhi&#257n Chand.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Graduating college, Hukam Si&#7749gh took up government service and became an inspector in the Co-operative Department, but resigned to resume his studies. He passed his LL.B. exanmination in 1921 from Law College, Lahore, and set up practice as a lawyer at Montgomery, where he established himself securely in the profession as well as in the civic life of the town. A devout Sikh, he also took part in the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform or Ak&#257l&#299 movement. When Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee was declared unlawful and most of its leaders arrested in October 1923, the Sikhs formed another Parbandhak Committee. Sard&#257r Hukam Si&#7749gh was a member of this Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee and was one among those who were arrested on 7 January 1924 and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He was elected a member of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee at the first elections held under the Sikh Gurdw&#257r&#257s Act, 1925, and continued to be elected successively for many years. He took part in the anti-Simon Commission agitation in 1928 and was injured and arrested during police baton charge on a procession in the streets of Montgomery.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Montgomery, town as well as the district, fell in the predominantly Muslim majority region of the Punjab, and Sikhs and Hindus faced a grave threat to their lives at the hands of Muslim fanatics especially during the riots that broke out following the declaration of partition of the country in August 1947. Most of them including Hukam Si&#7749gh's own family took refuge in the walled compound of Gurdw&#257r&#257 Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 of which he himself was the president. He went about the town evacuating people from their houses, burying the dead and evacuating the dying to hospital at grave personal risk. He was at the top of the rioters' hit list when, during the night of 19-20 August 1947, a European army officer of the Boundary Force evacuated him, penniless and disguised in <i>khaki</i> uniform, to F&#299rozpur cantonment. After about ten days he came to know that his family too had arrived safely at Jalandhar. He traced his family in a refugee camp where he rejoined it after several days filled with tension and anxiety. Gi&#257n&#299 Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh, a vastly influential Sikh leader in those days, introduced him to the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 of Kap&#363rthal&#257 for a position in the state judiciary. But an unfortunate <i>faux pas</i> occurred. Sard&#257r Hukam Si&#7749gh arrived at the Kap&#363rthal&#257 palace in his white toga. To say the least, the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 was not at all pleased to see him so dressed. The prime minister of the state smoothed over matters saying that Sard&#257r Hukam Si&#7749gh had arrived as a refugee and could be forgiven the lapse. Sard&#257r Hukam Si&#7749gh was appointed a judge of the Kap&#363rthal&#257 High Court.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Consequent upon Part&#299tion, some seats in the Constituent Assembly of India had become vacant. On a Motion from Gi&#257n&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh Mus&#257fir, the Assembly, on 27 January 1948, approved to elect two Sikh and two Hindu members from the East Punjab. By a stroke of luck and again with the help of Gi&#257n&#299 Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh, Hukam Si&#7749gh was elected a member (30 April 1948) . He actively participated in the Constituent Assembly's debates, and only a year after his entry was nominated on the panel of its chairmen. He continued to be on the panel till his election as deputy speaker in March 1956. He had been elected to the Lok Sabh&#257, the lower house of Parliament, in 1952 elections held under the new constitution and was re-elected in 1957 and again in 1962 in which year he was elected speaker of this house. He did not contest the 1967 elections and was instead appointed governor of R&#257jasth&#257n at which position he remained till June 1972.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Although in March 1948 the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal had directed all Ak&#257l&#299 legislators to join Congress legislature party en bloc, Hukam Si&#7749gh, who had been elected to the Constituent Assembly in April 1948, continued to function in opposition. He stubbornly fought for the protection of the rights of the minorities and, failing to get protection for the Sikhs as a religious minority, he refused to put his signatures as a member to the new constitution. On his election to Parliament in 1952, he was secretary of the National Democratic Front of which Dr Shy&#257m&#257 Pras&#257d Mookerjee was the president, but later he joined and remained in the Congress party. On the question of Punjabi S&#363b&#257, he favoured the re-organization of the state on linguistic rather than on religious basis. He was the chief architect of the regional Formula which, however, did not work. The Ak&#257l&#299s' agitation for Punjabi S&#363b&#257 continued despite the failure of the strategy of fasts resorted to by their leaders during 1960-61. In 1965, when Sant Fateh Si&#7749gh announced his resolve to go on an indefinite fast for the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state, the central government still seemed unyielding. But the Sant's gesture in postponing his fast in consideration of hostilities having broken out against Pakistan and his appeal to the Sikhs whole-heartedly to support India's war effort appeared to have touched the hearts of many people, including L&#257l Bah&#257dur Sh&#257str&#299, who had by then taken over as the Prime Minister of India. He ordered the appointment of a parliamentary committee with Sard&#257r Hukam Si&#7749gh, then Speaker of the Lok Sabh&#257, as Chairman to consider the question of Punjabi S&#363b&#257, i.e. a Punjabi-speaking state. It was a miracle how Hukam Si&#7749gh was able to secure from elements as diverse as the parliamentary committee a unanimous report. The committee gave its verdict in favour of a Punjabi State saying that the State of Punjab be reorganized on a linguistic basis.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; After his retirement from the office of governor of R&#257jasth&#257n as well as from active politics in June 1972, Hukam Si&#7749gh settled down in Delhi. In March 1973, the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee formed Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 Shat&#257bad&#299 (centenary) Committee to celebrate the centenary of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 movement launched in 1873. Hukam Si&#7749gh was nominated its president with Gi&#257n&#299 Gurdit Si&#7749gh as its secretary. Even after the celebrations, this committee continued to function as a permanent non-political body under the name of Kendar&#299 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 for research and preaching of the Sikh tenets. Hukam Si&#7749gh remained active as its president till his death which occurred in Delhi on 27 May 1983.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hukam Si&#7749gh also made considerable contribution for the cause of Sikh education. At Montgomery he was the manager of the local <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 High School. In 1928 when the annual session of the Sikh Educational Conference was held at Montgomery, he was the secretary of its reception committee. Hukam Si&#7749gh presided over the 40th and the 46th sessions of the Conference. He. was also patron of the Montgomery Educational Trust established at Jalandhar. He was a member of the Punjabi University Commission. The University conferred on him, in 1967, the degree of Doctor of Laws (<i>honoris causa</i>) . The launching by him of the <i>Spokesman</i>, English weekly from Delhi in 1951, served to supply a serious deficiency in Sikh journalism. He was the author of two books, in English -- <i>The Sikh Cause</i> and <i>The Problem of the Sikhs</i>, in addition to a travelogue on his visit to Russia.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Partap Singh, <i>Biography Sardar Hukam Singh</i>. Delhi, 1989<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, 1994<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Major Gurmukh Si&#7749gh (Retd.)<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>