ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>MEHT&#256B SI&#7748GH SARD&#256R BAH&#256DUR (1879-1938)</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="MEHTB,SIDGH,SARDR,BAHDUR,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">&#65279MEHT&#256B SI&#7748GH, SARD&#256R BAH&#256DUR (1879-1938), lawyer and legislator who became closely associated with the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform movement, was born in 1879 at the village of Ha&#7693&#257l&#299, in Sh&#257hpur district, now in Pakistan, to Haz&#363r Si&#7749gh and Karam Kaur. His father died when he was barely four years old. Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh had his early education at the village school and passed the Entrance examination from Central Model School, Lahore, in 1895. The same year, he proceeded to England where he studied law for three years, returning to India in 1898 as a barrister-at-law. He started legal practice at Sh&#257hpur. In 1910, he was appointed government pleader at F&#299rozpur and, subsequently, transferred to Lahore. He was honoured by the government with the titles successively of Sard&#257r S&#257hib (1915) and Sard&#257r Bah&#257dur (1918). In 1920, he was elected to the Punjab Legislative Council and became its vice-president. He, however, resigned this office as well as his membership of the Council on 11 November 1921, as a protest against government taking away keys of the Golden Temple <i>tosh&#257<u>kh</u>&#257n&#257</i> or treasury and plunged into the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Reform movement. Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh was made vice-president of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee. On 26 November 1921, he was arrested at Ajn&#257l&#257 in an Ak&#257l&#299 <i>d&#299v&#257n</i> on the charge of making a seditious speech and sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment, with a fine of Rs 1,000. In the absence of Sard&#257r Kha&#7771ak Si&#7749gh in jail, Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh acted as president of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Committee. He was again arrested in the Gur&#363 k&#257 B&#257<u>gh</u> <i>morch&#257</i> on 14 September 1922. He remained in custody until 14 March 1923. On 12 October 1923, the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Gurdw&#257r&#257 Parbandhak Committee and the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal were declared by the government unlawful organizations, and principal Ak&#257l&#299 leaders including Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh were put under arrest. Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh was one of the first batch of 20 Ak&#257l&#299 leaders released following their endorsement of a statement drafted by an Ak&#257l&#299 leader and read in the court on 25 January 1926, renouncing any further direct action and offering to implement the provisions of the Gurdw&#257r&#257 Act under which Sikh shrines were proposed to be made over to a representative board of the Sikhs. Some other Ak&#257l&#299 leaders refused to give such an assurance and stayed behind in jail. Although Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh was aligned with one of the two groups&#8212B&#257b&#257 Kha&#7771ak Si&#7749gh's as against Master T&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh's, his counsel continued to be sought in Sikh affairs generally. He participated in the All-Parties Sikh Conference at Amritsar on 29 January 1928 convened to determine the attitude of the Sikhs towards the Simon Commission sent to India by the British government. The Conference resolved to boycott the Commission. Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh was one of the seven delegates to All-Parties Conference at Delhi on 24 February 1928. At the All-Parties Convention at Calcutta on 28-29 December 1928, he strongly challenged Mr M.A. Jinn&#257h's claim to 56 per cent representation for the Muslims in the Punjab and 33 per cent at the Centre. He was president of the committee for the notified Sikh Gurdw&#257r&#257 at Nank&#257&#7751&#257 S&#257hib from 1933 to 1936.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Meht&#257b Si&#7749gh died of a heart attack on 23 May 1938 while arguing a case in the High Court at Lahore.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Prat&#257p Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Lahir de Mah&#257n Net&#257</i>. Amritsar, 1976<BR> <li class="C1"> Josh, Sohan Si&#7749gh, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Morchi&#257&#7749 d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>. Delhi, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Narai&#7751 Si&#7749gh, <i>Ak&#257l&#299 Morche te Jhabbar</i>. Delhi, 1967<BR> <li class="C1"> Sahni, Ruchi Ram, <i>Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines</i>. ed. Ganda Singh. Amritsar, n.d.<BR> <li class="C1"> Mohinder Singh, <i>The Akali Movement</i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Kulwant Si&#7749gh Virk<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>