ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>TEJ&#256 SI&#7748GH PROFESSOR (1894-1958)</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="TEJ,SIDGH,PROFESSOR,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">&#65279TEJ&#256 SI&#7748GH, PROFESSOR (1894-1958), teacher, scholar and translator of the Sikh sacred texts, was born Tej R&#257m on 2 June 1894 at the village of A&#7693i&#257l&#257 in R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 district, now in Pakistan. His father's name was Bhal&#257kar Si&#7749gh. At the age of three, Tej R&#257m was sent to the village <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> to learn to read and write Gurmukh&#299 and later to the mosque to learn Urdu and Persian. While still a small boy, he received initiatory rites at the hands of B&#257b&#257 Sir Khem Si&#7749gh Bed&#299 and was converted to Sikhism with the name of Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh. His early life was very hard and full of adventure. Since his father could not afford to send him to a regular school, he absconded from home in search of education. He managed to attend schools in R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 and thereafter in Sargodh&#257 and enter the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College at Amritsar after passing his matriculation examination.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh had a sensitive nature. The babbling brooks of Po&#7789hoh&#257r and the stories of the Gur&#363s and heroes he had heard as child shaped his imagination. In his seventh form, he wrote in English a treatise on painting and depicted in drama the noble and heroic martyrdom of the sons of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. He painted pictures and although he had to work to pay his way through college, he had engaged a musician from a neighbouring village to come daily to his hostel to play the <i>s&#299t&#257r</i> for him.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;After passing the intermediate examination from <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh returned to R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 to join the Gordon College which had afforded him a fee concession. He took his master's degree in English literature in 1916. In March 1919, he got an appointment at the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College at Amritsar where first he taught history and then for a quarter of a century English literature. Those were the days of much political activity in the Punjab of which Amritsar was an important centre. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh was among the 13 Sikh professors of <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College who resigned as a protest against government's control in the management of the institution. This gave rise to a widespread agitation and the government was forced to replace all 11 official members of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College Managing Committee by "non-official" Sikhs. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh was also connected with the Sikhs' long-drwan struggle in the twenties for the release of their holy places from the control of an effete and corrupt priestly order. In 1923, he was arrested during this campaign and served more than one year in jail. On his release in 1925 for reasons of health, he returned to <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College and his old profession of teaching. But he retained his contact with public causes through his writings and lectures. In 1939, he undertook a lecture tour of Malaya and delivered nearly 300 speeches in two months' time.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A gracious and kindly figure radiating warmth and friendliness, Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh presided over the cultural and literary activity in the Punjab for three decades. Punjabi letters and Sikh history and philosophy were his special fields of study. In the former he exercised pontifical influence and initiated new values and standards. With his vast background in oriental learning combined with a deep study of Western literature, he was an ideal critic and arbiter of literary excellence. His writings helped to fix the form and structure of Punjabi idiom. He encouraged and introduced to readers many young writers and it was accepted custom for all new practitioners to first show their work to him.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As a scholar of Sikh religion, he wrote copiously and authoritatively on the subject. He was for many years the interpreter and expositor of Sikhism to the outside world through his articles in English. Such writings of his were collected in book form and published under the titles <i>Sikhism : Its Ideals and Institutions</i> (1938) and <i>Essays in Sikhism</i> (1944). He wrote in collaboration with Dr Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh <i>A Short History of the Sikhs</i> (1950). Some of his renderings of the holy texts such as <i>japu, &#256s&#257 k&#299 V&#257r</i> and <i>Sukhman&#299</i> had established themselves as classics. The <i>&#346abad&#257rth</i>, an annotated edition of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, sponsored by the Gur Sevak Sabh&#257, which was completed in five years (1936-41), was primarily the work of Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh. Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh also compiled an English--Punjabi dictionary. One of his ambitions was to render the entire Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib into English. The portion he had completed during his lifetime was published by the Punjabi University in 1985 under the title <i>The Holy Granth</i> (Sr&#299 R&#257g to R&#257g M&#257jh).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In Punjabi literature Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh is remembered primarily as an essayist. The first collection of his essays in Punjabi was published in 1941 under the title <i>Nav&#299&#257&#7749 Soch&#257&#7749</i>, followed by <i>Sahij Subh&#257</i> in 1942 and <i>S&#257hit Darshan</i> in 1951. His autobiography, <i>&#256rs&#299</i> (Finger-Glass of Memory), a model of chaste and crisp Punjabi prose, was published in 1952. A scholarly work in Punjabi was <i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib vich Shabad&#257&#7749tik Lag&#257&#7749 M&#257tr&#257&#7749 de Gujhe Bhed</i> (Subtle Distinctions of Word-ending Vowel Symbols in the Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In 1945, Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh took over as Principal at the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College at Bombay. He stayed at this post for about three years and. then returned to Punjab as Secretary of the Publications Bureau of the Pañjab University. In January 1949 he was appointed Principal of Mohindra College, Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257. At Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, he also held additional charge for a time as Secretary and Director of the newly established Punjabi Department. He retired from the service of the PEPSU government in 1951.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh died after a stroke at Amritsar on 10 January 1958. He is remembered as a great man of letters who combined with deep learning a rare personal charm and kindliness.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Amole, S.S., <i>Professor Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh</i>. Patiala, 1977<BR> <li class="C1">"Tej&#257 Si&#7749gh" <i>&#256rs&#299</i>. Amritsar, 1952<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>Aspects of Punjabi Literature</i>. F&#299rozpur, 1961<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Sard&#257r Si&#7749gh Bh&#257&#7789&#299&#257<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>