In memory of a giant: Sardar Teja Singh Samundri

Ninety-seven years ago, on this day, July 17 1926, a man died in Lahore prison at the age of 44 due to the cruelty of the British Raj. His death was tragic, but through his life’s work, Sardar Teja Singh Samundri left a legacy that lasts till this day and will remain etched in Punjab’s history forever.

At a time when the debate around Sikh identity and its place within wider Indian nationalism has got renewed attention, recalling the life and times of Samundri, the only non-guru in whose name there is a building inside the sacred Golden Temple complex, will help not just the young in Punjab but also the country and beyond understand the rich history of 20th century Sikhism and its role in nation-building.

Four elements of Samundri’s life stand out.

The first was his leadership of the gurdwara reform movement (GRM) which returned Sikh religious institutions to their egalitarian and democratic roots. The second was his ability to intertwine the movement for religious reform with the Indian freedom struggle which inspired many others including the legendary Master Tara Singh. The third was his commitment to education even though his access to formal learning was rudimentary. And the fourth was his commitment to an informed public sphere, through his role in launching newspapers, including the Hindustan Times, as a part of a group of the original Akali leaders before it was taken over by Madan Mohan Malaviya and eventually GD Birla.

And through it all, Samundri never hesitated to put the nation and his community before the self, sacrificing his livelihood, his property, and eventually his life.

Till the early 1920s, the government appointed and supervised custodians to manage Sikh gurudwaras. The British-appointed mahants, however, soon began portraying themselves as hereditary priests who had legal entitlement to gurudwara properties. Given the massive moveable and immovable property at the disposal of gurudwaras, acquired through endowments during the Sikh rule that preceded the Raj, many mahants began behaving like corrupt landlords, violating the tenets of the religion that had taken pride in austerity and service.

This was when Sikhs launched GRM, a mass agitation inspired by Gurbani, the sacred writings contained in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji. On the other side was the pro-British Sikh aristocracy that generally sided with the mahants. And it was in this mass movement that Sikhs found a leader in Teja Singh Samundri.

Samundri was born in a family of Sandhu Jat Sikhs of Rai Burj Ka (Sarhali) village of the Tarn Taran district. In those days, his family also owned agricultural tracts in Samundri Tehsil of Lyallpur District of the then-unified Punjab, which is where his family name came from. Like his ancestors, including his father, Sardar Dewa Singh, Samundri had been in the British Indian Army. But as a devout Sikh, he was attracted to the GRM which had its beginnings in Gurudwara Rakabganj in Delhi.

After having transferred the imperial capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, the British, acquired some land belonging to the gurudwara. In the process, the Raj struck a deal with the local mahants and demolished its boundary wall. There was an immediate backlash from the wider Sikh community. Led by Harchand Singh Lyallpuri and Samundri, the protesting Sikh Jathas (groups) went to Delhi. The protest resulted at first in a truce whereby the British government pleaded for status quo till the First World War was over, and then, after the war ended, restored the boundary wall. This boosted the confidence of the Sikh community.

But the real battle was fought in Punjab, as GRM intensified its quest to liberate the gurudwaras from the control of the mahants. And Samundri led this battle from the front, not only agitating against the mahants but creating the infrastructure and providing the support to sustain the movement.

During the historic 1921-22 struggle in Amritsar called the Guru Ka Bagh Morcha, Samundri was the Chairman of the Council of Action set up by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC). Through the remarkable non-violent movement, even when faced with British repression, Samundri remained calm and generous, wise and firm.

The renowned social scientist and educationist Ruchi Ram Sahni of Punjab University, who came to know Samundri well, offered a glimpse of Samundri’s personality in his book titled “Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines”. About the Sikh leader, Sahni wrote, “He could grasp the essentials of a proposition immediately and examine them separately from the non-essentials which could be ignored. He was accommodating In the extreme so far as the non-essentials were concerned, but on points which he considered to be essential and fundamental he would stand firm like a rock.” Sahni added that he never saw Samundri ruffled. “Tall and robust without being stout like a typical village jat, he did not give one the impression of being a man whose broad rustic shoulders carried such a wise head.”

Teja Singh Samundri led from the front. During the gurudwara Nankana Sahib agitation in 1921, during which the local mahant ordered his men to fire on protesters leading to a massacre, the Akali newspaper published a piece to which local British authorities took offence and imposed a fine of ₹40,000, Samundri assured the newspaper publishers that he himself would stand surety for this money by auctioning his agricultural tracts.

Similarly, while going to jail in the context of another agitation at Nabha, Samundri stood to guarantee for a case where the SGPC in had lost a suit in the High Court, and was planning to make an appeal in Privy Council. For this purpose, R 150,000 was required. SGPC had only been able to collect R 75,000 and Samundri pledged 50 acres of his land to cover the remaining amount.

Throughout the GRM-1920s, Samundri was also actively involved in providing monetary and related relief to the agitators’ families. It led to the formation of the Sikh Desh Bhagat Parivar Sahaik Committee for relief to be provided to the families of those who had been imprisoned or were facing litigation. Later this body was expanded into Desh Bhagat Parivar Sahaik Committee, in memory of which Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee Hall stands in Jalandhar City today.

These nuggets of his leadership and contribution illustrate a bigger point; from the macro strategy to the micro organisation, Samundri’s role was central to the GRM. The starkest illustration of the high regard in which the community held him was when Samundri, on June 17, 1923, was chosen as one among the Panj Pyaras (five beloved Sikhs) to lead the Kaar Sewa to begin cleaning the Sarovar (holy pond) in the Golden Temple complex. The Kaar Sewa was undertaken for the first time after the end of the Sikh rule in Punjab in 1842.

Even as the Sikhs were waging an agitation against the British for religious reform, they could quite clearly see how it intersected with the wider freedom movement against the same adversary. Samundri had seen this connection early on, starting with his participation in September 1923 in the All India Subjects Committee organised by the Indian National Congress.

The British arrested GRM leaders including Samundri. But the movement eventually succeeded and led to the enactment of the SGPC Act of 1925, handing over the control of the shrines to the committee. The Raj, in return, wanted the agitators to commit in writing that they would no longer agitate, nor question any provisions of the Act.

This created a rift among the 31 top leaders of GRM confined in jail. While one group of about 20 people agreed to give in to the government’s demands, but 11 including Teja Singh Samundri and Master Tara Singh refused to compromise with the government. Samundri said that he would prefer to “kick such humiliating terms with his shoe”. This group wasn’t released from prison, and it was in Lahore, on July 17, 1926, that Samundri died in mysterious circumstances.

Following his death, the Akali agitation intensified, and the British released all the others unconditionally. The British Government quickly called for a general election to the newly approved SGPC. Samundri’s loyalists swept the polls, reflecting the high respect people had for his sacrifices.

The GRM struggle in general, and Samundri’s bravery in particular, played a key role in radically altering the general perception of Sikhs in colonial India. Till then, they were regarded as British loyalists because of their overwhelming numbers in the British Indian Army, grossly disproportionate to their population in India. But the movement led to a shift in perception as the rest of the country woke up to Sikhs as staunch non-violent and peaceful protesters who could not be provoked to become violent even in the face of dire repression. No wonder, when the gurudwaras in British Punjab were liberated through peaceful agitations, and the management of Sikh shrines were entrusted to SGPC, Mahatma Gandhi, who, along with others, had supported the GRM, sent a telling congratulatory telegram, “First Battle of Independence won!”

Samundri’s commitment to India’s freedom was vindicated by both sides of the political spectrum. The INC-led freedom movement in India recognised him as a freedom fighter, while a British colonial government report said his death would definitely discourage/dissuade future radical freedom fighters in India. How wrong was the Raj?

Right from the beginning, despite having received the most rudimentary of formal education and being fluent in only his native language, Samundri had taken a keen interest in promoting education among the people.

He established Khalsa High School in Lyallpur, Baar Khalsa High School at Chak No. 41, Khalsa Middle School at Chak No 140 in Samundri, and Guru Gobind Singh High School at Sarhali. He was also at the forefront to finance education for children and encouraged the collection of funds for this purpose. His family, in the past century, has sustained the educational initiatives and institutions he set up.

Samundri also made earnest efforts to institute publications for the GRM-1920s in both Punjabi and Urdu languages. Along with Sunder Singh Lyallpuri and other Akali leaders, Samundri played a key role in taking the initiative to mobilise funds and establish this newspaper in 1924.

But besides his illustrious legacy in the community and the wider nation-building. His son, Bishan Singh Samundri, was awarded a scholarship in 1957 to study abroad and this enabled him to secure his Master’s degree from Ohio State University in the United States (US). After returning home, Bishan Singh Samundri took over as the Principal of Khalsa College, Amritsar and eventually became the founding Vice Chancellor of the Guru Nanak Dev University. Bishan’s wife, Jagjit Sandhu, finished her PhD in education from the US as well and retired as the Principal of Government College for Women in Amritsar.

And Teja Singh Samundri’s grandson, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, is today India’s Ambassador to the United States, playing a key role in deepening Delhi’s ties with Washington. Among his various diplomatic initiatives, two stand out as traits inherited from his grandfather — a commitment to deepen the knowledge and education partnership between the two countries, and a commitment to inclusive Indian nationalism as opposed to the sectarian tendencies visible at times within extremist sections of the community.

It is to true giants, heroes and martyrs such as Teja Singh Samundri that today’s young must return, for it is lives like his that made the idea of India and the idea of Punjab a unique one.

Harmeet Singh is a former member of Faculty Political Science at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and National University of Law, Sonipat. The views expressed are personal