HARKISHAN SINGH BAWA

Bawa Harkishan Singh (26.7.1892 – 20.8.1978), son of Bawa Dasaundha Singh, was born at Dera Ismail Khan (Pakistan). He received his early education from his native town. He passed his M.A. in English from F.C. College, Lahore. In 1912, he was appointed as a Lecturer in English at Khalsa College, Amritsar.

Bawa Harkishan Singh was one of those leaders who started the Gurdwara Reform movement in 1920. When the so-called untouchable Sikhs went to Darbar Sahib to offer Karah Parshad, on October 12, 1920, he joined them. He requested the priests to accept their offerings. When the deputy commissioner of Amritsar formed a Committee of 9 members for the management of Darbar Sahib, on October 13, 1920, he was nominated to this Committee.

He was elected to the first S.G.P.C. on November 15, 1920. He was one of the Punj Piaray who were selected to check the credentials of the members of the first S.G.P.C. On October 12, 1923, the S.G.P.C. was outlawed. He was arrested the next day. He spent three years in jail. He was the first Akali leader who was released on January 25, 1926 on verbal assurances to act upon the Gurdwara Act (1925). After his release he did not take part in politics.

In 1933, he joined the other Sikh elite to form Gursewak Sabha to create amicable relationship among the leaders of the different Akali factions. In 1955, he was co-opted as a member of the S.G.P.C. After the arrest of Master Tara Singh, on May 10, 1955, he was elected as the president of the S.G.P.C. In 1960, he was appointed a member of the Punjabi University Patiala Commission. Bawa Harkishan Singh died in 1978 at Delhi Cantonment.

(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)