Ajit Singh Bala

Ajit Singh Bala was the 24th president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the elected body that manages the historic gurdwaras of Punjab. The SGPC's own list of presidents gives his term as 30 April 1960 to 10 March 1961.

He took over from Master Tara Singh, who is listed as president from 7 March to 30 April 1960. Master Tara Singh returned to the post on 10 March 1961 and held it until 11 March 1962. The list gives no reason for either change.

His year in office fell inside the Punjabi Suba morcha, the Akali agitation for a Punjabi-speaking state. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Master Tara Singh called a Punjabi Suba convention at Amritsar on 22 May 1960, that Sant Fateh Singh directed the movement from inside the Golden Temple complex and began a fast on 18 December 1960, and that the seven-month morcha, in which official figures say 30,000 people went to jail, ended with the fast on 9 January 1961. It also records that the Akali Dal won 136 seats in the 1960 SGPC elections, against four for the Sadh Sangat Board.

The sources we opened give his name and term only. They say nothing of what he did as president or of his part in the morcha, and they do not say where he came from or what became of him.