Sardar Ajit Singh Sarhadi

Sardar Ajit Singh Sarhadi was born on 19 May 1905 at Kohat, in the North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan), and died on 11 January 1979. He was a Sikh politician who represented Ludhiana in the Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1962, and the author of a book on the Punjabi Suba struggle.

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names him in its account of the Regional Formula of 1956. The Shiromani Akali Dal met in general session at Amritsar on 11 March 1956 to decide whether to accept it. Giani Kartar Singh, Bhai Jodh Singh and Sardar Ajit Singh Sarhadi were especially persuasive in its favour, and the motion was carried over objections, among them a recorded dissent by Amar Singh Ambalavi.

The Formula he argued for

The Regional Formula divided Punjab into a Punjabi region and a Hindi region, each with a regional committee drawn from its own legislators. The committees could discuss most subjects but not law and order, finance or taxation. Giani Kartar Singh told the meeting it was not the Punjabi Suba the Sikhs wanted, but urged them to take it as a promise of one. Sikhs largely saw it as a tentative arrangement. It was never seriously implemented, and Master Tara Singh revived the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state in 1958.

Key moments

• 11 March 1956: speaks for the Regional Formula at the Akali Dal meeting in Amritsar.
• 1957 to 1962: Member of the Lok Sabha for Ludhiana. Wikipedia lists him as elected for the Indian National Congress.
• In Parliament: The Tribune names him, with Sirdar Kapur Singh and Hukam Singh, as an exception among Akali MPs who took up certain issues of the Sikhs.
• 1970: publishes Punjabi Suba (Delhi). The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism lists it among its sources on the movement, and a university dissertation lists it as Punjabi Suba: The Story of Struggle.

He is remembered as an Akali leader who argued for the 1956 settlement and as the writer of a book that is still listed as a source on the road to the Punjabi Suba of 1966.