Bawa Harkishan Singh

Bawa Harkishan Singh (1892 to 1978), also spelt Harkrishan, was a college principal and one of the pioneers of the Gurdwara Reform Movement of the 1920s. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes him as shy and retiring, indifferent to fame, and says he never sought office. He was born at Dera Ismail Khan on 26 July 1892, took an MA in English literature at Forman Christian College, Lahore, taught English at Khalsa College, Amritsar, and was for many years Principal of Khalsa College, Gujranwala.

In May 1955 he was elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in place of Master Tara Singh, who had been arrested on 10 May. The SGPC's list gives his term as 21 May to 7 July 1955, the first weeks of the Punjabi Suba morcha.

Key moments

• 12 October 1920: attended the diwan at the Khalsa Baradari beside Jallianwala Bagh and walked with the congregation to Sri Harmandir Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib. He served on the nine-member provisional committee and, at the SGPC's first meeting on 12 December 1920, was one of the Panj Piare who checked the credentials of those present.
• 13 October 1923: arrested with two other Khalsa College professors, Teja Singh and Niranjan Singh, who were released early; he served a longer term and was freed only after an overall settlement with the government.
• 1927 and 1933: member of the committee set up in March 1927 to frame the Sikh Rahit Maryada; in December 1933 he helped form the Gur Sevak Sabha to promote amity among the Sikh factions.
• 4 July 1955: the SGPC's history of the morcha says that when police raided the SGPC office he and Hukam Singh were there and were not arrested, that both stayed calm and tried to keep the sangat peaceful, and that he announced that amends would be made for the Beadbi of the Darbar Sahib complex. Gurmit Singh says the two were organising the movement from the complex.
• 7 July 1955: in jail. The history says the police had taken him there before Hukam Singh was arrested that day, and that before going he made Gian Singh Rarewala president and handed over charge; the SGPC's list gives Rarewala's term as 7 July to 16 October 1955. The Encyclopaedia says Master Tara Singh resumed the presidency on his release.
• October 1955: named as a sixth colleague for the talks with the government's nominees. The Encyclopaedia names Master Tara Singh, Giani Kartar Singh, Hukam Singh, Bhai Jodh Singh and Gian Singh Rarewala as the negotiators and says Bawa Harkishan Singh took no part in the negotiations but joined their private discussions afterwards.
• 20 August 1978: dies at the Military Hospital, Delhi Cantonment.

Remembered for: taking the SGPC chair at the hardest moment of the 1955 morcha, as a scholar rather than a politician, and for his part in the founding years of the SGPC in 1920.