Bibi Joginder Kaur

Bibi Joginder Kaur, called Bibi Joginder Kaur radio singer in the SGPC's history of the 1955 morcha, sang Panthic songs at the divans of Manji Sahib through the Punjabi Suba morcha and led the first jatha of women to court arrest on Punjabi Suba Day, 25 May 1955. The history says she came to the divan at Manji Sahib every day and sang Panthic songs that gave the sangat new energy and hope. It says the Sachar government could not bear that even a nightingale should sing freely, so it decided to cage her, and warrants for her arrest were issued.

Key moments

• 25 May 1955, Punjabi Suba Day: she and some other women had asked from the start of the morcha to be allowed to court arrest. When the police began arresting women even without satyagraha, the Akali high command allowed four jathas of sixteen women to offer satyagraha on Punjabi Suba Day. The history says that for the first time a jatha of women went to jail with their brothers, under the leadership of Bibi Joginder Kaur, shouting Punjabi Suba Zindabad. The sangat showered flowers, coins and notes on them, and the Sat Sri Akal slogans of the crowd seemed to echo through the whole city.
• 28 to 29 May 1955: the same book tells of a Bibi Joginder Kaur, called a well-known Panthic worker of Jalandhar, who slipped away from a police raid on the night of 28 to 29 May and courted arrest on the morning of 29 May outside Gurdwara Singh Sabha Doaba, breaking through the police ring for a hundred yards. On page 40, in the same 29 May entry, it names Kanwaljit Singh and Hardip Singh among that day's volunteers as the two younger brothers of Bibi Joginder Kaur, radio singer. The text does not say whether the Jalandhar worker and the radio singer are the same woman, and it has the radio singer already arrested on 25 May, so this page keeps the two accounts apart.

Remembered for: bringing song into the 1955 morcha and leading the first women's jatha into jail on Punjabi Suba Day. The sources we opened say nothing of her birth or death, her songs or her later life.