Dr Kali Charan

Dr Kali Charan was a Ludhiana leader on the "Maha Punjab" side of the argument over Punjabi Suba in 1954 and 1955. The fullest account of him in the sources opened is the SGPC's own history of the 1955 morcha, Punjabi Sube De Morche Di Twarikh, written by Karam Singh Zakhmi in 1955 and revised by Harjinder Singh Dilgeer for the SGPC's Sikh Ithas Research Board. It is the Akali side's telling, and what follows is what it says.

31 December 1954: The book calls him an Arya Samaji doctor of Ludhiana. It says that for several days before the procession for Guru Gobind Singh's birthday in Ludhiana on 31 December 1954 he spread the message that certain slogans would not be allowed in it, and that he then attacked the procession, with bricks and stones thrown from rooftops and hurtful slogans raised. The book says the Sikhs bore this with great patience and so avoided disorder.

His own words: The book says Akali leaders then charged openly that at least some ministers had a hand in a plot to block the demand for Punjabi Suba, and that nobody denied it. It says Dr Kali Charan himself confirmed it, in a statement the newspapers printed: he said that Congressmen were running the Maha Punjab campaign to stop the way of what he called a communal demand, that he was himself a Congressman, and that his leader was Lala Bhim Sen Sachar, then Chief Minister. The book says the Akali newspapers asked Sachar again and again to confirm or deny this and that he stayed silent, which it argues amounted to consent.

14 April 1955: The book says that at the procession in Amritsar that day, mischief-makers at the Ghanta Ghar chowk had been prepared for the purpose by Dr Kali Charan, who had come to Amritsar specially, and that they repeated there the game played in Ludhiana on 31 December 1954, with bricks and stones thrown at the procession.

1 May 1955: At a meeting of party representatives in Ludhiana, held at the invitation of Diwan Chaman Lall, Dr Kali Charan came with some companions for Maha Punjab, and Gopal Singh Khalsa, Ram Dayal Singh and Ajmer Singh attended for the Akalis. The book says they agreed that neither side would raise counter-slogans, and argues that the ban on Punjabi Suba slogans had been justified only by the risk of counter-slogans, so that the agreement removed the excuse.

The book gives no dates for him and no office in any party, and the other sources opened for this page do not mention him, so nothing more is stated here.