Giani Partap Singh

Giani Partap Singh was a preacher, journalist and author who served the Akal Takht for many years. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born on 3 January 1904 in the village of Nara in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan, the son of Bhai Makkhan Singh and Mata Mathura Devi. He learnt Gurmukhi and scripture reading at home, passed his middle school examination in 1918, and read with great interest the literature of the Singh Sabha movement. He studied at the Khalsa Upadeshak (Missionary) College at Gujranwala and in 1922 passed the Giani examination of Panjab University, Lahore.

Key moments

• 1923: engaged by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee as a preacher. Soon afterwards he was arrested for a seditious speech and sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
• 1938 to 1948: assistant Jathedar of the Akal Takht at Amritsar.
• 1948 to 1952: Jathedar of Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur.
• He was then appointed Jathedar of the Akal Takht, from which he retired in 1955.
• 1956: founded the monthly Gian Amrit, which he edited and published until December 1981, when it was handed over to Dr Man Singh.
• 1981: honoured by the Languages Department of the Punjab Government for his contribution to Punjabi journalism, and also by the Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Delhi, for his services to the Sikh religion.
• 10 May 1984: assassinated inside his house at Amritsar by unidentified men, according to the Encyclopaedia.

His books: he wrote more than two dozen books and tracts on religious and historical subjects, among them Gurmat Laikchar (1944), Itihasak Laikchar (two volumes, 1945), Akali Lahir da Itihas (1951), Nakli Nirankari (1967), Kuka Gurdom (1972), Akali Lahir de Mahan Neta (1976) and Amritsar Sifti da Ghar (1977). Two of these, Akali Lahir da Itihas and Akali Lahir de Mahan Neta, are about the Akali movement.