Gopal Singh Qaumi

Gopal Singh Qaumi was president of the SGPC for a single day, 17 to 18 June 1933, the shortest term of any president on the SGPC's list.

The SGPC's list shows him taking over on 17 June 1933 from Master Tara Singh and giving way on 18 June to Partap Singh Shankar, who held the office until 13 June 1936. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, in its entry on Partap Singh, says Partap Singh succeeded Gopal Singh Qaumi, B.A., who after a single day in office had resigned. It quotes his own account: his party had told him the day before to take over as president and he had accepted its word, and now it had asked him to give up the office, which he did without hesitation. The entry does not name the party or say why it changed its mind, and no source we opened does.

Wikipedia has a short page on him that cites the SGPC's list and a 1976 Punjabi book. It says he was born in 1897 and died in 1975, was active in the Gurdwara Reform Movement, took part in the Guru ka Bagh morcha, the Simon Commission boycott and the Quit India movement, spent 13 years in confinement and undertook a 64-day hunger strike in jail. We could not check these claims against a second source.

Key moments

• 17 June 1933: takes over as SGPC president from Master Tara Singh.
• 18 June 1933: resigns, and Partap Singh Shankar takes over.

Remembered for: the one-day presidency, and for his remark that he took the office and left it at his party's word.