Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi

Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi was one of the three dominant Akali leaders of his generation, with Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra. He grew up in an Akali family at Talwandi Rai near Raikot in Ludhiana district (Wikipedia says he was born in Lyallpur district and that the family settled at Talwandi Rai after Partition), and said he never attended school. He served as an SGPC member for 51 years, as a minister and MP, twice as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal and, in 2000 to 2001, as president of the SGPC.

Key moments

• 1955: elected sarpanch of his village, a post he held for ten years. From 1960 he sat on the SGPC.
• 1967 to 1972: won the Raikot Assembly seat three times. He served as a minister in the 1969 Justice Gurnam Singh government and the 1970 Badal government, and in 1977 was elected to the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana.
• The Emergency: the Tribune reported that he was jailed for 19 months.
• 1978: president of the Shiromani Akali Dal at the Ludhiana conference of October 1978 where the Anandpur Sahib Resolution was endorsed. The Tribune says he served as party president twice between 1978 and 1988, and that the Resolution was passed under his presidency.
• 1980: the Akali Dal split into a Talwandi group and a Longowal group. Rediff reported in 2000 that he took part in the Dharam Yudh and Kapoori morchas during the 1980s and that, in 1978, he had allegedly joined Tohra in working against Badal's government before later reconciling with Badal.
• 30 November 2000: elected SGPC president unanimously, replacing Bibi Jagir Kaur, who faced a murder charge. In January 2001 his executive's decision to refer the definition of a Sikh to the Minority Commission drew criticism from Tohra and Simranjit Singh Mann; Talwandi said he had been misunderstood and that a Religious Advisory Committee would decide. Kirpal Singh Badungar succeeded him in November 2001.
• 19 September 2014: died at 11.10 am at Hero DMC Heart Institute, Ludhiana, aged 85, after a brief illness. He was cremated at Talwandi Rai; tributes came from Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Badal and Capt Amarinder Singh.

Remembered for: a long Akali career at the SGPC and in government, the Talwandi faction of the 1980s, and presiding when the Anandpur Sahib Resolution was endorsed at Ludhiana.