Jathedar Mohan Singh Nagoke

Jathedar Mohan Singh Nagoke was Jathedar of the Akal Takht from 1935 and president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) from 19 November 1944 to 28 June 1948, according to the SGPC's own list. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism calls him an Akali politician and Jathedar of the Akal Takht from 1935 to 1948; SikhNet, in a history of the Jathedars, gives 1935 to 1952 and calls it the longest tenure of any Jathedar.

The Encyclopaedia says he was born at Nagoke in Amritsar district on 25 December 1898 (its text prints 1989, a slip for the 1898 of its heading), the son of a modest farmer, Tahil Singh. He was a clerk in the office of the deputy commissioner of Amritsar. After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre he came to the office the next morning in a black turban, and chose to leave government service rather than give up his black turban and kirpan.

Key moments

• February 1924: he joined the first jatha marching to Jaito in the princely state of Nabha. In the firing on the Akalis at Jaito on 21 February 1924 a bullet tore his thigh. At his own insistence he was included in the fourth jatha, which was arrested as it reached the town, and he was in jail from 18 April 1924 to 27 July 1925.
• 1926: appointed a superintendent in the SGPC's office at Amritsar.
• 1931 and 1935: assistant (mit) Jathedar of the Akal Takht in 1931, and full Jathedar four years later.
• 10 to 17 January 1936: he led the third jatha, of 25 volunteers, which set out on foot from Amritsar in the campaign for the right to carry the kirpan, and was arrested on 17 January.
• 1944 to 1948: SGPC president. The SGPC's list shows him taking over from Master Tara Singh on 19 November 1944, and Jathedar Udham Singh Nagoke, from the same village, taking over from him on 28 June 1948. The Encyclopaedia says he gave special attention to making the surroundings of the Golden Temple symmetrical: old private houses were acquired and demolished, with some owned by the SGPC, and the parikrama was widened, which opened a view of the central shrine. It gives no reason for the end of his presidency, and neither does the SGPC's list.
• 1952 and 1967: elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1952 as a nominee of the Indian National Congress and again in 1967; the Encyclopaedia names no party for 1967.
• 2 March 1969: he died at Amritsar after a prolonged illness.

He is remembered as the long-serving Jathedar of the Akal Takht who had been wounded at Jaito, led a jatha for the kirpan, and as the SGPC president who widened the parikrama of the Golden Temple.