Jathedar Mohan Singh Tur

Jathedar Mohan Singh Tur was an Akali Dal leader of the generation of Sant Fateh Singh, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal after the Sant's death, and, on the SGPC's list, a short-term president of the SGPC. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born in 1915 at Tur village in Tarn Taran tahsil, Amritsar, the son of an Akali activist, Jagat Singh, and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1967 and again in the mid-term elections of 1969. (Wikipedia's table of Jathedars gives his birth year as 1916.)

Key moments

• 20 November to 3 December 1966: Gurmit Singh says Sant Fateh Singh's task force of 75 volunteers left Amritsar in three batches of 25, with Mohan Singh Tur, Shiv Singh Jhawan and Dulla Singh Rodey named to lead them, and that all were arrested on 3 December before reaching Kharar.
• 25 March 1972: when Sant Fateh Singh quit politics, Gurmit Singh says, he nominated Tur and Parkash Singh Badal as acting president and senior vice-president of the Akali Dal. The Encyclopaedia says that after the Sant's death in 1972 Tur was elected president of the Dal.
• 1972 to 1973: the SGPC's list shows him as SGPC president for a short time after Sant Chanan Singh, whose term ends on 30 November 1972, and before Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who was first elected president on 6 January 1973 according to The Tribune. The SGPC's page prints Tur's own dates as 30-11-1973 to 06-01-1973, which cannot be right, and Wikipedia's table gives 30 November 1972 to 6 June 1973. The Encyclopaedia's entry does not mention the SGPC presidency.
• 1973: the Encyclopaedia says he successfully conducted the agitation against the Haryana Government's unlawful pressure on Sikh landholders settled in that state.
• June and July 1975: Tarlochan Singh wrote in The Tribune that Tur was one of five senior Akali leaders who came out of the Golden Temple the day after a meeting on 29 June 1975, raising slogans against the Emergency, and that they were the first to court arrest in an organised and peaceful manner. The Encyclopaedia calls the agitation against the countrywide state of emergency a landmark of his presidency.
• 1975 to 1977: Gurmit Singh says Tur and Surjit Singh Barnala met Giani Zail Singh, as Indira Gandhi's representative, at the house of Professor Bharpur Singh to patch up differences between the Akalis and the Government, without result.
• March 1977: elected to the Lok Sabha, one of nine Akalis returned, according to Gurmit Singh and the Encyclopaedia.
• 30 July 1979: the Encyclopaedia gives this as the date of his death.

Wikipedia's table also lists him as Jathedar of the Akal Takht in 1962 to 1963; the Encyclopaedia's entry and SikhNet's history of the Jathedars do not mention it, so it is not stated here as fact. Tur is remembered as the Akali president who led the party against the Emergency and against the pressure on Sikh landholders in Haryana.