Sant Chanan Singh

Sant Chanan Singh was president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for ten years, from 1962 to 1972, and a close companion of Sant Fateh Singh. The SGPC's own list of presidents gives his term as 2 October 1962 to 30 November 1972. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was elected in October 1962 and held the office until his death on 29 November 1972. Gurmit Singh's History of Sikh Struggles says he died of a heart attack on 23 November 1972. The sources differ on the date and no third has been found.

The Encyclopaedia says he was born in 1907 at Mullanpur in Ludhiana district, to a peasant couple, Tarlok Singh and Prem Kaur. After army service as a sepoy he resolved to give up worldly life, met Sant Fateh Singh in 1933, and from 1940 was his constant companion in opening Sikh schools and preaching in Ganganagar district. In 1949 he led a jatha of 20 Sikhs from Ganganagar to the Patiala agitation against the PEPSU ministry and was jailed for eight months. He was jailed again in 1953 and in 1960, and was vice-president of the Shiromani Akali Dal from 1958 to 1960.

Key moments

• 1962: Gurmit Singh says that when the SGPC General House, summoned for 2 September 1962, carried a no-confidence motion against Kirpal Singh Chak Sherwala by 76 votes to 72, Sant Chanan Singh, a lieutenant of Sant Fateh Singh, replaced him. The SGPC's list dates his term from 2 October 1962.
• 10 September 1964: as SGPC president he signed the memorandum given to Kamaraj Nadar, president of the Congress, on his visit to the Golden Temple. It pressed again the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state.
• 7 August 1965: in the list of sacrilege incidents that Sant Fateh Singh handed Prime Minister Shastri at their talks, Gurmit Singh's text says that after a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib was set on fire and thrown into a dirty well at Jamalpur, the police tried to hush up the case but Sant Chanan Singh reached the spot and got the complaint lodged.
• December 1966: Gurmit Singh names him among four associates of Sant Fateh Singh who were to burn themselves to death alongside the Sant's own announced self-immolation. The plan was given up when the Sant agreed to end his fast.
• November 1967: Gurmit Singh says Chief Minister Lachhman Singh Gill had a case of embezzlement of gurdwara funds registered against Sant Chanan Singh and a few other SGPC office-bearers, as a first step against his rivals. The sources opened do not say how it ended.
• October 1969: at the funeral of Darshan Singh Pheruman a crowd besieged the Chief Minister and Sant Chanan Singh until the police rescued them (Gurmit Singh).

Gurmit Singh writes that Sant Chanan Singh was aspiring to be Sant Fateh Singh's successor when Sant Fateh Singh died on 30 October 1972. The SGPC's list shows Mohan Singh Tur taking the chair after him.