Sant Teja Singh

Sant Teja Singh was born Narayan Singh on 14 May 1877 at Ballovali village in Gujranwala district, now in Pakistan. He took an MA in English literature from Punjab University in 1900 while studying at Government College, Lahore, and also took a law degree. He was headmaster of the Anglo-Sanskrit High School at Bhera and then vice-principal of Khalsa College, Amritsar. In 1906 Sant Attar Singh of Mastuana initiated him and gave him the name Tej Singh (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).

Sant Attar Singh sent him abroad to study, one of four young Sikhs he sent. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names University College London, Teachers College at Columbia University, and an A.M. at Harvard in 1911; Wikipedia's opening line names Cambridge and Columbia. In London he founded a Sikh jatha, and in the United States and Canada he lectured widely on Guru Nanak's teachings.

In Canada

Wikipedia, citing a Times Colonist report on a photograph of him in the 1912 Victoria parade and a chapter by Pashaura Singh, gives more detail; the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism does not. It says he helped the Sikh community as a leader and helped start the Khalsa Diwan Society and the Guru Nanak Mining and Trust Company. In 1908 he reportedly helped stop a secret government plan to deport South Asian residents to Belize. He helped Sikhs trying to immigrate and fought for voting rights, and he helped establish the first purpose-built gurdwara in Victoria in 1912. He led a horseback procession on 6 October 1912 for the opening of the Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple; Wikipedia places the temple in Vancouver in its text and in Victoria in a photo caption.

Back in India

He settled at Mastuana. He was principal of Guru Nanak Khalsa College from 1917 to 1919 and of the Teachers' College at Banaras Hindu University from 1920 to 1921, and he was the founding principal of Akal Degree College at Mastuana. In 1910 he attended a Congress of Free Christianity in Berlin, and in 1956 he presented a paper at the eighth Conference of Religion for World Peace in Japan. His major work was a Punjabi biography of Sant Attar Singh, published in 1970. He died at Chima village on 3 July 1965 (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). Wikipedia says 1965 or 1967.

Key moments

• 14 May 1877: born at Ballovali, Gujranwala.
• 1906: initiated by Sant Attar Singh of Mastuana.
• 1908 to 1912: his work with the Sikhs of Canada, as Wikipedia describes it.
• 1911: A.M. at Harvard.
• After 1917: principal in turn of Guru Nanak Khalsa College and the Banaras Hindu University Teachers' College, then founding principal of Akal Degree College, Mastuana.
• 3 July 1965: dies at Chima.

What he is remembered for. He is remembered as a Western-educated scholar who gave his life to Sikh teaching and to the Mastuana institutions of his guru. British Columbia declared 1 July 2023 Sant Teja Singh Day (Wikipedia). He is not the same man as Teja Singh Samundri or Teja Singh Bhuchchar.