Sirdar Kapur Singh

Sirdar Kapur Singh was a Sikh scholar, civil servant and parliamentarian. He was born on 2 March 1909 in Chakk village, Ludhiana district, into a farming family. He took a first-class first Master's degree at Government College, Lahore, and a Tripos in Moral Sciences at Cambridge, and entered the Indian Civil Service. He died on 13 August 1986 at his village home in Jagraon after a long illness.

Key moments

• 1947. As Deputy Commissioner of Kangra he protested a circular of 10 October 1947 from the Punjab Governor, Chandu Lal Trivedi, which warned district authorities about the "criminal tendencies of the Sikh people". Charges were brought against him, and they led to his dismissal. He was suspended in April 1949 and never reinstated.
• After dismissal. He supported the Akali demand for a Punjabi-speaking state and served briefly as Professor of Sikhism under the authority of Sri Akal Takht Sahib.
• 1962. Elected to the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana.
• 14 July 1965. Gave the presidential address at the Hari Singh Nalwa Conference in Ludhiana, which declared the Sikhs makers of history and argued that they had joined the Indian nation as constitutional co-sharers, with a claim to a self-determined political status inside the Republic of India.
• 6 September 1966. Spoke in Parliament on the betrayal of the Sikhs.
• 1969. Elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
• 1973. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism calls him the moving spirit behind the Anandpur Sahib Resolution adopted by the Shiromani Akali Dal.
• 3 November 1974. At a Toronto event he argued that Sikhi is a distinct world religion.
• 1978. The World Sikh News account of Dal Khalsa's history says he gave the organisation its name.

Writings. Parasaraprasna, a classic on Sikh philosophy; Sachi Sakhi, his memoirs (Jalandhar, 1972); Me Judice; Sikhism for Modern Man; Sacred Writings of the Sikhs, a UNESCO publication; Guru Arjun and His Sukhmani; The Hour of Sword; and Punjabi poems and essays including Hashish, Saptasring and Pundrik.

He is remembered as a thinker who gave the Sikh case for political status a written form. SikhRI says the 1984 attack on Sri Darbar Sahib had a devastating effect on him.