Jathedar Teja Singh Akarpuri

Jathedar Teja Singh Akarpuri was one of the leaders of the Gurdwara reform movement of the 1920s and held the seat of Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib twice. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born at Akarpura, a village 13 km north-west of Batala in Gurdaspur district, to Pala Singh and Partap Kaur. He matriculated from the Khalsa Collegiate School, Amritsar, in 1911, enlisted in the 24th Sikh Battalion in 1912, and became a patwari in the revenue department at the end of 1914 and a ziledar in 1918.

The Nankana Sahib massacre of February 1921 was the turning point of his life. He resigned from government service and joined the Akali agitation, and the SGPC made him administrator of Gurdwara Premsati at Kamalia in what is now Pakistan.

Key moments

• 29 April 1921: he was appointed Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib at Amritsar. Wikipedia's list of Jathedars shows him taking over from Jathedar Teja Singh Bhuchar on the same day. SikhNet's Jagpal Singh Tiwana gives October 1921 instead.
• 13 October 1923: he was taken into custody by the Punjab government and held until 27 November 1926, when he was released in the second batch of Akali detenues. SikhNet's account says he was arrested in 1923 while leading the very first jatha of the Jaito morcha. The Encyclopaedia does not mention Jaito.
• 27 November 1926 to 21 January 1930: he resumed his duties as Jathedar. SikhNet dates his second term from 1927 to 1931 and says that on 15 March 1927 a committee of 28 Sikh scholars was appointed, on his suggestion, to draft the Sikh Rahit Maryada.
• 1932: he was appointed first acting president and then president of the SGPC, and president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, according to the Encyclopaedia. The SGPC's own list of its presidents shows only Master Tara Singh in office from 12 October 1930 to 17 June 1933, and the Encyclopaedia does not reconcile the two.
• 1933 to 1940: he became a member of the SGPC again in 1933 and was elected its vice-president, and was president of the management committee of Sri Nankana Sahib from 1935 to 1938. In the Punjab Assembly elections of January 1937 he stood at Batala for the Shiromani Akali Dal and lost to Sir Sundar Singh Majithia, leader of the Khalsa National Party.
• 10 and 11 February 1940: as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal he presided over the first All India Akali Conference at Atari in Amritsar district.
• 1952 to 1957: he was a member of the first Lok Sabha for Gurdaspur.
• 20 November 1975: he died at his village of Akarpura.

He is remembered as a Jathedar of the years of the reform struggle. SikhNet quotes Giani Kirpal Singh as saying he gave the Panth solid leadership in those critical years.