Jathedar Teja Singh Bhuchar

Jathedar Teja Singh Bhuchar was named the first Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib in October 1920, when the reformers took the shrines from the priests. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born on 28 October 1887 at Mieng ke Maur, known as Bhai Pheru and now in Pakistan, the eldest son of Mayya Singh and Mahitab Kaur of Bhuchar Khurd near Tarn Taran. He took amrit in 1918, when the Khalsa Diwan Majha was revived as the Central Majha Khalsa Diwan, and in March 1919, weeks before Jallianwala Bagh, was elected its jathedar. He fell out with the SGPC and the Akali Dal within a year or two, and the SGPC declared him tankhaiya on 18 June 1923.

Key moments

• 5 and 6 October 1920: he led a jatha of 25 Akali volunteers that freed Gurdwara Babe di Ber at Sialkot.
• 12 October 1920: when the reformers occupied Sri Akal Takht, he was named its first jathedar. SikhNet's Jagpal Singh Tiwana dates the occupation to 13 October. Wikipedia's list of Jathedars ends his term on 29 April 1921, the day Jathedar Teja Singh Akarpuri was appointed.
• November and December 1920: he sat on the committee of nine appointed by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar and took the initiative in calling the general meeting of 15 and 16 November that elected the 175-member committee named the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. He joined the Shiromani Akali Dal formed on 14 December 1920. SikhNet says he was elected its secretary.
• 26 January and 5 February 1921: he led a jatha of 40 Akalis that freed the Darbar Sahib at Tarn Taran, and took possession of Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh at Peshawar.
• 15 March 1921: he was arrested with 14 other Akali activists and given a nine-year sentence, which the government suspended in September 1921.
• 1921 to 1923: neither the SGPC nor the Akali Dal had favoured taking gurdwaras by force, and he drifted away from them. His supporters formed the Gargaj Akali Jatha on 19 April 1921 and elected him its president for life while he was in jail. He launched the papers Gargaj Akali (22 February 1922, with money from the Maharaja of Patiala) and Babar Sher (15 June 1923), supported the Guru ka Bagh agitation, and kept attacking the SGPC.
• 17 and 18 June 1923: his volunteers tried to disturb the ceremony that began the kar seva of the Amritsar sarovar. The next day the SGPC declared him tankhaiya and removed him from its membership.
• 10 December 1923: he was arrested again over his contacts with Master Mota Singh, a leader of the Babbar Akali movement. The SGPC cancelled its earlier resolution and readmitted him.
• 3 October 1939: he died in the Civil Hospital at Amritsar of injuries from a family feud with his brother.

He is remembered as the first man to hold the title of Jathedar of the Akal Takht, and as a leader of the jathas that freed gurdwaras in 1920 and 1921.