Sardar Teja Singh Samundri

Sardar Teja Singh Samundri (1882 to 1926) was a founder-member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), one of the Akali leaders who went to jail in the movement to free the historic gurdwaras, and a builder of Sikh schools. He died in custody at Lahore on 17 July 1926, after a heart attack, having refused to win release by promising to abide by the Sikh Gurdwaras Act. Teja Singh Samundri Hall in Amritsar, which houses SGPC offices, is named for him.

He was born on 20 February 1882 at Rai ka Burj in Tarn Taran tehsil. His family later moved to a new canal colony in the Sandal Bar, in Samundri tehsil, Lyallpur district, which gave him his name. His schooling stopped at primary level, but he knew Sikh texts and history well. After about three and a half years as a daffadar in the 22nd Cavalry he returned to his village, joined the Chief Khalsa Diwan, and founded a middle school there and the Sri Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa High School at Sarhali.

Key moments

• 1913: organised public meetings against the demolition of a wall of Gurdwara Rikabganj in Delhi and was among 100 Sikhs who volunteered to die to have it restored.
• Co-founder of the Sikh daily Akali; founder-member and later vice-president of the SGPC; also vice-president of the Punjab Congress Committee. After the Nankana Sahib tragedies of 1921 he was nominated to the committee that ran the Nankana Sahib gurdwara.
• November 1921 to January 1922: jailed in the keys morcha. It began on 7 November 1921, when the authorities seized the keys of the Golden Temple treasury, and ended on 19 January 1922, when a government official handed the keys to Baba Kharak Singh at the Akal Takht. In between came arrests of the leading Akalis, and the government returned the keys only after announcing the release of all Sikhs held. Gandhi called it the first decisive battle for India's freedom won.
• 13 October 1923: arrested over the Jaito morcha, which began with a diwan at Jaito on 25 August 1923 after the Maharaja of Nabha was forced to abdicate. It ran for almost two years, to the close of a series of 101 akhand paths on 6 August 1925. It took jatha after jatha of 500 Singhs, a firing on 21 February 1924 (official toll 19 dead and 29 injured), the banning of the SGPC and the Akali Dal and the arrest of all sixty members of the SGPC's interim committee, before the Punjab Legislative Council passed a Gurdwaras Bill in July 1925.
• 1925 to 1926: Samundri stayed in jail after the Act, refusing to buy release with a promise to abide by it, and died on 17 July 1926.

Remembered for: giving the early Akali movement a base in education, organisation and sacrifice, and for dying in custody on his terms. The SGPC's Teja Singh Samundri Hall carries his name.