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Sirdar
Kapur Singh
Sirdar Kapur Singh was a
civilian, parliamentarian and intellectual. He was
master of many-sided learning Besides Sikh theology, he
was vastly learned in philosophy,11istory and
literature. He was born into a farming family, at the
village Chakk in Ludhiana district on 2 March 1909. His
father's name was Didar Singh. Sirdar Kapur Singh
received his Master's degree, first class first, at the
prestigious Government College, Lahore, after which he
went to Cambridge to take his Tripos in Moral Sciences.
He was a distinguished linguist and had mastered
several of the languages of the east and the west
Besides English with extraordinary subtlety and
finesse, he had facility in Persian and Arabic as well
as in Sanskrit.
In addition to these, he
claimed easy acquaintance with such discrete fields as
astrology, architecture and space science In spite of
his knowledge covering many disparate areas, Sirdar
Kapur Singh's principal focus was Sikh literature and
theology. He was a stickler for accuracy of fact and
presentation. He stood up four square to any
misrepresentation or falsification of any shade of Sikh
thought and belief. He was most vigilant and unbending
in this respect.
He was selected into the
Indian Civil Service and served in various
administrative posts in the cadre in 1947, he was
appointed deputy commissioner of Kangra. He was
particularly irked by the growing narrow politics of
the government biased against the Sikhs. What incensed
him most was a circular letter dated 10 October 1947,
issued by the state governor, Chandu Lal Trivedi,
warning district authorities in the Punjab against what
was described as the criminal tendencies of the Sikh
people. Kapur Singh filed a strong protest against this
utterly wild accusation. He therefore invited the
governor's wrath, Charges Were brought against him
which led to his dismissal from the service.
Sirdar Kapur Singh became an
ardent supporter of the Akali demand for a Punjai
speaking state. After a brief stint as Professor of
Sikhism under the authority of the Akal Takht, he
joined active politics in 1962, he was to the lower
house of Indian Parliament and a member of the Punjab
Vidhan Sabha (State legislative Assembly) in 1969. He
was forthright in speech and an unrelenthlg critic of
govcrnment's policies where they crossed the path of
the Sikhs. As a Sikh ideologue he was the moving spirit
behind the Anandpur Sahib resolution adopted by the
Shiromani Akali Dal in 197S, which like several other
of his pronouncements became a crucial enunciation of
modern Sikh political formulla and policy. A very
stirring Sikh document of the modern period was the
Presidential address given at Hari Singh Nalva
conference convened at Ludhiana on 14 July, it Although
it was nowhere specified, all important Sikh political
or intrinsically scholarly documents of this period
bear the imprint of Kapur Singh's penmanship in
sonorous phrase, the conference resolution said." This
Conference in commemoration of General Hari Singh Nalwa
of historical fame reminds all concerned that the Sikh
people are makers of history and are conscious of their
political destiny in a free India. This Conference
recalls that the Sikh people agreed to merge in a
common Indian nationality on the explicit understanding
of being accorded a constilutional status of co-sharers
in the community, which solemn understanding now stands
cynically repudiated by the present rulers of India
Further, the Sikh people have been systematically
reduced to a sub-political status in their homeland,
the Punjab, and to an insignificant position in their
motherland, India. The Sikhs are in a position to
establish before an impartial international tribunal,
uninfluenced by the present Indian rulers, that the
law, the judicial process, and the executive action of
the State of India is consistently and heavily weighted
against the Sikhs and is administered with unbandaged
eyes against Sikh citizens. This Conference, therefore,
resolves, after careful thought, that there is left no
alternative for the Sikhs in the interest of
self-preservation but to frame their political demand
for securing a self-determined political status within
the Republic of Union of India. " The author's name is
not mentioned here, but it is clearly the handiwork of
Sirdar Kapur Singh The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee's publication at the time of the Nirankari
attack on the Sikhs is described thus
THEY MASSACRE SIKHS
A White Paper by Sikh Religious Parliament
(Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee)
Sirdar Kapur Singh, besides being an extraordinarily
learned man, was a prolific writer in addition to his
Parasarprasna, in English, which ranks as a classic on
Sikh philosophy, his other works includeHashish
(Punjabi poems), Saptassrang (Punjabi biographies),
Bahu Vistar (Punjabi essays), Pundrik (Punjabi essays
on culture and religion), Mansur-al-Hallaj (monograph
on a Sufi saint), Sachi Sakhi (memoirs), Sacred
Writings of the Sikhs (a UNESCO publication), Me Judice
(English miscellany), Sikhism for Modern Man ,
Contributions of Guru Nanak, The hour of Sword,Guru
Arjun and His Sukhmani.
Sirdar Kapur Singh died after
a protracted illness at his village home in Jagraon in
ludhiana district on 13 Augllst 1986.
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