Teja Singh Sutantar
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A brief biography
Raakhi Jagga, April 13, 2023: The Indian Express
Teja Singh Sutantar was a revolutionary leader who led the PEPSU Muzara movement, fighting for land rights for peasants.
Becoming Teja Singh Sutantar
Born in 1901 as Samund Singh in Aluna village of Gurdaspur district, Teja Singh completed his schooling and joined Khalsa College in Amritsar.
After the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which had stirred patriotic sentiments in Punjabi youth, he joined the Akali Dal to participate in the movement of liberating gurdwaras from degenerate mahants. However, in September 1921 , he formed his own squad called ‘sutantar jatha’ (also called as swatantar meaning free/independent). In its maiden attempt, the jatha successfully liberated the gurdwara in a village called Teja, in Gurdaspur district, from the mahants. This success earned him the moniker of Teja Singh Sutantar from his supporters.
He would soon free another gurdwara, in Othian village, Gurdaspur, from mahants.
Journey to become a revolutionary
In early 1923 , Teja Singh went to Kabul as a Sikh missionary. There he came in contact with a few leaders of the Ghadar Party, who, at the time, were preparing for their second attempt to overthrow the British government.
The Ghadar Movement was an early 20th century international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India. While it would never see the success it set out for, it would be an inspiration for many freedom fighters opposed to Gandhian ideals of non-violence.
The Ghadhar leaders persuaded Teja Singh to undergo military training – thus, in 1925, he joined the Turkish military academy under the pseudonym Azad Beg. He would eventually be granted Turkish citizenship and be commissioned into the Turkish army.
However, Teja Singh later moved to Berlin and then to Canada and the United States, where he addressed congregations of Indians, mainly Punjabi Sikh immigrants. Those who heard him described him as a fiery speaker.
After visiting several countries and briefly joining a university in Moscow in December 1934 , Teja Singh returned to India and became a prominent leader of communist party (CPI). He contributed revolutionary articles to the party journal, the Kirti, frequently writing about issues that plagued peasants. On January 16 ,1936 he was arrested along with other communist leaders for his “seditious” activities.
During his confinement, he cleared examinations to obtain a BA degree from the Panjab University, Lahore.
Politics and peasant agitations
Due to his popularity, Teja Singh was elected unopposed to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in May 1937 as a nominee of Indian National Congress, while he was still in prison. He continued to remain the member of Punjab Legislative Assembly till 1945. He was also secretary of Communist Party ( Punjab) from 1944- 1947.
Post-independence, Teja Singh, who a prominent leader of the Kisan Sabha, led a number of peasant agitations against the government and landlords. He was a key leader in the PEPSU Muzara movement, which started in the 1930s and went on till 1952. The movement was started by landless peasants (muzaras) in PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union, which included the districts of Mansa, Sangrur, Barnala, and parts of Bathinda, apart from Patiala) to obtain ownership rights of the land they had been tilling for generations. On March 19, 1949, four farmers in the Kishangarh village in Mansa were killed by security forces of the Maharajah of Patiala. The farmers would finally receive land rights in 1952.
Post-independence politics
After independence, Teja Singh formed his Lal (Red) Party with the Kirti group of the Punjab Communist Party as its nucleus. The Lal Party was an active constituent of the Punjab Riyasat Praja Mandal which campaigned for the merger of the princely states into Punjab and against the tenancy law prevalent in those territories.
Due to arrest warrants issued against him for his role in the Muzara movement, he went underground for a few years while reappearing in public only in 1963, once the arrest warrants were withdrawn.
He would go on to become a member of the Punjab Legislative Council from 1964-1969. He edited Lal Jhanda, a monthly magazine in Urdu, Lal Savera, a Punjabi weekly and contributed to various newspapers.
In 1971, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sangrur parliamentary constituency. He had fought on a CPI ticket. However on April 12, 1973 he died of a heart attack in the central hall of the Parliament.
Why a statue in Nihalgarh
Nearly 784 villages had taken part in the PEPSU Muzara movement, led by Teja Singh Suttar, to take ownership rights of the land they had been tilling for years. Nihalgarh was one of these villages. When Teja Singh went underground, these villages supported him for his role in helping peasants get ownership rights.
Today, they want to immortalise these contributions in a statue. Thus, the panchayat of Nihalgarh made the statue, with CM Bhagwant Mann, also from the Sangrur district, inaugurating it.
