Sant Fateh Singh Jiਸੰਤ ਫਤਿਹ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ

Sant Fateh Singh Ji (27 October 1911 to 30 October 1972) was a Sikh religious leader and the central figure of the Punjabi Suba movement, the campaign for a Punjabi-speaking state in India. Revered as a sant long before he entered politics, his fasts unto death forced the Government of India to reorganise Punjab on the basis of language. On 1 November 1966, the Punjabi-speaking Punjab and the Hindi-speaking Haryana came into being, and he greeted the new state with the words: a handsome baby has been born into my household.

Early life and work in Ganganagar

Fateh Singh was born on 27 October 1911, the son of Bhai Channan Singh of Badiala in present-day Bathinda district. He had no formal schooling, and began learning to read Punjabi as a boy: Wikipedia says he started at 13, The Sikh Encyclopedia says 15. Seeing his deep interest in the Sikh scriptures, his father apprenticed him to Sant Ishar Singh of Sekha, a village near Barnala.

With Sant Channan Singh, another holy man, he migrated to Ganganagar district, then in the princely state of Bikaner and now in northern Rajasthan, where many Sikh peasants had settled in the new canal colony. He made his base at Buddha Jauhar, a little-known place which he made famous. He moved from village to village preaching the Sikh faith through kirtan and discourse, and he administered amrit, the vows of the Khalsa, to those who wished to take it.

Alongside the preaching he worked for education among the people, and he was instrumental in the construction of a number of gurdwaras, several schools and colleges, an orphanage and a centre for imparting training in kirtan. Sant Channan Singh assisted him, and though senior in age, he always acknowledged Fateh Singh as his elder. It was his pious way of living that earned Fateh Singh the title of Sant. He remained a lifelong bachelor.

In the 1940s he joined Master Tara Singh and other Sikh leaders in the Quit India movement against British rule. After independence in 1947, he and Tara Singh were by 1955 advocating Punjabi Suba, a Punjabi-speaking state where Sikh religious, cultural and linguistic integrity could be preserved.

Joining the Punjabi Suba movement

He entered politics in the Punjabi Suba agitation of 1955-56, launched by the Shiromani Akali Dal under Master Tara Singh to carve a new state from the Punjabi-speaking areas of the then existing Punjab. His rise was rapid: at a conference at Amritsar on 12 October 1958 he unfolded the Akali Dal's plan of action for the agitation's second phase, by when he had become the party's senior vice-president.

On 15 March 1959 he led a massive march of Sikhs in the Indian capital, New Delhi. As the movement gathered momentum in May 1960, the responsibility of directing its course fell to Sant Fateh Singh. He ran the seven-month-long agitation in a most orderly manner, and according to one estimate, 57,129 Akali volunteers courted arrest during it. The demand was framed in language, not religion: a state for Punjabi speakers, so that the Punjabi language and Sikh religious and cultural life could be preserved.

The 1960 fast unto death

In a final bid for a Punjabi-speaking state, Sant Fateh Singh put his own life at stake and started a fast unto death on 18 December 1960. Before submitting himself to the ordeal, he offered prayers at the Akal Takht and at the Harimandar, and addressed a large gathering of Sikhs, urging them to remain calm and peaceful whatever happened. Leaders of diverse opinion tried to persuade him to abandon the fast. The Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, issued several conciliatory public statements, but Sant Fateh Singh judged them as falling short of what he had asked for.

At last, Nehru's statement of 8 January 1961 was pronounced satisfactory by Master Tara Singh and the Akali Dal Working Committee, and the Panj Piare, the Five Elect speaking for the Khalsa Panth, asked him to end his fast. On the morning of 9 January 1961, after 22 days, Fateh Singh took his first sip of nourishment, a glass of juice from the hands of Bhai Chet Singh, one of the Golden Temple priests. Negotiations followed, and Sant Fateh Singh met Prime Minister Nehru three times, on 8 February, 1 March and 12 May 1961, but with no positive result.

How did the split with Master Tara Singh change the Akali Dal?

His personal political authority had been firmly established among the Sikhs, and in July 1962 he directly challenged Master Tara Singh, forming his own Akali Dal. On 2 October 1962 his party wrested control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee from the hands of Tara Singh. In the gurdwara elections on 17 January 1965, Sant Fateh Singh's party annexed 90 of the elected seats, conceding only 45 to Master Tara Singh. He had taken over the leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The split settled who spoke for the Sikhs. Tara Singh had led the Akali Dal for decades, but the 1962 and 1965 results showed the community had moved behind Fateh Singh. The sources consulted record no term in the Lok Sabha or any state assembly for him: his authority came from the Akali Dal and the SGPC, not from elected office.

The road to Punjabi Suba in 1966

To force the issue, he proclaimed from the Akal Takht on 16 August 1965 that he would restart his fast from 10 September 1965 and that, if he survived the fast for 15 days with his demand still not conceded, he would end his life by self-immolation on the 16th day. But as hostilities between India and Pakistan broke out in September 1965, he not only postponed the fast but also issued an appeal to all his countrymen, particularly Sikhs, to rally behind the government. This is an important correction to a common misunderstanding: the 1965 fast was announced but never actually took place.

The war ended on 22 September 1965, and on 23 September the Home Minister announced in Parliament the setting up of a Cabinet Committee consisting of Indira Gandhi, Y. B. Chavan and Mahavir Tyagi to pursue the question of a Punjabi-speaking state. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sardar Hukam Singh, was also asked to form a Parliamentary Consultative Committee. Its report, made public on 18 January 1966, recommended reorganising Punjab on a linguistic basis. Indira Gandhi, who had become Prime Minister after the sudden death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, conceded the demand on 23 April 1966.

On 3 September 1966 the Punjab Reorganization Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, and on 1 November 1966 Punjab was divided along linguistic lines into the Punjabi-speaking Punjab state and the Hindi-speaking Haryana state. Sant Fateh Singh greeted the event with the words: a handsome baby has been born into my household.

Chandigarh, the later fasts and retirement

Sant Fateh Singh was not happy with the boundaries of the new state. He protested that Chandigarh, built as Punjab's capital after Partition, and some Punjabi-speaking areas had been left out. On 5 December 1966 he announced that, to have this undone, he would sit fasting on 17 December 1966 and end his life by self-immolation on 27 December 1966 if he survived till that day and his demands remained unfulfilled. His three demands were: inclusion of Chandigarh and the Punjabi-speaking areas assigned to Himachal Pradesh and Haryana in Punjab; severance of the common links, such as the governor and the high court, between Punjab and Haryana; and restoration of Bhakra and other multipurpose projects to Punjab.

He began his fast on 17 December. At last Hukam Singh, the Lok Sabha Speaker, and Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, the Chief Minister of Punjab, conveyed assurances from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and persuaded him to break it. He ended the fast on 27 December 1966.

His influence began to decline in the late 1960s, and he became a controversial figure. He started another fast unto death on 26 January 1970, with self-immolation to follow on 1 February 1970 if Chandigarh was not merged with Punjab by then. On 29 January the Union Government announced that the capital project area of Chandigarh should as a whole go to Punjab, but this was hedged round by stipulations such as the transfer of Fazilka tehsil from Punjab to Haryana. On 30 January 1970 the All-Parties Action Committee and the Akali Dal High Command welcomed the Chandigarh decision but opposed the Fazilka one, and Sant Fateh Singh was persuaded to end his fast that day.

On 25 March 1972 he announced his retirement from active politics. Sant Fateh Singh died at Amritsar on 30 October 1972, a few months later. He is remembered as the sant who turned a religious life into a political movement, and whose fasts helped draw the map of modern Punjab. The question of Chandigarh, which he raised in his last fasts, remains a live issue in Punjab politics to this day.