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This
section provides a list of important and prominent figures
from Anglo-Sikh History which have been listed in alphabetical
order, according to ethnicity and time period.
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Active in Akali politics and in the Praja Mandal movement, was born
in 1895, the son of Hari Singh Man and Bhag Kaur of Maur Dhilvan in
present-day Bathinda district of the Punjab. The family later shifted
to Raman where Hari Singh had inherited his mother's property. Both
these villages fell within the erstwhile princely state of Patiala.
Sampuran Singh came early into notice for his interest in Punjabi
folk poetry which he started reciting at fairs and religious festivals.
His political career commenced after he had received the rites of
the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1941, when he gave up his role as
a popular balladeer and became a wholetime worker of the Shiromani
Akali Dal. With his appointment as district. jathedar (leader) of
Bathinda Akali Dal, the epithet jathedar came to be a permanent prefix
to his name. Raman, the name of his village, was suffixed according
to the common Akali custom of using the village instead of caste as
surname. Jathedar Raman soon became president of the Patiala state
Akali Jatha and worked in collaboration with Jathedar Pritam Singh
Gujran, president of Riyasti Akali Dal, a body representing Sikhs
of all princely states of the Punjab, and Shri Sundar Lal, president
of Patiala state Praja Mandal, demanding democratic reforms in Patiala
state. A regrouping of political parties in the region on the eve
of the first general elections (1952) in the wake of Independence
saw the state Akali Dal split into two groups, one led by Pritam Singh
Gojran and the other by Sampuran Singh Raman. Sampuran Singh subsequently
broke away from the Shiromani Akali Dal and formed a separate party
-Malva Riyasti Akali Dal. Jathedar Sampuran Singh Raman was among
the earliest protagonists of Punjabi Suba, a new state to be created
comprising Punjabi-speaking areas of the region. He advocated the
proposition through a Punjabi poem published in HaftivarBabaron 13
April 1952. On 24 April 1953, he wrote a letter on this subject to
Prime Minister jawaharlal Nehru. After saying ard5s at Sri Damdama
Sahib, he left for the Indian capital, a kafan or shroud wrapped around
his head, to sit on a fast unto death in front of the Prime Minister's
house to have his demand for a Punjabi-speaking state conceded. But
he was arrested on the way at Narela railway station along with his
four companions on 1 November 1953 and lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
He immediately went on a hunger strike, but was released from jail
and taken to his village, Raman, under escort. Repeated hunger strikes
shattered his health and he gradually retired from active politics.
He died at Bathinda on 15 November 1970. |
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