The Sant tradition of the Akali Dal: Sant Fateh Singh
An illustration of the life of a largely forgotten but important post-Partition Sikh leader on his 111th birth anniversary, with excerpts from an interview.
Sant Fateh Singh, the Akali giant who rose to prominence during the Punjabi Suba morcha, was born on the 27th of October, 1911. He was born in the Badiala village of the Bathinda district in the family of Chanan Singh Sidhu and Sant Kaur. This article is an overview of his life from his early life as a preacher to his politics and makes use of quotes from an interview of him by Jagjit Singh Anand, found in Punjabi Suba: a symposium published by National Book Club, New Delhi, 1966.
Early life
He never received an opportunity to enrol for formal education but started learning Gurmukhi by the age of 15 and begun studying Sikh scripture and historical texts under Sant Isher Singh of Sekha in Sangrur. During his tenure there, he showed great enthusiasm in langar-sewa and taking care of animals.
Then, he moved to the Ganganagar district of Bikaner State together with his long-time friend Sant Chanan Singh, settling in the village of Buddha Johar. At Buddha Johar, he engaged in doing kirtan - developing his own distinctive style, of which very few recordings can be found, katha and propagating Sikhi touring villages. On his parchar tours, he would successfully convert many of the local population to Sikhi, especially those from the Scheduled Caste backgrounds, through administering pahul.
He managed the construction of many new Gurdwaras, schools and colleges, with the aid of Sant Chanan Singh. Most importantly, he started an orphanage that provided kirtan training for young children. This earned him the respect and reverence of the local population who began to address him with the honorific Sant. He wore simple white robes and a white or occasionally blue sidhi pagh. He remained a bihangam (unmarried) throughout his life and would consult the vaak (hukamnama) of Guru Granth Sahib and Rahitnamas before making any decisions.
‘I was trying to serve the rural people in my own humble way and my main area of activity was Ganganagar District of Rajasthan. Helping in the establishment of educational centres, construction and repair of Gurudwaras, construction of link roads, bridges and culverts over canals and canalets and repairing breaches and cuts in their banks in order to prevent flooding and ensure proper working of irrigation outlets. Such were my manifold activities.’
Entry into politics
His first step in politics came when during the post-independence government of PEPSU, when the Shiromani Akali Dal gave a call of protest against certain policies (increased land revenue and water charges) of the government, he joined as an activist. Fateh Singh sent numerous jathas for protest and courted arrest himself.
In his own words, what motivated him to join the Punjabi Suba movement was when the government banned the slogans associated with it and attacked the Darbar Sahib in July 1955:
‘When I found that the Government would not allow even the shouting of the slogan Punjabi Suba, Zindabad !" I was greatly shocked. I thought: what sort of a free country was this? If I go about shouting Zindabad for my home, my street, my village, my province, my country, why should the Government lose its head over it? Can't I even praise my home or my area? Why can't a son of the soil honour the soil that gave him birth and nourished him ? […] In the early hours of July 4, the police swooped on us and took into custody anyone and everyone. Not even the cooks of the Guru Ka Langar (the holy kitchen) were spared. Our entire Jatha was taken to Ferozepur Jail. We were kept there for four months. Shri Bhim Sen Sachar, the then Chief Minister, apologised for July 4 incidents soon after, but the releases took a long time to materialise.[…] The Government, so eager to arrest me earlier, was now even more eager to get rid of me.’
After getting released from jail on the 11th of November, 1955, he became very active within Akali circles, taking part yet again in the newly started Punjabi Suba movement that was led by Master Tara Singh. Soon, he reached the position of Senior Vice President of the Akali Dal.
Protests against the government
On the 15th of March, 1959, he led a pro-Punjabi Suba Sikh demonstration in Delhi and by May, he was considered the official leading face of yet another phase of Punjabi Suba protests, lasting 7 months in total and resulting in the arrests of 57,000 Akali activists. In 1960, Master Tara Singh gave the call for another set of Punjabi Suba protests against the government of Partap Singh Kairon, and appointed Sant Fateh Singh as his successor and dictator of the morcha after he got arrested.
‘The main theme of the Sant's statement was irreproachable; the Morcha was for a Punjabi speaking state, it was not directed against the Hindus but against the Government. He solemnly reiterated his undying faith in Hindu-Sikh unity, the percentage of Sikhs or Hindus did not matter, the Punjabi Suba would be a state like any other of the Indian Union but of all the Punjabi speaking people. Sikhs had come from the Hindu stock themselves, were born of them, how could they fall apart, leave aside quarrel between themselves. Despite all provocations the Morcha would be kept on the peaceful path. He himself was too poor and small a man to lead the Morcha and had gone to seek the Guru's guidance and had got it.
To most questions from the pressmen the Sant's innocent but natural answer was: I do not know or I will think it over. All this, they found, very unlike the cock-sure and know-all Master Tara Singh.’
After getting no reliable assurances by the government, on the 18th of December, 1960, Fateh Singh and Tara Singh decided to fast to death unless a Punjabi state was made. Many political parties and leaders, including the Prime Minister Nehru requested him to give up the fast. At last, on the 8th of January, he was convinced to end the fast by Master Tara Singh and the Working Committee of the Akali Dal, which he agreed to on the next day of 9th of January, 1961. But both Fateh Singh and Tara Singh had to face the punishment with a direction order (hukam) by the Panj Pyaras of the Akal Takht, for breaking their ardas to fulfil the hunger strike:
‘The finding of these five authoritative Sikh umpires (Panj Pyaras) was:
(1) They held Tara Singh guilty on two counts. First, for advising Sant Fateh Singh to give up his fast; in violation of Fateh Singh's own pledge, Secondly, in breaking his own fast in violation of his own solemn pledge.
(2) They censured the conduct of Sant Fateh Singh for giving up his fast on the orders of Master Tara Singh.
The Sant received only a rebuke, in Sikh tradition it very mild punishment. Master Tara Singh received real serious punishment. He was condemned to eleven days penance, called upon to clean the shoes which the Sikhs leave outside the Gurudwara before entering the precincts.’
Schism with Master Tara Singh
After relinquishing the fast, Fateh Singh attended three meetings with the Prime Minister but could not arrive to a successful settlement. He then went to Amritsar and made the Akal Takht his headquarters for Punjabi Suba protests, acting as a symbolic Panthic leader. He started enjoying more popularity and respect among the Sikh masses at the expense of Master Tara Singh’s public image, resulting in a schism between the two Sikh leaders. During a meeting of the Shiromani Akali Dal, both engaged in a heated debate about each other’s politics and Fateh Singh remarked that Master Tara Singh was a ‘meek bhapa’ i.e. he possessed the mentality of a weak shopkeeper, which further alienated them from each other.
By July 1962, he split the Akali Dal and registered his own party: Shiromani Akali Dal- Sant Fateh Singh.
‘I was a devoted follower of Masterji and for a long time I thought that all he did was for our benefit. Even when some doubts arose in my mind, I used to think that perhaps I was wrong. But it began to happen more and more often that he would fail to convince his colleagues and yet stick to his views. Things would turn out just the opposite of what he predicted. Gradually I came to believe that Masterji was not worried about the interests of the community but was stricken with his own self-importance.
Masterji often says just the opposite of what he means. He championed the Punjabi Suba demand for a long time but it happened more than once that he would compromise on some thing else.’
Thus, their schism was solidified:
‘A campaign to overthrow the leadership of Master Tara Singh over the Akali Party and the SGPC gathered momentum almost spontaneously. The discontent against his bankrupt political line, authoritarian methods inside the Akali Party and against his entire conduct and handling of the affairs and the funds of the SGPC was already there. Master Tara Singh was duly expelled from the SGPC which he or his nominees had headed most of these past years. […]
Sant Fateh Singh founded a parallel Akali Dal which soon gathered under its banner most of the patriotic and worthwhile Akalis, and the overwhelming mass of the Sikhs at the base.
[…] In the following SGPC election many of the important traditional Sikh leaders supported Master Tara Singh, but the Sant got support from the majority of the new younger and dynamic elements. The Communist Party formally, unconditionally, and openly supported the Sant leadership.’
He backed the Nehru government and offered his support in the Indo-China War of 1962:
‘Sant Fateh Singh's role during those anxious days of national crisis is noteworthy. He unconditionally supported the Nehru leadership and offered all cooperation. He vigorously defended non-alignment while the anti-Congress anti-Communist opposition groups denounced non-alignment as hindering national defence and pleaded for a pact with Pakistan, the same as was the US line for India.’
Control of Akali Dal
On the 2nd of October, 1962, his party managed to secure the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee, holding no elections. This was until the 17th of January 1965, in which his group defeated Master Tara Singh’s Akali Dal. At this point, the elderly Master Tara Singh lost much of the earlier popularity he had and Fateh Singh emerged as the dominant Sikh leader. On the 16th of August, 1965, Fateh Singh announced a new set of protests for the Punjabi Suba movement and the beginning of a new fast onto death from the 10th of September, 1965.
If his demands were not met within 15 days, he would self immolate on the 16th day but the commencement of war with Pakistan in September 1965 made him postpone his fast. After the war ended, the Indian government called for the formation of a cabinet committee led by the Sikh Lok Sabha Speaker, Hukam Singh, to create another consultative committee that included members of both houses in order to make a final report on the ways to resolve the Punjabi Suba issue. On the 18th of January, 1966, this committee arrived to a conclusion and put forth the recommendation that the current borders of the state of Punjab had to be redrawn on a linguistic basis. After the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and the swearing in ceremony of Indira Gandhi, the government accepted the decision on the 23rd of April, 1966.
On the 11th of September, 1966, Sant Fateh Singh visited England from the Punjab. His visit was to gather support for his party and, like Master Tara Singh some years earlier, he too travelled the length of the country to meet the Sikh communities residing all over Britain. On the day of his arrival he was driven to the new development site at Queensdale Road, where he laid the foundation stone of the Central Gurdwara London at a special ceremony. During the course of his stay in Britain, Sant Fateh Singh several times visited the Dharamsala at Sinclair Road, where he personally performed prayers for the masses.
Creation of Punjabi suba
On the 1st of November, 1966, Punjab was redrawn on the basis of language. This was celebrated by the Akali Dal under Fateh Singh by a joyous celebration of Diwali but boycotted by the Akali Dal loyal to Master Tara Singh because of the exclusion of Punjabi speaking areas. After initial jubilation, Sant Fateh Singh protested the exclusion of Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas, especially his favourite area of Ganganagar, where Sikhs were a significant population owing to his efforts. He again announced a fast onto death from the 17th of December, 1966 and self immolation on the 27th of December, 1966, if his demands were not met by then. Hukam Singh and Punjab Chief Minister, Gurmukh Singh Musafir, came on behalf of the Prime Minister and tried to assure Fateh Singh that his demands would be accepted by her and on the 27th of December, 1966, Fateh Singh ended his fast. This act earned him the wrath of the Sikh populace who began losing confidence in him after he broke his fast again.
Since August 1969, Darshan Singh Pheruman, a veteran Akali leader who was chagrined at the incompetence of Fateh Singh, resolved to lay down his life to atone for what he termed as revilement from the solemn pledges and ardas they had taken at the Akal Takht and to have their default in not being able to secure the inclusion of Chandigarh and some other areas in the newly demarcated Punjab redeemed. So determined, he went on a fast unto death inside the Central Jail at Amritsar on 15 August. He stuck to his vow and stubbornly refused to have any nourishment until his demand for the amalgamation of the Punjabi speaking areas to the suba was conceded. On the 27th of October, 1969, on his 74th day of fasting, he died.
To save his prestige, Fateh Singh announced another fast to death, on the 26th of January, 1970. On 29 January 1970, Indian Government agreed to give Chandigarh to Punjab, on the condition that Punjab gave up the tehsil of Fazilka to Haryana. The Akali Dal and other anti-Congress parties gathered and passed resolutions welcoming the announcement of the inclusion of Chandigarh but decried the condition of separating Fazilka from Punjab.
These resolutions were handed to Fateh Singh and he was pressured to end his fast, which he did on the 30th of January, 1970. This was the nail on the coffin for his political and religious image as he had broken the trust of his supporters after repeatedly not fulfilling any of his promises of fasting to death and wavering without achieving much of substance. He was rebuked and ridiculed for not preserving the sanctity of the Sikh ardas after not staying up to his words. On the 25th of March, 1972, he formally announced his retirement from active politics. He passed away on the 30th of October, 1972, in Amritsar.
His writings and legacy
Sant Fateh Singh was a prolific writer and authored his adventures during his parchar tours and his views on Sikhi in multiple publications in the form of poetry: Piar Sunehra and Mithian Ramzan were published in 1946, Seva Nu Meva, Channan Bann, Nirala Panth and Jagdiyan Jotan in 1966, Banka Shahid in 1967, Ankhi Valvale and Mardian Laatan in 1968.
In the autobiographical Nirala Panth, Fateh Singh devotes two chapters to the Sikh rahitnamas, listing them and saying how important the contents had been to him throughout his life.
His political writings include Sadiyan Safaltavan, Akatt Daleelan, Suljhe Uttar, Fabbvein Uttar, Dhukvein Uttar, in which he details his political achievements and the hardships of being a political leader.
A devout religious Sikh, he admitted during his last days that he was never really suited for politics but activism for the downtrodden of the society:
‘I am not cut out for politics. My deep desire is that the backwardness of and discrimination against the Scheduled Castes should go, and I will devote the rest of my life to that cause.’