DISTINGUISHED PUNJABIS-1

Sirdar PARTAP SINGH KAIRON

Partap singh Kairon was a political leader of wide influence and chief minister of the Punjab from 1956 to 1964, was born on 1 October 1901 in the village of Kairon, in Amritsar district of the Punjab, in a farming family of modest means. His father Nihal Singh, who had been active in the Singh Sabha movement, was a pioneer of women's education and had founded in his village a Sikh school for girls. When still a student of the Khalsa College at Amritsar, Partap Singh left home for the United States of America. There he had to earn his own way by working on farms and in factories. He eventually took a Master's degree in political science at the University of Michigan. He simultaneously concerned himself with the problems of Indian freedom and worked with groups determined to advance independence, if necessary by revolutionary activities.Partap Singh was deeply influenced by the American way of life. Mile upon mile of oranges, grapes and peaches he saw in California planted in his mind the vision of a fruit-laden Punjab. He believed that affluence on farms was within reach of the Punjabi villager only if he had an independent and vital government. Partap Singh evolved a pragmatic, determined approach to political, economic and social issues. Returning to India in 1929, Partap Singh started from Amritsar a weekly paper in English, The New Era, the first issue appearing on 13 April 1931. But he soon entered active politics and closed down the paper. He joined the Shiromani Akali Dal, party of Sikh activists. He was also a member of the Indian National Congress, the main all-India party associated with the independence movement. As a Congress worker he was jailed in 1932 for five years for participating in the Civil disobedience movement. In 1937, he entered the Punjab Legislative Assembly as an Akali nominee, defeating the Congress candidate, Baba Gurdit Singh of Sarhali. He was general secretary of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee from 1941 to 1946, a period of acute crisis in the freedom struggle. He went to jail again in the 1942 Quit India movement. He was president of the Punjab Congress from 1950-52; a member of the Central (All-India) Working Committee from 1945, and was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946.  Kairon dressed up as Akali With the achievement of Indian  independence in 1947, the  Congress chose Partap Singh  to turn his faith and influence to  the construction of the new  Punjab. He held office in the  elected state government continuously  from 1947 to 1949 and from 1952 to 1964. First as development  minister and then as chief minister, Partap Singh Kairon led the  Punjab in all-round progress and change. Much of his work in the government was concerned with vital details, the removal of  hurdles, the creation of opportunities, and the psychology  and will for work, and the belief in change.Several of his  programmes carried the mark of his individuality. He was  associated with relief and rehabilitation, following the  mass movement in 1947 of millions of refugees from  Pakistan. Over three million people were in a brief  period reestablished in the Punjab in new homes and  often in new avocations. Partap Singh took up the  consolidation of land holdings, which was made  compulsory by law, and by completing the operation  at high speed laid the base on which was founded  the spurt in production on farms in the 1960's. He  belonged to, and was of, the Punjab village which  ensured for him strong mass backing. He  experimented, worked,tried everything that  was new and possible. He became the tornado  round which the new and the old clashed in  contradiction  and friction, and yet merged briefly and decisively  in action, He certainly changed the administrativ e structure and methods of decision-making  inherited from the British system. In 1964, following the report of the commission  of enquiry which had exonerated him of the bulk of the allegations made against him by his  political adversaries, Partap Singh Kairon resigned his position as chief minister of the  Punjab. On 6 February 1965, he was assassinated as his car coming from Delhi  was waylaid near the village of Rasoi on the  main highway from Delhi to Amritsar. BIBLIOGRAPHy Copyright © Harbans Singh  "The encyclopedia of Sikhism."