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{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| name = Baba Kharak Singh<br />
| image = File:Baba Kharak Singh 1988 stamp of India.jpg<br />
| caption = Singh on a 1988 stamp of [[India]]<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1868|06|06}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Sialkot]], [[British Raj|British India]]<br>{{small|(present-day in [[Pakistan]])}}<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1963|10|06|1868|06|06}}<br />
| death_place = [[Delhi]], [[India]]<br />
| nationality = [[Indian people|Indian]]<br />
| occupation = [[Playwright]]<br />
| office = [[Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee|President of SGPC]]<br />
| term = 14 August 1921 – 19 February 1922<br />
| predecessor = [[Sundar Singh Majithia]]<br />
| successor = Sundar Singh Ramgharia<br />
| term1 = 2 October 1926 – 12 October 1930<br />
| predecessor1 = [[Mangal Singh]]<br />
| successor1 = [[Tara Singh (activist)|Tara Singh]]<br />
}}<br />
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'''Baba Kharak Singh''' (6 June 1867 — 6 October 1963) was an Indian playwright born at [[Sialkot]] in [[British India]]. He was involved in the [[Indian independence movement]] and was president of the Central Sikh League.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Sikhs in History | publisher=Singh Brothers, Amritsar | author=Sangat Singh | year=2010 | page=152 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheSikhsInHistory|isbn=978-8172052768}}</ref><br />
disa<br />
He was a Sikh political leader and virtually the first president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. He was among the first batch of students who graduated (1889) from Punjab University, Lahore. His father, Rai Bahadur Sardar Hari Singh, was a wealthy contractor and industrialist.Today, a prominent road, which is a radial road of Connaught Place, New Delhi towards Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, is named Baba Kharak Singh Marg, after him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.delhilive.com/baba-kharak-singh-marg |title= Baba Kharak Singh Marg|author=Haresh S. Khemani |date=2 December 2006 |access-date=26 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118060633/http://www.delhilive.com/baba-kharak-singh-marg |archive-date=18 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><br />
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==Early life==<br />
Kharak Singh, having passed his matriculation examination from Mission High School and intermediate from Murray College, both at Sialkot, after graduating from [[University of the Punjab]], ([[Lahore]]) he joined the Law College at Allahabad, but the death of his father and elder brother in quick succession, interrupted his studies as he had to return to Sialkot to manage the family property.<br />
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He started his public life in 1912 as chairman of the reception committee of the 5th session of the Sikh Educational Conference held at Sialkot.<br />
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Three years later in 1915, as president of the 8th session of the Conference held at [[Tarn Taran Sahib|Tarn Taran]], he surprised everyone by walking to the site of the conference, breaking the stately custom of arriving in a carriage pulled by six horses. He also refused permission for a proposed resolution to be moved at the conference wishing victory to the British in [[World War I]].<br />
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The [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]] of 1919 galvanised Kharak Singh as the virtual core of Sikh politics.<ref>[https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Baba_Kharak_Singh Baba Kharak Singh]</ref><br />
==Political life==<br />
Kharak Singh presided over the historic session of the Central Sikh League held in Lahore in 1920 where under his direction the Sikhs took part in the [[Non-cooperation movement]]. [[Mahatma Gandhi]], the [[Ali brothers]] and [[Saifuddin Kitchlew]] also attended the event and advised the Sikhs to throw in their lot with the Congress Party.<br />
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In 1921-22 he successfully led the first Morcha (agitation) against the British government (November, 1921), which is popularly known as the Keys Morcha. This was a Sikh protest requiring the return of the keys of the Toshakhana (treasury) of the [[Golden Temple]], which had been seized by the British Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. Kharak Singh was among the first to be arrested and this was the first of his numerous jail terms under the British. His arrest led to a vigorous storm of protest against the Government.<ref name="ਪੰਜਾਬ ਕੋਸ਼">{{cite book | title=ਪੰਜਾਬ ਕੋਸ਼ | publisher=ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਵਿਭਾਗ ਪੰਜਾਬ | author=ਰਛਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਗਿੱਲ | year=2004 | page=649}}</ref><br />
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==Arrest and Prison==<br />
He was jailed on 26 November 1921 for making an anti government speech, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment on 2 December 1921, but was released on 17 January 1922 when the keys of the toshakhana were also surrendered to him. In the same year he was elected President of Punjab Provincial Congress Committee.<br />
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Baba ji was, however, rearrested soon and, on 4 April 1922, he was awarded one year in jail for running a factory that manufactured kirpans (one of the religious symbols of the Sikhs): to which another three years were added, on charges of making seditious speeches.<br />
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He was sent to jail in distant [[Dera Gazi Khan]] (now a district in Pakistan Punjab), where in protest against the forced removal of the turbans of Sikh and the 'Gandhi caps' of non-Sikh political prisoners, he discarded all his clothes except his kachahira (underpants), another of the religious symbols of the Sikhs. Despite the extreme weather conditions of the place, he remained bare-backed until he was released after his full term (twice extended for non-obedience of orders) on 4 June 1927.<ref>[http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/displayPage.jsp?ID=1549&page=1&CategoryID=1&Searched=W3GX&sbtsro=0 Akali Lehar de Mahan Neta] (Punjabi). Book by [[Partap Singh|Partap Singh, Giani]] 1976.</ref><br />
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==Struggle against British rule==<br />
He organized a mammoth demonstration in 1928 when the [[Simon Commission]] visited Lahore. Also during 1928-29, he vehemently opposed the [[Nehru Report|Nehru Committee Report]] until the Congress Party shelved it and took action to secure the Sikhs' concurrence in the framing of constitutional proposals in the future. He was again sent to jail in 1931 but was released after six months. He was re-arrested in 1932 and served another 19 months in prison.<br />
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He spoke out in opposition to the [[Communal Award]], which gave a statutory majority to Muslims in the [[Punjab (British India)|Punjab]], and was in and out of jail on several occasions for making speeches that the British government held to be seditious. In 1935 he was, once again, taken into custody for his scathing criticism of the Communal Award.<br />
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In 1940 Babaji was again sent to the jail for participating in the Satyagrah movement, but in spite of his old age, Babaji did not stop his activities.<br />
==Demise==<br />
After the Partition of 1947, Babaji stayed in Delhi in virtual retirement from public life, dying on 6 October 1963 at the ripe age of 95.<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
{{Sikhism}}<br />
{{Sikh politics}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Baba Kharak}}<br />
[[Category:Indian Sikhs]]<br />
[[Category:Sikh politics]]<br />
[[Category:People from Sialkot]]<br />
[[Category:1868 births]]<br />
[[Category:1963 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Shiromani Akali Dal politicians]]<br />
legend that are heart of punjab</div>->Clay