Sant Sipahi - The oldest Panthic Magazine/ www.santsipahi.org SOUVENI! oJ adSant Sipahi - The oldest Panthic Magazine/ www, santsipahi.org Master Tara Singh ji in Patma SahibSant Sipahi - The oldest Panthic Magazine/ www.santsipahi.org soy 4 _ From the Editor’s Pen y Master Tara Singh, a great son of India remained a dauntless fighter all his life. W Starting his career asa school teacher ina small village he joined politics to free the Gurdwaras from the clutches of the British Government. His entry into politics made two significant impacts in political arena. Firstly, the power hencebefore in the hands of the rich Jagirdars and Sardar Bahadurs, who though sympathetic to the Sikh interests, could not go beyond submitting memorandums or passing. resolutions since at no stage they wanted to annoy the ruling government. Their motto "had been ‘Glorification of the Panth, Loyalty to the Government’, Secondly, Masterji so vigorously started the agitation for the Gurdwaras that the Government Considered it to be an act of sedition and he and his comrades were charged for it too. The outcome of _ this was that the Indian National Congress under, the leadership of Pt. Nebru and _ Mahatma Gandhi and the Muslim League fully supported the Akalis on this cause. Another significant development which took place was that Master Tara Singh led a Congress sponsored *Shahidi Jatha’ of 100 Akalis to Peshawar in protest against the British firing ‘on Pathans’ Red Shirt Movement. the Akalis’ movement for liberation of the Gurdwaras under the leadership of Master Tara Singh and the country’s freedom struggle became so synonimous that it became literally impossible to differentiate between the two. Whe the Akalis emerged victorious after ation over the seizure of the keys of the Golden Temple, Mahatma Gandhi wired on 18-1-1922 to the President of the S.G.P.C., ‘Sardar Kharak Singh President Shromaoi Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Amritsar First Master Tara Singh Decisive Battle For India’s Freedom Won Congratulations—M. K. Gandhi’, At this time Master Tara Singh was the General Secretary of the S, G. P. C. sincerely believed and propagated that one cannot be loyal to his unless he is loyal to his faith or religion. Though the Sikhs constituted merely one percent of the total population of the country, but had to their credit seventy three percent of the sacrifices made to win freedom for our mother-land. Sikhism being a religio-political faith, Sikhism has been facing internal and external gression and has been valiantly fighting to maintain its separate identity. Prior to the country all national leaders and political parties repeatedly assured the Sikhs about safeguarding their interests. ‘At the annual session of the Indian National Congress at Lahore on ist December, 1929 Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru proclaimed that in free India only that system of Government would be adopted which would fetch satisfaction from the Sikhs. Again on Sth April, 1946, Panditji emphasised that the re-organization of existing states wasa must and