Nihal Singh Takshak was a politician from the village of Bhagwi,

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

(now in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

), India. In 1939 he founded the Jind State Praja Mandal political party. He was first MLA from Jind following the election of 1937. He was also an Education Inspector with Birla Institute Pilani. He starting Basic Education school with help of Birla Trust in every village of Luharu- Jind state now district

Bhiwani Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana. Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of three former Haryana chief ministers: Bansi Lal ...

. Having served as a minister in the government of Jind, Takshak was involved in the wrangling that resulted from the formation in 1948 of the short-lived state known as the

Patiala and East Punjab States Union The Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) was a States and union territories of India, state of India, uniting eight princely states between 1948 and 1956. The capital and principal city was Patiala. The state covered an area of 26,208 ...

(PEPSU). There were three organisations vying to hold the reins of power, being the

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a Centre-right politics, centre-right Sikhism, Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India, Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Indian ...

, Lok Sewak Dal and the Praja Mandal. The latter suffered from internal rivalries and Takshak – along with

Zail Singh Giani Zail Singh (, born Jarnail Singh; 5 May 1916 – 25 December 1994) was an Indian politician from Punjab who served as the president of India from 1982 to 1987 and chief minister of Punjab. He was the first Sikh to become president. B ...

, Seth Ram Nath and Harcharan Singh – were encouraged to split from it by forming the Pepsu Pradesh Congress Committee. They entered the government of Gian Singh Rarewala, which was sworn in on 13 January 1949. He became Education and Finance minister for the new state. Later, in 1953, he was among a group of MLAs who rebelled against the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

government of Raghbir Singh, causing it to collapse and Rarewala once again to assume power. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' has said that he was the first example of a politician changing allegiance in India. The action was later to stigmatise him. He founded Birhi teacher training school and Art craft teacher training in Arya Hindi Maha Vidyalaya

Charkhi Dadri Charkhi Dadri is a city and the headquarters of Charkhi Dadri district in the Indian state of Haryana, about 90 km from the national capital Delhi. The town was made by joining the villages of Charkhi and Dadri after urban development. Ch ...

. A statue in his honour was unveiled at Bhagwi in 2007.

References

People from Jind district Haryana politicians {{Haryana-politician-stub