Udham Singh Nagoke was a freedom fighter, Jathedar of Akal Takht and member of

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

Jathedar of the Akal Takht

As Jathedar of the

Akal Takht The Akal Takht (; ), also spelt as Akal Takhat and historically known as Akal Bunga, is the most prominent of the Takht (Sikhism), five takhts (Seat (legal entity), seats of authority) of the Sikhs. Located within the Golden Temple, Darbar Sah ...

, he was scheduled to lead the first Shahidi Jatha (martyrs' column) on its way to the agitation at Jaito. However, the Government arrested him the night before (8 February 1924) and sentenced him to two confinement in the Central Jail at

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

. On his release in 1926, he was again appointed Jathedar of Akal Takht. By then the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 had been placed on the statute book. In the elections held under this Act, he was elected a member of the

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee ( SGPC; Supreme Gurdwara Management Committee) is an organization in India responsible for the management of ''gurdwaras'', Sikh places of worship, in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and ...

and continued to be elected or co-opted to it till 1954. During this time he was a member of the Darbar Sahib Committee from 1930 to 1933. In 1947 he played a major role to keep peace in Amritsar. He was elected president of the Shiromani Committee in 1948 and again in 1950. Event at Guru ka Bagh in 1947

President of the Shiromani Akali Dal

He participated in the civil disobedience movement started by 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 ...

and served another year in custody. In 1935, he was elected president of the

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a centre-right Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are ma ...

. The freedom campaign claimed another four years of his life (1936-39. Another term in jail awaited him in March 1942 under the Defence of India Rules. In the Quit India Movement he suffered jail for three years.

Punjab Provincial Assembly

After his release at the end of the Second World War, Jathedar Nagoke was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1946. In 1952 he was appointed head of the Bharat Sevak Samaj, a front organisation of the Congress Party.

Rajya Sabha

He was elected to the

in 1952 as a Congress nominee, a position he held until 1960. He was also a member of the Punjab Pradesh Congress executive during this period.

Punjabi Suba agitation

In 1960 he joined

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly so ...

and headed its Punjab Branch in 1960-61. In 1960's he joined the Punjabi Suba movement.{{Cite web, url=http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/displayPageContent.jsp?ID=2123&page=1&CategoryID=1&Searched=W3GX, title= Fifty Years of Punjab Politics (1920-70), website=

Panjab Digital Library The Panjab Digital Library is a voluntary organization digitizing and preserving the cultural heritage of Panjab since 2003. With over 85 million digitized pages, it is the biggest resource of digital material on Panjab. There are many his ...

, access-date=21 July 2019 He served a term in jail in 1960 in the Punjabi Suba agitation.

Death

He gave up this life at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

on 11 January 1966.

References

1894 births 1966 deaths Punjab, India politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Punjab, India Shiromani Akali Dal politicians Swatantra Party politicians Rajya Sabha members from Punjab, India