Pratap Singh Kairon

Pratap Singh Kairon was born on 1 October 1901 in Kairon, a village in Amritsar district of Punjab province in British India. He belonged to a Dhillon Jat Sikh family and was named after his ancestral village. His father, Nihal Singh Kairon, was a school teacher and a social reformer who initiated women's education in the region. His mother, Shanti Devi Kairon, was a homemaker and a devout Sikh. He received his early education from his father and later attended Col. Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun and Khalsa College in Amritsar. He then went to the United States for higher studies and earned his master's degrees in political science and economics from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley respectively. He was impressed by the farming methods and cooperative movements in the US and hoped to implement them in India. He returned to India in 1929 and joined politics as a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh political party. He started an English weekly newspaper called The New Era in Amritsar to voice his views on various issues. He also participated in the Indian independence movement against the British colonial rule and was jailed twice for his involvement in civil disobedience campaigns. He later switched to the Indian National Congress and became its general secretary for Punjab province from 1941 to 1946. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946. After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, he played an active role in rehabilitating the refugees who came from West Punjab. He also advocated for the linguistic reorganization of Punjab state and demanded a separate state for Punjabi-speaking people. He became the Chief Minister of Punjab in 1956 after the merger of PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) with Punjab. He held this position till 1964 and is widely regarded as one of the most visionary and dynamic leaders of Punjab. He initiated several reforms and policies to transform Punjab into a prosperous and progressive state. He promoted the Green Revolution that increased agricultural productivity and made Punjab self-sufficient in food grains. He also encouraged industrialization, especially in small-scale and cottage industries, that generated employment and income for the people. He gave priority to education, health and infrastructure development and established many institutions of excellence such as Punjab Agricultural University, Guru Nanak Dev University, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Punjab Engineering College. He was known for his honesty, integrity and administrative acumen. He was also a close associate of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and enjoyed his trust and support. He faced opposition from some factions within his own party as well as from other parties who accused him of being authoritarian and corrupt. He resigned from his post in 1964 after an inquiry commission indicted him for misusing his official position for personal gains. He was assassinated on 6 February 1965 by four gunmen near Rai village in Sonepat district of Haryana when he was travelling from Delhi to Chandigarh. The motive behind his murder remains unclear and some suspect a political conspiracy behind it. He was cremated at his native village Kairon with full state honors. He was survived by his wife Satwant Kaur and eleven children. His son Surinder Singh Kairon later joined the Shiromani Akali Dal and his grandson Adesh Partap Singh Kairon married the daughter of Prakash Singh Badal, the former Chief Minister of Punjab. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian honors in India, in 1976. He is remembered as one of the greatest leaders and reformers of Punjab who shaped its destiny and development. His life and achievements have been documented in several books and films. He is also honored by various institutions and organizations that bear his name or have statues and portraits of him.