Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri
Born(1917-04-10)10 April 1917
Lyallpur, Punjab, British India
Died27 May 2013(2013-05-27) (aged 96)
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri and EMS

Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (10 April 1917 – 27 May 2013) was an Indian politician.[1] He was the oldest surviving member of the founding Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1][2][3]

Political activist

Prior to the Partition of India, Lyallpuri's family held a land ownership of roughly 150–180 acres in Lyallpur (present-day Faisalabad, in Pakistan).[4] The young Lyallpuri became a political activist through the student movement in the 1930s and after finishing his BSc at Khalsa College in Amritsar he joined the Indian National Congress at the age of 18.[1][4][5] Lyallpuri's parents were reluctant towards his entry into politics. They preferred that he'd embark on a professional career instead.[5] Lyallpuri obtained his LLB from the Government Law College in Lahore in 1940.[1][5] He soon became a professional revolutionary and cadre of the Kirti Kisan Party, was included in the Central Committee of the party and a leader of the Punjab Kisan Sabha.[1][2][5] The Kirti Kisan Party later merged into the Communist Party of India.[1]

After Partition

As a result of Partition, Lyallpuri moved to Ludhiana.[1] Within the Communist Party, he opposed B.T. Ranadive's line of launching guerrilla struggles.[5] Lyallpuri was jailed between 1949 and 1951, when the Communist Party was banned.[5][6] Whilst in jail, he was ordered by the party leadership to instigate a prisoner revolt, which led to riots and a hunger strike. He fasted for nine weeks.[5]

In April 1953 he was elected Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, at its 11th conference in Cannanore.[7] He would hold this post for 18 years.[5]

Lyallpuri was a member of the National Council of CPI, elected at the 1958 extraordinary party conference in Amritsar.[8] In 1961 he became the general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha.[2] In 1959 Lyallpuri and Harkishan Singh Surjit emerged as the leaders of a mass peasants struggle against the Khush Hasiyati Tax, a campaign mobilised by the Punjab State Committee of the Communist Party.[9]

In CPI(M)

In 1964 he took part in the founding of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1] He was a member of the founding Central Committee of the party.[2] He remained in the post as All India Kisan Sabha general secretary until 1968.[5] Lyallpuri was jailed during the 1975 Emergency.[1]

During his years as a CPI(M) leader, Lyallpuri found himself in constant conflicts with the party leadership.[5]

Lyallpuri contested the Ludhiana Rural seat in the 1980 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, finishing in second place with 17,874.[10]

Dissident leader

In 1992 Lyallpuri led a split in the CPI(M) in protest against rapprochement with the Congress Party. Lyallpuri and other CPI(M) dissidents joined the Marxist Communist Party of India.[1][5][11] Lyallpuri became the general secretary of MCPI.[5]

When the Marxist Communist Party of India (United) was founded in 2005, Lyallpuri became its general secretary.[1]

Autobiography

In 2010 Lyallpuri released his autobiography, My Life My Times.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hindustan Times. Oldest surviving founder member of CPM passes away at 96 Archived 29 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 3 4 The Tribune. Veteran leader Lyallpuri turns 95
  3. ↑ Red Star. Com. Jagjit Singh Lyalpuri Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  4. 1 2 Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 62. Indian History Congress, 2002. p. 595
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hindustan Times. Champion of the downtrodden Archived 1 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Indian Express. Comrade Jagjit Singh dies at 96
  7. ↑ Overstreet, Gene D., and Marshall Windmiller. Communism in India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959. p. 389
  8. ↑ Overstreet, Gene D., and Marshall Windmiller. Communism in India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959. pp. 541–542
  9. ↑ Sidhu, Ajmer. From Ghadar to Naxalbari – Baba Buhja Singh an untold story. Barnala: Tarkbharti Parkashan, 2013. p. 93
  10. ↑ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1980 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PUNJAB
  11. ↑ The Tribune. Surjeet’s death mourned
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