Gopal Singh Khalsa


Gopal Singh Khalsa was an Indian freedom fighter and politician.

Early Life

Gopal Singh Khalsa, was born in a Scheduled Caste Ramdasia Sikh family in 1903, in a village which is outside the Sidhwan Bet constituency but not too far from it. After studying at the Malwa Khalsa High School in Ludhiana, Khalsa went to the United States in 1923 and spent three years and later in a college at Stockton, California.

Political career

Before Independence

However, he didn't graduate but
joined the Hindustan National
Party and finally returned to India
in 1931. After his return to India,
he took keen interest in the welfare of the scheduled castes and joined the All India Scheduled Castes Federation of Dr B. R. Ambedkar.
He was a member of the S. C. F. Working Committee and a close associate of Dr Ambedkar from
1937 to 1946. In 1937 he ran as an independent for the Punjab Provincial Assembly and was elected. He was then appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Punjab Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. From 1937 to 1946 he was also a nominated member of the District Board of Ludhiana, After the world war 2nd, in 1946, he was appointed as an officer in the Labour Department of the Government of India.

After Independence

In 1952 he joined the Akali Dal, ran on its ticket for the 1952, was elected with 28,179 votes as against the Congress candidate's 15,067 and the S. C. F. candidate's 8,993 votes. He then became the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly. He had during his political career edited a couple of magazines and papers, and from 1952 to 1954 was Chief Editor of the Daily Prabhat, the Urdu spokesman of the Akali Dal. In 1956 as a result of the merger of the Akali Dal with the Indian National Congress, he joined the latter
organization but was unable to get the Congress ticket for the assembly in 1957. He played a prominent role in the organization of the Malwa Akali Dal to oppose Master Tara Singh and his Akali Dal in the 1959 elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee the central organization responsible for the management of gurudwaras in the Punjab — though the Malwa Akali
Dal as well as other organisations running against Master Tara Singh met with disastrous defeat in these gurudwara elections.