Sant Fateh Singh

Sant Fateh Singh (born October 27, 1911, Punjab, India—died October 30, 1972, Amritsar, Punjab) was a Sikh religious leader who became the foremost campaigner for Sikh rights in postindependence India.

Fateh Singh spent most of his early career in social and educational activities around Ganganagar, in what is now northern Rajasthan state, western India. In the 1940s he, Tara Singh, and other Sikh leaders joined the Quit India movement, a confederation of Indians determined to force Great Britain to give up its governance of India. India gained its independence in 1947, and by 1955 Fateh Singh and Tara Singh were advocating the establishment of Punjabi Suba, a Punjabi-speaking autonomous state in India in which Sikh religious, cultural, and linguistic integrity could be preserved intact.

In the early 1960s Fateh Singh entered into a power struggle with Tara Singh over the leadership of the Sikh autonomy movement in Punjab state. The conflict between the two Sikh leaders ended in 1962 in victory for Fateh Singh when he took over the leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Supreme Akali Party) from Tara Singh. Fateh Singh eventually became the leader of the entire Sikh community, and in 1966, partly owing to his agitation, Punjab state was divided along linguistic lines into the largely Punjabi-speaking Punjab state and Hindi-speaking Haryana state.