Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (10 April 1917 – 27 May 2013) was an Indian politician. He was the oldest surviving member of the founding

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

Political activist

Prior to the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

, Lyallpuri's family held a land ownership of roughly 150–180 acres in Lyallpur (present-day Faisalabad, in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

). The young Lyallpuri became a political activist through the student movement in the 1930s and after finishing his BSc at Khalsa College in

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

he joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

at the age of 18.
Proceedings of the Indian History Congress
', Vol. 62. Indian History Congress, 2002. p. 595 Lyallpuri's parents were reluctant towards his entry into politics. They preferred that he'd embark on a professional career instead. Lyallpuri obtained his LLB from the Government Law College in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

in 1940. He soon became a professional revolutionary and cadre of the

Kirti Kisan Party Workers and Peasants Party may refer to: * Workers and Peasants Party (Egypt) *Workers and Peasants Party (France) *Workers and Peasants Party (India) * Workers' and Peasants' Party (Japan) *Workers' and Peasants' Party (Liechtenstein) The Worke ...

, was included in the

of the party and a leader of the Punjab Kisan Sabha.''The Tribune''
Veteran leader Lyallpuri turns 95
/ref> The Kirti Kisan Party later merged into the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

After Partition

As a result of Partition, Lyallpuri moved to Ludhiana. Within the Communist Party, he opposed B.T. Ranadive's line of launching guerrilla struggles. Lyallpuri was jailed between 1949 and 1951, when the Communist Party was banned. Whilst in jail, he was ordered by the party leadership to instigate a prisoner revolt, which led to riots and a

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

. He fasted for nine weeks. In April 1953 he was elected Joint Secretary of the

All India Kisan Sabha All India Kisan Sabha ( AIKS; lit. ''All India Farmers Union'', also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha), is the peasant or farmers' wing of the Communist Party of India, an important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 19 ...

, at its 11th conference in

Cannanore Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a Cities in India, city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city a ...

. He would hold this post for 18 years. Lyallpuri was a member of the National Council of CPI, elected at the 1958 extraordinary party conference in

. In 1961 he became the general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha. 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.

In CPI(M)

In 1964 he took part in the founding of the

. He was a member of the founding Central Committee of the party. He remained in the post as All India Kisan Sabha general secretary until 1968.''Hindustan Times''
Champion of the downtrodden
Lyallpuri was jailed during the 1975

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

. During his years as a CPI(M) leader, Lyallpuri found himself in constant conflicts with the party leadership. Lyallpuri contested the Ludhiana Rural seat in the 1980 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, finishing in second place with 17,874.

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 Marxist Communist Party of India, MCPI was a political party in India that formed in 1983 under the leadership of comrade Mohan Punamia. It emerged as a splinter group of Communist Party of India (Marxist) stuck to the original 1964 programme. T ...

.''The Tribune''
Surjeet’s death mourned
/ref> Lyallpuri became the general secretary of MCPI. When the

Marxist Communist Party of India (United) Marxist Communist Party of India (United) is a communist party in India, formed in 2005 by the unification of the Marxist Communist Party of India, the Mangat Ram Pasla-led breakaway group from the CPI(M) in Punjab - Communist Party Marxist (Pu ...

was founded in 2005, Lyallpuri became its general secretary.''Hindustan Times''
Oldest surviving founder member of CPM passes away at 96

Autobiography

In 2010 Lyallpuri released his autobiography, ''My Life My Times''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyallpuri, Jagjit Singh 1917 births 2013 deaths People from Faisalabad Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Punjab, India Politicians from Ludhiana Indian autobiographers Writers from Ludhiana 20th-century Indian politicians