Jathedar Udham Singh Nagoke was a freedom fighter,

Jathedar of Akal Takht The Jathedar of the Akal Takht ( pa, ਜੱਥੇਦਾਰ ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸਾਹਿਬ) is the head of the Akal Takht and head of the Sikhs worldwide. The jathedar has the de facto power as the supreme spokesperson of the Khalsa t ...

and member of

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

Jathedar of the Akal Takht

As Jathedar of the

Akal Takht The Akal Takht ("Throne of the Timeless One") is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikhs. It is located in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar, Punjab, India. The Akal Takht (originally called Akal Bunga) was built by ...

, he was scheduled to lead the first Shahidi Jatha (martyrs' column) on its way to the agitation at Jaito. However, the Government arrested him the night before (8 February 1924) and sentenced him to two confinement in the Central Jail at

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

. On his release in 1926, he was again appointed Jathedar of Akal Takht. By then the

Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925 was a piece of legislation in British India which legally defined Sikh identity and brought Sikh gurdwaras (houses of worship) under the control of an elected body of orthodox Sikhs. Gurdwara reform movement Prior to ...

had been placed on the statute book. In the elections held under this Act, he was elected a member of the

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee ( SGPC; "Supreme Gurdwara Management Committee") is an organization in India responsible for the management of Gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and the union ...

and continued to be elected or co-opted to it till 1954. During this time he was a member of the Darbar Sahib Committee from 1930 to 1933. He was elected president of the Shiromani Committee in 1948 and again in 1950.

President of the Shiromani Akali Dal

He participated in the civil disobedience movement started by 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 ...

and served another year in custody. In 1935, he was elected president of the

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are many ...

. The freedom campaign claimed another four years of his life (1936-39. Another term in jail awaited him in March 1942 under the Defence of India Rules. In the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

he suffered jail for three years.

Punjab Provincial Assembly

After his release at the end of the Second World War, Jathedar Nagoke was elected to the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1946. In 1952 he was appointed head of the Bharat Sevak Samaj, a front organisation of the Congress Party.

Rajya Sabha

He was elected to the

in 1952 as a Congress nominee, a position he held until 1960. He was also a member of the Punjab Pradesh Congress executive during this period.

Punjabi Suba agitation

In 1960 he joined

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party, that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly soci ...

and headed its Punjab Branch in 1960-61. In 1960's he joined the

Punjabi Suba movement The Punjabi Suba movement was a long-drawn political agitation, launched by Punjabi speaking people (mostly Sikhs) demanding the creation of a Punjabi Suba, or Punjabi-speaking state, in the post-independence Indian state of East Punjab. Led by ...

.{{Cite web, url=http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/displayPageContent.jsp?ID=2123&page=1&CategoryID=1&Searched=W3GX, title= Fifty Years of Punjab Politics (1920-70), website=

Panjab Digital Library The Panjab Digital Library is a voluntary organization digitizing and preserving the cultural heritage of Panjab since 2003. With over 50 million digitized pages, it is the biggest resource of digital material on Panjab. There are many his ...

, access-date=21 July 2019 He served a term in jail in 1960 in the Punjabi Suba agitation.

Death

He gave up this life at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

on 11 January 1966.

References

1894 births 1966 deaths Punjab, India politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Punjab, India Shiromani Akali Dal politicians Swatantra Party politicians Rajya Sabha members from Punjab, India