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Jagat Singh |
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A famous Ghadarite, Jagat Singh alias Jai Singh was born at village Sursingh, District Lahore (now District Amritsar). He was son of Arur Singh, a much respected farmer of the village. After serving Risala No. 35 of Indian Army for a short time, he went to China where he took up the assignment of a watchman for a short period. After some time he proceeded to Canada and got employed in a mill in which about 300 Indians were working. These Indians had raised a local gurdwara and had set up a committee of seven members to manage it. Jagat Smgh was elected member of that committee within a brief span of his arrival there.
While in Canada he was much impressed by free atmosphere which made a deep impact upon his sensitive mind and he realized that he had a duty to work for the freedom of his country. He, therefore regarded the formation of the Ghadr Party in 1913 as a god send. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Ghadrites of America decided to send bands of freedom fighters to India with a view to raising a rebellion against the British. Jagat Singh arrived with one of the first batches. Such members of the band who escaped the clutches of the police immediately engaged themselves in revolutionary work. But their efforts did not quite succeed and most of their secret centres of activity were captured by the police. However, they remained undaunted and decided to swill the most daring among them out of the city of Lahore so that the work could be continued. Jagat Singh was one of the people selected for the job. While he and his companions were going in a tongs in Lahore, all of a sudden a few police men stopped the tongs and asked its passengers to accompany them to a nearby police station for search and investigation, The Ghadarite bad pistols on their persons and instead of complying with wishes of the police men, shot down a few of them. One of Jagat Singh’s companions was caught on the spot. Jagat Singh himself tried to escape but was soon overtaken and arrested. He was tried in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced to death and hanged.