BABA GURMUKH SINGH

He was born in 1888 at Lalton Khurd, District Ludhiana. He studied up to Matriculation at a Church Mission School of Ludhiana and was a school-mate of Kartar Singh Sarabha. In 1914 he decided to go to America. At Hong Kong, he learnt about the new restrictions imposed by the Canada Government. He got a seat in the Kamagata Maru. When the ship reached Canada were not allowed to leave their ship and enter America. After a great suffering the ship sailed back to India with all its passengers. At the Budge Budge Ghat (Calcutta) where they landed, a serious clash occurred between them and the police. Gurmukh Singh escaped but for a short time. Three days later, he was captured at Calcutta and confined in the Alipur jail. After three months he was brought to the Punjab.

Though he was placed under orders of internment, who under the influence of Kartar Singh Sarabha and Rash Bihari Bose he made efforts to establish secret contacts with Indian soldiers in some of the Punjab cantonments. But all plans of Gurmukh Singh and his companions went away on account of betrayal of one of their colleagues.

He was arrested among the many revolutionaries after the disclosure of the plot. He was confined in the Lahore Central Jail and tried in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case along with others. On being sentenced he was sent to Kala Pani (Andaman Islands). The transfer created in his mind the idea of running away but he preferred to wait for a better opportunity. He jumped off a running train when he was being transferred from Madras to UP in 1922 and escaped to the Punjab. From there, after some years, he proceeded to Kabul via Khybr Pass in company with Teja Singh Swatantar.

In 1934 after he came back he was arrested again on suspicion of being in correspondence with Ghadrites and transported to Kala Pani to complete the remained of his incarceration which was now enhanced by six months by way of penalty for his ‘misconduct’.

He remained in confinement on the Andman Islands till 1945 or so. After that he was transferred to the Punjab and kept in the Multan jail. From there he was released in 1947 on the country’s attainment of freedom.

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