Sardar Hukam Singh
| Sardar Hukam Singh | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Governor of Rajasthan | |
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In office 16 April 1967 – 1 July 1972 |
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| Preceded by | Sampurnanand |
| Succeeded by | Sardar Jogendra Singh |
| 3rd Speaker of the Lok Sabha | |
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In office 17 April 1962 – 16 March 1967 |
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| Deputy | S. V. Krishnamoorthy Rao |
| Preceded by | M. A. Ayyangar |
| Succeeded by | N. Sanjiva Reddy |
| Constituency | Patiala |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 August 1895 Montgomery |
| Died | 27 May 1983 Delhi |
Sardar Hukam Singh (30 August 1895 – 27 May 1983) was an Indian politician and the speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1962 to 1967. He was also governor of Rajasthan from 1967 to 1972.
Hukam Singh was born at Montgomery in Sahiwal District (presently in Pakistan). His father Sham Singh was a businessman. He passed his matriculation examination from the Government High School, Montgomery in 1913 and graduated from the Khalsa College, Amritsar, in 1917. He passed his LL.B. examination in 1921 from the Law College, Lahore and subsequently set up a practice as lawyer in Montgomery.
A devout Sikh, Hukam Singh took part in the movement to free Sikh Gurdwaras from British political influence. When the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (Supreme Gurdwara Management Committee) was declared unlawful and most of its leaders arrested in October 1923, the Sikhs formed another organisation of the same name. Sardar Hukam Singh was a member of this Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and was one of those who were arrested on 7 January 1924 and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He was subsequently elected a member of the SGPC at the first elections held under the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, and continued to be elected successively for many years. He also took part in the anti-Simon Commission demonstrations in 1928 and was injured and arrested during a police baton charge on a procession in the streets of Montgomery.
Montgomery town, as well as the district of that name, fell in the predominantly Muslim majority region of Punjab, and Sikhs and Hindus faced a grave threat to their lives at the hands of Muslim fanatics, especially during the riots that broke out following the declaration of the partition of India and creation of Pakistan in August 1947. Most Hindus and Sikhs of the district, including Hukam Singh's family, took refuge in the walled compound of Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha of which he himself was the president. He went about the town evacuating people from their houses, burying the dead, and evacuating the dying to hospital at grave personal risk. He was at the top of the rioters' hit list, when during the night of 19–20 August 1947, a European army officer of the Boundary Force evacuated him, penniless and disguised in a khaki uniform, to the Firozpur army base.
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