Home of revolutionaries, award winning writer

From revolutionaries to award winning writer, Sur Singh village in Tarn Taran has produced many renowned personalities. Eminent short story writer Waryam Singh Sandhu, who entered in the literary world with his revolutionary first story book ‘Lohe De Hath’, was brought up at Sur Singh. Though Sandhu was not born here, he studied here and also worked as a JBT teacher at the village government primary school.

Sandhu was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2000 for his short story collection “Chauthi Koot”. However, he returned the award in 2019 in protest against the Union Government’s “indifferent” attitude towards the agitating farmers. Sandhu was jailed during Emergency. His works have been translated in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and English. Sandhu, a PhD degree holder, has retired as lecturer from Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar.

A story from ‘Chauthi Koot’ has been published by Aleph Book Company in a book titled ‘100 Indian Stories: A Feast of Remarkable Short Fiction from the 19th 20th and 21st Centuries’. Sandhu is still active in his literary pursuits.

The village also has the honour of producing 37 Gadri Babas and over 70 freedom fighters. Gadri Baba Jagat Singh was hanged, along with Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha and five others, in the first Lahore conspiracy case on November 16, 1915. However, there is no suitable memorial in the village to keep alive the contribution of the bravehearts. During the British rule, the government conducted a special survey before stepping up vigil through police stations. The British found Sur Singh village had always remained anti-establishment and decided to establish its first police post in Sur Singh village in 1861 with the implementation of the IPC (Indian Penal Code). The police post is still present in the village.

Sur Singh village is the birthplace of renowned wrestler Kartar Singh Pehalwan, who retired from the Punjab Police as DIG. Kartar Singh, also an Olympian, has won Asian gold medals twice in 1978 and 1986 in the men’s freestyle 100 kg category. He unsuccessfully contested the Vidhan Sabha election in 2017 as an AAP candidate. He is an Arjuna Awardee and has also been honoured with Padma Shri. Jasbir Singh, born in Sur Singh, is the Director (Administration), Punjab State Powercom, and is active in the state politics.

Punjab