Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 10 April 1917 |
| Died | 27 May 2013 (aged 96) Ludhiana, Punjab, India |
Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri (10 April 1917 – 27 May 2013) was an Indian politician.[1] He was the oldest surviving member of the founding Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1][2][3]
Prior to the Partition of India, Lyallpuri's family held a land ownership of roughly 150–180 acres in Lyallpur (present-day Faisalabad, in Pakistan).[4] The young Lyallpuri became a political activist through the student movement in the 1930s and after finishing his BSc at Khalsa College in Amritsar he joined the Indian National Congress at the age of 18.[1][4][5] Lyallpuri's parents were reluctant towards his entry into politics. They preferred that he'd embark on a professional career instead.[5] Lyallpuri obtained his LLB from the Government Law College in Lahore in 1940.[1][5] He soon became a professional revolutionary and cadre of the Kirti Kisan Party, was included in the Central Committee of the party and a leader of the Punjab Kisan Sabha.[1][2][5] The Kirti Kisan Party later merged into the Communist Party of India.[1]
As a result of Partition, Lyallpuri moved to Ludhiana.[1] Within the Communist Party, he opposed B.T. Ranadive's line of launching guerrilla struggles.[5] Lyallpuri was jailed between 1949 and 1951, when the Communist Party was banned.[5][6] Whilst in jail, he was ordered by the party leadership to instigate a prisoner revolt, which led to riots and a hunger strike. He fasted for nine weeks.[5]
In April 1953 he was elected Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, at its 11th conference in Cannanore.[7] He would hold this post for 18 years.[5]
Lyallpuri was a member of the National Council of CPI, elected at the 1958 extraordinary party conference in Amritsar.[8] In 1961 he became the general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha.[2] In 1959 Lyallpuri and Harkishan Singh Surjit emerged as the leaders of a mass peasants struggle against the Khush Hasiyati Tax, a campaign mobilised by the Punjab State Committee of the Communist Party.[9]
In 1964 he took part in the founding of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[1] He was a member of the founding Central Committee of the party.[2] He remained in the post as All India Kisan Sabha general secretary until 1968.[5] Lyallpuri was jailed during the 1975 Emergency.[1]
During his years as a CPI(M) leader, Lyallpuri found himself in constant conflicts with the party leadership.[5]
Lyallpuri contested the Ludhiana Rural seat in the 1980 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, finishing in second place with 17,874.[10]
In 1992 Lyallpuri led a split in the CPI(M) in protest against rapprochement with the Congress Party. Lyallpuri and other CPI(M) dissidents joined the Marxist Communist Party of India.[1][5][11] Lyallpuri became the general secretary of MCPI.[5]
When the Marxist Communist Party of India (United) was founded in 2005, Lyallpuri became its general secretary.[1]
In 2010 Lyallpuri released his autobiography, My Life My Times.[1]
