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Partap Singh Kairon

(1901 – 1965) – (Punjab)

Partap Singh Kairon (Aged 64) born on 1 October 1901 in Kairon, Amritsar, India. He belonged to a Jat Sikh family. His last name was derived from the village of Kairon in the Amritsar district, Tehsil Tarn Taran, during the British Raj era.

Partap completed his education at Col. Brown Cambridge School in Dehra Dun and Khalsa College, Amritsar before travelling to the United States for further studies. He supported himself by working on farms and in factories during his time there. He first obtained his Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley before proceeding to the University of Michigan, where he received a Master’s degree in political science. He was impressed by the farming methods practised in the U.S.A and hoped to replicate them in India later.

Kairon returned to India in 1929 and began publishing an English language weekly paper called The New Era in Amritsar on 13 April 1932. He later joined politics, but the newspaper was eventually shut down. He was initially a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal, and later of the Indian National Congress.

In 1932, Kairon was jailed for five years for participating in civil disobedience. He contested and won a seat in the Punjab Legislative Assembly as an Akali nominee in 1937, defeating the Congress candidate, Baba Gurdit Singh of Sarhali. From 1941 to 1946, he served as the General Secretary of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee.

Kairon was jailed again during the Quit India Movement of 1942, but was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946. He passed away on 6 February 1965.