TEJA SINGH SWATANTAR (1901-1973), was born as Samund Singh at Aluna, a village in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab, on 16 July 1901. His father`s name was Kirpal Singh. After finishing school, he joined Khalsa College at Amritsar. He took a leading part in organizing a protest against the British for the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. He was forced to leave the College. Later on, he joined the Akali Dal and took part in the Gurdwara Reform Movement. In September 1921, he formed the Swatantar Jatha (squad). He liberated a gurdwara from the hands of degenerate mahants in Teja, a village in the Gurdaspur district. His colleagues named him Teja Singh Swatantar in honor of the occasion. Teja Singh took part in the Guru ka Bagh campaign as well. Teja Singh arrived in Kabul as a Sikh missionary in early 1923. He met Ghadar leaders such as Udham Singh Kasel, Gurmukh Singh, Ratan Singh, and Santokh Singh here, who convinced him to pursue military training. Teja Singh traveled to Turkey under the alias Azad Beg in 1925. He obtained Turkish citizenship and received a commission in the army after graduating in military sciences. Teja Singh relocated to Berlin five years later. He traveled throughout the continent, as well as to Canada and the United States of America. He was a brilliant orator who was described as a fiery speaker by American intelligence. He left North America in January 1932 and traveled to Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil before returning to India in December 1934. He rose to prominence in the Communist Party's Kirti group. He roamed the Punjab countryside disguised as a sadhu, contributing articles to the Party journal, the Kirti, on a regular basis. On January 16, 1936, he was arrested along with other Communist leaders and imprisoned in Campbellpore jail. During his confinement, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Panjab University in Lahore. While imprisoned, he was elected unopposed to the Punjab Legislative Assembly as an Indian National Congress nominee in May 1937. Teja Singh Swatantar was the secretary of the Punjab Communist Party from 1944 to 1947 and a Kisan Sabha leader. He led a number of peasant uprisings against the government and landlords. The agitation at Harsa Chhina in 1946 was a high point in his career. Teja Singh founded his Lal (red) Party after independence, with the former Kirti group of the Punjab Communist Party serving as the nucleus. The Lal Party became an active constituent of the Punjab Riyasti Praja Mandal and campaigned for the merger of the princely states into Punjab as well as against the tenancy laws that were in place in these territories. Warrants of arrest were issued against him in 1948, but he went underground and did not return to public life until the warrants were withdrawn on January 5, 1963. Teja Singh edited Lal Jhanda, an Urdu monthly, and Lal Savera, a Punjabi weekly, and frequently contributed to other papers and journals. From 1964 to 1969, he served on the Punjab Legislative Council before being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971. On April 12, 1973, he died of a heart attack in the Central Hall of Parliament