Great Freedom Fighter from Punjab.

Seth Sudarshan

A great financier and leader of the Punjab Congress, Seth Sudarshan was born at Jhansi in 1903. After studying for a while at Allahabad at the Convent School, he came to Karnal from where he passed the Matriculation examination of the Panjab University, Lahore. Then he proceeded to Government College, Lahore, but his studies were cut short abruptly while he was a student of F.A. classes, by the untimely death of his father in 1922.Sudarshan's father who was a zealous Arya Samajist, was also a staunch nationalist. The son inherited his urge for nationalism from his father and at the early age of 16 began to take an active part in the Rowlatt Bills agitation as an ardent Congress volunteer. During the dark days of the Martial Law Administration he narrowly escaped death on three occasions.The death of his father forced young Sudarshan to seek for himself a suitable means of livelihood. The acquisition of a furniture shop in 1924 provided him with an opening and he commenced his business career as a dealer in furniture. In 1925 he managed to obtain Tata's agency for Jalandhar and thus entered the iron and steel trade, which became his main business henceforward. By 1929, through sheer hard work and force of character, he became a leading iron magnate of India and was handling one of the largest agencies of the Tatas.But his attachment to the Congress continued unabated and with his accession to affluence he started helping the Congress financially. The Lahore Session of the Congress in 1929 owed it success in a large measure to his munificence. He was a great devotee of Madan Mohan Malviya and Lala Lajpat Rai. Like most national workers of note he was arrested and kept in jail several times.In 1937 he was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly and was appointed Chief Whip of the Congress Party. During the elections of 1946 he was the chief organizer of the Congress election campaign and it was largely through his untiring efforts that the Congress won such a great success at the polls.During the Communal riots of 1947 he acted with admirable courage and expedition and visited, at great risk to his own life, places like D.I. Khan, D.G. Khan, Peshawar, Sargodha and Sheikhupura and rendered valuable and timely help to large numbers of people in distress.