Principal Takhat Singh
Birth
akht Singh liberated Punjabi ghazal from its traditional rigidity by connecting it with the psychological states of the contemporary individual, thereby illuminating its rich creative possibilities. In addition to writing ghazals and nazms in Punjabi, he also established his distinct identity within Urdu poetry.
Principal Takht Singh was a renowned Punjabi literary poet and an educationist. He was born on 15 September 1914 in village Chak No. 50 Isarū, Lyallpur, to S. Sundar Singh and Mata Harnam Kaur. He completed his early education up to the tenth grade at D.B. High School, Samundri. Thereafter, he obtained his B.A. degree from Government College, Lahore. He adopted teaching as his profession and also earned a B.T. degree from Government Training College, Lahore. Takht Singh devoted his entire life to the service of education. From 1945 to 1972, he served as a teacher in various schools. After the Partition of 1947, he migrated to India and retired from the post of principal at a Government Secondary School in Firozpur district.
Principal Takht Singh developed an inclination toward writing Urdu poetry as early as the sixth grade. In 1955, the martyrdom of his younger brother, Karnail Singh, in the struggle for the liberation of Goa, along with his meeting with Prof. Mohan Singh, turned him toward Punjabi poetry. Principal Takht Singh attained a distinctive and masterly position in Punjabi ghazal poetry. He liberated the Punjabi ghazal from traditional idiom and made a significant contribution to creating a modern poetic diction. His Punjabi works include Vangār, Kāvī-Halūṇe, Hambhle, Shaheed Karnail Singh, Anakh De Phull, and Mahikān Bharī Saver. In addition, he authored several poetry collections in Urdu, such as Khalish-e-Ehsaas, Shab-e-Uryān, Takht-e-Ravā, and Wajd-e-Hairat. Themes of love, separation, social realities, and existential thought emerge with great sensitivity in his poetry. Punjabi University published his previously unpublished ghazals—edited by his son Colonel Gurdeep Singh—under the title Principal Takht Singh Dian Ghazlan.
In his later years, Principal Takht Singh suffered from paralysis, and on 26 February 1999, in Jagraon, he bade farewell to this world forever.