Surety, mortgage, and declined reimbursement (family account)

From the family’s account — attributed testimony, not independently documented fact

According to family testimony, after the Akali published on the Nankana massacre in 1921 and the authorities imposed a ₹40,000 fine, he personally stood surety, prepared to auction his own agricultural land; and in about 1924–25, with the SGPC needing ₹1.5 lakh to pursue an appeal to the Privy Council and only half raised from the community, he mortgaged two murabas — roughly 50 acres — of his own land to supply the remaining ₹75,000. After his death, when the case was won, the family declined the SGPC’s offer of reimbursement. None of this has been independently corroborated; it is presented as family testimony, not as documented fact.

This is the exact wording approved for public display. It is never strengthened beyond what the tier — Family testimony — oral or privately transmitted account — permits.

Evidence

Tier

D Family account Family oral history, undocumented. Never published as fact; only as explicitly labelled family account.

Sources

“Teja Singh Samundri, the moral force behind gurdwara reform” — The Tribune, Taranjit Singh Sandhu; “Sardar Teja Singh Samundri: A Century On”, K. B. S. Sidhu

Attribution

Family testimony, as published in 2026 centenary accounts

Register

Family account — attributed testimony, kept separate from the documented record

What would change it

A land mortgage generates a registered deed; a Privy Council appeal generates a case file. Both are potentially locatable; if found, this moves from family account to documented fact.

Research-dependent

Final confidence may change once the 2026 English biography is read — OQ-0

Open question

OQ-8

Reviewed

10 September 2026 · Master Research Dossier Part II §19; Contested Points Register #10

Connections

Chronology

1921 — ₹40,000 surety after the Akali’s Nankana coverage (family account)
c. 1924–25 — Mortgages roughly 50 acres for ₹75,000 toward the SGPC’s Privy Council appeal (family account)

Open questions

OQ-8 — Can the family’s account of his financial sacrifice be documented?

Referenced by

The declined sum and a students’ corpus (family account) DFamily account

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