The Khalsa High School at Kallar had several teachers who became eminent later, like Giani Gurmukh Sikh Musafir, Master Sujan Singh Sarhali, Lal Singh Kamla Akali, and Hira Singh Dard, all inspired by the ideal of service, like Master Tara Singh. Hira Singh says that sometimes they would go out for picnic and Master Tara Singh would generally cook meat on such occasions. He deliberately avoided picnics as he had stopped eating meat.
Tara Singh knew that Hira Singh used to eat meat whenever he visited him at Lyallpur. Pressed by him, Hira Singh had to tell him that Bhai Randhir Singh had administered pahul to Hira Singh in 1914 and, in the name of the panj-piras, ordered him not to eat meat.
Master Tara Singh went to the gurdwara with all the teachers, opened Guru Granth Sahib for recitation, and after the ardas he said: ‘Listen Giani Hira Singh, we the panj-piaras, the veritable form of the Guru, order you in the presence of the Guru to eat meat because a Sikh who does not eat jhatka meat is not a true Sikh.’Hira Singh Dard saw the logic of the situation and agreed to eat meat.
Hira Singh Dard, Merian Kujh Itihasik Yadan, published 1960, p.63-70, quoted in Master Tara Singh in Indian History by JS Grewal, p.75-76
Image 1: Master Tara Singh as a Panj Piara, c.1950 (below)
Image 2: Master Tara Singh sitting reading from the Guru Granth Sahib, London, c.1950 (below)
Image 3: Master Tara Singh (fourth from the right in the row of chairs), Headmaster, Khalsa High School, Kallar, in 1917, with Sant Teja Singh on the right.
Image 4: Hira Singh Dard in his office, c.1920
Image 5-6: 1960 edition of Hira Singh Dard’s Merian Kujh Itihasik Yadan, pages 3 and 64
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