# Niranjan Singh Talib



## Neutral Singh (Jul 19, 2004)

Niranjan Singh Talib, a veteran Congress leader and a true devotee of Gandhism, was born in 1901 at Nabha. His father’s name was Sardar Rattan Singh. He passed the Matriculation examination from State High School, Nabha and for higher education joined the Khalsa College, Amritsar. While he was a student of the 3rd year class at college, he left his studies at the call of Bapuji in 1921 during the non-cooperation movement.

He worked as Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Nabha who was dethroned and banished from the State and interned at Kadaikanal for his anti-British activities. Niranjan Singh remained with him for three years. Since he was not allowed to re-enter his native State, he had to settle down at Calcutta where he started in 1930 a Punjabi daily paper called Desh Darpan which continued until the end of the 2nd World War. During this period he was convicted many times for seditious writing and once for keeping unlicensed arms. Total imprisonment in all these cases was four and a half years. The places of his confinement were Alipur Central jail (Calcutta), Lahore Fort, Montgomery Central jail, Rawalpindi Central jail, Jhang jail, Lahore Central jail and Gujrat Special jail.

At Calcutta Niranjan Singh came in contact with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. At the time of Netaji’s disappearance from Calcutta, he was arrested and brought to Lahore Fort for interrogation and trial and was kept there in solitary confinement for seven months. After that he was detained as a security prisoner for five years on the charge of aiding and abetting in the case of Netaji’s disappearance from India.

In all, Mr. Talib underwent an aggregate imprisonment of over nine years in different times. He remained in exile from his native State for 23 years, i.e., from 1923 to 1946.


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