Baba Kharak Singh was born at Sialkot in 1868 and was among the first Sikhs to take a university degree. Sundar Singh Majithia was elected the first president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in December 1920 and resigned within months, and Kharak Singh was elected in his place, which is the office he is usually remembered in. He also led the Central Sikh League.
He led the Chabhian da Morcha, the keys agitation of 1921 to 1922, and the keys of the Golden Temple toshakhana were returned to him in open assembly, which Gandhi called the first decisive battle for India's freedom won.
He was jailed repeatedly and refused to wear anything but a black turban while imprisoned in protest at the treatment of Sikh prisoners, which became a standing gesture.
He fell out with the Congress and with successive Akali leaderships and spent his later decades outside the leadership of both.
He died in 1963 at ninety-five. A road in Delhi carries his name and very little else does.
The black turban was worn in mourning over the treatment of Sikh prisoners and he kept it for the rest of his life. It became a mark of the Akali movement's early years.
He was president of the SGPC and of the Shiromani Akali Dal in the 1920s and was the movement's principal figure before the leadership passed on.
He opposed the Congress on Sikh political representation and was pushed to the margins for it. His last decades were spent with almost no organisation behind him.