Sir Chhotu Ram
Jat leader from Rohtak and co-founder of the Unionist Party, whose debt and land laws freed the peasants of the Punjab from the moneylender.
Chhotu Ram was born in 1881 in Garhi Sampla in the Rohtak district, the son of a small Jat farmer, and became a lawyer and journalist. In 1923 he helped Fazl-i-Husain found the Unionist Party and became its leader among the Hindu peasants of the south-east Punjab.
As minister for revenue and development he passed the laws the farmers called kale kanoon by the moneylenders and sunehre kanoon, the golden laws, by everyone else: laws that cancelled crushing debts, returned mortgaged land and stopped the sale of a farmer's land for debt. He also championed the Bhakra dam.
He died in Lahore in January 1945. He is still remembered as Deenbandhu, friend of the poor, across Haryana and both Punjabs.
Connected
Lahore lawyer who founded the Unionist Party in 1923, uniting Muslim, Hindu and Sikh farmers of the Punjab against the moneylender and the communal parties.
Premier of the Punjab from 1937 to 1942, who led a Unionist government of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.