Achhar Singh Chinna, was born in October, 1899 at village Chhina. Tehsil Ajnala, District Amritsar into a Punjabi Jat family. He passed Matriculation ee in 1917 from Khalsa College, Amritsar.
In 1921 he went to the United States of America along with Partap Singh Kairon. In 1922 he joined the California University at Berkeley and studied there for about a year. The same year he joined the Ghadar Party in San Francisco and got his first lesson in national politics. A year later he joined the Ford Factory Training School in Detroit.
In 1932 he left America and went to the Soviet Union for the study of socialism and joined a college in Moscow. From there he returned to India after four years in 1936. But on his return he was not allowed to live in peace. The same year he was arrested at Lahore and was detained in Lahore Fort for two months. In 1937 he was interned in his village for the whole year. In March, 1938 a Congress meeting was attacked by anti-Congress men at Fatehwal village in District Amritsar. Being involved in the case he had to go underground to escape the clutches of the police.
During his underground stay in Calcutta, he was introduced to Subash Chandra Bose by Niranjan Singh Talib, a well-known freedom-fighter. Bose expressed. his desire to go to the Soviet Union. For this purpose Achhar Singh visited the Frontier Province to make arrangement for his escape to Russia. There he met Bhagat Ram Talwar who helped him to make arrangements for the stay of Subash Chandra Bose in Peshawar and from there for his escape to Kabul. After making necessary arrangements he returned to Calcutta to bring Bose to Peshawar, but Bose was arrested for taking part in Black Hole Calcutta movement in 1940 and consequently could not avail himself of the opportunity.
But Achhar Singh himself utilized the opportunity and went to the Soviet Union in 1940 by crossing the HinduKush mountains on foote- In 1941 when the Soviet Union was attacked by German forces, he dicided to return and set out on his homeward journey across the Himalayas in the same manner. While crossing the Hindu-Kush he was arrested at Gilgit and was brought back to Lahore where he was locked up in Lahore Fort Cell. After staying for 4 months in Lahore Fort, he was transferred to the Campbellpore Jail from where he was released on Ist May, 1942.
In 1942 he was elected President of the Punjab Kisan Sabha and held this position for seven years. It was in that capacity that he organised the Harsa Chhina Moga Morcha in 1947, as a result of which he was detained in Lahore jail for three months.
In 1948 he went underground but was arrested in 1950 and detained in Ambala jail. While he was in Jail, he was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1952. In 1957 he was again elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly and remained its member till 1962.
References :-
- Eminent Freedom Fighters Of Punjab by Fauja Singh Publication date 1972