CHATAR SINGH ATARlVALA (d. 1855), commander and provincial governor under minor Maharaja Duleep Singh, was the son of Jodh Singh Atarivala. Jodh Singh had joined the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1805 when he received large jagirs in the Pothohar country. On the death of his father in that year, Chatar Singh succeeded to the jagrrs, then amounting to over a lakh of rupees annually. He devoted most of his time to farming and kept generally aloof from state affairs during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. When after the assassination of his son, Maharaja Sher Singh, in September 1843, his daughter, Tej Kaur, was betrothed to Maharaja Duleep Singh, he came into prominence politically.
DEVINDER SINGH, RAJA (1822-1865), was born on 5 September 1822, the son of Raja Jasvant Singh of Nabha. He ascended the throne of Nabha on 5 October 1840 at the age of eighteen. During the first AngloSikh war of 184546, Devinder Singh whose sympathy was with the Lahore Darbar did not help the British for which reason nearly a quarter of his possessions were confiscated and he was removed from his state and sent to Mathura. He was granted an annual pension of Rs 50,000, and in his place his minor son, Bharpur Singh, was installed on the gaddi. In December 1855, Raja Devinder Singh was shifted to Maharaja Kharak Singh`s mansion in Lahore where he died ten years later, in November 1865.
FATEH SINGH (d. 1716), an army commander under Banda Singh Bahadur, who was appointed administrator of Samana after the town was occupied by the Sikhs in 1709. Fateh Singh participated in several of Banda Singh`s battles against the Mughal rulers. In the battle of Sirhind fought at the nearby village of Chappar Chiri, Fateh Singh killed Nawab Wazir Khan, the faujdar of Sirhind. He was taken prisoner at Lohgarh in December 1710 and, after several years in jail, was executed in Delhi in June 1716 along with Banda Singh and his other companions.
GUJJAR SINGH (1879-1975), prominent Ghadr leader, was born in 1879, the son of Sham Singh of Bhakna Kalan, in Amritsar district. He served in the 4th Cavalry for six years. In 1909, he migrated to Shanghai (China) and got himself enlisted in the police. In 1913, the Ghadr party`s weekly, the Ghadr, came to Shanghai through the granthi of the local Gurdwara, who handed over the packet to the police. Somehow a copy came into Gujjar Singh`s hands. He read it avidly and he read it repeatedly to his friends.
GURDIT SINGH SANDHANVALJA, the youngest of the four sons of Thakur Singh Sandharivalia, who led the campaign for the restoration of Maharaja Duleep Singh to the throne of the Punjab and who was prime minister of the Maharaja`s emigre government set up in Pondicherry, was barely in his teens when he crossed over to the French territory with his father. Of the three brothers of Gurdit Singh, Gurbachan Singh had been adopted by his uncle Partap Singh, Bakhshish Singh had been adopted by a collateral Shamsher Singh, and Narendra Singh (married to the daughter of Rao Umrao Singh of Kutesar) lived with his father in law at Meerut and was adopted by Karivar Dharam Singh of Dadri.
HIRA SINGH, MAHARAJA SIR (1843-1911), born on 19 December 1843, the son of Sukkha Singh of Badrukkhari, ascended the throne of Nabha state on 10 August 1877 after Raja Bhagvan Singh who had died issueless and without adopting an heir. Hira Singh ruled for forty years and did much for the welfare of the people of the state and of the Sikhs in general. He despatched contingents of troops to fight in most of the major frontier campaigns and was duly rewarded by the British with many honours, including the titles of RajaiRajgan and Maharaja.
JASSA SINGH RAMGARHIA (1723-1803), founder of the Ramgarhia chief ship and one of the prominent military leaders of the Sikhs in the second half of the eighteenth century, was born in 1723 at Tchogill, a village 20 km cast of Lahore. His grandfather, Hardas Singh (d. 1716) had received pdhul, the vows of the Khalsa, at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and had fought in the campaigns of Banda Singh Bahadur. His father, Bhagvan Singh was killed in a fight against Nadir Shah during his invasion of India in 1739. Young Jassa Singh then joined the jathd of Nand Singh Sarighania and learnt the art of warfare at an early age.
JIVAN SINGH, COLONEL (d. 1851). eldest of the six sons of Dula Singh of Kalasvala in Siakot district, joined the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was placed under Prince Kharak Singh. He first saw active service in Kashmir where he was wounded. For the bravery he displayed in the Tonk campaign, he was appointed to the adjutancy of the Sher Dil Paltan. He again went on active service in 1841 in Kashmir where he lost his younger brother, Kishan Singh. For his services in the campaign, he was promoted to the command of the regiment.
KALA SINGH, a Mazhabi Sikh, was of pilchblack colour as his name (kdid = dark) indicated. He was converted to Sikhism by Jhanda Singh (d. 1774), a Bharigi chieftain. A bold and desperate man, Kala Singh joined the band of Gujjar Singh Bharigi (d. 1788) who appointed him the neddr or administrator at Hasan Abdal, midway between Rawalpindi and Attock, where tlie famous Sikh shrine of Parija Sahib is located. Kala Singh settled down amidst the fanatic and warlike Muslim chiefs of Gandgarh and its neighbourhood. He set up his headquarters at Sarai Kali which was at that time the Sikhs` last frontier outpost on the northwest. Kala Singh firmly established his authority in the area.
KAURA SINGH, a prominent associate of Bhai Maharaj Singh (d. 1856), was an influential resident of Sujoval, near Batala, in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. At Sujoval Maharaj Singh and his revolutionary group had established their headquarters after the second AngloSikh war. Kaura Sirigli put them up in his house where he also stored up the gram and other grain they had colleled for use during the proposed operations against the British. Kaura Singh also worked among the people of his area to prepare them for the uprising.
