DARGAH MALL, DIWAN (d. 1695), son of Dvarka Das Chhibbar, was, according to Shahid Bilas Bhai Mani Singh, and Guru kian Sakhian, a diwan or minister in the time of Guru Hargobind and his successors and managed, as such, their households. He was the great grand father of Kesar Singh Chhibbar, the author of Bansavalinama. He was in attendance upon Guru Har Rai when summons arrived from Aurangzib asking the Guru to meet him in Delhi. The Guru sent instead his son, Ram Rai, to call on the emperor. Diwan Dargah Mall was deputed to escort him to the imperial capital.
DIVAN SINGH MAFTOON (1890-1974) was in his day the most talked about editor in Urdu journalism. Born in the Punjab he migrated to Delhi in the early twenties. His sole asset was a smattering of Urdu. Gradually, he grew in his command of the language and became known for his mastery of Urdu prose acclaimed for its lucidity and exactness. Through his felicity in Urdu prose, he naturalized himself in the milieu of Ghalib`s Delhi. He achieved to a considerable degree its style and refinement. In his conversation, in his dress and in his tastes, he became a sovereign Delhiite. He had a natural genius in personal relationships.
GANGA RAM was one of the five sons of Bhai Sadhu and Bibi Viro, the daughter of Guru Hargobind, who formed part of Guru Gobind Singh`s retinue at Paonta, in present day Himachal Pradesh, when he was attacked by a combined force of some of the hill chiefs headed by Raja Fateh Shah of Garhval. Ganga Ram, along with his brothers, fought in the battle that took place at Bhangani, not far from Paonta, on 18 September 1688. He survived the action in which two of the brothers, Sangram Shah and Jit Mall, were killed.
GURBAKHSH SINGH KALSIA (d. 1785), a leading figure in the Karor Singhia misi of the Sikhs, was a Sandhu Jatt, belonging to the village of Kalsia in Lahore district. He received Sikh initiatory rites at the hands of the revered Bhai Mani Singh at Amritsar in the time of Nawab Zakariya Khan of Lahore. As a mark of mutual friendliness, he exchanged turbans with Karora Singh, the Karor Singhia misi chief, and participated in several expeditions of the Dal Khalsa At the time of the conquest of Sirhind in January 1764, he seized the parganah of Chhachhrauli, now in Jagadhari tahsll of Haryana, comprising 114 villages, and founded an independent principality called Kalsia after the name of his native village.
HARKISHAN SINGH, BAWA (1892-1978), educationist, lover of poetry and intellectual, was born at Dera Isma`il Khan on 26 July 1892, the son of Bawa Dasaundha Singh. After taking his Master`s degree in English literature from Forman Christian College, Lahore, in 1912, he joined the Khalsa College at Amritsar, as a lecturer in English. Later, he had a long spell at Khalsa College, Gujrariwala, where he remained Principal for many a long year. Bawa Harkishan Singh was among the pioneers of the Sikhs` Gurdwara Reform movement of the 1920`s. He attended the divan of the Khalsa Baradan in Jalliarivala Bagh, Amritsar, on 12 October 1920, and accompanied the group to the Harimandar and the Akal Takht, which event ushered in the movement for Panthic control of the Sikhs` sacred shrines.
JAIMAL SINGH RANDHAVA (1803-1870), son of Prcm Singh of the village of Khunda in Gurdaspur district, served the Lahore Darbar and thereafter the British. Jaimal Singh entered the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1836. He received a command in the RamgarhTa brigade from Lahina Singh Majithia in place of his father in law Fateh Singh Chahal who had died. Jaimal Singh proceeded to Peshawar in the company of Lahina Singh to relieve the Sikh army after the battle of Jamrud in April 1837.
JAWAHAR SINGH, a native of Sarhali in Amritsar district of the Punjab, joined Bhai Maharaj Singh (d. 1856) at Dev Baiala soon after the second AngloSikh war. He was left behind at their camp at Chumbi in the interior of Jammu region, when Maharaj Singh with the main body of his troops shifted to Sujoval, in Gurdaspur district. He soon rejoined them at Zahura, in Hoshiarpur district. He was among the twenty trusted men detailed to rescue Maharaja Dulcep Singh from British custody. He rejoined Bhai Maharaj Singh at Sham Chaurasi at the beginning of December 1849 and was among those arrested with him on the night of 28-29 December 1849.
KAHN SINGH (d. 1876), son of Dula Singh, belonged to the village of KaIasvala, in Sialkot district. He began his career in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army under General Avkabile and was present in the Khaibar Pass actions and throughout the Yusafzai campaign. He served in the Sher Dil Paltan in the first AngloSikh war. After the annexation of the Punjab, he joined the 30th Punjab infantry. He rose to the rank of SubahdarMajor and rendered service in the Bhutan campaign of 1864-65 shortly after which he retired. He died in 1876.
KARAM SINGH NIRMALA, nephew of Himmat Singh of the Nishanarivali chicfship, who had captured Shahabad Markanda and Isma`ilabad in January 1764 after the sack of Sirhind. On Himmat Singh`s death without issue in 1771, Karam Singh succeeded him in the leadership of the Nishanarivali misl. Karam Singh commanded a force of 750 horse and 250 foot. In 1779, he joined `Abd ul Ahd, minister of Delhi,in his expedition against Patiala. In January 1786, Karam Singh and others plundered the Gariga Doab.
KHERA BHAI, a Soim Khatri, has been listed in Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 13, among the Sikhs of the time of Guru Nanak (1469-1539). See PRITHA, BHAI