BHANGA SINGH (d. 1815), a prominent sardar of the Karorsinghia chief ship, seized in January 1764, after the fall of Sirhind, the parganah of Pehova along the bed of the River Sarasvati, 22 km west of Thanesar. Later he captured Thanesar leaving Pehova in the possession of his brother, Bhag Singh. Bhanga Singh and Bhag Singh commanded a force of 750 horse and 250 foot. In 1779, Bhanga Singh aligned himself with the Mughal chief, Abdul Ahd Khan, to recover his territory from Raja Amar Singh of Patiala. In January 1786, Bhanga Singh along with other Sikh chiefs entered the Ganga Doab at the head of 5,000 horse and ravaged Meerut, Hapur and Garh Mukteshvar. In April 1789, Mahadji Scindia, regent of the Mughal empire, confirmed Bhanga Singh`s right to rakhi or cess levied for protection in some of the areas under his influence.
BUDDH SINGH BAVA, an associate of Thakur Singh Sandhanvalia, who served as a link between him and his contacts in Punchh and Kashmir. He was the son of Faujdar Singh, a Khatri of Batala, in Gurdaspur district. He was first employed as a Sardar in Kashmir irregular force and served in that capacity for seventeen years. In 1880, he took service with Raja Moti Singh of Punchh and stayed with him for two years. Leaving his family at Kothi in Jammu, Buddh Singh then moved to Nepal where he was employed as a captain in Kali Bahadur regiment.
DALIP SINGH, Babar revolutionary, belonged to the village of Gosal, in Jalandhar district. His father`s name was Ishar Singh. Dalip Singh passed his matriculation examination and became a teacher in a primary school in Jalandhar. During his spare time, he toured the surrounding villages making patriotic speeches. He was drawn into the Akali agitation for Gurdwara reform, but he was too radical by temperament for its nonviolent strategy. He joined the secret Chakravarti group of Karam Singh, of Daulatpur, and soon began to be counted among the leader`s close associates. In March 1922. warrants for his arrest were issued for delivering speeches recommending to the people the creed of "reforming," i.e. liquidating the jholichuks or loyalists of the British.
DHARAM SINGH, a Jatt Sikh of the village of Chitti, 15 km southwest of Jalandhar in the Punjab, was one of the associates of Bhai Maharaj Singh (d. 1856), leader of anti British revolt in the Punjab during 1848-49. Dharam Singh assisted Bhai Maharaj Singh by mobilizing help for him in the Doaba region during the latter half of 1849. He especially introduced two artillerymen of Kapurthala to Bhai Maharaj Singh, in Hoshiarpur area. He was arrested along with Maharaj Singh on the night of 28-29 December 1849, but managed to escape. However, he was rearrested at Wazirabad in Gujranwala district and was held in custody in Lahore jail.
FATEH SINGH, SANT (1911-1972), who enjoyed wide religious esteem among the Sikhs (sant, lit. a holy man) and who during the latter part of his career became a dominant political figure, was born, on 27 October 1911, the son of Bhai Channan Singh, a resident of Badiala in present day Bathinda district of the Punjab. He had no formal schooling and started learning to read Punjabi only at the age of 15. In view of his interest in religious texts, his father apprenticed him to a well known scholar, Sant Ishar Singh, of Sekha, a village near Barnala. In company with Sant Channan Singh, another holy man, he migrated to Ganganagar district of the then princely state of Bikaner in Rajasthan, where a large number of Sikh peasants had settled down in the newly established canal colony.
GULAB SINGH PAHUVINDIA (d. 1854), a general in the Sikh army, was the son of Karam Singh, who along with his three brothers had taken possession of the country between the rivers Satluj and Beas in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Karam Sirigli`s brothers dying heirless, the estate passed on to his only son Gulab Singh. When in 1806 Maharaja Ranjit Singh took possession of the Doab, Gulab Singh entered his service as an adjutant, soon becoming commandant. After the capture of Multan in 1818, he was promoted colonel and in this rank he took part in various actions that took place against the Afghans in the Peshawar valley.
GURMUKH SINGH LAMMA, a commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh `s army, born in 1772, was of humble origin, his father, Pardhan Singh, being a money-changer in the small town of Khiva, situated on the right bank of the River Jehlum. Lamma in Punjabi means tall, but the cognomen Lamma was not conferred on Gurmukh Singh on account of his height, for he was of middle stature, but from his taking command of the contingent of Mohar Singh Lamma who was exceptionally tall.
ISHAR SINGH MAJHAIL (1901-1977), politician and legislator, was born in January 1901, the son of Bhai Asa Singh and Mat Basant Kaur, an agriculturist couple of Sarai Amanat Khan village, in Amritsar district. He was only about two and a half years old when his father went abroad to Indonesia in search of a better living. He died in Indonesia soon after and Ishar Singh was brought up by his widowed mother, a deeply dedicated and religious minded woman. He completed his high school by fits and starts owing to narrow financial circumstances. He graduated from school in 1922 from Malva Khalsa High School, Ludhiana.
JAVALA SINGH PADHANIA alias LAKHDATA (d. 1835), a SandhuJatt of the village of Padhana, in Lahore district, was a military commander in Sikh times. His father, Mit Singh (d. 1814), had joined service under Mahari Singh Sukkarchakkia and continued to serve under his son Maharaja Ranjit Singh, taking part in several of his military campaigns. Sohan Lal Sun, the official Lahore diarisi, lists Javala Singh, among the principal sarddrs of the Maharaja. Javala Sihgh following in his father`s footsteps, took part in the Maharaja`s Malva campaign of 1807 and in expeditions of Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819) and Mankcra (1821). He was put in charge of the fortress of Attock which he, with a handful of troops, successfully guarded against Afghan onslaughts.
JODH SINGH WAZLRABADIA (d. 1809), son of Gurbakhsh Singh, was a powerful eighteenth century Sikh chief. He possessed the parganahs;of Wazirabad, Karial, Mitranvali and Talvandi Musa Khan, comprising about 500 villages. Jodh Singh and Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s father, Mahari Singh, were great friends, and both often joined hands together to fight against Sahib Singh Bharigi of Gujrat. At the siege of Sodhra in 1792, Jodh Singh is said to have betrayed Mahari Singh. Sahib Singh, who was besieged in the fort, was short of powder, and his surrender was certain. But Jodh Singh, who feared that Mahari Singh would become too powerful were Sahib Singh to give in, supplied the latter with ammunition.
