BALVANT SINGH CANADIAN (1882-1917), a prominent figure in the Ghadr movement, was born on 14 September 1882 at Khurdpur, a village in Jalandhar district of the Punjab. His father, Budh Singh, lived in easy circumstances. For his education, Balvant Singh was sent to the middle school at Adampur. But he left off midway after an early marriage. As he grew up, he joined the army as a soldier. While serving at Mardan, he, under the influence of Sant Karam Singh, became a devout Sikh. He was promoted a lance naik, but he resigned from the army in 1905. In April 1906, he migrated to Canada.
BHALENDRA SINGH, RAJA (1919-1992). distinguished cricketer and India`s long estlasting sports executive, was born on 19 August 1919, the son of Lieutenant General Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh, the glamorous princely ruler of the state of Patiala in Southern Punjab. Brought up in the lap of luxury, Bhalendra Singh shot up into a tall, handsome and lissom young man, with remarkable prowess in several branches of athletics. When his elder brother Yadavinder Singh, the heir apparent of Patiala state, was getting ready to don colours for India against Lord Tennyson`s team (1937-38), Bhalendra Singh was playing cricket for Southern Punjab, a formidable outfit, which claimed among its members famous cricketers of the day, such as Nissar, Amir Alahi and L. Amar Nath who later rose to be India`s Test captain.
BUDDH SINGH (d. 1816), son of Khushhal Singh, nephew of the leader of the Dal Khalsa, Nawab Kapur Singh, succeeded his father as head of the Singhpuria misl. He inherited territories in the Bart Doab, the Jalandhar Doab and in the province of Sirhind. He built a fort at Jalandhar and reconstructed at a cost of a lakh of rupees the holy shrine and tank of Tarn Taran demolished by Nur udDin, the local Mughal chief.
DAL SINGH (d. 1845), son of Santokh Singh, a follower of Kanhaiya misi under Jai Singh, and of village Talvandi in Gurdaspur district, fought in most of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s campaigns. He inherited Talvandi and some neighbouring villages. Dal Singh was killed in the first AngloSikh war in 1845 and his estates were resumed by the British.
DHARAM SINGH, a cousin of the celebrated Tara Singh Ghaiba of the Dallevalia Misi, participated in the campaigns of the Khalsa, fighting against Mughals and Afghans in the second half of the eighteenth century. He figured in the conquest of Sirhind and partition of the territory by Sikhs in January 1764 when he occupied a cluster of villages and founded amid them his own Dharamsinghvala.
FATEH SINGH MAN (d. 1845). son of Sham Singh Man, soldier, diplomat and commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. He entered the service of the Maharaja as a trooper, and took part in several campaigns, including those of Multan (1818) and Kashmir (1819). He rose to be a kumeddn. In 1811, he had a jagir worth one lakh of rupees and maintained a contingent of 300 horsemen. He served mostly in the northwest frontier region, across the Indus. After Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s death, he became an active partisan of Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh and Wazir Dhian Singh.
GULAB SINGH (d. 1759), founder of the Dallevalia clan, was born the son of Shardha Ram at the village of Dalleval, near Dera Baba Nanak on the left bank of the River Ravi, 50 km northeast of Amritsar. In his younger days, he ran a grocery shop in his village and was known as Gulaba Khatri. Having heard tales of heroism of the Sikhs, he came to Amritsar, waited upon Nawab Kapur Singh, and volunteered to become a Sikh. He was advised to grow long hair, practise horsemanship, archery and the use of sword and to come again after an year.
GURMUKH SINGH GIANI, BHAI (d. 1843), a man of letters and an influential courtier in Sikh times, was the son of the celebrated scholar, Bhai Sant Singh, who had been the custodian of Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. Gurmukh Singh was trained in Sikh religious lore at Amritsar under the care of his father. When the father, saddened by the death of his younger brother, Gurdas Singh, quit his office and retired to Amritsar to devote him self to reading and expounding the Scripture, Gurmukh Singh succeeded to his position at the court. He took over his father`s work at Sri Darbar Sahib after the latter`s death in 1832.
HUKMA SINGH CHIMNI, commander cumcivil administrator under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was son of Ram Singh, of Bhera, who was the First one in the family to take the vows of Guru Gobind Singh`s amrita, and who entered the service of the Sukkarchakkia misi under Charhat Singh as a trooper. After the death of his father, Hukma Singh was admitted into Ranjit Singh`s army and took part in the Kasur expedition of 1807. He soon won the favour of the Maharaja by his valour particularly in the reduction of the Kanhaiya citadel of Pathankot in 1808, and in the seizure of Sialkot the same year from Sardar Jivan Singh.
JAVALA SINGH, son of Desa Singh of Raja Sarisi, in Amritsar district, accompanied Thakur Singh Sandharivalia to England in 1884 to call on the deposed sovereign of the Punjab, Dulccp Singh, and stayed there for nine months as the Maharaja`s guest. In February 1887,Javala Singh joined Thakur Singh in Pondicherry, a French colony near Madras, where the latter had set up an emigre government on behalf of the Maharaja. The same year, Thakur Singh died and Javala Singh was charged with bringing his ashes to his ancestral village, Raja Sarisi. In the Punjab, he remained under police surveillance for some time and was once arrested for interrogation.
