THOMAS, GEORGE (1756-1802), Irish soldier of fortune, deserted the British navy in India in 1781 in which he had served as a gunner. He first joined a band of mountain robbers in south India and then took up service in the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad as a gunner, but soon afterwards came to Delhi where he secured employment under Begam Samru, who had married a European adventurer and succeeded to his jagir at Sardhana, in Uttar Pradesh. Serving under her for six years, Thomas left her to join the Maratha army under Appa Khande Rao, He raised troops for the Marathas and instructed them in the European system of drill.
AHMAD SHAH DURRANI (1722-1772), the first of the Saddozai rulers of Afghanistan and founder of the Durrani empire, belonged to the Saddozai section of the Popalzai clan of the Abdali tribe of Afghans. In the 18th century the Abdalis were to be found chiefly around Herat. Under their leader Zaman Khan, father of Ahmad Khan. they resisted Persian attempts to take Herat until, in 1728, they were forced to submit to Nadir Shah. Recognizing the fighting qualities of the Abdalis, Nadir Shah enlisted them in his army.
BAHADUR SHAH (1643-1712), Mughal emperor of India from 1707 to 1712. Born Muhammad Mu\'azzam at Burhanpur in the Deccan on 14 October 1643, he was actively employed by his father, Aurangzib, from 1663 onwards for subduing the kingdom of Bijapur and the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in the south. In 1695 he was appointed subahdar of Agra and in 1699 governor of Kabul. Mu\'azzam was at Kabul when news arrived of the death, on 20 February 1707, of Aurangzib.
FATEH KHAN (d. 1818), son of Painda Khan, the Barakzai chief, who overthrew Shah Zaman, the king of Afghanistan (1793-1800), and placed his half-brother Shah Mahmud on the throne of Afghanistan, himself becoming prime minister. Shah Mahmud was dethroned in 1803 and was succeeded by Shah Shuja`. Fateh Khan expelled Shah Shuja` in 1809 and restored Shah Mahmud to sovereignty. Shah Shuja` fell into the hands of`Ata Muhammad Khan. the governor of Kashmir. As Kashmir was the richest province of the kingdom of Afghanistan, Fateh Khan turned his attention towards `Ata Muhammad Khan.
JAHANGIR, NUR LJDDIN MUHAMMAD (1569-1627), fourth Mughal emperor of Delhi. Born SalTm, he assumed at his accession the title of Jahangir, Conqueror of the World. During his father`s Dcc^an campaign of 1598-99, he had planned a rebellion, but in 1604 the father and son were reconciled, and the latter was made viceroy of southern and western India and allowed to live in Agra as heir apparent. Jahangir, crowned king on 24 October 1605, was possessed of many natural abilities and was a lover of art and literature, but he turned out to be a capricious ruler who gradually allowed his Persian wife, NurJahan, to take the reins of government into her hands. Jahangir was not liberal like his father, Akbar.
MIRZA BEG, a Mughal official who, in 1696. accompanied Prince Mu`azzam (later Emperor Bahadur Shah of Delhi), sent by Emperor Aurangzib to settle affairs in the Punjab. The Prince stationed himself in Lahore and sent Mirza Beg towards the Sivalik hills. Mirza Beg brought the hill rajas to submission. He, however, became an admirer of Guru Gobind Singh whom he came to know through Bhai Nand Lal, who was a devoted Sikh and who had come to the Punjab as a member of Prince Mu`azzam`s entourage. According to Bachitra Ndtak, Mirza Beg punished those who had deserted the Guru, whereas those who continued to stay with the Guru escaped harm.
RULIA SINGH, a Ghadr leader, was the son of Bhai Jagat Singh of the village of Sarabha in Ludhiana district. Because of his meagre means, he left home to seek employment outside the country.This he ultimately found in Astoria, Oregon, in the United States, where many Punjab is were working on farms. Kartar Singh Sarabha, then a student at the University of California, Berkeley, used to come to that area during the holidays.
SUNDAR SHAH (d. 1640), a Muslim saint of Devnagar, probably the present day Deogaori in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, is remembered in Sikh tradition for his admiration for Bhai Bidhi Chand, a prominent Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind. Bhai Bidhi Chand was preaching in the eastern parts when Sundar Shah had the chance of meeting him. They became attached to each other and, before Bhai Bidhi Chand left, Sundar Shah made him promise that he would return and spend his last days with him.
AMAR SINGH (1888-1948), of the Sheri Punjab, journalist, scholar and a prominent figure in Sikh politics, was born on 27 May 1888 at Pindi Gheb in Attock district of the Punjab, now in Pakistan. His grandfather, Gauhar Singh, had held a civil appointment under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He spent his childhood and received education in Urdu and Persian in Jammu and Kashmir where his father, Gulab Singh, was an employee of the ruler, Maharaja Pratap Singh. After his father`s death, the family settled in Rawalpindi where Amar Singh ran a shop for some time before he adopted journalism as his profession.
ATAR SINGH, one of the twenty-two Kuka subas, i.e. governors or deputies, appointed in different parts to espouse Kuka or Namdhari patriotism and reform during the latter part of the nineteenth century, belonged to Ludhiana district. He was born in 1832 the son of Buddh Singh. He sold all his property and, accompanied by his two daughters, took to the preaching of Kuka tenets. In March 1875, he was arrested for having participated in a banned assembly of Kukas and for having used seditious language against the British government.
