MAGH SINGH, BHAI

MAGH SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), one of the martyrs of Jaito morcha, was the son of Bhai Sham Singh and Mai Dharmon, farmers of the village of Lande in Moga tahsil (sub-division) of the present Moga district. In his early youth Magh Singh had enlisted in the army and had served in the Peshawar sector of the North-West Frontier Province for a few years. He had been admitted to the rites of the Khalsa initiation during his army service, and had also learnt to read and write Punjabi before he left the army to resume his ancestral occupation, agriculture.

He was about forty years old when the Jaito morcha (agitation) was launched by the Akalis with the twin objects of the restoration of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, who had earlier been forced to abdicate by the British, and to protest against the violation of the sanctity of Gurdwara Gangsar at Jaito by the state police. When the first shahidi jatha, martyrs\’ column, on its way from Sri Akal Takht Amritsar to Jaito camped at Rode, Bhai Magh Singh joined it, and fell to a shot by police on 21 February 1924.

References :

1. Josh, Sohan Singh, Akali Morchian da Itihas. Delhi, 1972
2. Pratap Singh, Giani, Gurdwara Sudhar arthat Akali Lahir. Amritsar, 1975