GURBAKHSH SINGH KALSIA

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.

He captured Bambeli parganah in Hoshiarpur district and collected immense wealth from different places in Haryana and Rajasthan. Some of his villages had been seized by Raja Amar Singh of Patiala which he later recovered. Along with several other Sikh chiefs, he attempted to form an alliance with the English against Mahadji Scindia in 1785. Gurbakhsh Singh died in 1785.

References :

1. Griffin, Lepel, and C.F. Massy, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab. Lahore, 1909
2. Seetal, Sohan Singh, The Sikh Misals and the Punjab. Ludhiana, n.d.