NIHAL SINGH, BAVA

NIHAL SINGH, BAVA, resident of Sri Hargobindpur in Gurdaspur district, was originally an employee of the princely state of Kalsia serving in the police department. Later, he went over to Maharaja Bikram Singh of Faridkot. Bava Nihal Singh belonged to the Kuka or Namdhari sect and was the author of an Urdu book, Khurshid Khalsd, published in 1885, in which he extolled Baba Ram Singh Kuka as the eleventh Guru of the Sikhs.

The book made sympathetic references to Maharaja Duleep Singh and MaharaniJind Kaur, expressing the hope that the former would be restored as ruler of the Punjab by the Queen of England. The Lahore Khalsa Diwan rejected the book as “unauthorized”. Its contents were represented as seditious as well as being subversive of the Sikh tenet. Nihal Singh was expelled from membership of the Singh Sabha.

References :

1. Ganda Singh, ed.. History of the Freedom Movement in the Punjab. Patiala, 1972