GURU NANAK VIDYA BHANDAR TRUST, aiming at promoting education among Sikhs, was founded in 1924 by Sardar Bahadur Dharam Singh. He had the inspiration from Sant Afar Singh of Mastuana, a Sikh saint widely revered for his piety at that time. The Trust was formally registered on 10 May 1932.

MELI, lit. attached or companion, appears in the Sikh Scripture in different connotations usually as a verb form, past indefinite of melana (to attach, join, bring together), in the feminine form (GG, 54, 63, 90, 243, 379, 389, 584 et al.); as an adjective meaning loving, attached (GG, 4243); and

KHALSA DIWAN LAHORE, formed on 11 April 1886 by a group of Sikhs who following a schism had severed their connections with the Khalsa Diwan Amritsar. Bhai Attar Singh, chief of Bhadaur, was named president and Bhai Gurmukh Singh chief secretary. The Diwan was formally registered with the government

DESH BHAGAT PARIVAR SAHAIK COMMITTEE, originally named Sikh Desh Bhagat Parivar Sahaik Committee, to help the families of patriots, was set up in October 1920 under the chairmanship of Baba Vasakha Singh, a Ghadr revolutionary who had been sentenced to transportation for life, but was released from the Cellular Jail,

SHIROMANI GURDWARA PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE, a statutory body comprising elected representatives of the Sikhs concerned primarily with the management of sacred Sikh shrines under its control within the territorial limits of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union territory of Chandigarh. It originated with the Gurdwara Reform or Akali movement of

SAT SABHA, a religious and social reform society founded at Lahore in 1866 by a group of Bengalis and Punjabis. Babu Novin Chandra Rai and S.P. Bhattacharjee of the Bengali Community along with two Punjabis, Pandit Bhanu Datta Basant Ram and Lala Behari Lal Puri, established this new society.

GURU NANAK VIDYAK SOCIETY, established in Bombay in July 1947 by the Deccan Khalsa Diwan, and registered with the Registrar of Companies on 27 March 1948 to provide educational facilities for the children of refugee families migrating to Bombay from riotaffected areas in the north. Funds were raised through voluntary

NIRMAL PANCHAITI AKHARA is a seminary of the Nirmala sect of the Sikhs established in 1862 at Patiala. Akhdrd, lit. arena, signifies a monastery or seminary with facilities for board, lodging and education of sadhus of a particular sect or cult. Sannyasi and Bairagi sadhus had their respective akhdrds, also

KHALSA DIWAN MAJHA, an association of reformist Sikhs representing the districts of Lahore, Amritsar and Gurdaspur, was set up in 1904. The Singh Sabha movement had created among the Sikhs a new consciousness for the need to reform their religious and social practices. Early in 1904, Risaldar Basant Singh of

GARGAJJ AKALI JATHA (gargajj = rever beratingly thunderous) was the name given a dynamic group (jathd) of Akali reformers, especially active in Majha region of the Punjab. The Jatha came into being on 19 April 1921, splintering from the parent body Central Majha Khalsa Diwan. Teja Singh Bhuchchar, Jathedar

U.P. SIKH PRATINIDHI BOARD, formed on 19 July 1947 at Lucknow, is, as the name indicates, a representative body of the Sikhs of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The Board came into being in consequence of a ban imposed, in 1946, by the government of the state known as

SIKH HANDBILL COMMITTEE, a small body consisting of 11 members formed under the Chief Khalsa Diwan to further social and religious reform among the Sikh.s, was set up at Lahore on 22 December 1907. Its task was to bring out leaflets to propagate Sikh principles, and to influence the Sikh