KHALSA DIWAN KHARA SAUDA BAR was established in 1912 by Jathedar Kartar Singh of Jhabbar, who became famous in the struggle for the liberation of Gurudwaras. The Diwan`s membership consisted mostly of Jatt Sikhs of the Virk clan who were concentrated in several villages (Jhabbar being one of them) around

SINGH SABHA MOVEMENT, a reform movement among the Sikhs which assuming a critical turn in the seventies of the nineteenth century, became a vitally rejuvenating force at a time when Sikhism was fast losing its distinctive identity. Following closely upon the two successive movements, Nirankari and Namdhari, it was an

KHALSA DEFENCE OF INDIA LEAGUE was formed on 19 January 1941 at Lahore with the object of launching a movement among the Sikh masses for increased military enlistment for the defence of the country during the critical years of World War II and for maintaining and strengthening the special position

BAKAPUR DIVAN, a largely attended religious assembly (divan) of the Sikhs, held on 1314June 1903 at Bakapur, a small village 3 km from Phillaur railway station in the Punjab, marked a high point in Singh Sabha resurgence, The occasion was the conversion to Sikhism of Maulawi Karim Bakhsh, born

SRI GURU UPKAR PRACHARNI SABHA, i.e. an association for the propagation of the Guru`s deeds of compassion and charity was formed by a group of Sikh youth at Amritsar during the opening years of the twentieth century, with Bhai (also known as Pandit, being a learned scholar of religion) Ganda

BHATRAS (the term bhatra appears to be a diminutive of the Sanskrit bhatta, a bard), an endogamous and tightly knit group among the Sikhs with peddling and fortunetelling as their principal occupations. More than one story is current about their origin. However, the Bhatras themselves trace it to Baba Changa

AKALI DAL KHARA SAUDA BAR, an organization of Akali reformers working for the liberation of Sikh shrines from the control of conservative Udasi priests or mahants. The organization was originally called Khalsa Diwan Khara Sauda Bar set up in 1912 and comprised volunteers mostly from a cluster of villages

AKALI, a term now appropriated by members of the dominant Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920, and groups splitting from it from time to time, was earlier used for Nihangs (q.v.), an order of armed religious zealots among the baptized Sikhs. The word Nihang is

KHALSA NATIONAL PARTY was founded in 1936 by two Sikh aristocrats, Sir Sundar Singh Majithta and Sir Jogendra Singh, with a view primarily to contesting legislative elections in the Punjab under the new scheme of reforms introduced by the British Inder the Government of India Act, 1935. According to the

DECCAN KHALSA DIWAN, a philanthropic organization of the Sikhs, now nonexistent, was formed in Bombay on the eve of Indian Independence (August 1947), with Partap Singh as president and Hari Singh Shergill as general secretary. The DIwan`s main object was to provide help for the rehabilitation of persons uprooted from

DERA, a word of Persian extraction, has several connotations. The original Persian word derah or dirah means a tent, camp, abode, house or habitation. In current usage in rural Punjab, a farmhouse or a group of farmhouses built away from the village proper is called dera. Even after such an