DHARAM ARTH BOARD, a body representing different sections of the Sikh community constituted in May 1949 by Maharaja Yadavinder Singh, Rajpramukh of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), to manage the major Sikh shrines within the new state which had come into being in consequence of the amalgamation

SARB HIND SIKH MISSION set up by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1936 for the propagation of Sikh faith. The immediate cause for the establishment of the Mission was a declaration made in 1935 by Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, leader of the socalled untouchable and depressed classes, that

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