BAGGA SINGH, BHAI (1893-1921), was born during Assu 1950 Bk/September-October 1893, the son of Bhai Ganga Singh and Mai Mallan, a peasant couple of Chakk No. 38 Deva Singhvala in Sheikhupura district, in the newly developed canal area in western Punjab by the British. He learnt reading and writing in Gurmukhi script from the village granthi and took the initiation of the Khalsa at the age of 18. He was of a lissom athletic build interested in village sports and was also a member of the village holy choir.
SHUDDHI SABHA, a society working in the closing years of the nineteenth century primarily for the reconversion to Sikhism of those proselytized into Christianity or Islam, was established in 1893. . Christian pro-selytization had started with the advent of British rule in the Punjab with official encouragement. Though the rate was never alarming, the local religious communities were becoming increasingly self-conscious. The Sikh response had materialized in the shape of the Singh Sabha.
