PRITAM SINGH GOJRAN, JATHEDAR (1896-1976), born into a simple rural family, rose, without advantages of education and worldly means, to the position of president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, to be distinguished from the Riydsti Akali Dal (representing only Sikhs living in the princely states of the Punjab), by

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

AKALI DAL, CENTRAL, a political organization of the Sikhs set up in March 1934 as a parallel body to the Shiromani Akali Dal. The latter was formed on 14 December 1920 to assist the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in its campaign for the reformation of the management of the

CHANNAN SINGH, SANT (1907-1972), elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, successively from 1962 till his death in 1972, was born in 1907 to Tarlok Singh and Prem Kaur, a peasant couple of modest means, belonging to the village of Mullanpur, in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. As

HARKISHAN SINGH, BAWA (1892-1978), educationist, lover of poetry and intellectual, was born at Dera Isma`il Khan on 26 July 1892, the son of Bawa Dasaundha Singh. After taking his Master`s degree in English literature from Forman Christian College, Lahore, in 1912, he joined the Khalsa College at Amritsar, as

LACHHMAN SINGH GRANTHI, BHAI (1867-1921), one of the martyrs of Nankana Sahib, was born in 1867, the son of Bhai Nanak and Mai Gariga Dei. His original name was Lachhman. As he grew up, he enlisted in the army as a cook. There he underwent the rites of Khalsa

PUNJABI SUBA MOVEMENT, a long drawn political agitation launched by the Sikhs demanding the creation of Punjabi Suba or Punjabi speaking state in the Punjab. At Independence it was commonly recognized that the Indian states then comprising the country did not have any rational or scientific basis. They were more

SHIROMANI KHALSA DlWAN, NORTHWEST FRONTIER PROVINCE, a sociopolitical organization of the Sikhs of the frontier province (now in Pakistan), was founded in the 1920`s by Sardar Jagat Singh Narag of Peshawar, a businessman, later a member of the provincial legislative assembly. The Sikh population of the North-West Frontier Province was

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

HIRA SINGH, BHAI ( 1880-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the eldest of the four sons of Bhai Buta Singh and Mat Bhagan, farmers of modest means living in village Taungarivali in Gujranwala district (now in Pakistan). Under the influence of Bhai Varyam Singh, Hira Singh turned

MAGH SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), one of the martyrs of Jaito morcha, was the son of Bhai Sham Singh and Mai Dharmon, farmers of the village of Lande in Moga tahsil (sub-division) of the present Moga district. In his early youth Magh Singh had enlisted in the army and had