BANTA SINGH DHAMIAN (1900-1923), Babar revolutionary, was born in 1900 at the village of Dhamian Kalan, in Jalandhar district. He went to the village primary school, and joined the army serving in the 55th Sikh Battalion for about three years. While in the army he came in contact with

FATEH SINGH, SANT (1911-1972), who enjoyed wide religious esteem among the Sikhs (sant, lit. a holy man) and who during the latter part of his career became a dominant political figure, was born, on 27 October 1911, the son of Bhai Channan Singh, a resident of Badiala in present

KIRPAN MORCHA, campaign started by the Sikhs to assert their right to keep and carry kirpan, i.e. sword, religiously obligatory for them, which was denied to them under the Indian Arms Act (XI) of 1878. Under this Act, no person could go armed or carry arms, except under special exemption

NATTHA SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), son of Bhai Dhanna Singh Randhava of Moga, was one of the martyrs who fell in the firing at Jaito. He had studied up to the sixth class and was engaged in farming. As the Gurdwara Reform movement got underway in the early 1920`s, he

SEVA SINGH KRIPAN BAHADUR (1890-1961), Akali activist and newspaper editor, was the son of Bhai Harnam Singh and Mai Prem Kaur of Bakhtgarh, village 18 km northwest of Barnala (30"22`N, 75"32`E), in Sangrur district of the Punjab. Born in 1890, he received lessons in Punjabi and in scripture reading in

THAKAR SINGH, DOCTOR (1885-1945), a Ghadr activist who also took part in the Akali movement of 1920-25, was the son of Sher Singh of Ikulaha, a village 6 km southwest of Kharina (30"42`N, 76°13`E) in Ludhiana district of die Punjab. He was an undergraduate at Khalsa College, Amritsar, when he

BHAGVAN SINGH, BHAI (1881-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was son of Bhai Lahina Singh and Mat Tabo of village Nizampur, in Amritsar district. He lost his mother at the age of three. On the opening of the Lower Chenab Canal Colony during the last decade of the

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

KISHAN SINGH GARGAJJ (1886-1926), founder of the Babar Akali movement, was the only son of Fatch Singh of Baring, a village in Jalandhar district in the Punjab. He joined the army as a sepoy in 1906 and rose to be a havildar major in 35th Sikh Battalion. While in the

NIHANGS or Nihang Singhs, originally known as Akalis or Akah Niharigs, are endearingly designated the Guru`s Knights or the Guru`s beloved, for the military ambience they still carry about them and the heroic style they continue to cultivate. They constitute a distinctive order among the Sikhs and are readily recognized

SEVA SINGH THiKRIVALA (1882-1935), one of the founders of the Praja Mandal, a platform for ventilating the grievances of and for an open expression of the political opinion of the inhabitants of territories, mainly in the Punjab, ruled by Indian princes during British times, was born at Thikrivala, a

VADHAVA SINGH, BHAl (d. 1924), son of Bhai Jhanda Singh, Gill Jatt, and Mat Dharam Kaur of village Gharik. He was the only son of his parents. He never married. He was illiterate, and had strong religious inclinations. At the age of 40, he took the vows of the Khalsa