RIKABGANJ AGITATION (1913-20) marked the Sikh protest against the demolition by the British of one of the walls of the historical Rikabganj shrine in New Delhi. Gurdwara Rikabganj, sacred to the memory of Guru Tegh Bahadur, at present a. splendid marble edifice, was, in the early

DESU SINGH, BHAI (d. 1781), was the second of the five sons of Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh of the well known Bhai family, deriving its name from the celebrated Bhai Bhagatu, contemporary of three successor Gurus, Guru Arjan, Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai. According to Bhai Santokh Singh, Garb

RUHILASIKH RELATIONS. The Ruhilas came from the Yusafzai tribe of Afghans originally belonging to Roh, a tract of land south of Chitral in the North-West Frontier region. They established themselves in the early years of the eighteenth century as a semi independent power in the district lying between the River

FANE, SIR HENRY (1778-1840), commander-in-chief of the British Indian army, who visited the Punjab in 1837 on the occasion of the marriage of Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s grandson. Sir Henry Fane`s visit to Ranjit Singh was an event of considerable interest. He was highly impressed by the

SHAMIR SINGH THETHAR (d. 1824), soldier and a minor commander in the Sikh times. He was the son of Prem Singh, of the village of Thethar, near Lahore, and brother of Lakkha Singh along with whom he entered the service of Sukkarchakkias. Shamir Singh fought in the battle of

GAJPAT SINGH, RAJA (1738-1789), founder of the Sikh state of Jind, was born on 15 April 1738, the second son of Sukhchain Singh (d. 1751), who was the younger brother of Gurdit Singh, an ancestor of the ruling family of Nabha. In 1755, at the age of seventeen, Gajpat

SIKHS` RELATIONS WITH NAWAB OF OUDH. For a whole decade prior to 1774, Sikhs had been regularly raiding and pillaging upper Ganga Yamuna Doab and Ruhilkhand bordering on Oudh. Yet they had not entered the territory of the Nawab, Shuja` udDaulah, who had become an ally of the British since

GANESHA SINGH, BHAI (d. 1888), assistant chief secretary of the Khalsa Diwan, initially called Singh Sabha General, which was established in 1880 to coordinate the activities of the Singh Sabhas at Lahore and Amritsar, was employed in the Amritsar municipal committee as a sarishtadar or clerk. When the Khalsa Diwan

SUNDARI, by Bhai Vir Singh, first published in 1898, is commonly acknowledged to be the first novel written in the Punjabi language. The story, set in the eighteenth century, depicts the trials and heroism of an imaginary character, Sundar Kaur (Sundari for short) who, born in a Punjabi Khatri Hindu

GURBAKHSH SINGH, SANT (1871-1939), better known as Sant Gurbakhsh Singh of Patiala, scholar and preacher, was born in 1871 at Chunlan in Patiala district. His father, Bhal Sham Singh, and his family shifted to Harisron, near Navashahar in Jalandhar district, as the repression was let loose by government on