NIRANJAN SINGH, PROFESSOR (1892-1979), educationist and writer, was born in 1892, the youngest of the five sons of Bhai Gopi Chand and Mai Mulan Devi, a Sahijdhari Sikh couple of the village of Harial in Gu|jarkhan tahsil, Rawalpindi district (now in Pakistan). His father died in 1901 and his brothers, Ganga Singh and the one who became famous as Master Tara Singh, took charge of him and supported him through school. After his primary classes in the village school, Niranjan Singh came to Amritsar where he matriculated at the Khalsa Collegiate School and passed his M.Sc. (chemistry) from the Khalsa College in 1916.
DEVA SINGH, SIR (1834-1890), a highranking Patiala state administrator, was born in 1834 into an Arora Sikh family, the son of Colonel Khushal Singh, a brave soldier who had once killed a tiger (sher, in Punjabi) near one of the city gates conferring upon it the name Sheranvala which lasts to this day. Deva Singh received the only formal education available at that time by attending a maktab or Persian school, and entered Patiala state service at a very early age in 1846. In 1853, he was appointed assistant judicial minister and in 1855, a Risaldar in a cavalry unit.
GURBACHAN SINGH TALIB (1911-1986), scholar, author and teacher, famous for his command of the English language. He was master equally of the written as well as of the spoken word. He was born in a small town, Munak, in the present Sarigrur district, on 7 April 1911, the son of Sardar Kartar Singh and MataJai Kaur. His father was an employee of the princely state of Sarigrur.
RAJINDER KAUR, DR (1931-1989), journalist and politician, was born at Amritsar on 10 February 1931, the daughter of the famous Akali leader, Master Tara Singh. She was educated at Khalsa College, Amritsar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Camp College, New Delhi, and attained the degrees of M.A. (Philosophy), B.T. (Bachelor of Teaching) and Ph.D. (Philosophy). Her doctoral thesis was on "The Sikh Concept of the Godhead." She taught at Khalsa College, Amritsar, for one year during 1958-59, but left teaching to enter journalism and politics.