AMAR SINGH (1888-1948), of the Sheri Punjab, journalist, scholar and a prominent figure in Sikh politics, was born on 27 May 1888 at Pindi Gheb in Attock district of the Punjab, now in Pakistan. His grandfather, Gauhar Singh, had held a civil appointment under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He spent

LAHORE POLITICAL DIARIES is how volumes III to VI of the Records of the Punjab Government arc collectively referred to. Comprising a part of the British Government records published in nine volumes during the early years of the twentieth century, these four volumes deal with the regency period, 1846-49. They

AZAD PUNJAB scheme, signifying a major shift in the kinds of political strategies to be pursued by Sikh political leadership in their efforts to enhance the political influence of their community, was a crucial turning point in the development of modern Sikh politics. With the introduction of the Montagu Chelmsford

LUDHIANA POLITICAL AGENCY, renamed North-West Frontier Agency in 1835, was established in 1810 as tlie main official channel of Anglo-Sikh political and diplomatic communications. When, in February 1809, Lt. Col David Ochlerlony established a British military post at Ludhiana during Charles Metcalfe`s negotiations with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the town belonged

BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM CAVENDISH (1774-1839), Governor General of India, son of William Henry, third duke of Portland, was born on 14 September 1774. In 1803, he was appointed governor of Madras, but recalled in 1807 in consequence of the sepoy mutiny at Vellore. In 1827, Bentinck succeeded Lord Amherst as

MACKESON, FREDERICK (1807-1853), son of William and Harriet Mackeson, was born on 28 September 1807, and educated at the King\'s School, Canterbury, and in France. In 1825, he joined the Bengal Native Infantry. In 1831, and for several years afterwards, his regiment was stationed at Ludhiana. In 1832, he was

BHANDARI PAPERS, a large collection of sundry papers, letters and documents preserved in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, and named after the collector, Rai Indarjit Singh Bhandari of Batala. Little is known about the life of Indarjit Singh beyond a conjecture based upon some of the letters in the collection

MIRIPIRI, compound of two words, both of Perso Arabic origin, adapted into the Sikh tradition to connote the close relationship within it between the temporal and the spiritual. The term represents for the Sikhs a basic principle which has influenced their religious and political thought and governed their societal structure

BURNES, SIR ALEXANDER (1805-1841), British traveller, explorer and writer, was born on 16 May 1805. He joined Bombay infantry in 1821. Upon his arrival in India, he devoted himself to the study of the local languages and was, while still an ensign, selected for the post of regimental interpreter. In

MISLDARI OR MISALDARI, a system of political relationship as well as of land tenure which came into being with the rise of Sikh power in the eighteenth century Punjab. The Sikh warriors who, since the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716, had lived precariously as small guerilla bands, had

CLERK, SIR GEORGE RUSSELL (1800-1889), diplomat, son of John Clerk, entered the service of the East India Company as a writer in 1817. After various appointments in Calcutta, Rajputana and Delhi, he became political agent at Ambala in 1831. He was appointed agent to the Governor General at the North-West

MORCHA, in Persian murchah or murchal meaning entrenchments, fortification or battlefront, has, apart from its usage in military strategy, entered Indian political vocabulary via the Gurdwara Reform or Akali movement of the early 1920`s. In that prolonged agitation for the liberation of Sikh historical shrines from the control of a