Shamsher Singh Sheri, alias Karam Singh, was a communist leader in India. Sheri was born in 1942 in the village of Khokhar Kalan, in the Sangrur district, Punjab. Soon after his birth his father died. He was married to Harbans Kaur in 1957. Harbans was only nine years old at

Shamsher Singh Sheri, alias Karam Singh, was a communist leader in India. Sheri was born in 1942 in the village of Khokhar Kalan, in the Sangrur district, Punjab. Soon after his birth his father died. He was married to Harbans Kaur in 1957. Harbans was only nine years old at

SHAHIDGANJ AGITATION (1935-40) marked culmination of the tussle between Sikh and Muslim communities in the Punjab for the possession of a sacred site in Lahore upon which stood Gurdwara Shahidgahj (shahid = martyr, gahj = hoard, treasure or mart) in memory of Sikh martyrs of the eighteenth century and which

RAM SINGH (d. 1716), a Bal Jatt of the village of Mirpur Patti in Amritsar district of the Punjab, was the younger brother of Baj Singh, who was appointed governor of the town of Sirhind after it was occupied by Banda Singh Bahadur in May 1710. Ram

AJUDHIA PARSHAD, DIWAN (1799-1870), soldier and civil administrator in Sikh times, was the adopted son of Diwan Ganga Ram. Maharaja Ranjit Singh first employed Ajudhia Parshad in 1819 to serve in the military office in Kashmir. Three years later, he was recalled to Lahore and appointed paymaster of the

ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB to British dominions in India in 1849 by Lord Dalhousie, the British governor general, which finally put an end to the sovereignty of the Sikhs over northwestern India, was the sequel to a chain of events that had followed the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ten

BAIRAGIS, or Vairagis, are a sect of Hindu ascetics, eschewing colour or passion and detached from all worldly allurements. Founded by Sri Anand, the 12th spiritual descendant of Ramanand, the sect comprises a class of nomadic penitents, living a secluded life of extreme poverty, wearing minimum of clothing and

BHALENDRA SINGH, RAJA (1919-1992). distinguished cricketer and India`s long estlasting sports executive, was born on 19 August 1919, the son of Lieutenant General Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh, the glamorous princely ruler of the state of Patiala in Southern Punjab. Brought up in the lap of luxury, Bhalendra Singh shot up

CHARHAT SINGH, son of Jai Singh, a Sandhu Jatt of Kot Sayyid Mahmud, a small village near Amritsar, held a service jagir under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His father had served as a trooper under Gulab Singh Bhangi. Charhat Singh`s sister Rup Kaur married Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1809. Charhat Singh

DERA, a word of Persian extraction, has several connotations. The original Persian word derah or dirah means a tent, camp, abode, house or habitation. In current usage in rural Punjab, a farmhouse or a group of farmhouses built away from the village proper is called dera. Even after such an