PREMA PLOT, a conspiracy allegedly engineered by Maharani Jind Kaur with the help of some Sikh sardars to assassinate Sir Henry Lawrence, the first British Resident at Lahore, and the Sikh commander in chief, Tej Singh, and to topple the British control of the Punjab. One of the factors

RAM SINGH, BABA (1816-1885), leader of the Namdhari or Kuka movement in the Punjab, was born on 3 February 1816, in the village of Bhaini Araiari, in Ludhiana district. Ram Singh was the eldest among the four children of Jassa Singh and his wife, Sada Kaur. Ram Singh was

SAHIB SINGH, PROFESSOR (1892-1977), grammarian and theologian, was born on 16 February 1892 in a Hindu family of the village of Phattevali in Sialkot district of undivided Punjab. He was originally named Natthu Ram by his father, Hiranand, who kept a small shop in the village. Soon the family shifted

SHER SINGH, MAHARAJA (1807-1843), Sikh sovereign of the Punjab from January 1841 until his death in September 1843, was the son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, born on 4 December 1807 to Mahitab Kaur, the Maharaja`s first wife. Sher Singh grew up into a handsome, broad chested young man. His

SRIJASSA SINGH BINOD, manuscript dealing with the career of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluvalia (1718-83), a prominent Sikh warrior of the eighteenth century and founder of the erstwhile state of Kapurthala in the Punjab, was written by Ram Sukh Rao at the instance of Sardar Fateh Singh, ruler of Kapurthala from

Singh \'Shan\', Harnam, an eminent Punjabi poet, writer and journalist, was born at Dhamial (District Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan) in 1923 in the family of S. Sarban Singh Kochar. He did his post-graduation (English and Punjabi) from Punjab University, Chandigarh and his doctorate from the University of London in

Tiwana, Dalip Kaur is a foremost novelist and short-story writer of contemporary Punjabi literature. She has mostly written about the mind scape of the downtrodden women and her secondary position in society. Even if some of the women in her novels are educated and economically independent, they are unable

AKALI DAL, SHIROMANI (shiromani= exalted, foremost in rank; dal = corps, of akali volunteers who had shed fear of death), the premier political party of the modern period of Sikhism seeking to protect the political rights of the Sikhs, to represent them in the public bodies and legislative councils being

ARJAN SINGH (d. 1859), a military commander in Sikh times, was born the son of Jamiat Singh of Rarighar Nangal, in Gurdaspur district. In 1845, on the eve of the first AngloSikh war, he was given the command of four infantry regiments, one regiment of cavalry, and a troop

BAJ SINGH (d. 1716), a Bal Jatt, was a native of Mirpur Patti, a village in Amritsar district of the Punjab. A devoted Sikh, Baj Singh had received the rites of initiation at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh himself. He accompanied the Guru to the Deccan in 1708

BHATRAS (the term bhatra appears to be a diminutive of the Sanskrit bhatta, a bard), an endogamous and tightly knit group among the Sikhs with peddling and fortunetelling as their principal occupations. More than one story is current about their origin. However, the Bhatras themselves trace it to Baba Changa

CHATAR SINGH ATARlVALA (d. 1855), commander and provincial governor under minor Maharaja Duleep Singh, was the son of Jodh Singh Atarivala. Jodh Singh had joined the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1805 when he received large jagirs in the Pothohar country. On the death of his father in