KHALSA CENTRAL COUNCIL, a society formed in Lahore in 1933 to safeguard the interests of the Sikhs, had a very short career. The occasion for the formation of the Council arose when Giani Sher Singh and Master Tara Singh, two prominent Sikh leaders of pre-partition Punjab, openly confronted each other soon after the announcement by the British government of the Communal Award (1932). The Sikhs deplored the Award as it did not meet their political aspirations.
KHUSHAL CHAND, RAJA, or Khushal Rai (d. 1752), an official under the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-48) and a writer and poet of some merit, described himself as a NanakpanthI, i.e. a follower of Guru Nanak, his father Jivan Ram, and grandfather, Anand Ram Kayastha, had also served in the Mughal court. Khushal Chand`s Tankhi Muhammaashahi, 1748, in Persian prose, gives an account of the successors of Aurarigzib from Bahadur Shah I to the death of RafT udDaula ShahJahari II. It contains a detailed account of the massacre at Delhi of Banda Singh Bahadur and of the Sikhs captured with him, including the story of a young boy who chose to die along with his brothers in faith declaring himself to be a Sikh although his mother had obtained a royal decree for his release on the pica that he was not.
MAHANT, originally the superior of a math or any other similar religious establishment. In the Punjab of early Sikhism, its characteristic usage referred to the leaders of Nath deras. The term acquired a distinctive Sikh application during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, period during which many Sikh gurdwaras passed into the, hands of hereditary controllers. These men, who became virtual owners of their gurdwaras, were known as mahants. Many of them were not initiated Sikhs and as a class they incurred considerable odium as self-seekers who exploited popular devotion for personal gain.
MANJI, derived from the Sanskrit mancha and manchaka meaning a stage, platform, raised seat, dais, throne, beadstead, or a couch, has a special connotation in Sikh tradition. Ordinarily, a manji, in Punjabi, means a cot, especially of the simple, stringed variety. Social manner in India requires that when more than one person are seated on the same cot, the one senior in age or superior in relationship should occupy the upper portion of it. But when someone commanding high social or spiritual status is present, he alone occupies the manji, while the others squat on the ground in front of or around it.
MURRAY, Dr, a British physician attached to 4th Native Infantry, who was in 1836 sent from Ludhiana to Lahore by the British for Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s treatment after he had suffered a stroke of paralysis. During his 8 months` stay in Lahore, Murray found it difficult to persuade the Maharaja to accept his treatment. Nevertheless, his despatches from Lahore to the Ludhiana Political Agency provide interesting information about the Maharaja, his government and his nobles.
NARALI, village in Gujjarkhan subdivision of the Rawalpindi district in Pakistan, had a historical Sikh shrine, Gurdwara Patshahi VI, commemorating the visit of Guru Hargobind who briefly halted here during his journey towards Kashmir in 1619. The Guru`s purpose was to meet in this village an old Sikh, Bhai Harbans, popularly known as Harbans Tapa, i.e. Harbans the Ascetic. The Gurdwara, which had within its compound Harbans` samadh or tomb, had to be abandoned as a sequel to the partition of the Punjab in 1947 causing a two way migration of population.