SIKH JOURNALISM, tracing its beginnings to the latter half of the nineteenth century was influenced in its founding and evolution primarily by two factors : institution building in Sikhism with a view to defending itself and restating its principles, and the Sikhs` confrontation with the aggressive Arya Samaj over the question of whether the Sikhs were just another sect within Hinduism. It was a period when the Sikhs faced a crisis of identity occasioned by a strong sense of militancy among the numerous sects and religions and a concomitant set of pressures arising from the demands of modernization.
SMITH, SIR HARRY GEORGE WAKELYN (1787-1860), divisional commander of the British army of the Sutlej, under Lord Hugh Gough, in the First Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). Pie was a veteran of the Peninsular war and had also taken part in the battle of Waterloo. He saw action at Ferozeshah (21 December 1845), Baddoval (21 January 1846), and at `Alival (28 January 1846). His troops were stationed at Dharamkot when a division of the Sikh army under Ranjodh Singh Majithia crossed the Sutlej at Phillaur, seriously threatening Ludhiana and intersecting the Britisli line of communication.
TARASINGH, MASTER (1885-1967), dominant figure on the Sikh political scene for the middle third of the twentieth century, was born as one of four brothers and a sister in a Hindu family in a small village called Haryal, in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan, on 24 June 1885, and was named Nanak Chand. His father, Bakhshi Gopi Chand, was a Patvari or a subordinate revenue official and later a moneylender, belonging to the Malhotra sub-caste of the Kshatriyas, or Khatris as they are known in the Punjab.
THOMAS, GEORGE (1756-1802), Irish soldier of fortune, deserted the British navy in India in 1781 in which he had served as a gunner. He first joined a band of mountain robbers in south India and then took up service in the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad as a gunner, but soon afterwards came to Delhi where he secured employment under Begam Samru, who had married a European adventurer and succeeded to his jagir at Sardhana, in Uttar Pradesh. Serving under her for six years, Thomas left her to join the Maratha army under Appa Khande Rao, He raised troops for the Marathas and instructed them in the European system of drill.
VADDA GHALLUGHARA, lit. major holocaust or carnage, so called to distinguish it from another similar disaster, Chhota (minor) Ghallughara that took place in 1746, is how a one day battle between the Dal Khalsa and Ahmad Shah Durrani fought on 5 February 1762 with a heavy toll of life is remembered in Sikh history. As Ahmad Shah was returning home after his historic victory over the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat in 1761, the Sikhs had harassed him all the way from the Sutlej right up to the Indus.
WAQI`AIJANGISIKKHAN, by Diwan Ajudhia Parshad, is a chronicle in Persian prose of the events of the first Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). The narratives of the battles of Pherushahr and Sabhraon have in fact been taken from two separate manuscripts. The work was translated into English by V.S. Suri and published under the tide Waqiai Jangi Sikkhan. was first published in the journal of the Panjab University Historical Society, vol. VIII, April 1944, Lahore, and later reproduced in The Panjab Past and Present, Punjabi University, Patiala, vol. XVIII, April 1984. A copy of the Persian manuscript is preserved at the Khalsa College, Amritsar.
