GURMAT TRACT SOCIETY, dedicated to propagating Sikh religion and history, was founded at Lahore in 1925 by Giahl Kartar Singh Piukh, who changed his pen name from "Piukh" to "Hitkari" in 1929. It published low priced monthly tracts in Punjabi, in Gurmukhi script, for distribution among the Sikh masses. The themes usually were the lives of the Gurus, Sikh teachings, Sikh shrines and persons of importance in Sikh history. The Society planned to publish books and pamphlets in LIrdu and Hindi as well.
HARIJAS GRANTH, by Bhai Darbari, is a collection of verse the first part (ff. 1530) of which is, in imitation of the Guru Granth Sahib, cast in rdgas, totalling thirty-four in number, adding Malkauns, Malva and Hindol to the thirty-one employed in the Sikh Scripture. The only known manuscript of the Harijas Granth, comprising 918 folios, which has so far remained unpublished and which was, according to internal evidence (f. 760), completed on Thursday, Jeth vadi 13, 1860 Bk/20 May 1803, is preserved in the Gurdwara Bhai Darbari at the village of Vairoke in Faridkot district. Bhai Darbari was a follower of Bhai Abhai Ram who was fifth in the line from Baba Miharban, leader of the schismatic Mina group of the Sikhs, and who later received the rites of Sikh baptism at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and came to be known as Abhai Singh. The Harijas Granth begins with the Sikh Mul Mantra, here recorded in a somewhat changed order.
IMAM UDDIN, FAQIR (d. 1847), second son of Ghulam Mohly udDTn and younger brother of Faqir `Azi/ udDin, foreign minister to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was Qiladar or garrison commander of the Gobindgarh Fort at Amritsar, where the bulk of the Sikh crown jewels was kept in deposit. Capable and scholarly. Imam udDin was entrusted with multifarious duties by the Maharaja. He virtually acted as the chief treasurer of the kingdom, authorizing payments on behalf of the Darbar and carrying out commercial transactions through casli and hund is for the purchase of grain.
JANGNAMA GURU GOBIND SINGH is a Punjabi ballad by Bir Singh Bal of the village of Sathiala in Amritsar district of the Punjab. Bir Singh was the author of a number of works in Braj Bhasa and. Punjabi which he wrote in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century. His theme is primarily Sikh history, though he has also composed Qissd Hir Rdnjhd incorporating the romance of Punjab`s famous lovers, Hir and Ranjha. The Jangndmd, in Punjabi verse, is in the form of a Barah Maha for which reason it is also known as Bdrdn Mdnh Guru Gobind Singh.
KARTAR SINGH KALASVALIA, GIANI (1882-1952), theologian, poet and historian who started a new line in modern Punjabi verse making a departure from the traditional love romance or lays of heroic poetry in Braj or Hindiixcd Punjabi, was born in 1882 in Kalasvala, a village in Pasriir iahsil of Sialkot district, now in Pakistan. Hence the epithet KalasvalTa. Kartar Singh mastered scripture reading in the village gurudwara and joined the 47th Sikh Battalion, later 4th Battalion of the llth Sikh Regiment, as a granthi or Sikh religious teacher. After leaving the army, he became a grant/it at the Darbar Sahib at Amrilsar, rising subsequently to the position of head granthi.
KISHAN SINGH GARGAJJ (1886-1926), founder of the Babar Akali movement, was the only son of Fatch Singh of Baring, a village in Jalandhar district in the Punjab. He joined the army as a sepoy in 1906 and rose to be a havildar major in 35th Sikh Battalion. While in the army, he was much affected by events such as the demolition of the wall of the Rikabgarij Gurdwara in Delhi, the firing on the Komagata Maru passengers at Budge Budge, near Calcutta, and the Jalliarivala Bagh massacre. He started criticizing the government for the imposition of martial law in the Punjab for which he was court martialled and sentenced to 28 days rigorous imprisonment in military custody.