Alphabetical Index

HUDIARA, 20 km southeast of Lahore along the Lahore KhaIra road, claimed a historical shrine commemorating the visit of Guru Hargobind, who had once halted here travelling from Lahore to Amritsar. This Gurdwara was managed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee until 1947 when it was abandoned at the time of mass migrations following the partition of the Punjab.

HUKAM, Arabic hukm for command, order, decree, law, has acquired in Sikh usage a metaphysical shade connoting the Divine Law or Order, regulating the entire universe. Its importance in Sikh theology is indicated by its occurrence at the very beginning of the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Scripture), in the first verse of the Japu. In the penultimate line of the stanza, Guru Nanak puts the fundamental question of how enlightenment is to be gained: How is Truth to be attained? How is the veil of falsehood torn asunder? In the final line of the stanza, he provides the answer: Nanak, thus it is written: Submit to the hukam, Walk in its way.

HUKAM CHAND, DIWAN (1807-1869), son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s minister, Dlwan Bhavani Das, was appointed a daftari or record keeper on the establishment of Prince Kharak Singh in 1836 and was promoted the following year to the rank of kdrddr or administrator of Satghara. In 1840, he was sent to Bannu under the orders of Raja Suchct Singh for the realization of State revenue. Maharaja Shcr Singh conferred upon him the title of Diwan. In 1847, he was ordered to accompany Lieut Herbert Edwardes to Bannu whom he continued to assist in the settlement of the district until the commencement of the second Anglo Sikh war.

HUKAM SINGH MALVAI (d. 1846), soldier and jdgirddr in the Sikh limes, was son of Dhanna Singh MalvaT, an important official of the Sikh kingdom. Like his father, Hukam Singh served the Lahore Darbar. In January 1839, he, along with his brother Bachittar Singh, escorted Shahzada Taimur to Peshawar. In 1841, after Maharaja Shcr Singh had ascended the throne, Hukam Singh was sent to Kullu to capture the fugitives, Lahina Singh Sandharivalia and Kehar Singh Sandharivalia. For his valuable services he was granted a handsome increase in his jdgirs. Hukam Singh was killed in the battle of Sabhraori in February 1846.

HUKAM SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921), son of Bhai Ghanaiya Singh Dhillon and Mat Har Kaur of the village of Dirigariari in Jalandhar district, was born at his mother`s house in Hazara village in the same district and spent his early childhood there under the care of his maternal grandfather, Sham Singh, an educated and dedicated, Sikh. But Hukam Singh himself remained illiterate. By the time he reached his paternal home he had grown up into a strong and lusty youth. He was married at the age of 14.

HUKAM SINGH, SARDAR (1895-1983), politician, parliamentarian and jurist, famous for his ready repartee, was born at Montgomery (Sahiwal) on 30 August 1895, the son of Sham Singh, a businessman of moderate means. Hukam Singh had his preliminary acquaintance with Punjabi letters at the local gurudwara and matriculated in 1913 from Government High School, Montgomery, under its headmaster, Bawa Dasaundha Singh, father of the famous Akali leader and teacher of English literature, Bawa Harkishan Singh, who had influential contacts in the Akali party. He graduated from Khalsa College, Amritsar, in 1917.

HUKAMNAMA, a compound of two Persian words hukm, meaning command or order, and ndmah, meaning letter, refers in the Sikh tradition to letters sent by the Gurus to their Sikhs or sangats in different parts of the country. Currently, the word applies to edicts issued from time to time from the five takhis or scats of high religious authority for the Sikhs tlie Akal Takht at Amritsar, Takht Sri Kesgarh at Anandpur Sahib (Punjab), Takht Harimandar Sahib at Patna (Bihar), Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib at Nanded (Maharashtra) and Takht Damdama Sahib at Talvandi Sabo (in Bathinda district of the Punjab).

HUKMA SINGH CHIMNI, commander cumcivil administrator under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was son of Ram Singh, of Bhera, who was the First one in the family to take the vows of Guru Gobind Singh`s amrita, and who entered the service of the Sukkarchakkia misi under Charhat Singh as a trooper. After the death of his father, Hukma Singh was admitted into Ranjit Singh`s army and took part in the Kasur expedition of 1807. He soon won the favour of the Maharaja by his valour particularly in the reduction of the Kanhaiya citadel of Pathankot in 1808, and in the seizure of Sialkot the same year from Sardar Jivan Singh.

HUMAYUN, NASIR UDDIN MUHAMMAD (1508-1556), Mughal emperor of India, was born at Kabul on 6 March 1508, the eldest of the four sons of ZahTr udDin Muhammad Babar. Humayuri succeeded Babar to the throne of Delhi in December 1530 at the age of 23, but his reign was beset with difficulties. Babar had left an empire barely held by force of arms and lacking any consolidated civil administration. Though earlier Humayuri had served an apprenticeship as governor of Badakhshari, he did not have the sustained energy of his versatile father. Sher Khan Sur, an Afghan chief, who had been consolidating his power in south Bihar, defeated him in a battle at Chausa on the Ganges, in 1540.

HURBON, a Spaniard, who joined the Sikh army as an engineer in 1842. He was given command of a regiment and, later, that of a brigade. He was an astute tactician and is said to have planned and built, in concert with Mouton, entrenchments at Ferozeshah and Sabhraori during the first Anglo Sikh war. As the hostilities ended, he was deported to Europe by the British in July 1846.

HURELEEK, a Greek, who according to Alexander Gardner, Ranjit Singh and His While Officers, joined the Sikh infantry in 1841 during the reign of Maharaja Sher Singh.

HUSAIN KHAN (d. 1696), called Husaim in Guru Gobind Singh`s Bachitra Ndtak, was a slave general of Dilawar Khan, an important officer in the Mughal hierarchy. When Dilawar Khan learnt of the disaster suffered by the imperial expedition led by his son against Guru Gobind Singh, he sent his commander, Husain Khan, to avenge the defeat. Husain Khan proceeded towards Anandpur with a large army at the beginning of 1696. Several hill chiefs submitted to him. On the way, Husain Khan got involved with Raja Raj Singh (Raja Gopal of the Bachitra Ndtak) of Guler, who failing to produce the heavy tribute levied upon him was ready for an armed conflict. 

IALL KALAN, village 10 km west of Samrala (30"50`N, 76"11`E) in Ludhiana district possesses a shrine called Gurdwara Guru Sai. commemorating the visit of Guru Gobind Singh. When Guru Gobind Singh, disguised as the Pir of Uchch and carried in a palanquin, was passing by this village, the commander of an imperial patrol in search of him, suspecting that the Pir might in faci be the Guru, stopped and interrogated the party. Sayyid Pir Muhammad of Nurpur, who was present and who had in fact recognized the Guru for he had once been Ins Persian tutor, testified that the personage inside the palanquin was a most exalted Pir, and the party was allowed to proceed.

IBRAHIM, SHAIKH (Shaikh Farid of the Janam Sakhi), twelfth in succession from the famous Sufi saint, Shaikh Farid udDin GanjiShakar (1173-1266), held the seat of the earlier Shaikh at Pakpattan in the present Sahiwal (former Montgomery) district of Pakistan when Guru Nanak (1469-1539) was travelling in these parts. Shaikh Ibrahim, like his illustrious predecessor, lived a pious and austere life and was on this account known among his followers and admirers as Farid II. Guru Nanak, accompanied at the rebeck by Bhai Mardana, was singing God`s praises in the forest on the outskirts of Pakpattan, when Kamal, a follower of Shaikh Ibrahim, collecting firewood for the khdnaqdh kitchen, came where sat Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana.

IBRATNAMAH, a Persian work by Mufti All ud Din of Lahore, completed on 13 September 1854, deals with the history as well as with the social and economic life of the people of the Punjab. It also contains an account of the Sikhs from their origin to the battle of Gujrat fought against the British in 1849. The book was originally conceived and planned by Mufti `Alt udDin`s father. Mufti Khair ud Din. Mufti Alt ud Din, who had obtained an appointment in the British Political Agency at Ludhiana, served in various capacities at Firozpur, Bahawalpur, Sindh and Multan, eventually settling down at Lahore.

IKULAHA, a village 6 km south-west of Khanna (30°42`N, 76°13`E) in Ludhiana district, is sacred to Guru Hargobind, who visited it on his way from Ghurani and Dhamot to Saunti. The shrine which commemorates the visit was raised much later. The construction work was started in 1907-08 by Bhai Rala Singh, who resigned his job in East Africa to return to his village for this purpose, but the building was not completed until 1933. By then the supervision had passed into the hands of a revered lady, Man Gulab Kaur. The shrine is known today as Gurdwara Guru Sar Patshahi Chhevin.