CHUNG TONG, a small village on the bank of the River Teesta in Sikkim, 168 km north of the nearest railhead, Siliguri, has recently been discovered to have a connection with early Sikh history. Local tradition there refers to the visit of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to the place during his third udasior preaching tour. Although the Janam Sakhis do not mention Tibet specifically, the mention of Guru Nanak Rimpoche (lit. the great one) in Tibetan literature points to the Guru`s travel through Tibet, and it is likely that he passed through Chung Tong on his way back to India.
Chitrakar, Ishwar Singh (1912 -1968), a noted painter and poet in Punjabi, was born in 1912 and died in 1968. His pen name, Chitrakar, indicates his penchant for painting and painting to him was as dear a medium of creativity as poetry was. Literary movements of his time did not fascinate him. He was lonely and forsaken but true to his innermost spirit of freedom and love. He is the author of two collections of essays entitled Kalam di Awaz (The Voice of the Pen) and Gal Bat (Conversation).
CHANDA SINGH (d. 1930), better known as Chanda Singh Vakil or lawyer, was born at Kaliarivali, district Sirsa, in the present Haryana state, in a Sikh farming family of moderate means. He was the eldest of the three sons of Dial Singh. An attack of smallpox in his childhood had deprived him of his eyesight, but this did not deter him from carving his way in life. He passed his primary classes from the village school and went to Amritsar for his middle school course. He took his Matriculation at Government High School, Delhi. He was gifted with a phenomenal memory and excelled at studies.
CHARAN SINGH, BHAI (1902-1921), son of Bhai Gurdit Singh and Mai Sada Kaur of the village of Kotla Santa Singh in Sheikhupura district, now in Pakistan, was born on 12 Maghar 1959 Bk/26 November 1902. His original name was Karnail Singh and he was renamed Charan Singh when he received the vows of the Khalsa. He attended the village primary school. He had a musical voice and got up a dhadi jatha (band of preachers singing heroic ballads from Sikh history to the accompaniment of small tambourines called dhads and a sarangi, a stringed instrument). He himself played the sarangi.
CHHOTA MARVA, a village about 6 km to the west of Bilaspur in Ambala district of Haryana, has a historical shrine known as Gurdwara Golpur Sahib dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh. While at Kapal Mochan near Bilaspur in 1688, Guru Gobind Singh often went out on the chase. During one such excursion, his hawk named Golla strayed and perched on the top of a tree in this village. Some Sikhs followed and tried to induce the hawk to return but the bird would not respond.
CLERK, SIR GEORGE RUSSELL (1800-1889), diplomat, son of John Clerk, entered the service of the East India Company as a writer in 1817. After various appointments in Calcutta, Rajputana and Delhi, he became political agent at Ambala in 1831. He was appointed agent to the Governor General at the North-West Frontier Agency in 1840. In this capacity, he shaped British policy towards the Sikhs during the days following the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. For almost a decade, as political agent at Ambala, he had been responsible for British political relations with the cis Sutlej states.
CHARAN SINGH, DR (1853-1908), poet and musicologist, was born at Amritsar in 1853 (father: Kahn Singh ; mother Rup Kaur) and was seventh in descent from Diwan Kaura Mail, an influential eighteenth century Sahajdhari Sikh. Kahn Singh (1788-1878) who was of a retiring disposition had spent some years in the company of wandering ascetics before he was persuaded to give up the life of a recluse and become a householder. In addition to his practice of indigenous medicine, he collected and transcribed Sanskrit manuscripts and wrote verse in Braj thereby laying the foundations of the family`s literary tradition. His son, Charan Singh, studied Sanskrit, Braj, Persian and prosody, besides Ayurveda and Western medicine.