SUNDAR SINGH, BHAI
SUNDAR SINGH, BHAI (1881-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, belonged to Nizampur Deva Singhvala, near Dharovali in Sheikhupura district. His original name was Sudh Singh. He was the son of Bhai Chanda Singh Kamboj and Mat Hukami and was born in July August 1881, at their ancestral village Nizampur in Amritsar district. The family had shifted as colonizers to Sheikhupura district during the mid1890`s. Sudh Singh took the vows of the Khalsa at Sri Akal Takht, Amritsar, and received the new name of Sundar Singh. He attended the Dharovali conference on 13 October 1920 and participated in the liberation of Gurdwara Khara Sauda on 30 December the same year.
He also joined Bhai Lachhman Singh Dharovali`SJ`athafor the liberation of the Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib and fell a martyr to the bullets of the opponents of reform on the morning of 20 February 1921. G.S.G. SUNDAR SINGH, BHAI (1882-1921). one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born on 1 Assu 1939 Bk/15 September 1882, the son of Bhai Chugatt Singh and Mat Jio, of Gurdaspur district. The family migrated to Chakk No. 33 Dharovali in Sheikhupura district (now in Pakistan). Sundar Singh enlisted himself in the army and served with the 11 th Cavalry for seven years.
Once displaying to those present pictures of Bhai Hazara Singh and Bhai Hukam Singh, killed by the priests of Tarn Taran, Bhai Jachhman Singh of Dharovali appealed for volunteers to indemnify the sacrilege which had been going on in the gurdwaras under the administration of the ma.ha.nts. Bhai Sundar Singh offered his services on the spot. His offer was accepted on the condition that he would strictly abide by the Khalsa rahit. Sundar Singh took the vows of Khalsa at Gurdwara Khara Sauda and was formally registered as an Akali volunteer.
On receiving the call for liberating Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib, he joined the Dharovali jatha massacred to a man by the hired assassins of Mahant Narain Das on 20 February 1921.Bhai Sundar Singh was survived by his mother and wife to whom a son was born in July 1921. The Shiromani Gurdwara, Parbandhak Committee settled upon them an annual pension of Rs 160, besides paying off the family`s debt of Rs 1488. SUNDAR SINGH. BHAI (1898-1924), one of the Jaito martyrs, was born the son of Bhai Mansa Singh and Mai Raj Kaur of Karamgarh Satran village, 20 km west of Bathinda.
After attending school for two years at the village of Kot Bhai, he shifted over to a Gurmukhi school where he practised the reading of the Guru Granth Sahib. He received the rites of the Khalsa at the age of 12 and stayed for a few years at Amritsar further to study the Sikh texts. He enlisted during World War I in the transport wing of the army, and served in the Peshawar Landi Kotal region of the North West Frontier Province for a few years. Sundar Singh resigned soon after the Nankana Sahib occurrence and turned an Akali activist. He was named secretary of the Bathinda tahsil Akali Jatha.
Shortly before the tragedy at Jaito, he had injured his knee in a fall from his horse, but he insisted on going to watch the progress of the first Shahidi Jatha, and assisted by his elder brother Indar Singh and Jathedar Kheta Singh, met the Jatha at its last halt at Bargari. He was limping along a flank of the front lines of the Jatha during its march towards Jaito on 21 February 1924 when on its approach near Gurdwara Tibbi Sahib, the Nabha state forces opened fire on the advancing multitude. Bhai Sundar Singh was hit in the neck and killed on the spot.
G.S.G SUNDAR SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), of the village of Chida near Bagha Purana, in Moga subdivision of present day Faridkot district of the Punjab, was about 60 years old when he received the initiation rites of the Khalsa at the hands of Sant Sundar Singh Bhindranvala. To intensify the Akali campaign at Jaito, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee sent out from Amritsar in February 1924, a Shahidi Jatha or martyrs` column, consisting of 500 volunteers ready to lay down their lives to have the interrupted akhand path recommenced at Gurdwara Gangsar at Jaito, in Nabha state territory.
The march of the Sikhs through the Majha and Malva districts of the Punjab generated a great deal of enthusiasm among the people. Bhai Sundar Singh and several others from his village joined the column on 21 Feburary 1924 during the last lap of its journey. As it reached near Gurdwara Gangsar, Jaito, a strong posse of police and army blocked its way and subjected it to rifle and machinegun firing. Bhai Sundar Singh was hit in the stomach and lay grievously wounded. The Nabha state police removed him to prisoners` camp where he succumbed to his injury.
References :
1. Sharnsher, Gurbakhsh Singh, Shahidi Jivan. Nankana Sahib, 1938
2. Sliamsher, Gurbakhsh Singh, Shahidi Jivan. Nankana Sahib, 1938
