BHAGVAN SINGH LAUNGOVALIA (d. 1944), patriot, Akali activist and one of the founders of the Praja Mandal, a platform meant to provide voice to the people of Indian states ruled by Indian princes during British times to ventilate their grievances and protest against the oppression, misrule and extravagances of the autocrats who presided over their destinies, was born in Burma where his father Rur Singh was a soldier in the army. The only child of his parents, he was named Indar Singh. The family originally belonged to the village of Laurigoval in the present Sarigrur district of the Punjab.
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GHULLA SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), one of the martyrs of Jaito, was born around 1896, the son of Bhai Narain Singh and Mat Kishan Kaur, a Jatt Sikh couple of the village of Bhalur, near Bagha Purana, in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab. Tall and heavily built, Ghulla Singh helped his father and two elder brothers at tilling the family acre. He had received no formal education and was not yet married when the Akali agitation at Jaito protesting the forced abdication of the Sikh ruler of Nabha was gathering momentum. Ghulla Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of Sant Sundar Singh Bhindrarivale and became an Akali activist.
BHAI PHERU, GURDWARA (also called Gurdwara Sangat Sahib), named after its founder, the well known Udasi Sikh preacher Bhai Pherii (1640-1706), is located at Mien ki Maur, in Chuniari tahsil of Lahore district in Pakistan. During Sikh times, large endowments in land extending to about 2,750 acres were inscribed to the shrine which was administered by a line of priests belonging to Sangat Sahib Ke sect of Udasi Sikhs. As a campaign for bringing the Sikh places of worship under the management of a central body, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, formed in 1920, negotiations were opened with the mahant or custodian for the transfer of the Bhai Pheru Gurdwara and the landed property attached to it.
GOPAL SINGH (1883-1941), an Akali reformer, was born in November 1883 at the village of Sagari, in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. His father, Sundar Singh (d. 1895) was a small shopkeeper. Within three years of Gopal Singh`s father`s death, his two elder brothers also passed away and the responsibility of looking after the family fell on him. He worked hard to see the family business flourish, and simultaneously started participating in the Singh Sabha activity in the district.
