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

MORCHA CHABIAN, campaign for the recovery of the keys of the Golden Temple treasury, marks a dramatic episode in the Sikhs` agitation in the early 1920`s for reforming the management of their places of worship. The Golden Temple at Amritsar, which had a government nominated sarbrdh or controller to manage

NAND SINGH or Anand Singh was still in his teens when he went to Anandpur to see Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) and stayed on until his parents arrived to complain to the Guru that the boy, who had lately been married, had forsaken his bride and took little interest in

AKALI, a term now appropriated by members of the dominant Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920, and groups splitting from it from time to time, was earlier used for Nihangs (q.v.), an order of armed religious zealots among the baptized Sikhs. The word Nihang is

AKALI SAHAYAK BUREAU, lit. a bureau to help (sahayak, from Skt. sahaya, one who lends one company or support) the Akalis, then engaged in a bitter struggle for the reformation of the management of their places of worship, was a small office set up at Amritsar in 1923 by the

BABAR AKALI MOVEMENT, a radical outgrowth of the Akali movement for the reform of Sikh places of worship during the early 1920\'s. The latter, aiming to have the shrines released from the control of priests who had become lax and effete over the generations, was peaceful in its character

BANTA SINGH DHAMIAN (1900-1923), Babar revolutionary, was born in 1900 at the village of Dhamian Kalan, in Jalandhar district. He went to the village primary school, and joined the army serving in the 55th Sikh Battalion for about three years. While in the army he came in contact with

JAITO MORCHA, the name given to the Akali agitation for the restoration to his throne of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, a Sikh princely state in the Punjab. The Maharaja had strong pro-Akali sympathies and had overtly supported the Guru ka Bagh Morcha and donned a black turban as a

JONES, a deserter from the East India Company`s service, joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army as a gunner. According to Charles Masson, the traveller, Jones participated in the final battle of Multan in 1818 and took charge of the guns, enabling the Akalis to storm the fort.