BROWN, JOHN, alias RICHARD POTTER, an Englishman, who, deserting the East Indian Company`s service in the Bengal artillery, came to Lahore and joined the Sikh artillery in 1826. He was later promoted colonel and placed in charge of the artillery depot at Lahore. During the first Anglo Sikh war, he acted as a British spy. Just before the battle of `Aliwal, he went to Ludhiana and offered his services to his countrymen.
Darshan Singh \'Awara\', (1906-1982)started writing verse under the impulse of the struggle for freedom in the early twenties. The tone and diction of these poems were nationalist revolutionary and they were first published in a volume named Bijii di Tarak (The Lap of Lightning). It was confiscated by the British Government. A second volume was published many years later in 1940 under the title Bhaghawat (Rebellion), followed in 1941 by Main Baghi Han (I am a Rebel).