CORTLANDT. HENRY CHARLES VAN (1814-1888), son of Colonel Henry Clinton Van Cortlandt of the British army, by an Indian wife, was born at Meerut in 1814, and was educated in England. In 1832, he returned to India and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army on a monthly salary of Rs 250, subsequently raised to Rs 800, with a monthly stipend of Rs 800 for his wife. Cortlandt participated in various campaigns including the battle of Jamrud in which the famous general, Hari Singh Nalva, was killed.
NIDHAN SINGH CHUGGHA (1855-1936), a prominent Ghadr leader, was the son of Sundar Singh of the village of Chuggha, in Moga district. A militant revolutionary, he was cited by the British as "art extremely dangerous criminal and one of the worst and most important of the [Ghadr] conspirators." In 1882, Nidhan Singh left home for Shanghai where he worked as a watchman and served as treasurer of the local Gurdwara. He married a Chinese woman from whom he had one son. He lived in Shanghai for many years and then migrated to the United States of America. Shortly after his arrival in the United Ssates, the Ghadr Party was formed by Indian patriots.
