DARSHAN SINGH PHERUMAN (1885-1969), political leader and martyr, was born at the village of Pheruman, in present day Amritsar district, on 1 August 1885. His father`s name was Chanda Singh and his mother`s Raj Kaur. After passing his high school examination, he joined in 1912 the Indian army as a sepoy. Two years later, he resigned from the army and set up as a contractor at Hissar. He was doing well as a contractor, when a taunt from his mother, who was deeply religious, led him to give up his business and plunge into the Akali movement for the reform of Gurdwara management.
FATEH SINGH, SANT (1911-1972), who enjoyed wide religious esteem among the Sikhs (sant, lit. a holy man) and who during the latter part of his career became a dominant political figure, was born, on 27 October 1911, the son of Bhai Channan Singh, a resident of Badiala in present day Bathinda district of the Punjab. He had no formal schooling and started learning to read Punjabi only at the age of 15. In view of his interest in religious texts, his father apprenticed him to a well known scholar, Sant Ishar Singh, of Sekha, a village near Barnala. In company with Sant Channan Singh, another holy man, he migrated to Ganganagar district of the then princely state of Bikaner in Rajasthan, where a large number of Sikh peasants had settled down in the newly established canal colony.
