CHANNAN SINGH, SANT (1907-1972), elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, successively from 1962 till his death in 1972, was born in 1907 to Tarlok Singh and Prem Kaur, a peasant couple of modest means, belonging to the village of Mullanpur, in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. As

LAKKHI MALL, DIWAN (d. 1844), an official of the Lahore Government in the Indus territories, which included Dera Ismail Khan, annexed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1836. Lakkhi Mall`s charge also included Bannu which the Sikhs had occupied in 1825. In January 1844 Diwan Lakkhi Mall led an expedition

DEG TEGH FATEH, a Sikh saying which literally means victory (fateh) to kettle (deg) and sword (tegh). All the three words have been taken from Persian which was the State language in the formative period of Sikhism. The word deg, i.e. a large sized kettle or cauldron having a

PUNJABI SUBA MOVEMENT, a long drawn political agitation launched by the Sikhs demanding the creation of Punjabi Suba or Punjabi speaking state in the Punjab. At Independence it was commonly recognized that the Indian states then comprising the country did not have any rational or scientific basis. They were more

DHANNA SINGH MALVAI (1775-1843), soldier and jagirdar under Ranjit Singh, belonged to the village of Maur in Nabha territory. Mall Singh, Dhanna Singh`s father, who was the first in the family to be initiated a Sikh, left his village about 1760 and entered the service of Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia

SRI FATEH SINGH PRATAP PRABHAKAR, an undated manuscript preserved in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, under accession No. M/ 774, is an account of the life and achievements ol`Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluvalia (1784-1836). The manuscript since published, by Joginder Kaur (1981), comprises 401 folios, size 23x17 cm, each containing 16

DAULAT RAI, DIWAN, a civil administrator in Sikh times, was the son of Diwan Lakkhi Mall, governor of Dera Isma`il Khan and Bannu. In 1844, Diwan Lakkhi Mall died and Daulat Rai was allowed to succeed him in his office by Wazir Hira Singh on payment of a nazarana

SRIJASSA SINGH BINOD, manuscript dealing with the career of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluvalia (1718-83), a prominent Sikh warrior of the eighteenth century and founder of the erstwhile state of Kapurthala in the Punjab, was written by Ram Sukh Rao at the instance of Sardar Fateh Singh, ruler of Kapurthala from

FATEH CHAND MAINI, RAJA, a ranked citizen of Patna in Bihar, who served Guru Tegh Bahadur with dedication during his visit in 1665. Fateh Chand and his wife were devout Sikhs and received the Guru and his family with great honour. They put them up in their newly built

TAHL SINGH CHHACHHI (d. 1785), a Kohli Khatri, first entered the service of the Khattar sardars but later joined Sardar Charhat Singh Sukkarchakkia and received from him, in 1741, jagirs comprising several villages, including Miari Daud Khel. Tahl Singh also made conquests on his own account and captured territories

FATEH KAUR (d. 1773), popularly known as Mai Fatto, was the wife of Baba Ala Singh, founder of the Patiala family. She was the eldest daughter of Chaudhari Khana, a zamindar of Kaleke, in present day Sangrur district of the Punjab. It is said that at her birth her

TATT KHALSA, lit. the Real or Pure Khalsa, as against the followers of Banda Singh Bahadur who came to be called Bandai Khalsa, was one of the factions in the schism which arose among the Sikhs after the passing away of Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Go bind Singh, while sending