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BACHITTAR SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921), was a granthi (officiant) at the gurdwara in Chakk No. 85 Dalla Chanda Singhvala in Sheikhupura, in the newly colonized irrigation district in western Punjab. Nothing is known about his parentage or the date and place of his birth. He had arrived at the village in the company of a Nanga sadhu as a boy of 10 or 12 years and had stayed on in the local gurdwara. He had learnt to read Gurmukhi and the holy text from the granthi whom he replaced after the latter had left.
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DALIP SINGH (1894-1921), who fell a martyr at Nankana Sahib on the morning of 20 February 1921, was born to Karam Singh and Har Kaur in January 1894 at the village of Sahoval, in Sialkot district, now in Pakistan. Two of his three brothers having died young, Dalip Singh was brought up by his parents with extra attention and care. He was educated at Sarigia, Daska and Gujranwala. While at school, he developed a keen interest in Sikh history and gurbani, utterances of the Gurus, i.e. Sikh religious texts.
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BAGGA SINGH, BHAI (1893-1921), was born during Assu 1950 Bk/September-October 1893, the son of Bhai Ganga Singh and Mai Mallan, a peasant couple of Chakk No. 38 Deva Singhvala in Sheikhupura district, in the newly developed canal area in western Punjab by the British. He learnt reading and writing in Gurmukhi script from the village granthi and took the initiation of the Khalsa at the age of 18. He was of a lissom athletic build interested in village sports and was also a member of the village holy choir.
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DARBARA SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921), still in his teens when he fell a martyr at Nankana Sahib in 1921, was the son of Bhai Kehar Singh and Bibi Ratan Kaur. His father was serving in the Indian army as a havildar (sergeant) and he was born at a cantonment station. His mother died when he was a bare three weeks old, and he was brought up by his grandmother. His father originally belonged to Jarg village, then in the princely state of Patiala, but some time after his retirement in 1908 he migrated to Chakk No. 85 Dalla Chanda Singh in a newly developed canal district.
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DHARAM SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921) was the youngest of the four sons of Bhai Sant Singh and Mai Hukmi, of the village of Bundala, in Amritsar district. He was only four years old when the family migrated to Chakk No. 71 Bundala Bachan Singhvala in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur. His education was limited to rudimentary knowledge of the Punjabi language which he could barely read in the Gurmukhi script. He was robustly built and enjoyed wrestling.
