GIAN SINGH RAREVALA (1901-1979), administrator and politician, was born on 16 December 1901 at his mother`s village Bhari in Ludhiana district. His own ancestral village was Rara, also in Ludhiana district, where his father Ratan Singh was a bisveddr (fiefholder) of the former princely state of Patiala. Gian Singh

SUNDAR SINGH MAJITHIA, SARDAR BAHADUR SIR (1872-1941), statesman and reformer, was the younger son of Raja Surat Singh (d. 1881). He was born on 17 February 1872 at Majitha (31038`N, 74052`E), a village 18 km northeast of Amritsar (hence the surname Majithia). He was educated at Government School, Amritsar,

HARIMANDAR (lit. the House of God; hari = Visnu, or God; mandar = temple, house), Golden Temple to the English speaking world, is the Sikhs` most famous sacred shrine. Also called Sri Darbar Sahib (the Exalted Holy Court), it lies in the heart of the city of

TARUNA DAL, army of the youth, was one of the two main divisions of Dal Khalsa, the confederated army of the Sikhs during the eighteenth century, the other one being the Buddha Dal (army of the elders). These Dais came into existence in 1734 when, during a truce with Zakariya

HARSA SINGH, GENERAL (d. 1887), son of Sham Singh, was a soldier in the Khalsa army, and commanded one of the regiments of the French brigade. He had the rank of general under Maharaja Sher Singh. In 1848, he fought on the side of Diwan Mul Raj at Multan.

THAKAR SINGH ATARTVALA (d. 1842) was the eldest son of Sham Singh Atarivala, the celebrated general of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. During the expeditions against Bannu and Peshawar in the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, he served as a commandant of artillery. He died in 1842 during the lifetime of

HUKAM SINGH, SARDAR (1895-1983), politician, parliamentarian and jurist, famous for his ready repartee, was born at Montgomery (Sahiwal) on 30 August 1895, the son of Sham Singh, a businessman of moderate means. Hukam Singh had his preliminary acquaintance with Punjabi letters at the local gurudwara and matriculated in 1913

TITLES AND ORDERS OF MERIT, instituted at his court by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, broadly followed the Mughal pattern, though there did not exist among the Sikh nobility a specific classification or hierarchy which marked the mansabdan system of the Mughals. Tides and awards were granted to princes of the royal

JANGNAMA SARDAR HARJ SINGH, by Ram Dial Anad, is a versified account, in Punjabi, of Hari Singh Nalva`s last crusade against the Afghans in which he won the field but lost his life. The poet, about whom not much biographical information is available is a Hindu (Anad) Khatri of

KHALSA DEFENCE OF INDIA LEAGUE was formed on 19 January 1941 at Lahore with the object of launching a movement among the Sikh masses for increased military enlistment for the defence of the country during the critical years of World War II and for maintaining and strengthening the special position

LAHINA SINGH, SARDAR (d.1893) a military commander during Sikh rule in the Punjab, came of a Sohi Khatri family of Gharjakh, a village adjacent to the town of Gujranwala (now in Pakistan). His grandfather, Panjab Singh, was a trooper in the regiment of Sardar Fateh Singh Kalianvala, a general