CHARAN SINGH, BHAI (1902-1921), son of Bhai Gurdit Singh and Mai Sada Kaur of the village of Kotla Santa Singh in Sheikhupura district, now in Pakistan, was born on 12 Maghar 1959 Bk/26 November 1902. His original name was Karnail Singh and he was renamed Charan Singh when he received the vows of the Khalsa. He attended the village primary school. He had a musical voice and got up a dhadi jatha (band of preachers singing heroic ballads from Sikh history to the accompaniment of small tambourines called dhads and a sarangi, a stringed instrument). He himself played the sarangi.
DHANNA SINGH (1888-1923). a Babar revolutiortary, was born at the village of Bahibalpur, in Hoshiarpur district. His father, Indar Singh, could barely afford to send him to the village primary school where Dhanna Singh learnt to read and write in Punjabi and Urdu. Early in his youth he was converted to radical politics by Kararn Singh, of Daulatpur, leader of the Chakravarti Jatha, and helped organize the Jathas major divans at Mahalpur (March 1921) and at Kukkar Muzara (October 1921). The Chakravarti Jathas of Kishan Singh Gargajj and Karam Singh merging together made up plans at a meeting at Jassoval on 25 December 1922 to maim, plunder or murder informers and helpers of the British government.
NESTA, village 2 km south of Atari in Amritsar district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) who stayed here for a while during his journey from Lahore to Amritsar. According to local tradition, at the villagers` complaint that the water of their well was brackish, the Guru had them dig another well close to it. The water of this well was sweet (mittha, in Punjabi). Both these wells still exist side by side. The shrine established here came to be called Mitthasar.
