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Major General Mohindar Singh Chopra
Born	12, August, 1907 Amritsar, Punjab, British India
Died	1990 New Delhi, India
Allegiance	British India India
Service/branch	British Indian Army Indian Army
Years of service	1928–1956
Rank	Major General
Unit	Frontier Force Regiment ("Piffers") Royal Fusiliers 7th Rajput Regiment Persia and Iraq Command Fourteenth Army Jullundur Brigade 5th Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) Assam Regiment 20th Infantry Division
Battles/wars	Afghan Civil War (1928-1929) Burma Campaign Anglo-Iraqi War North African Campaign Partition of India Korean War
Relations	Pushpindar Singh Chopra (son)
Other work	Ambassador of India to Philippines Director of National Institute of Sports, Patiala Founder-President Jullundur Brigade Association

Major General Mohindar Singh Chopra (12, August, 1907–1990) was an Indian Army General Officer who was known for being in charge of stopping the Partition Riots in both corners of India; Punjab and Bengal. He was the first Indian border brigade commander

As the Brigadier he was responsible for a voluntary flow of migration. He had managed to do a referendum in Sylhet, East Pakistan and stopped riots in Amritsar-Lahore along with the rest of Punjab after the Partition of the British Indian Army. His main achievement was the rehabilitation of the partition's refugees and making sure that the Indian Army remained a controlled and orderly force during the times of violent communalism across India. After retirement from the Indian Army he became India's Ambassador to the Philippines. Later, he became Director, National Institute of Sports, Patiala.

Early life

Mohindar Singh Chopra was born to a urban Sikh background in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, he studied at the Khalsa College, Amritsar and at an early age was selected for military training as an 'A' listed recruit in the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College, Dehra Dun.

Early Military career

Training and Sports

He qualified for the Army Commission from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in 1928. He had joined his first Regiment, the Royal Fusiliers of the British Indian Army, on a year's attachment in 1928. Various professional courses were attended but Mohindar Singh Chopra excelled in army physical training (being a Sandhurst Blue for Athletics) and he was sent for advanced courses to Army School Physical Training, Aldershot in 1938, which included visits to Denmark, Sweden and Germany just before the Second World War broke out.

Afghan Civil War

He was part of one of the first batches of King’s Commissioned Indian Officers of the Indian Army. His army career progressed steadily, he saw action on the North West Frontier Province with the 1st Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment at Bannu after which he was posted to his permanent regiment, the 6th Royal Bn, 13th Frontier Force Rifles (Scinde) as part of the elite "Piffer Group", the legendry "Black Puttees" as they were known. They helped to keep the peace on the turbulent North West Frontiers, with their wild and warlike Pathan tribesmen during the course of the Afghan Civil War from 1928 to 1929.

Mohindar Singh Chopra was then transferred to the 1st Rajput's and later became the first Indian to join the 6th Royal Battalion of the 13th Frontier Force Rifles at Hangu in 1932.

Second World War

Anglo-Iraqi War

After graduating from Staff College, Quetta in 1941 he was sent to the frontlines. He was a part of the British Indian Army Head Command to secure the area from Iraqi rebels, especially the rebel infested region around the Euphrates. The region fell under the indirect occupation of the British Raj at the time hence he administrated and sent communications from Iraq to India under the Persia and Iraq Command (PAI Force).

Burma Campaign

This phase was short, since he was sent to the Burma front which had the worst fighting between Great Britain and Japan. Mohindar Singh Chopra served with the Fourteenth Army (United Kingdom) on the Assam-Burma front, also known as the Forgotten Army. He was a company commander of a war he raised battalion of the 13 Frontier Force Rifles, operating deep behind Japanese lines during the second phase of the Burma Campaign. He had beaten back the Japanese forces in the Arakan Jungles and was promoted to Lt Colonel by the British Indian Army for his service. His role was also to fight against the Indian National Army, under the Indian Independence League of Subhas Chandra Bose since they were working with the Japanese and trying to get Indians to revolt across the country, though they were militarily unsuccessful.

Towards the End of the War

He was then sent to North Africa in 1944, although he did not see any military service in the region. He was later rewarded for his services in the British Indian Army by being promoted to Lt. Colonel and becoming the first Indian Commanding Officer of the 1st Assam Regiment in Shillong. He also became Commandant of Army School of Physical Training (1944-1945) and Inspector of Physical Training (1946-1947).

He had the most important responsibility during the Partition of India, to not only defend hundreds of miles of turbulent frontier, but also of evacuating nearly two million refugees safely during the partition of the subcontinent. The British had promoted him to Brigadier before independence and commander of the 123 Indian Infantry Brigade (1947-1949).

Partition of Bengal

Main article Partition of Bengal (1947)

Sylhet Referendum

Before Mohindar Singh's entry into Bengal there was no continuity when it came to divisional commanders, hence there were some riots that happened during the time.

In the region of Bengal, there were barely any riots, excepting the Noakhali riots and Direct Action Day, due to the presence of the SYL Force (Sylhet Force) in the area under the overall command of Mohindar Singh Chopra, now a Brigadier. He prevented any riots or armed violence during the Sylhet Referendum despite massive religious tension in the area, as the people were almost equally split between Hindu and Muslim- the former generally wanting to be part of India and the latter Pakistan. The Sylhet Referendum concluded on 6 July 1947 with most of the region joining East Pakistan. He stayed till early September and then left to Delhi where he was given the job to partition the British Indian Army.

During his time in Bengal he had written to Master Tara Singh, Jathedar Mohan Singh Tur and other Akali leaders to keep peace in the area- although they did not listen since there was no army presence. He participated in the last official action of the British Indian Army and the first official action of the Indian Army.

Partition of the British Indian Army

In Delhi, in September 1947, he had started to chalk out a plan to Partition the British Indian Army into the newly formed Pakistani Army and Indian Army. They settled on the battalions moving from and to India/Pakistan along with the transportation. He also helped Muslims settle in tents in Delhi near Humayun's Tomb and the Red Fort who were all refugees coming in from Uttar Pradesh and mostly East Punjab.

Partition of Punjab

Main article Partition of Punjab (1947)

In Punjab around 800,000 Muslims from East Punjab and the rest of India were killed by Sikh jathas while trying to reach the Western side, whereas around 200,000 Hindus and 50,000 Sikhs also died in riots in, mainly, Pothohar. For three months (October–December) Mohindar Singh Chopra commanded the 123 Indian Infantry Brigade to stop the riots going on in Punjab. He took over at the height of violence from a British Officer-Brigadier Solomons, a highly decorated officer. He was the first Indian to take over the post. Brigadier Solomon had under him three battalions while he was given seven more to look after the border and to protect the refugees.

He was able to set up organized militia to keep peace in localities around the border, the Ajit Dal, Punjab Defence Force, Sher-I-Punjab Dal, Amritsar Raksha Dal, Hindu-Sikh Milap Dal, National Volunteer Corps, Ajit Fauj, Dashmesh Sena, Nalwa Dal, Desh Sevak Sena all did their part to protect the citizens no matter which religion; Muslim, Hindu or Sikh. These, although, were not able to combat the overwhelming Sikh jathas who were organized under the Shiromani Akali Dal, Maharajas of Sikh princely states like Patiala, Faridkot, Kapurthala, Nabha, Kalsia and Jind and local armed Sikhs who formed groups and raided Muslim villages and homes.

Punjab's Situation after Riots

When he had arrived as Border Brigade Commander in September 1947, Amritsar was described as a bombarded city, with columns and caravans of Hindu, Sikh and Muslims going across. The Muslims walked on one side and the Hindus and Sikhs on the other, often a goat would cross the columns, and cross back. Shortage of food and fuel led to even the bark of trees at a height of ten feet to be consumed in the city. There was no law-and-order at the time and they had to face breakdown and restoration of law and order and face the logistic problems involved. Women were regularly being kidnapped and raped by thugs and goons, Muslim and Non-Muslim, and thousands of refugees were being murdered, injured or maimed for life- it was described as the greatest crisis in history.

Punjab boundary force However, on our side strict control was maintained at all times, to avoid their mixing up with civil population.

Muslim gangs decorated trains filled with Hindu and Sikh mutilated bodies beyond recognition going to East Punjab with slogans like "Kattal karne hamse sikho" (learn how to kill from us) and trains going back to West Punjab filled with Muslim bodies had slogans like, "Kattal karne sikh liya" (we have learned how to kill) from the Akal Regiment.

He took over the command of 123 Infantry Brigade at Amritsar on 11^th September 1947 during the height of communal riots from a British Officer named Brigadier Solomons, a highly decorated officer. He was the first Indian to take over the post. Brigadier Solomon had under him three battalions while Mohindar Singh Chopra was given seven more to look after the border and to protect the refugees.

While India fought against religious hatred, Pakistan fanned it, though both sides had leaders with vested interests.

Amritsar Conflict

In early October 1947 M.S. Chopra along with his troops, was escorting a large Muslim convoy from Beas to Amritsar. Nearing the camping ground at Amritsar hundreds of Amritsar citizens shouting hysterically waving swords and spears. The situation was explosive, he stood on top of a standing bullock cart and shouted the Sikh war-cry, "Jo Bole So Nihal Sat Sri Akal." He stressed that if they killed the lot of Muslims there would be further retaliation and revenge. He told them two wrongs do not make one right and moreover Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had given explicit instructions that those Muslims who did not want to stay in India, should be allowed to go unmolested. The crowd, miraculously, listened and dispersed.

After September, 1947 every protection and facility was given to the Muslims to proceed to Pakistan without any molestation at all. They were escorted by Indian troops up to Attari border. He had under his command over ten battalions numbering over eight thousand soldiers, including six battalions of Gorkhas.

Wagah-Attari Border

On 8th October he was made the brigadier to take over the frontier brigade (123 infantry) of ep area (east punjab area) was in the middle of india, suddenly a border town, lahore which was a sister-city became a hostile city part of another country entirely. the radcliffe line was only on paper, there was no hill, no river, no feature to demarcate it but empty farms, houses and villages. PATHANS WERE COMING FROM ACROSS THE BORDER looting, raping and killing, and likewise Sikhs were doing so as well. HIs counterpart in Lahore was Brig Nasir Ahmad who was from Mohindar Singh's palton, in fact chosen by Mohindar Singh from the Indian military academy. He rang up his friend nasir who was his friend when he took over the brigade, Nasir was in charge of 114 brigade. They were earlier partof the same army, division and regiment. He told them to stop all the raiding, unless war wanted to come. 11th october they came to the Wagah Border,

He and his counterpart and former associate and friend, Brigadier Nasir Ahmad, had devised a plan to create a joint check post to make sure that the border is created. They both founded the famous Wagah-Attari Border which, at that time, was 3 drums on each side and a line of chalk drawn on the Grand Trunk Road. Visitors can still see a plaque at the bottom of the flagstaff at the check post which bears the words: "Foundation stone of this flag staff was laid by Brig Mohindar Singh Chopra on 11th Oct 1947".

"Gentlemen, this is India's North-West border: the most unnatural ever created."

— Brigadier (later Major General) Mohinder Singh Chopra, 12 November 1947, referring to the Radcliffe Line, 1947: A Soldier's Story

India's First Border Skirmishes

Although, Pakistan, before the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War, also tried to infiltrate East Punjab like they did in Kashmir although he had cleverly foiled their plan by creating check-posts along the border to capture them, there were around fifty Pakistanis who were caught by the Indian Army and sent back to the other side. The first gunshots fired between India to Pakistan was during an incident near the border in the Amritsar district, some journalists were shot at by the Pakistani Army, they were not killed and managed to escape. The Pakistani raiders outnumbered the journalists escort, and hence two platoons from the 2 Bihar under Major Yadhav arrived from Attari and took action and after 4 hours and cleared the pockets occupied by Pakistani troops in Indian territory. It was further disclosed that the raiders belonged to village Thehpur in Pakistan. The East Punjab Police of the Boundary Force chased the raiders and recovered their cattle. The raiders returned with renewed strength. Brigadier Mohindar Singh Chopra took over command of the Police Force, reorganized it, and returned the fire. Lt Col Randhir Singh Grewal was noted to be one of the more competent assistants during the Partition saga.

There was a similar encounter near Qadian on 12 November when Brigadier Mohindar Singh Chopra personally directed operations and recovered improvised anti- personnel land mines and 3 " mortars from the fleeing raiders. With open warfare having broken out in Kashmir the Lahore-Amritsar border was getting restless. On 3 November, large concentrations of Pathans and other tribals at Lahore were reported to be preparing for raiding Amritsar, 3 lorry-loads of Pathans were observed at camping around Wagah, although they were thwarted as reinforcements were placed. During the major chunk of the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War, there was no fighting on the neighboring Punjab front, and he later invited Jawaharlal Nehru for a parade in Gobindgarh Fort, Amritsar to inspire the people that Punjab would be safe, Brigadier Chopra stayed there till October 1949.

During the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War, he moved his Infantry Division to Fazilka to look after that border of the Punjab.

Relief Work

He formed the Military Evacuee Organisation, Amritsar that came into being on September 1, 1947. He revealed that he sent the belongings of Sir Zaffar Ullah, Pakistani representative at the United Nations from Qadian to Lahore.

Military Evacuee Organization, Sept 1 1947

Advance Military Evacuee Organisation was simultaneously established at Lahore to facilitate the movement of evacuees from Pakistani territory. These organizations were wound up in November 1948 after evacuation work was largely over.

In February 1948 accompanying Sir Chandu Lal Trivedi, the Governor of East Punjab, the exhausted and tired refugees would often come grueling talking of their conditions, the massacres, rapes, forced conversions and much more. Many pregnant women would give birth on the roadside or on trucks proceeding to Amritsar. They got shelter on roadsides, in camps, in school buildings, in private houses, in fields and on the streets. Khem Karan was flooded with refugees from Montgomery and Multan. The water-wells were either filled with the carcasses of cows or poisoned, and the water being sold by Pakistanis was at exorbitant prices. These columns of refugees were safer as they had a sprinkling of retired army personnel. Wing Commander Mehar Singh (Mehar Baba) and Mohindar Singh Chopra dropped of supplies in a small plane, including food parcels, cooked chapattis and vegetables in sacks.

A page from the Manchester Guardian of 'Moslems refugees in a train' from Delhi to Pakistan.

Providing shelter, clothing, blankets and food for lakhs, as well as their onward transportation were a colossal problem. General Chopra was very ably assisted by his wife, Jagjit Kaur, and her team of helpers who did a Herculean task of collecting old and new garments, jerseys, blankets in thousands, all of which she got donated from charitable organizations and individuals for distribution to the needy in the camps. Often late at night they visited camps and the railway stations to cover people who were without blankets. The canteens were opened by the army wives to offer tea, biscuits, bread and other snacks much needed by the refugees moving in road convoys or on trains. Mohindar Singh Chopra's jeep, in which he moved around, carried a bagful of roasted grams and jaggery for distribution to the hungry. The people of Amritsar also rose to the occasion and gave very help possible, some refugees stayed in Amritsar, some left for Delhi, Kanpur and other areas whereas other richer ones left for Great Britain, Canada and the United States of America.

Abductions

A large number of Muslim women who had been abducted in Amritsar and did not want to go to Pakistan were instructed by me and my troops that they should go to Pakistan according to the agreement of our Governments.

Hundreds of separated women were rescued by Indian troops from Pakistan under Mohindar Singh Chopra's command (other than the Sikhs and Dogras due to the influence of the jathas and the Jammu Dynasty). Just as the Baluch Regiment was not allowed in India as they played havoc in Sheikhupura. It was noted that though some of them who were brought back safely to Amritsar were hysterically happy, others refused to accept them back as they had lost their virginities (through no fault of their own, and the parents abandoned them at the mercy of criminals to save their skin). However Mohindar Singh Chopra brought forward few Jawans in the army who volunteered to marry the girls. Though it was not his official duty, he used to listen to complaints of abducted women, every day parents and relatives used to come to his office and complain for the recovery of their womenfolk. He dispatched British officers, few were under his command, to assist in recovery work- they went deep into Pakistan as far as Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat and Peshawar to rescue those unfortunate girls. During a visit to one of the refugee camps, Mohindar Singh Chopra had come across a lady covered up in a chaddar. She refused to show herself to any man, as while she was in Pakistan she had been raped twenty times in one night and was bitter, hence did not want to see the face of any man again.

Raising Punjabi Morale

I remained there till October 1949.

Post-Partition

5th Infantry Division

He became the first Indian-origin commandant of the Central ASPT (Ambala-Kasauli). In late 1949 he was promoted to Major General and given the responsibility to resurrect the famous 5th Infantry Division, then scattered along most of North and Eastern India. In 1950 he was given the singular honor of being appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the 5th Royal Gurkhas Rifles (Frontier Force) being then and remaining the senior Piffer in the Sub-Continent. He was the organizer of the Gurkha Centenary in 1958, along with Brigadier Harrison.

Korean War

The 5th Division was built up into a formidable fighting force and mobilized twice for the Korea War of 1950–53, wherein he represented the Indian Army, they provided medical service and tried restoring diplomatic ties between the two countries, though he did side with the United States of America and South Korea, since China and North Korea were far less open and unsuspecting.

1952 Devon Plane Crash

In 1952 the Devon Plane Crash could have wiped out the entire top brass of the Indian Army, although they miraculously survived. Among them were the then GOC-in-C, Western Command, Lt Gen SM Shrinagesh, Maj Gen KS Thimayya, Maj Gen SPP Thorat (later GOC-in-C, Eastern Command), Maj Gen Sardanand Singh, Maj Gen Mohindar Singh Chopra and Brig Ajaib Singh. Shrinagesh, who died in December 1977, wrote, "I gazed out of the cabin window and saw flames coming out of the engine. The plane could explode the moment the fire reached the fuel system." Flt Lt S Biswas was attempting desperately to extinguish the fire when suddenly the plane flipped and plunged down to almost 4,000 feet." In Shrinagesh's own words, "We disembarked from the plane unscathed, apparently in order of precedence, and walked to the nearest village a couple of miles away. We obtained a lift from the village to the main Lucknow road in the only means of conveyance available – a bullock cart!"

20th Indian Division

In 1953 he took over as GOC 20th Infantry Division, the last Division to have troops stationed in Tibet before the Chinese invasion there. Major General Mohindar Singh Chopra retired from the Indian Army in 1955.

Post-Military career

Ambassador to the Philippines

He became the first Ambassador from India to the Philippines and held the position till 1959. Due to his arrival, for the first time, the Cabinet meeting was held in the Malacañang state dining hall. As Ambassador of India in the Philippines, naturally I was concemed about the Indians who had settled down and lived in these Islands. The community still retains its distinct individuality, but otherwise is happily integrated in the Philippine way of life. Most Indians are in business as traders, and are colloquially referred to as “Bombai’s”. As a whole, the Indians are very hardworking and doing well. In the Indian Community, Punjabis are fifty per cent mostly shaven Sikhs.

Director of Sports, Patiala

After a few years of civilian life, from 17 July 1964 to 30 April 1967 he was Director of National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

When he took over the sports Institute of Patiala, the standard of sports in India in general was deteriorating. To improve the standard of games and coaching, I got foreign coaches from America, England, Russia, Iran, Philippines, Malaysia, Hungry and Czechoslovakia to coach our coaches in Swimming, Cricket, Football, Gymnastics, Volleyball, Wrestling, Basketball, Badminton, Athletics, and table tennis.

It was a challenging job. Foreign coaches did a Magnificent job in passing their knowledge and experience to our Indian coaches. We benefitted a lot.

Later Life

In 1988 he was invited to Manchester where he formed the Jullundur Brigade Association between India (5th Battalion, Sikh Regiment), Pakistan (1st Battalion the Frontier Force Regiment) and Great Britain (1st Battalion, Kings Regiment).

"There is something unique and central in the faiths that the men in arms professed- to have been made incumbent upon men of different religions (Christian, Sikh, Hindu) to have lived, fought and died together."

— Major General Mohinder Singh Chopra about the Jullundur Brigade, Jullundur Brigade Book

Death

He passed away in New Delhi at the age of 84.

Legacy

Partition Museum, Amritsar.

His memoirs were collected and published with explanations by his son, famous aviator Pushpindar Singh Chopra in '1947: A Soldiers' Story' which depicted the military side of the Partition of India.

Some of his relics are currently on public display in the Town Hall Partition Museum, Amritsar.

There is a 'Clock Tower' in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh with an inscription in commemoration, presented by his family for being the first Indian Station Commander of Kasauli Cantt.

On the Wagah-Attari Border, Amritsar the name of Mohindar Singh Chopra along with his Pakistani counterpart Nazir Ahmed are written on their respective flags.

See also

• Sam Manekshaw
• Jagjit Singh Aurora

Indian Government

• Central Government
  • Border Security Force
  • Indian Army
    • Assam Rifles
    • 7 Guards
    • Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry
    • Rashtriya Rifles
  • Intelligence Personnel
  • CRPF
  • ITBP
  • CISF
  • NSG
  • SSG
• Punjab Government
  • Punjab Police
    • Special Police Officers
  • Home Guards
  • Border Security Force Cats
    • Fauj-E-Alam Mujahideen
    • Shiv Sena (Jalota)
    • Shiv Sena (Tangri)
    • Hindu Suraksha Samiti
    • Tarna Dal
    • Virk Sena
    • Vaidya Commando Force
    • Indian Lions
    • Zabar te Firkaprasti Virodhi Front
    • Brigade of Red Guards
    • Brigade of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha

Giani Samparda

Formation	May 1706
Founder	Bhai Mani Singh
Dissolved	September 1921
Purpose	Sikh religious organization
Headquarters	Giani Bunga, Amritsar
Location	Golden Temple, Amritsar
Giani	Position abolished

The Giani Samparda was an orthodox Khalsa Sikh religious organization of major historical significance in Sikh historical and religious spheres. They are known for their preservation of Sikh religious traditions and their teachings which have now became a quasi-base for the entire Sikh community. Its headquarters were located in the Giani Bunga (now demolished) near the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple Complex, Amritsar.

The Samparda had inspired a plethora of Sikh religious and educational institutions like the Damdami Taksal, Kuka Samparda, Dera Naurangabad, Sato-Gali Taksal and many more.

History

The Giani Samparda was started by Bhai Mani Singh in May 1706 with the blessings of Guru Gobind Singh, he was made the manager of the Golden Temple by the Sikhs during Banda Singh Bahadur's time and he was instrumental within Sikh consciousness as the leader of the Giani Samparda. He lived in the Akal Takht, as he was also the Head Granthi of the Golden Temple and the Akal Takht's Jathedar at the same time. He was tortured to death by the forces of the Governor of Lahore, Zakaria Khan, after which his student Bhai Gurbaksh Singh took over.

Bhai Gurbaksh Singh (not to be confused with the Akali-Nihang leader) was a Sikh who consolidated the Khalsa's leading intellectual institution, he was given respect, Jagirs and land by the Khalsa Sirdars of the time. His role was also consolidated in the fact that he had taken up management of the Golden Temple during this era. During this time there was no mention of an explicit Giani Samparda; it was a group of educated scholarly Sikhs headed by him more than a separate organization from/within the Khalsa.

Giani Soorat Singh was the first to start using the term, the Giani Samparda is named after the illustrious Giani family, and only the descendants of that family were allowed to use the term during that time. He established the Giani Bunga next to the Akal Takht in 1778, and participated in the construction of various Bungas for Nirmalas, Udasis, Akali-Nihangs, aristocrats and other Sikhs. He wrote the Sikhan di Bhagatmala and Gyan Ratanvali, which was appreciated heavily by Maharaja Ranjit Singh who conferred the title of hereditary.

After Giani Soorat Singh's death, Giani Sant Singh took over. He was a seasoned soldier and fought in many military campaigns. He worked on the Golden Temple, plating it with gold and marble and also created Bungas around the complex like his father. Giani Sant Singh played a large role in preaching Sikhism- three of his illustrious students being Mahakavi Santokh Singh, Kavi Megh Singh and Giani Gurmukh Singh.

His son Giani Gurmukh Singh was also at the epicenter of the Sikh Empire's scene. He was the court Granthi of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in his youth and after his father's death took over the Giani Samparda. Giani Gurmukh Singh was known to be one of the more Anti-Dogra voices in the Durbar and hence was favored by Maharaja Sher Singh, his student. He was tortured to death by Hira Singh Dogra and Pandit Jalla, who were murdered a year later due to a collective feeling of mistrust springing out of Gurmukh Singh's murder.

Giani Gurmukh Singh's son was Giani Parduman Singh, who was captured and tortured during his father's execution. The aristocrats of Amritsar all pooled 7 lakhs (a very hefty amount at the time) to free him and they managed. Giani Parduman Singh spent lots of his time trying to get the Giani Bunga back from the Dogras, and they managed to after the Anglo-Sikh Wars. He then proselyted Sikhism during the British Empire's period and became an honorary magistrate- he still took part in daily management of the Golden Temple and the Giani Samparda.

His son took over the title in 1877, named Giani Gurbaksh Singh. Unlike all his forefathers and predecessors, he did not do Katha everyday 96 minutes after midday in the Katha-Wala Bunga in the Golden Temple. Only the Giani family was allowed to do Katha (speeches). He was put in the Court of Wards and took part in management, though his guardian Rai Kalyan Singh played a major role as well. Though after the Gurdwara Reform Movement, the position of Chief Giani of the Giani Samparda was abolished and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee took over. He became a lawyer, Khalsa College secretary and member of the Chief Khalsa Diwan.

Chief Gianis of the Giani Samparda

The following table lists the Chief Gianis of the Giani Samparda:

			Term
No.	Name (Birth–Death)	Image	Start	End	Citation(s)
1.	Bhai Mani Singh		1706	1738
2.	Bhai Gurbaksh Singh		1738	1768
3.	Giani Soorat Singh		1768	1804
5.	Giani Sant Singh (1768–1832)		1804	1832
6.	Giani Gurmukh Singh		1832	1843
7.	Giani Parduman Singh		1843	1877
8.	Giani Gurbaksh Singh		1877	1921
	Giani Gurbaksh Singh		1921	-
	Giani Harinder Singh Roop		-	1954
	Giani Yadwinder Singh		1954	Present

Relationship with other sects

As stated earlier the title of Chief Giani of the Giani Samparda has been abolished as of 1921, though many still claim their lineage. These include the Damdami Taksal, Amritsari Taksal, Arthan-di-Taksal and many other Sampardas and Taksals. They have had close relationships with the Akali-Nihangs, Nirmalas, Dera Naurangabad and more.

See also

• Khalsa
• Nirmala
• Sects of Sikhism

Further reading

• Giani Jaswant singh Manji Sahib Book ~ Chita Chola

External links

• Damdami Taksal – Official Website

Indian Government

• Central Government
  • Border Security Force
  • Indian Army
    • Assam Rifles
    • 7 Guards
    • Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry
    • Rashtriya Rifles
  • Intelligence Personnel
  • CRPF
  • ITBP
  • CISF
  • NSG
  • SSG
• Punjab Government
  • Punjab Police
    • Special Police Officers
  • Home Guards
  • Border Security Force Cats
    • Alam Special Forces
    • Shiv Sena (Jalota)
    • Shiv Sena (Tangri)
    • Hindu Suraksha Samiti
    • Tarna Dal
    • Virk Sena
    • Vaidya Commando Force
    • Indian Lions
    • Zabar te Firkaprasti Virodhi Front
    • Brigade of Red Guards
    • Brigade of Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha

Car Jujharu Jathas
Joint Insignia of the Car Jujharu Jathas
Active	1986-1993
Country	Khalistan
Allegiance	Khalistan
Size	6,500 (1991)
Headquarters	Akal Takht, Amritsar
Motto(s)	Deg Tegh Fateh (Cauldron, Sword, Victory or Prosperity in Peace and Victory in War)
War Cry	Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal (Whoever utters it shall be fulfilled, God is Eternal) Waheguruji ka Khalsa Waheguruji Ki Fateh (The Khalsa belongs to god, God will be victorious)
Anniversaries	Vaisakhi, Bandi Chhor Divas, Gurpurb, Holla Mohalla,
Decorations	Ribeiro Kand, Changiara, Toofan, Pehalwan, et cetera
Commanders
Notable commanders	Gurbachan Singh Manochahal Gurjant Singh Budhsinghwala Avtar Singh Brahma Sukhdev Singh Babbar Manbir Singh Chaheru Talwinder Singh Parmar Labh Singh Sukhwinder Singh Sangha

The Car Jujharu Jathas (lit. United Warbands) were a collective militant organization consisting of five different 'Panthic Committee' groups with different militia attached to each one.

It was heavily active but divided during the period of Insurgency in Punjab, India also known as the Second Khalistan Liberation War. The founding event was after the Sarbat Khalsa of 1986 wherein the declaration of the Panthic Committee of Gurbachan Singh Manochahal was done, then four split out of its parent organization including the Dr. Sohan Singh, Usmanwala, Zaffarwal and Dhanna Singh Panthic Committees; who united on certain matters generally condemnation, tributes, warnings and other public messages addressed to the people and the Punjab Government. The Car Jujharu Jathas faded away with the death of Gurbachan Singh Manochahal and the end of the insurgency in 1995.

History

The Car Jujharu Jathas were originally consisting of only 6 militant organizations under one forum, these were the Tat Khalsa, Khalistan Commando Force, Malwa Kesri Commando Force, Dal Khalsa, Babbar Khalsa International and Dashmesh Regiment. Some pressure groups like the All India Sikh Students' Federation, Sant Sipahi Front, Miri Piri, et cetera were also part of the meetings of the Car Jujharu Jathas. In 1991 the membership grew to around 30+ militant organizations and many more political parties and pressure groups as it was the height of militancy- but failure in the 1992 Punjab elections had caused the movement to fall. These were all Khalistan-advocating radical groups who were solely against the Indian Government as they were targeting them over a series of historical prejudices- including the Punjabi Suba Movement, Operation Blue Star, Anti-Sikh riots and more.

The Car Jujharu Jathas also provided the ranks and soldiery in the different organizations.

Centre of Leadership

The Akal Takht was the centre of leadership and the first meeting had taken place at the Giani Bunga, which was demolished just a few months after and never rebuilt. Then in 1988 the centre shifted to Rayya, Amritsar which it remained the centre of till late 1990, after which Sangrur, Ahmedgarh and Naushera-Pannuan started featuring more prominently.

Units

There were 5 Panthic Committees under the Car Jujharu Jathas, these were Panthic Committee (Manochahal) which was the original, then Panthic Committee (Dr. Sohan Singh) formed by Bhai Arur Singh and headed by Dr. Sohan Singh who was ex-director of Health Services in Punjab, Panthic Committee (Zaffarwal) headed by Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, Panthic Committee (Usmanwala) was formed by the Damdami Taksal's head Sant Thakur Singh Bhindranwale but did not receive much support, and lastly the Shiromani Panthic Committee headed by Bhai Dhanna Singh. These 5 had a number of militia or pressure groups under them; the divisions were-

• Panthic Committee (Manochahal)
  • Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (Manochahal)
  • Khalistan Commando Force (Rajasthani)
  • All India Sikh Students' Federation (Manjit)
  • Dashmesh Regiment
  • Khalistan Armed Force
  • Sant Sipahi Front
  • Akal Federation
  • Khalistan Liberation Organization

• Second Panthic Committee (Dr. Sohan Singh)
  • Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar)
  • Khalistan Liberation Force
    • Mai Bhago Regiment
    • Khalistan Security Force
    • Khalistan Armed Police
  • Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan (Sangha)
  • Sikh Students' Federation (Bittu)
  • Khalistan Liberation Army
  • Rangretta Commando Force
  • Babbar Khalsa International
  • Dal Khalsa

• Panthic Committee (Zaffarwal)
  • Khalistan Commando Force (Zaffarwal)
  • All India Sikh Students' Federation (Mehta)
• Panthic Committee (Usmanwala/Damdami)
  • Khalistan Commando Force (Jhamke)
• Shiromani Panthic Committee

Class Composition

The composition was of mostly Jatt and Mazhabi Sikhs, Shekhar Gupta on India Today had stated that despite 82 percent of the militants being of a Jatt background, most militant leaders were of a Mazhabi background- leading to a popular phrase saying that, "Today, Dalits command the sons of Jatts". A research was done as well which noted the others castes (in 1989) were 8 percent Mazhabi, 3 percent Ramgarhia, 2 percent Kumihar, 2 percent Rajput, 2 percent Nai and 1 percent others which included Hindus, Aroras and Christains. Though by 1991 it was noted there there were a rising number of Punjab Hindus who were joining the movement including Lt. Gen. Balwant Rai Gullu and Lt. Gen. Prem Kumar and there were many more Kashmiri Sikhs due to the riots in Jammu in 1984, 1985, 1989 and 1990 against the Sikh community.

Key Battles

The key battles consisted of First Battle of Manochahal, Second Battle of Manochahal, Battle of Bolowali, Battle of Mari Butchian, Battle of Behla and the operations consisted of Operation Pakhand, Operation Shivalik, Operation Night Dominance, Operation Election, Operation Rakshak II and Operation Vadhi Pahar.

Insignia

The insignia includes the Khanda on a golden background, with an falcon (baaz) representing Guru Gobind Singh's falcon and the silhouette of a lion on the lower end of the insignia, representing the surname common to all Khalsa Sikhs; Singh.

Ranks of the Car Jujharu Jathas

The Car Jujharu Jathas had a ranking system for their troops, for every organization there was one Chief General, with 5 Lieutenant Generals, each Lieutenant General had 5 Major Generals and the Major General had multiple Sardars under him. Under each Major General there was a different battalion assigned, and the rank of Major General was given to anyone who participated in more than 4 assassinations, encounters or shootouts. For example Lt. Gen. Harjinder Singh Jinda had Battalions 20 and 21 of the Khalistan Commando Force assigned to him. The ranks included;

Car Jujharu Jatha rank	Modern USA/UK/NATO equivalent
Chief General	General
Lieutenant General	Lieutenant General
Major General	Major General
Kaptan	Major
Sipahi	Second Lieutenant

There were also titles given to the militants, the titles, applied at the end of ones name, included Ribeiro Kand (those who took part in the attempt on DGP Julio Ribeiro's life), Changiara (spark), Toofan (hurricane), Pehlwan (wrestler). The title of 'Bhai' and 'Sardar' were given to all who participated in the movement and women were called 'Bibi' or 'Sardarni'.

In fiction

Films

The Car Jujharu Jathas have been represented in television and fiction multiple times, these have included;

1. Cat (TV series)
2. Hawayein
3. Sadda Haq
4. Toofan Singh
5. Punjab 1984
6. 47 to 84
7. Punjab '95
8. Dharam Yudh Morcha (film)
9. Maachis
10. Kaum De Heere

See Also

Literature

There is lots of literature used as official reference material that decorate military and aerospace offices, the foremost pieces of literature on the Pakistan Air Force are Fiz'Aya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force by Pushpindar Singh Chopra, Air Warriors of Pakistan by Syed Masood Akhtar Hussaini, History of the Pakistan Air Force, 1947-1982 by Syed Shabbir Hussain and ‎Tariq Qureshi.

English is one of the official languages of Pakistan (Urdu, being the other) and has been established in the area since the British colonial era. The dialect of English spoken in Pakistan is known as Pakistani English. English language poetry from Pakistan from the beginning held a special place in South Asian writing, notably with the work of Shahid Suhrawardy, Ahmed Ali, Alamgir Hashmi, Daud Kamal, Taufiq Rafat, and Maki Kureishi, and later of M. Athar Tahir, Waqas Ahmed Khwaja, Omer Tarin, Hina Babar Ali and others; but fiction from Pakistan began to receive recognition in the latter part of the 20th century, with the popularity of the Parsi author Bapsi Sidhwa who wrote The Crow Eaters (1978), Cracking India (1988), etc., after the earlier reputations of Ahmed Ali and Zulfikar Ghose had been made in international fiction. In the diaspora, Hanif Kureshi commenced a prolific career with the novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), which won the Whitbread Award, and Aamer Hussein wrote a series of acclaimed short story collections. Sara Suleri published her literary memoir, Meatless Days (1989). The most critically acclaimed book of Pakistan's military history is Fiz'Aya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force (1991) written by Murree-born Pushpindar Singh Chopra.

The main handbook for the history of the Pakistan Air Force is Fiz'Aya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force, critically acclaimed book, appreciated by officials including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan, Air Commodore Sayed Sajad Haider and many more. It was written by Pushpindar Singh Chopra (famous Pakistan-born Indian aviator, founder of Vayu Aerospace and Defence Review- India's foremost aerospace magazine).

Fiz'Aya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force is a groundbreaking book written by India's primary military historian Pushpindar Singh Chopra, with Ravi Rikhiye who studied the Pakistan Armed Forces for 20 years and Peter Steinneman who is known to be one of the most aviation photographers. It was published by the Society for Aerospace Studies in 1991. It includes a comprehensive study of the

References

Partition of Bengal, 1947

Part of Partition of India
Bengal Presidency before the partition
Location	Bengal Presidency, British India
Cause	Indian Independence Act 1947
Outcome	Bengal Presidency divided into East and West Bengal • Muslim-majority East Bengal becomes a province of Pakistan • Hindu-majority West Bengal becomes a state of India

The Partition of Punjab (1947) also known as the First Partition of Punjab was a religious and later military conflict between three different sides, India, Pakistan and Sikhistan, each supported by different unofficial or official militia. The partition was the greatest crisis that India, Pakistan and even Asia had faced in the 21^st century and caused the deaths of over 2 million people in only 9 months (from March to November) of 1947. Though the effects of Partition remain in popular memory on both sides and its effects can still be felt today, among most Punjabis it remains a bitter memory due to the communal violence that separated many of them from their homelands.

The riots had originally started with the 'Rape of Rawalpindi' in March 1947, but the Sikhs had started purchasing arms, going on fundraisers across India, interviewing village Jathedars in the earlier year, starting with the declaration of Sikhistan by Ujjal Singh in Maharaja Dalip Singh Nagar, Lahore, 10^th March, 1946. The Pakistan and Indian Governments had not been involved and no soldiers were present on either side till after the independence of both countries in mid-August of 1947.

The Partition riots happened in phases, but it spread thorugh the region quickly, only Bahawalpur, Shahpur, Sargodha and Malerkotla faced minimal rioting.

Background

For two decades, 1921-1942, Punjab had a non-communal Unionist Government domiciled by 'home-grown' Muslim leaders. These leaders, particularly Sir Sikander Hyat Khan and his successor Nawab Malik Sir Khizar Hyat Khan Tiwana, had developed a Unionist idea of collective building of Punjab along secular lines. But the election of 1946 was fought on bitter communal lines, only eight or nine unionists lasted and it created a siuation that had been avoided since the days of Ranjit Singh. Punjabi Muslims on one side and Hindus and Sikhs on the other. Though a coalition government had formed, the trouble brewing in Noakhali, Calcutta, Bombay, Bihar and the United Provinces had caused a 'civil-war atmosphere' in Punjab, all communities had prepared for an inevitable armed struggle. The Punjab Public Safety Ordinance had been promulgated in November 1946 as the government felt that private armies like the Muslim League National Guards and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh was growing in strength and the Akali Sena which was banned in 1940 could be quickly revived. When the government in London had announced their intention to leave India, the Muslims were ready to siege Punjab through force, and the Sikhs were ready to resist it by any means necessary.

In Calcutta in 1946 the Sikhs remained neutral, protecting and giving shelter to both Hindus and Muslims during the riots.

Radcliffe had been sent in from London, he had a very successful career and had consulted four judges for the Radcliffe Line, these were two Muslims, one Sikh and one Hindu. Radcliffe believed he had six months to complete the line, but Mountbatten shortened his time period to only 36 days.

Communal tensions and riots

March 1947

After the Premier resigned suddenly on 2nd Match, 1947, on 4th March rioting had started in Lahore, on 5th March the Government of India invoked Section 93 vesting charge with the Governor. From March 4-20 rioting spread from Lahore to Amritsar, Multan, Rawalpindi, Jullundur and Sialkot cities. Worst was the 'Rape of Rawalpindi' which occurred in Rawalpindi, Thoha Khalsa, Jhelum and Attock. In this series of riots many major aristocratic families had to flee with their belongings, these included the families of Mohan Singh of Rawalpindi, Uttam Singh Duggal, the Arora family and many others. Over 7,000 Hindus and Sikhs had died and 80,000 left for India by the end of the month, many of them had gone to Nankana Sahib believing it would be part of India, only to be cordoned off by the Baluch Regiment and massacred. In Multan there was heavy property damage and many casualties, most casualties occurred in the Khanewal region wherein the Doabi Jatt Sikh populations were involved in rural agriculture. They had all gathered in one Inder Cotton Factory in Mian Channu where the owner helped escort all of the thousands with army protection in trucks to Ferozepore. Kahuta sikh village destroyed

April 1947

From April 11-13 massacres occurred in Amritsar, with some repercussions in Lahore. Though April was most probably the most peaceful month of the nine months of rioting, thousands had been killed across the village areas. The Shiromani Akali Dal (and Sikh princely states) spent this month gathering money, arms, voluntary soldiers and more do ethnically cleanse East Punjab. Master Tara Singh and Kartar Singh of Jhabbar went on drives in Lyallpur, Bengal, Bombay to collect 50 lakhs so that they could use it for a long lasting battle with Pakistan and Islam. On Vaisakhi day (13 April, 1947) Master Tara Singh and 280 jathedars vowed to sacrifice their lives if nessecary. Members of the Indian National Army were sent to guard historic gurudwaras, firearms were given by the princely states. In Pakistan Muslims had started stocking weapons in December of 1946, they had secret funds (sandug) from the North-West Frontier Province and Bawahalpur who purchased hand greandes, helmets, iron jackets and arms. The Sikhs banked on the princely states of Patiala, Kapurthala, Jind and others to give weapons. Soon an operational system was set for the jathas, with designated leaders, mobile headquarters and military-like tactics. They spearheaded the defence of Sikhs at first.

Master Tara Singh used the newspaper Ajit for advertising and travelled from city to city. He collected 12,000 rupees from Lyallpur himself and 1.5 lakhs from Marwari businessmen living in Bengal. In May 1947, he reached the drive goal of 50 lakhs. Trouble spread in the Mewat area south of Delhi in April, the Meos were heavily involved.

May 1947

From May 10 onwards the 'communal war of succession' began in the earnest with incendiarism, stabbing and bombing. Serious incidents occurred in Gujranwala, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Lahore, Ferozepore and Jullundur. 140 villages were burnt in Gurgaon. Between riots there was a reletively quick period which was used by the communities for war-like preparations, weapons procuring, bomb manufacturing and more. Each community was intent upon doing the maximum damage to the other and such mass terrorism made control by troops and police most ineffective.

June 1947

There was bitter criticism faced by the British Government who, "were able to crush without difficulty the disturbances of 1942 but failed to deal with the disturbances of 1947." In their defence, the British opined that while the 1942 disturbances (in the United Provinces and Bihar) were initiated by a single political party against the government then engaged with a war against Japan and Germany, those of 1947 were engaged between communities against one another at a time when the government was to transfer power to an, "unknown successor or successors within a short time." Both sides wanted to secure a more favorable position to gain more land at the time of partition. During this time population tranferred in frenzies and the Patiala State Police, State Forces, Paramjit Infantry and all the other Sikh princely states.

July 1947

In July the sIKHS HAD

Plans had been announced to destroy the Punjab Boundary Force which was initiated on July 17, 1947

wrecking trains from karachi ro delhi

assassination of jinnah on 15th august in karachi

auchinleck doubted the sikhs in the army's loyalty

Riots briefly stopped but the akal takht started the sgpc fauzi guard and various Sikh groups started gaining prominence, the Akal Regiment, Akali Sena, Nalwa Regiment and many others came into vogue under the Shiromani aKALI Dal.

500 people were being killed per day in Patiala city, police used to go out for shikaar

numbers of sikhs were pouring from one side of the border to the other in numbers never seen before in the history of mankind

August 1947

In August the independance was declared, frenzied and panic stricken Sikhs Hindus and Muslims rioted while jathas picked off caravans and killed the reugees who were escaping from their homes leaving everything behind

on 21st semptember a train from peshawar was sacked and all hindus sikhs killed, a slogan was written on the train saying "Kattal karne hamse sikho" (learn how to kill like we do),

on 22 September 1947. Three thousand Muslim refugees were killed and a further one thousand wounded and the train had a slogan in blood saying, "Kattal karne sikh liya" (we have learned how to kill) from the Akal Regiment.

attack of a refugee train in Kamoke carrying Sikh-Hindu passengers around 25 miles west of Lahore on Wednesday, 24 September.

later a Muslim covoy was massacred in kasur, during a cross-border raid

the apkistan army pla

24th August, 1947 for the first time in the history of Sheikhupura a curfew order was imposed by the District Magistrate.

Francis Mudie was also suspected to have been a target for assassination

20th august thousands of non muslims butchered in sheikhupura by the baluch regiment

Karachi Mail was ravaged and 12,000 passangers from Pind Dadan Khan and Chakwal butchered

The newly formed government nor the interm one solved the crisis and did not perform any role of administrative reform.

Self-defence forces were hasily formed including the Punjab Defence Force, Shere-E-Punjab, Hindu-Sikh Milap Dal (Amritsar), National Volunteer Corps, Students' Home Guards and Punjab Frontier National Guards. Desh Sewak Sena caused the most interest.

Military involvement

September 1947

He took over the command of 123 Infantry Brigade at Amritsar on 11^th September 1947 during the height of communal riots from a British Officer named Brigadier Solomons, a highly decorated officer. He was the first Indian to take over the post. Brigadier Solomon had under him three battalions while Mohindar Singh Chopra was given seven more to look after the border and to protect the refugees.

After doing the Sylhet Referendum and commanding the SYLFORCE, Lt. Col. Mohindar Singh Chopra had been sent to stop the communal riots that had infected Punjab as commander of the 123 Indian Infantry Brigade in Amritsar.

On 11th October 1947 the Wagah Border had been installed

He formed the Military Evacuee Organisation, Amritsar that came into being on September 1, 1947. He revealed that he sent the belongings of Sir Zaffar Ullah, Pakistani representative at the United Nations from Qadian to Lahore.

Military Evacuee Organization, Sept 1 1947

Advance Military Evacuee Organisation was simultaneously established at Lahore to facilitate the movement of evacuees from Pakistani territory. These organizations were wound up in November 1948 after evacuation work was largely over.

Punjab Armed Police poured from West to East Punjab.

• amritsar jullundur simla ferozepur
• bomb explosions in refuee trains in amritsar
• west punjab police searched and looted belongings of refugees
• a muslims covoy stole cattle and goods in manipur, rasulpur and havail
• a muslim refugee lorry going to lahore was attacked by a party of sikhs near khalsa college
• a sikh jatha attacked muslims of kathunangal but repulsed by local residents
• a hindu threw a bomb killing 3 muslims in ps gharinda
• a jatha attacked a muslim covoy in tarn taran, the non muslim troops killed 3 attackers
• train was attacked by 5000 nonmuslims, indian troops arrived and killed 7, injured many others
• non muslims started interfighting, they started fighting their co-religionists

October 1947

In early October 1947 M.S. Chopra along with his troops, was escorting a large Muslim convoy from Beas to Amritsar. Nearing the camping ground at Amritsar hundreds of Amritsar citizens shouting hysterically waving swords and spears. The situation was explosive, he stood on top of a standing bullock cart and shouted the Sikh war-cry, "Jo Bole So Nihal Sat Sri Akal." He stressed that if they killed the lot of Muslims there would be further retaliation and revenge. He told them two wrongs do not make one right and moreover Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had given explicit instructions that those Muslims who did not want to stay in India, should be allowed to go unmolested. The crowd, miraculously, listened and dispersed.

On 8th October he was made the brigadier to take over the frontier brigade (123 infantry) of ep area (east punjab area) was in the middle of india, suddenly a border town, lahore which was a sister-city became a hostile city part of another country entirely. the radcliffe line was only on paper, there was no hill, no river, no feature to demarcate it but empty farms, houses and villages. PATHANS WERE COMING FROM ACROSS THE BORDER looting, raping and killing, and likewise Sikhs were doing so as well. HIs counterpart in Lahore was Brig Nasir Ahmad who was from Mohindar Singh's palton, in fact chosen by Mohindar Singh from the Indian military academy. He rang up his friend nasir who was his friend when he took over the brigade, Nasir was in charge of 114 brigade. They were earlier partof the same army, division and regiment. He told them to stop all the raiding, unless war wanted to come. 11th october they came to the Wagah Border,

He and his counterpart and former associate and friend, Brigadier Nasir Ahmad, had devised a plan to create a joint check post to make sure that the border is created. They both founded the famous Wagah-Attari Border which, at that time, was 3 drums on each side and a line of chalk drawn on the Grand Trunk Road. Visitors can still see a plaque at the bottom of the flagstaff at the check post which bears the words: "Foundation stone of this flag staff was laid by Brig Mohindar Singh Chopra on 11th Oct 1947".

November 1947

There was a similar encounter near Qadian on 12 November when Brigadier Mohindar Singh Chopra personally directed operations and recovered improvised anti- personnel land mines and 3 " mortars from the fleeing raiders. With open warfare having broken out in Kashmir the Lahore-Amritsar border was getting restless. On 3 November, large concentrations of Pathans and other tribals at Lahore were reported to be preparing for raiding Amritsar, 3 lorry-loads of Pathans were observed at camping around Wagah, although they were thwarted as reinforcements were placed. During the major chunk of the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War, there was no fighting on the neighboring Punjab front, and he later invited Jawaharlal Nehru for a parade in Gobindgarh Fort, Amritsar to inspire the people that Punjab would be safe, Brigadier Chopra stayed there till October 1949.

Punjab Frontier Guard and Punjab Boundary Force

Ajit Fauj in Ferozepur

Nalwa Dal and Dashmesh Sena in Amritsar

December 1947

They were expecting a full sclae war 10000 personell in the Desh Sewak Sena, Akal Regiment had slogans like 'Jamrud Chalo'

Ujjal Singh started working on the reinstatement of refugees in Amritsar, which slowly turned from the golden city of punjab to a cramped, unplanned, traffic infused city with no direction for the future. The committee could not chsnge this aspect as they were more focused on alotting land to the Sikhs and Hindus who lost their lands, less land was given as compensation to most due to West Punjab being much larger a region and the fact that most of the migrants were landowners and not laborers.

Aftermath

Early 1948

In February 1948 accompanying Sir Chandu Lal Trivedi, the Governor of East Punjab, the exhausted and tired refugees would often come grueling talking of their conditions, the massacres, rapes, forced conversions and much more. Many pregnant women would give birth on the roadside or on trucks proceeding to Amritsar. They got shelter on roadsides, in camps, in school buildings, in private houses, in fields and on the streets. Khem Karan was flooded with refugees from Montgomery and Multan. The water-wells were either filled with the carcasses of cows or poisoned, and the water being sold by Pakistanis was at exorbitant prices. These columns of refugees were safer as they had a sprinkling of retired army personnel. Wing Commander Mehar Singh (Mehar Baba) and Mohindar Singh Chopra dropped of supplies in a small plane, including food parcels, cooked chapattis and vegetables in sacks.

Providing shelter, clothing, blankets and food for lakhs, as well as their onward transportation were a colossal problem. General Chopra was very ably assisted by his wife, Jagjit Kaur, and her team of helpers who did a Herculean task of collecting old and new garments, jerseys, blankets in thousands, all of which she got donated from charitable organizations and individuals for distribution to the needy in the camps. Often late at night they visited camps and the railway stations to cover people who were without blankets. The canteens were opened by the army wives to offer tea, biscuits, bread and other snacks much needed by the refugees moving in road convoys or on trains. Mohindar Singh Chopra's jeep, in which he moved around, carried a bagful of roasted grams and jaggery for distribution to the hungry. The people of Amritsar also rose to the occasion and gave very help possible, some refugees stayed in Amritsar, some left for Delhi, Kanpur and other areas whereas other richer ones left for Great Britain, Canada and the United States of America.

Later events

Khalistan Movement

1965 indo pak war

External links

Central Sikh League
Abbreviation	CSL
Leader	Gajjan Singh Baba Kharak Singh Tara Singh
Founder	Sardar Bahadur Gajjan Singh
Founded	30 March, 1919
Dissolved	16 October 1933
Merged into	Khalsa Darbar
Ideology	Sikhism Indian Independence
Politics of India Political parties Elections

Central Sikh League was a political party of the Sikhs. It was founded in Amritsar on 30th March, 1919. The First President was Sardar Bahadur Gajjan Singh, the founder of Sikh politics, and it was the first purely Sikh political party to have been created. The Central Sikh League was one of the main Sikh political institutions, overshadowing the Khalsa National Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal from for twenty years, till the rise of the Khalsa National Party and later the Shiromani Akali Dal. The Central Sikh League remains the only political party that had Sikhs united under one banner in the history of Sikh politics.

History

The main objectives and aims of the league was the promotion of Khalsa Panth in the Sikh political sphere, as Sikhs were lagging behind in the political consciousness of the country. A moderate had founded the party, named Sardar Bahadur Gajjan Singh of Ludhiana, one of two lawyers of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, the other being Giani Jhanda Singh. He founded the Central Sikh League as a moderate and British-supporting party, like the Unionist Party they cooperated with the British. The Vice-President was Sardar Bahadur Capt. Gopal Singh of Bhagowal O.B.E. and there were many notable Sikhs in the party, these included Sardul Singh Kavishar, Harchand Singh Lyallpuri, Sunder Singh Lyallpuri, Baba Kharak Singh, Governor Ujjal Singh, Sardar Bahadur Sir Sundar Singh Majithia, Gulab Singh, Partap Singh Shankar, Sarmukh Singh Jhabal, Teja Singh Samundri, Sardar Bahadur Mehtab Singh, Master Tara Singh, Giani Sher Singh, Amar Singh Jhabal and Mangal Singh. There were the first few Sikh politicians to have existed and performed as the base of Sikh political conduct for decades later.

The league sought representation of the Sikh community in the Punjab Legislative Council, removal of restriction on carrying of Kirpan one of the religious symbols, and reforms of Sikh places of worship. In 1920, the League passed a resolution to support the Non-Cooperation Movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. Central Sikh League also encouraged volunteers to carry on fight for Swaraj.

The League supported the Gurdwara Reform Movement and appointed an inquiry committee into the Nankana massacre of 20 February 1921. League also protested when the keys of Darbar Sahib were taken by the British Government and again when Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha State by British Government.

Central Sikh league was formed as a purely political organisation which guided their sikh politics until the Shiromani Akah Dal emerged as a mass force.

Political organization of the Sikhs which guided their affairs until the Shiromani Akah Dal emerged as a mass force. The inaugural session of the Central Sikh League was held at Amritsar on 29 December 1919, coinciding with the annual sessions of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. It was dominated by the educated Sikhs from the middle strata such as Sardul Singh Caveeshar, Harchand Singh Lyallpuri and Master Sundar Singh Lyallpuri. The first president was Sardar Bahadur Gajjan Singh representing moderate political opinion. But the leadership soon changed and Baba Kharak Singh, an ardent nationalist, was elected president for its second session at Lahore in October 1920.

The aims and objectives of the Central Sikh League, according to its new constitution adopted on 22 July 1921, were the attainment of svaraj, i.e. political autonomy for the country, by legitimate, peaceful and constitutional means and the promotion of Panthic unity, the fostering of patriotism and public spirit among the Sikhs and the development and organization of their political, moral and economic resources. Membership was open to Sikhs who had attained the age of 21 years and the fee was four annas per month. The executive committee of the League consisted of 101 members, exclusive of ex officio members, 80 of whom were elected and 21 nominated. By August 1921, units of the Central Sikh League had been set up at Amritsar, Lahore, Gujranwala, Lyallpur, Sialkot, Jehlum, Firozpur, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. The annual meeting of the League was held generally during the Dussehra holidays.

In espousing Sikh interests, the Central Sikh League sought adequate representation for the community in the Punjab Legislative Council, removal of restrictions on the carrying by Sikhs of kirpan, one of their religious symbols, and reform of Sikh places of worship. The League maintained a close liaison with the Indian National Congress. It also presented a memorandum listing 17 demands of the Sikhs to Mahatma Gandhi who was to represent the Congress at the Conference. These included the setting up of a national government in India, one-third share for the Sikhs in the Punjab cabinet and public service commission, joint electorates without reservation of seats and transfer of Muslim areas to the Frontier Province to bring about communal balance in the Punjab, five per cent share for the Sikhs in the Indian upper and lower houses, inclusion of at least one Sikh in the Central cabinet, and adoption of Punjabi as the official language of the province. In the scheme announced by the British government on 16 August 1932 which came to be known as the Communal Award, Sikhs were given only 18.85 per cent representation in the Punjab legislature. The Sikh League lodged a strong protest. What especially irked it was the statutory majority assured the Muslims in the Punjab by giving them 50.42 per cent seats. Anticipating the pronouncement, the Central Sikh League called a representative conclave of the Sikhs on 24 July 1932 at the samadh of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore at which a 16-member council of action was formed to oppose the British proposals. This council of action set up a new organization, the Khalsa Darbar, representing all sections of Sikh opinion, to lead the agitation against the Award. On 16 October 1933, a joint session of the Central Sikh League and the Khalsa Darbar was held whereafter the former ceased to be a separate organization. With this ended the short, but lively and chequered, career of the Central Sikh League. At the second session of the Central Sikh League, Baba Kharak Singh, in his presidential address, exhorted the Sikhs to participate in national politics. At this session, the League passed a resolution supporting the noncooperation movement of the Indian National Congress. Like the Congress and the Central Khilafat Committee, the Sikh League also started enlisting volunteers to carry on the fight for svaraj. It issued a manifesto and asked for 10,000 Sikh volunteers to come forward and join the national movement. At the same time the League, with a view to stressing Sikh identity, insisted that the Congress include in the national flag it was designing a strip in yellow, the colour of the Sikhs. The League supported the struggle for gurdwara reform and appointed an enquiry committee to investigate the Nankana tragedy in which about 150 reformist Sikhs were mercilessly butchered by the priest’s hired killers. Similarly when the government took over the keys of the Golden Temple toshakhana, the League called a series of protest meetings. When Ripudaman Singh, the Maharaja of Nabha, relinquished in 1923 the gaddi, his royal seat, the Central Sikh League convened a special meeting to protest against what was described as undue pressure brought upon him by the British Government. The Central Sikh League showed concern about the communal sentiment penetrating into Indian body politic. It favoured the complete abolition of communal representation in legislatures, but reiterated at the same time in its resolution of 10 October 1927 that, in case it was retained, the Sikhs must be given 30 per cent share in the Punjab legislative seats. The Sikh League participated in the allparties conference convened by the Congress in Delhi in February 1928 to work out a constitution which would be acceptable to various .interests. It sent a delegation consisting of Baba Kharak Singh, Sardar Bahadur Mehtab Singh, Master Tara Singh, Giani Sher Singh, Amar Singh Jhabal and Mangal Singh to take part in the conference. Mangal Singh was appointed a member of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru which prepared an exhaustive scheme which was published in August 1 August 1928 and came to be known as the Nehru Report. The Report was however strongly opposed by the Central Sikh League, because, as Baba Kharak Singh said in his presidential address given extempore at the annual session of the Sikh League at Gujranwala on 22 October 1928, it had sinned against the self-respect and dignity of India by limiting the national objective to Dominion Status instead of demanding purna (purna = complete) svaraj, complete autonomy. The second point of criticism was that the, Nehru Report had laid the foundation of communalism by accepting separate electorates. The League advocated a system of joint electorate with plural constituencies adding that, if community wise representation became inevitable, the Sikhs should have at least 30 per cent of the seats in the Punjab legislature and the same proportion of the representation from the Punjab to the Central legislature. The temper against the Nehru Report was so high that in the annual meeting of the Central Sikh League in October 1929, Baba Kharak Singh even proposed boycotting the forthcoming Congress session to be held in Lahore. But Master Tara Singh, the then president of the Central Sikh League, was not in favour of this. In the meantime, Mahatma Gandhi and other Congress leaders also urged the League not to dissociate itself from the Congress session. The problem was resolved when the Congress working committee at Lahore decided to drop the Nehru Report. The Congress also adopted a motion assuring Sikhs and Muslims that no constitutional solution which did not satisfy them would be acceptable to it. The Central Sikh League took part in the Civil Disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 6 March 1930. Master Tara Singh, while leading a batch of Akali volunteers to help the Pathan satyagrahis at Peshawar, was taken into custody. The League like the Congress also boycotted the first Round Table Conference convened in London with the object of obtaining the views of Indians on the future constitutional reforms but, after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact signed on 5 March 1931, it agreed to participate in the second Round Table Conference. At the second session of the Central Sikh League, Baba Kharak Singh, in his presidential address, exhorted the Sikhs to participate in national politics. At this session, the League passed a resolution supporting the noncooperation movement of the Indian National Congress. Like the Congress and the Central Khilafat Committee, the Sikh League also started enlisting volunteers to carry on the fight for svaraj. It issued a manifesto and asked for 10,000 Sikh volunteers to come forward and join the national movement. At the same time the League, with a view to stressing Sikh identity, insisted that the Congress include in the national flag it was designing a strip in yellow, the colour of the Sikhs. The League supported the struggle for gurdwara reform and appointed an enquiry committee to investigate the Nankana tragedy in which about 150 reformist Sikhs were mercilessly butchered by the priest’s hired killers. Similarly when the government took over the keys of the Golden Temple toshakhana, the League called a series of protest meetings. When Ripudaman Singh, the Maharaja of Nabha, relinquished in 1923 the gaddi, his royal seat, the Central Sikh League convened a special meeting to protest against what was described as undue pressure brought upon him by the British Government. The Central Sikh League showed concern about the communal sentiment penetrating into Indian body politic. It favoured the complete abolition of communal representation in legislatures, but reiterated at the same time in its resolution of 10 October 1927 that, in case it was retained, the Sikhs must be given 30 per cent share in the Punjab legislative seats. The Sikh League participated in the allparties conference convened by the Congress in Delhi in February 1928 to work out a constitution which would be acceptable to various .interests. It sent a delegation consisting of Baba Kharak Singh, Sardar Bahadur Mehtab Singh, Master Tara Singh, Giani Sher Singh, Amar Singh Jhabal and Mangal Singh to take part in the conference. Mangal Singh was appointed a member of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru which prepared an exhaustive scheme which was published in August 1

References

Sardar Bahadur Bhai Sujan Singh Hadaliwale (1858-1923) was a businessman, agriculturalist, landlord and contractor hailing from Hadali in the Shahpur District, Punjab Province, currently in Pakistan.

He owned vast tracts of land in West Punjab which he used to use for agricultural purposes, using modern methods to produce vegetation. He is mostly known because of his landholdings, which has made him a well-known figure across villages in West Punjab and Delhi alike. His contributions made a lasting impact on agriculture and industries in Pakistan along with construction in India.

Early life

Sujan Singh Hadaliwale was born to the Sikh family of his grandfather Sohel Singh and father Inder Singh. For most of his life he was in the wholesale business, they used to haul camels with Salt from the Kherawa Mines, go to Amritsar, sell it for basic amenities like oil, tea, matchboxes, candles, cloth and more. Then they went to their own and surrounding villages to sell these items. This business made them the richest family in Hadali, after his father's passing they named their house, which existed in Hadali till recently, Inder Singh Haveli.

Contracting and agricultural career

Previous Contracting Projects

Slowly his business became larger and larger, till he recieved a contract for building bridges, tunnels and laying tracks for the Kalka–Simla Railway in 1903, with the Chief Engineer being Herbert Septimus Harington. His older son helped him in this and his younger son was sent to complete his education in Lahore. He then became very close friends with Sir Malcom Hailey, Baron of Shahpur who was also in charge of selecting contractors for the construction of New Delhi. He built many civic buildings in Multan, Lyallpur and Sargodha, along with factories.

Delhi Contracting Projects

He started his contracting projects in Delhi by building a house for himself and his son in Ajmeri Gate known as Sir Sobha Singh Buildings (it was named so much after). He then constructed a house on Old Mill Road, now Rafi Marg- and after getting some more money he shifted to Jantar Mantar Road where he built a two-storied house (it was later sold to the Maharaja of Cochin and is currently Kerala State Guest House). He then laid out the Vijay Chowk, Jaipur Column, cleared the trees and flattened the land in Raisina Hill and Alipur Road. He then constructed the Jumna Mill, later Khalsa Cotton Spinning and Weaving Mills in Old Delhi which he gave to his son during the First World War.

First World War

He was tasked with recruitment in West Punjab, specifically the Shahpur region, during the First World War, this was through going from village-to-village and asking young men to join the British Indian Army. He was successful in this mission and managed to recruit 437 young men in Hadali, which only had around 250 families; as most of them had nothing to do during the war. He was handsomely rewarded with multiple Jagirs, one in Jaranwala, one in Sargodha, one in Bhalwal, and his largest was 19,569 acres in Mian Channu. He was given the title of Sardar Sahib and to the residents of Mian Channu, he was known as Bhai Sujan Singh Hadaliwale due to his classic Sikh style of dressing.

Cotton Factories

He had multiple cotton factories in West Punjab, and helped in irrigating the lands. He bought tractors to improve agriculture and four factories in Mian Channu, Jaranwala, Bhalwal and Sargodha after his father, known as Inder Cotton Factory (it was present till the 1960s). His friend and later brother-in-law Harbel Singh had built the Khalsa Factory and the New Khalsa Factory, irrigation canals were also put in place and orange orchards were planted near Khanewal. He introduced modern techniques of farming like tractors and harvesters. He was a pioneer of exploiting the soils.

Personal life and family

He also raised a cotton factory, which was named after his father Inder Cotton Factory. Both families prospered. For his successful attempts to improve cattle breeding the British Government conferred Knighthood on Datar Singh. My grandfather was fobbed off with a Sardar Sahib. I feel my uncle Ujjal Singh and his father Sujan Singh must have got peeved and composed a Punjabi doggerel on this occasion. It ran as follows:

Ban Gaya Sir Datar/ Mjhan Chaar Kay/ Moh Layee Sarkar/ Guppan maar maar kay

(He has become a Sir Datar

For taking buffaloes out to graze

He has won over the government

By sweet talk and hogwash)

Urban Legends and Sayings

Sujan Singh was ascribed to legends. There is a common story of there being one year where it rained heavily on the Salt Range, the flood waters swept down the rocky ridge carrying a Muslim Pir, named Shaida Pir with it. By the time he foated to Hadali he had nothing on him other than a loin cloth. Sujan Singh had given him clothes and made a hut for him next to a Muslim graveyard and sent him food. Shaida Pir blessed him saying that, "I will give your two sons the keys of Delhi and Lahore". His older son Sardar Bahadur Sir Sobha Singh ended up becoming known as "Adhi Dilli ka Malik" (the owner of half of Delhi) and his younger son Governor Ujjal Singh ended up being one of Pre-Partition Punjab's biggest landowners.

In Khushab and Shahpur, the term 'Hadaliwale' or 'Hadaliwala' is used to describe a rich person in an ironic manner, it was derived from the suffix given to Bhai Sujan Singh.

Legacy

Sites named after him include:

1. Kot Sujan Singh (1923)
2. Sujan Singh Block A (1930)
3. Sujan Singh Block B (1932)
4. Sujan Singh Block C (1933)
5. Sujan Singh Park (1945)

The sites he contracted included:

1. Inder Cotton Factory (1894)
2. Bhagwant Cotton Factory (1899)
3. Khalsa Cotton Factory (1900)
4. Kalka-Shimla Railroad (1903)
5. Sir Sobha Singh Buildings (1910)
6. Kerala State Guest House (1911)
7. Vijay Chowk (1910)
8. Jaipur Column (1911)
9. Raisina Hill (1912)
10. Alipur Road (1913)
11. Khalsa Cotton Spinning and Weaving Mills (1918)
12. New Khalsa Cotton Factory (1920)

References

Sardar Bahadur Sunder Singh Dhupia (ice factory)

Bhai Sujan Singh Hadaliwale

Sardar Bahadur Sir Sobha Singh O.B.E.

Sardar Bahadur Narain Singh of Akoi

Sardar Bahadur Dharam Singh Sethi

Sardar Bahadur Basakha Singh Sandhu

Ram Singh Kabli

Sardar Bahadur Ranjit Singh of Akoi

Sewa Singh

Ishwar Singh

Bahadur Singh (special works division)

Lakhmir Singh

Sir Teja Singh Malik

Manohar Singh

Uttam Singh Duggal

Harcharan Singh Duggal

Mohan Singh Coca Cola

Chief Minister Lacchman Singh Gill

Pasma Shri Khushwant Singh (M.P., F.K.C.)
Portrait of Khushwant Singh. Portrait of Khushwant Singh.
Born	Khushal Singh (1915-02-02)2 February 1915 Hadali, Punjab Province, British India (now in Punjab, Pakistan)
Died	20 March 2014(2014-03-20) (aged 99) New Delhi, India
Occupation	Lawyer, journalist, diplomat, writer, politician
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Government College, Lahore (B.A.) University of London (LL.B.)
Notable works	The History of Sikhs Train to Pakistan Delhi: A Novel The Company of Women Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography With Malice towards One and All Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles Khushwantnama, The Lessons of My Life Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat: Reflections on a Land and its People The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories The Portrait of a Lady
Notable awards	Rockefeller Grant Padma Bhushan Honest Man of the Year Punjab Rattan Award Padma Vibhushan Sahitya Akademi Fellowship All-India Minorities Forum Annual Fellowship Award Lifetime Achievement Award Fellow of King's College[1] The Grove Press Award
Relatives	Sardar Sujan Singh (grandfather) Lakshmi Devi (grandmother) Sir Sobha Singh (father) Viran Bai (mother) Sardar Ujjal Singh (uncle) Bhagwant Singh (brother) Brigadier Gurbux Singh (brother) Daljit Singh (brother) Mohinder Kaur (sister) Kanwal Malik (spouse) Rahul Singh (son) Mala (daughter) Sir Teja Singh Malik (father-in-law)
Signature

Padma Shri Khushwant Singh M.P., F.K.C. (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write Train to Pakistan in 1956 (made into film in 1998), which became his most well-known novel.

Born in Punjab, Khushwant Singh was educated in Modern School, New Delhi, St. Stephen's College, and graduated from Government College, Lahore. He studied at King's College London and was awarded an LL.B. from University of London. He was called to the bar at the London Inner Temple. After working as a lawyer in Lahore High Court for eight years, he joined the Indian Foreign Service upon the Independence of India from British Empire in 1947. He was appointed journalist in the All India Radio in 1951, and then moved to the Department of Mass Communications of UNESCO at Paris in 1956. These last two careers encouraged him to pursue a literary career. As a writer, he was best known for his trenchant secularism, humour, sarcasm and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as the editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1980 and 1986 he served as Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India.

Khushwant Singh was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974; however, he returned the award in 1984 in protest against Operation Blue Star in which the Indian Army raided Amritsar. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.

Early life

Khushwant Singh was born in Hadali, Khushab District, Punjab (which now lies in Pakistan), in a Sikh family. He was the younger son of Sir Sobha Singh, who later witnessed against Bhagat Singh, and Veeran Bai. Births and deaths were not recorded in his time, and for him his father simply made up 2 February 1915 for his school enrollment at Modern School, New Delhi. But his grandmother Lakshmi Devi asserted that he was born in August, so he later set the date for himself as 15 August. Sobha Singh was a prominent builder in Lutyens' Delhi. His uncle Sardar Ujjal Singh (1895–1983) was previously Governor of Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

His birth name, given by his grandmother, was Khushal Singh (meaning "Prosperous Lion"). He was called by a pet name "Shalee". At school his name earned him ridicule as other boys would mock him with an expression, "Shalee Shoolee, Bagh dee Moolee" (meaning, "This shalee or shoolee is the radish of some garden.") He chose Khushwant so that it rhymes with his elder brother's name Bhagwant. He declared that his new name was "self-manufactured and meaningless". However, he later discovered that there was a Hindu physician with the same name, and the number subsequently increased.

He entered the Delhi Modern School in 1920 and studied there till 1930. There he met his future wife, Kanwal Malik, one year his junior. He studied Intermediate of Arts at St. Stephen's College in Delhi during 1930-1932. He pursued higher education at Government College, Lahore, in 1932, and got his BA in 1934 by a "third-class degree". Then he went to King's College London to study law, and was awarded an LL.B. from University of London in 1938. He was subsequently called to the bar at the London Inner Temple.

Career

Khushwant Singh started his professional career as a practicing lawyer in 1939 at Lahore in the Chamber of Manzur Qadir and Ijaz Husain Batalvi. He worked at Lahore Court for eight years where he worked with some of his best friends and fans including Akhtar Aly Kureshy, Advocate, and Raja Muhammad Arif, Advocate. In 1947, he entered the Indian Foreign Service for the newly independent India. He started as Information Officer of the Government of India in Toronto, Canada, and moved on to be the Press Attaché and Public Officer for the Indian High Commission for four years in London and Ottawa. In 1951, he joined the All India Radio as a journalist. Between 1954 and 1956 he worked in Department of Mass Communication of the UNESCO at Paris. From 1956 he turned to editorial services. He founded and edited Yojana, an Indian government journal in 1951–1953; The Illustrated Weekly of India, a newsweekly;The National Herald. He was also appointed as editor of Hindustan Times on Indira Gandhi's personal recommendation.

During his tenure, The Illustrated Weekly became India's pre-eminent newsweekly, with its circulation raising from 65,000 to 400,000. After working for nine years in the weekly, on 25 July 1978, a week before he was to retire, the management asked Singh to leave "with immediate effect". A new editor was installed the same day. After Singh's departure, the weekly suffered a huge drop in readership. In 2016 Khushwant Singh enters Limca Book of Records as a tribute.

Politics

Khushwant Singh meeting Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam before receiving the Padma Vibhushan.

From 1980 to 1986, Singh was a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 for service to his country. In 1984, he returned the award in protest against the siege of the Golden Temple by the Indian Army. In 2007, the Indian government awarded Khushwant Singh the Padma Vibhushan.

As a public figure, Khushwant Singh was accused of favouring the ruling Congress party, especially during the reign of Indira Gandhi. When Indira Gandhi announced nation-wide-emergency, he openly supported it and was derisively called an 'establishment liberal'.

Singh's faith in the Indian political system was shaken by the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, in which major Congress politicians are alleged to be involved; but he remained resolutely positive on the promise of Indian democracy and worked via Citizen's Justice Committee floated by H. S. Phoolka who is a senior advocate of Delhi High Court.

Singh was a votary of greater diplomatic relations with Israel at a time when India did not want to displease Arab nations where thousands of Indians found employment. He visited Israel in the 1970s and was impressed by its progress.

Personal life

The Speaker, Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee presenting National Amity Award to Khushwant Singh at a function, in New Delhi on September 26, 2008.

Khushwant Singh was married to Kanwal Malik. Malik was his childhood friend who had moved to London earlier. They met again when he studied law at King's College London, and soon got married. They were married in Delhi, with Chetan Anand and Iqbal Singh as the only invitees. Muhammad Ali Jinnah also attended the formal service. They had a son, named Rahul Singh, and a daughter, named Mala. His wife predeceased him in 2001. Actress Amrita Singh is the daughter of his brother Daljit Singh's son – Shavinder Singh and Rukhsana Sultana. He stayed in "Sujan Singh Park", near Khan Market New Delhi, Delhi's first apartment complex, built by his father in 1945, and named after his grandfather.

Khushwant Singh at a reading in New Delhi.

Religious belief

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh releasing ‘The Illustrated History of Sikhs’ by Khushwant Singh in New Delhi on January 12, 2006.

Singh was a self-proclaimed agnostic, as the title of his 2011 book Agnostic Khushwant: There is no God explicitly revealed. He was particularly against organised religion. He was evidently inclined towards atheism, as he said, "One can be a saintly person without believing in God and a detestable villain believing in him. In my personalised religion, There Is No God!" He also once said, "I don't believe in rebirth or in reincarnation, in the day of judgement or in heaven or hell. I accept the finality of death." His last book The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous was published in October 2013, following which he retired from writing. The book was his continued critique of religion and especially its practice in India, including the critique of the clergy and priests. It earned a lot of acclaim in India. Khushwant Singh had once controversially claimed that Sikhism was a form of "bearded Hinduism".

Death

Singh died of natural causes on 20 March 2014 at his Delhi residence, at the age of 99. The President, Vice-President and Prime Minister of India all issued messages honouring Singh. He was cremated at Lodhi Crematorium in Delhi at 4 in the afternoon of the same day. During his lifetime, Khushwant Singh was keen on burial because he believed that with a burial we give back to the earth what we have taken. He had requested the management of the Baháʼí Faith if he could be buried in their cemetery. After initial agreement, they had proposed some conditions which were unacceptable to Singh, and hence the idea was later abandoned. He was born in Hadali, Khushab District in the Punjab Province of modern Pakistan, in 1915. According to his wishes, some of his ashes were brought and scattered in Hadali.

In 1943 he had already written his own obituary, included in his collection of short stories Posthumous. Under the headline "Sardar Khushwant Singh Dead", the text reads:

We regret to announce the sudden death of Sardar Khushwant Singh at 6 pm last evening. He leaves behind a young widow, two infant children and a large number of friends and admirers. Amongst those who called at the late sardar’s residence were the PA to the chief justice, several ministers, and judges of the high court.

He also prepared an epitaph for himself, which runs:

Here lies one who spared neither man nor God;
Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod;
Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun;
Thank the Lord he is dead, this son of a gun.

He was cremated and his ashes are buried in Hadali school, where a plaque is placed bearing the inscription:

IN MEMORY OF
SARDAR KHUSHWANT SINGH
(1915–2014)
A SIKH, A SCHOLAR AND A SON OF HADALI (Punjab)
'This is where my roots are. I have nourished them with tears of nostalgia ...'

Honours and awards

• Rockefeller Grant, 1966
• Padma Bhushan, Government of India (1974) (He returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union government's siege of the Golden Temple, Amritsar)
• Honest Man of the Year, Sulabh International (2000)
• Punjab Rattan Award, The Government of Punjab (2006)
• Padma Vibhushan, Government of India (2007)
• Sahitya Akademi Fellowship by Sahitya academy of India (2010)
• 'All-India Minorities Forum Annual Fellowship Award' by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (2012)
• Lifetime achievement award by Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest in 2013
• Fellow of King's College London in January 2014
• 'The Grove Press Award' for the best fiction.

Literary works

Books

• The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories, (short story collection) 1950
• The History of Sikhs, 1953
• Train to Pakistan, (novel) 1956
• The Voice of God and Other Stories, (short story) 1957
• I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, (novel) 1959
• The Sikhs Today, 1959
• The Fall of the Kingdom of the Punjab, 1962
• A History of the Sikhs, 1963
• Ranjit Singh: The Maharaja of the Punjab, 1963
• Ghadar 1915: India's first armed revolution, 1966
• A Bride of the Sahib and Other Stories, (short story) 1967
• Black Jasmine, (short story) 1971
• Tragedy of Punjab, 1984 (with Kuldip Nayar)
• The Sikhs, 1984
• The Collected Stories of Khushwant Singh, Ravi Dayal Publisher, 1989
• More Malicious Gossip, 1989 (collection of essays)
• Delhi: A Novel, (Novel) 1990
• Sex, Scotch & Scholarship, 1992 (collection of essays)
• Not a Nice Man to Know: The Best of Khushwant Singh, 1993
• We Indians, 1993
• Women and Men in My Life, 1995
• Declaring Love in Four Languages, by Khushwant Singh and Sharda Kaushik, 1997
• The Company of Women, (novel) 1999
• Big Book of Malice, 2000, (collection of essays)
• India: An Introduction, 2003
• Truth, Love and a Little Malice: An Autobiography, 2002
• With Malice towards One and All
• The End of India, 2003
• Burial at the Sea, 2004
• A History of the Sikhs, 2004 (2nd edition)
• Paradise and Other Stories, 2004
• A History of the Sikhs: 1469–1838, 2004
• Death at My Doorstep, 2004
• A History of the Sikhs: 1839–2004, 2005
• The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, 2006
• Land of Five Rivers, 2006
• Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles, 2009
• The Sunset Club, (novel) 2010
• Gods and Godmen of India, 2012
• Agnostic Khushwant: There is no God, 2012
• The Freethinker's Prayer Book and Some Words to Live By, 2012
• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous, 2013 (co-authored with Humra Qureshi)
• Khushwantnama, The Lessons of My Life, 2013
• Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat: Reflections on a Land and its People, 2018 (posthumously compiled by his daughter Mala Dayal)

Short story

• The Portrait of a Lady
• The Strain
• Success Mantra
• A Love Affair in London
• The Wog
• The Portrait of a Lady: Collected Stories (2013)

Play

Television Documentary: Third World—Free Press (also presenter; Third Eye series), 1983 (UK).

See also

• "Karma", a short story by Khushwant Singh
• List of Indian writers

State of Khalistan خلستان (Persian) Khālisatāna
Emblem
Anthem: Dēg Tēg Fateh "Victory to Charity and Arms"
Capital	Amritsar or Chandigarh
Other languages	Punjabi, Persian
Recognised foreign language	Persian
Religion (2022 census)	Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity
Demonym(s)	Khalistan
Government	Democratic Oligarchy
Legislature	Khalsa Diwan
Formation
• Sikh Misls	1748
• Sikh Empire	1799
• Punjab Province	1849
• East Punjab	1947
• Punjab	1966
• Khalistan Movement	1984
Area
• Total	101,141 km2 (39,051 sq mi)
• Water (%)	0.6
Population
• 2022 census	169,828,911 (8th)
• Density	1,165/km2 (3,017.3/sq mi) (13th)
GDP (PPP)	2024 estimate
• Total	$1.620 trillion (25th)
• Per capita	$9,410 (126th)
GDP (nominal)	2024 estimate
• Total	$455.166 billion (34th)
• Per capita	$2,650 (137th)
Gini (2022)	49.9 high inequality
HDI (2022)	0.670 medium (129th)
Currency	Taka (৳) (BDT)
Time zone	UTC+6 (BST)
Drives on	left
Calling code	+880
Internet TLD	.bd .বাংলা

Khalistan (lit. 'land of the Khalsa') is a proposed autonomous region within India or sovereign state in South Asia. The concept of Khalistan seeks to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno‐religious sovereign state, though the proposals have various from a ISIS-style religious state to a purely secular one. Till date there has been no consensus on the issue of the government, parliament, armed forces, judiciary, method of proposal or any other demand for any Sikh state in South Asia, though scholars like Bhai Ajmer Singh, Gurbachan Singh Talib, Khushwant Singh, Harbans Singh and many more have come to a similar consensus on the functioning of a Sikh polity in these aspects, based off historical Sikh institutions, empires, the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, Prem Sumarag Granth and the recent aspirations and modern nation-states.

The state of Khalistan proposes to be an autonomous state within India under the earlier revoked Article 370 of the Constitution of India, it's boundaries including Haryana to the South, Himachal Pradesh to the East, Jammu and Kashmir to the North, it borders Rajasthan to the South-West and connects to West Punjab in Pakistan through an international border, the Radcliffe Line. The capital is Chandigarh, though the political and cultural centre is Amritsar, and the the main region of economic importance is Patiala. The official language is Persian, but the main language spoken by the people is Punjabi.

Khalistan is part of the historic and ethnolinguistic region of the Punjab, which was divided during the Partition of British India in 1947, West Punjab went to the Dominion of Pakistan and East Punjab along with the Patiala and East Punjab States Union went to the Dominion of India. The country has a Punjabi Sikh majority. Ancient Punjab was known as Madra Desha and was a stronghold of nomadic and rebellious polities. The rise of the ten Sikh Gurus in this region had caused the region to have a Sikh influence, in the aftermath of the Bhakti and Sufi Movements. The Sikh rulers and warriors who freed and fought for Punjab in the aftermath of the Mughal Empire include Banda Singh Bahadur, Nawab Kapur Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, Bhanga Singh Thanesar, Ganda Singh Bhangi, Maharaja Ranjit, Hari Singh Nalwa and many more during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the colonial era the Punjab was most governed by Punjabi Muslims of the Unionist Party, who were secular in nature, like Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Sir Khizar Hayat Tiwana, Sir Fazli Husain and Sir Shahab-ud-Din. Though it all ended after Muhammad Ali Jinnah's campaigns which led to communal tensions. Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims fought amongst each other during the Partition of Punjab to gain more land, in the end; objectively the Sikhs had gained more land as they went from being in majority in only one city (Faridkot) to almost the entire modern state of Punjab, whereas Muslims and Hindus were both heavily depleted from land. Though the Partition had caused millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands dead, many women raped and kidnapped and the consequences are still felt today.

After the Partition, East Punjab was trifurcated after the Punjabi Suba Movement and the modern State of Punjab was formed. The Shiromani Akali Dal and Indian National Congress were the two powers in a perpetual conflict for votes, the former representing Jatt and Mazhabi Sikhs and the latter Hindus and Khatri Sikhs. It became more complicated after a charismatic Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale of the Damdami Taksal was introduced, his fiery speeches had caused mass-support among the Jatt Sikhs, religious tension once again started, between Hindus and Sikhs- with the Nirankaris as a proxy for the former. After violent incidents started to increase, mainly due to the Babbar Khalsa, President's Rule was declared in Punjab and soon after Operation Blue Star to flush out Sikh militants from the Golden Temple, which also ended up destroying the Akal Takht. This had

Political Administration

Premier

Vazir

Vazir is elected by the Parliament

Tehsils should each have a judge

Parganas should have a A pargana requires a military commander (faujadar) and a law officer (amin), a revenue collector (sigadar)—who is called a tahsildar®>—and a treasurer (potadar). All these are under one man, a divan

he should appoint an intelligence officer (khabar navis)

A judge (niaunkar) should be appointed in every pargana town to adjudicate, in accordance with the principals of justice, whatever [legal] issues may be referred to him.

Harsh laws in terms of seperatism

pargana

district

province (disa)

An accountant (hisab-kar) should be appointed [for each district].

Aworthy person of aristocratic rank (umar4o) should be appointed governor (disavant) of each province (disa), to act on behalf of [the Raja] himself:

judiciary and intellegence falls under military

The [actual principles of] justice should be determined by the provincial governor, in consultation with his intelligence secretary.

Asecurity officer called a kotwal should be appointed for [each] city. His duty is to maintain order in the city, day and night.

The procedure whereby the Maharaja enlists troopsand appoints personal servants (samipavant) and secretaries (musaddt) to state positions should

e as follows: First he requires a household, divan whose function will be the supervision of all palace equipment. He must be a particularly alert person. All household goods and chattels, whether for service or production services, should be under his control. 1.

Next [the ruler] should appoint an army commander with the title of general (bakhasht). He will command the army, including the infantry, artillery, foundries, and infantry supplies. 2.

The third appointment should be a works director (bisakaramavanta). His responsibilities should include palace and garden furniture, together with all other domestic fittings. 3.

Fourth comes the [ruler’s] personal vazir. How is he to be chosen and what authority should be delegated to him? [He should possess the capacity to ensure that] if the ruler (raja mahdaraja) is incapacitated the administration of the state will continue to run smoothly. 4.

Mansabdari system

And let him take steps to ensure that not a bisava? of land remains unsown. In accordance with established practice, have the land so cultivated that all shortages are covered. Honour all contracts and agreements. Keep the requirements of justice ever in view

In accordance with this tradition [authority should be conferred on] strong men—those whom the foreigners call umardo or nobles. [This authority descends] to theirsons and grandsons.

Log-books of daily transactions (roz-ndma), daily accounts, and all other documents should be recorded in Gurmukhi, whether at the pargana level or in the royal court.

The Raja should appoint as chief justice (niduvant)

If any plaintiff or litigant has to be called, [the chief justice] should issue a summons as quickly as possible—certainly in less than half an hour (ik ghar?). To it, he should affix his seal. What is a summons? It is what foreigners call an ilam [or ‘notification’ ]

Artists should also be patronized. They should possess the skill to represent the exact likeness of whatever forms they copy. 3.

Kirtan singers should also be employed, men from whom music flows as a stream, taming [even] wild animals as they flee [from the sight of men]. 4.

Do not let too many people gather in a single place (basaft). Where should they be permitted to congregate? [They should be permitted to do so only] at funerals, festivals, and kirtan.

The Raja should employ plenty of informers and keep them constantly active to ensure receipt of full information from every town and village in the country. Secret agents in the same locality should not

The people should worship only Sri Akal Purakh. No idol nor image should be worshipped, no shrine (mart), tomb, mosque, dharamsala, temple (dehara), place of pilgrimage (ftrath), nor any other place associated with religious observance. There is only one dharam, only one obligation— the three-fold nam dan isanan. Let this be the object of worship and let (the ruler] inculcate devotion to Sri Akal Purakh, to the one true Lord alone. 4.

Itis the duty of the Maharaja to keep his people thoroughly contented. Apart from prostitutes no woman should appear in public unveiled. If [a respectable woman] ventures out of her home, she should go veiled. 1.

Ifa man commits adultery he and the woman should both be [publicly] seated on a donkey with their faces blackened so that all may know of their despicable behaviour. Their relationship should be formalized by having them married, thus entering a second marriage in each case. This will be a severe punishment. 2.

A brothel should be established so that those who must fornicate can avoid doing so with another man’s wife. To commit adultery with another’s wife is a particularly grievous act. There is a difference between a prostitute and another man’s wife. A prostitute offers her body for sale and accepts whom she pleases as her partner. To consort with a prostitute amounts to a semi-marriage and this too is very bad. Those who cannot resist had better succumb, but those who are able to maintain their purity should not let themselves be swayed.

He who is in any need—whether naked, hungry, without a means of livelihood, without the means of marrying his daughter, or whatever kind of need it may be—let his wishes be fulfilled. 3.

Take particular care with news about householders. Why is this? It is because if'a householder is afflicted with shyness, he cannot [freely] express his feelings. This the Maharaja should recognize, and personally take care of it.

Welfare state

First a letter bearing the seal and signature of the Maharaja is called a ‘high order’ (maha hukam). For whom should it be written? [It should be addressed to] a commander of between 3,000 and 80,000 soldiers and should relate to an important matter.

Maharaja records orally is called the ‘correct order’ (hasabulhukam) in the language of foreigners.'> This order will be delivered to the person concerned, who should receive it outside the city.

If any servant or any wealthy person from amongst [the Maharaja’s] subjects should die the means of disposing of his goods is as follows. If anyone from among the Maharaja’s servants should be called to heaven (dev lok ko chalata hoi), let his property be initially gathered into the treasury. Then that which is known as the royal share—it is called the ‘exaction’ (mutalaba)—is the Maharaja’s and may be taken from the property. The remainder should be delivered to the heirs. If it is a case of a debtor who is still in debt, let the amount be paid and then the remainder can go to his heirs, whether it is cash, or commodities, or land. This is the procedure to follow. 2.

If a wealthy man should die his property should be dispersed according to the same procedure. 3.

In military, ranks may be certified by ceremonial uniform, kirpan barcha, jamadar barcha, gul shastar, mihar maratab