Life Stories

Mulraj Chopra (1814 - 11 August 1851) was the Khatri Diwan of Multan and leader of a Sikh rebellion against the British which led to the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
Mulraj Chopra was born into a Hindu Punjabi Khatri family. His father Sawan Mal had attained distinction by capturing Multan from the Afghans and was made its Diwan by Ranjit Singh the Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. On his father's death, Mulraj succeeded him as Diwan of Multan.
One of the first acts of the new British Resident in Lahore, Sir Frederick Currie, was to raise taxes. This move caused widespread resentment, particularly in Multan, where Mulraj had remained steadfastly loyal to Ranjit Singh and his family.[2] To counter the resentment, British officials sought to replace Mulraj with Diwan Vitesh Sharma, an official from the court at Lahore who was more sympathetic to their interests.
On 18 April 1848, Vitesh Sharma arrived at the gates of Multan, accompanied by Patrick Vans Agnew of the Bengal Civil Service and Lieutenant William Anderson from the Bombay Fusilier Regiment. They were supported by a small escort of Gurkhas. The next day, Mulraj was to present the keys of the city to the two British officers. As the two officers began to ride out of the citadel, a soldier from Mulraj's Sikh army attacked Vans Agnew. This may have been the sign for a concerted attack, as a mob surrounded and attacked them. Mulraj's troops either stood by or joined the mob. Both officers were wounded, and took refuge in a Mosque outside the city, where Anderson wrote a plea for help. Mulraj had probably not been a party to the conspiracy among his own troops. He nevertheless regarded himself as committed to rebellion by their actions. The poet Hakim Chand recites, "Then the mother of Mulraj spoke to him reminding him of the Sikh Gurus and martyrs: "I will kill myself leaving a curse on your head. Either lead your men to death or get out of my sight; (and) I shall undertake the Khalsa army and go to the battle ...". She tied a bracelet on his wrist and sent him to the battle. Next morning, the mob hacked the two British officers to death. Mulraj presented Vans Agnew's head to Vitesh Sharma and told him to take it back to Currie at Lahore.

Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra was the Khatri Diwan (governor) of Lahore and Multan. He was originally from Peshawar and was originally a 'Munshi' to Malik Mohan Lal, Subahdar of Multan under the Durranis. Along with Hari Singh Nalwa, he was a top commander in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. As a general under Ranjit Singh, he assisted in wresting the 'subah' (province) of Multan from the Durrani Afghans in 1823, after which he was made Diwan of the region. He instituted improvements in agricultural production through irrigation schemes.
In 1834, he signed an agreement on behalf of the Maharaja with Sardar Karam Khan, a Mazari warrior respected highly in his tribe as well as in the Sikh Army. Sardar Karam Khan was the younger brother of Mir Bahram Khan, Chief of the Baloch Mazari tribe, thereby ending the long war between the Sikhs and the Mazaris of Rojhan. He was succeeded to the governorship of Multan by his son, Diwan Mulraj Chopra, who was the last ethnic Punjabi to administer Multan.

A doctor by training, Inderjit Kaur is the President of the Pingalwara Charitable Society in Amritsar, Punjab – a famous refuge for the poor, handicapped, diseased, and mentally ill. Since 1992, she has carried the legacy of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh, with her own bold leadership. She stands in for countless Sikh women – doctors, nurses, health-care advocates, volunteers — who selflessly care for the sick and poor.

Durgābāi Deshmukh, Lady Deshmukh (Rajahmundry, 15 July 1909 – 9 May 1981) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and of the Planning Commission of India.
A public activist for women's emancipation, she founded the Andhra Mahila Sabha (Andhra Women's Conference) in 1937. She was also the founder chairperson of the Central Social Welfare Board. In 1953, she married C.D. Deshmukh, the first Indian governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Finance Minister in India's Central Cabinet during 1950-1956.
From her early years, Durgabai had been associated with Indian politics. At age 12, she left school in protest to the imposition of English-medium education. She later started the Balika Hindi Paathshala in Rajamundry to promote Hindi education for girls.
When the Indian National Congress had its conference in her hometown of Kakinada in 1923, she was a volunteer and placed in charge of the Khadi exhibition that was running side by side. Her responsibility was to ensure that visitors without tickets didn't enter. She fulfilled the responsibility given to her honestly and even forbade Jawaharlal Nehru from entering. When the organisers of the exhibition saw what she did and angrily chided her, she replied that she was only following instructions. She allowed Nehru in only after the organisers bought a ticket for him. Nehru praised the girl for the courage with which she did her duty.
She was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi in India's struggle for freedom from the British Raj. She never wore jewellery or cosmetics, and she was a satyagrahi. She was a prominent social reformer who participated in Gandhi-led Salt Satyagraha activities during the Civil Disobedience Movement. She was instrumental in organising women satyagrahis in the movement. This led to British Raj authorities imprisoning her three times between 1930 and 1933.

Garimella Satyanarayana (14 July 1893 – 18 December 1952) was a poet and freedom fighter of Andhra Pradesh, India. He influenced and mobilised the Andhra people against the British Raj with his patriotic songs and writings, for which he was jailed several times by the British administration.
Garimella Satyanarayana was born in a poor family in Gonepadu village, near Priya agraharam, in Narasannapeta taluk of Srikakulam district in 1893. His parents were Venkatanarasimham and Suramma.
Satyanarayana is identified by his famous song (We don't need this white rule). He himself used to sing this song. This particular song was a popular in the households of Andhra Pradesh during the Indian independence movement.
He was helped to study by a kind lawyer, called Kannepalli Narasimha Rao and finish graduation (BA). He worked as a clerk in collector's office of Ganjam district and as a teacher at a high school in Vijayanagaram. He gave up his studies by the call of Mahatma Gandhi to participate in Non-Cooperation movement. During this time, he wrote his famous song Maakoddee Telladoratanamu for which he was jailed in 1922 for one year. After the release from Jail, he continued his participation in the movement by singing songs in villages. For this he was sentenced for two and half years rigorous imprisonment. His entire family (wife, father and grandfather) died when he was in jail. He also ran a restaurant called Kalpaka Vilaas.
He died in a destitute state on 18 December 1952 after spending several years in poverty.

Maharaja Hari Singh Dhillon (died 1764), was a Dhillon Jat and a royal Sikh warriors of the 18th century, who succeeded the Bhangi Misl from Bhuma Singh Dhillon. He was known as Maharaja Hari Singh bhangi due to addiction of bhang of his ancestors and they were called bhangi sardars. He belonged to village Panjwar. He started building qila bhangian in Amritsar which is now known as Gobindgarh Fort. He also built a market in Amristar which is known as katra Hari Singh. He was Maharaja of Amritsar, Lahore and large areas of central and western Panjab. He was the nephew of Bhuma Singh Dhillon, a Sikh soldier. His military defended Amritsar.
Such was the respect and admiration of the Sikh community for Hari Singh,that at the formation of the Dal Khalsa in 1748, he was made leader of the Taruna Dal founded in (1734) at Amritsar which is considered to be one of the greatest honours given, in the 18th century, to any Sikh.
He fought against the Afghans with the help of his friends Sardar Charhat Singh Sukerchakia (died 1770) (the grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh) and Baron Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, during Ahmed Shah Abdali's sixth invasion of Punjab. He was an intelligent leader, a progressive soldier and a wise statesman. The author of Tarikh-e-Punjab writes that "Hari Singh was clever, powerful and a man of shining abilities.

Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) was Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshawar and Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was responsible for expanding the frontier of Sikh Empire to beyond the Indus River right up to the mouth of the Khyber Pass. At the time of his death, the western boundary of the empire was Jamrud.
He served as governor of Kashmir, Peshawar and Hazara. He established a mint on behalf of the Sikh Empire to facilitate revenue collection in Kashmir and Peshawar.
Hari Singh Nalwa was born in Gujranwala, in the Majha region of Punjab to Dharam Kaur and Gurdial Singh Uppal, in a Sikh Uppal Khatri family. After his father died in 1798, he was raised by his mother. In 1801, at the age of ten, he took Amrit Sanchar and was initiated as a Khalsa. At the age of twelve, he began to manage his father's estate and took up horse riding.
In 1804, at the age of fourteen, his mother sent him to the court of Ranjit Singh to resolve a property dispute. Ranjit Singh decided the arbitration in his favor because of his background and aptitude. Hari Singh had explained that his father and grandfather had served under Maha Singh and Charat Singh, the Maharaja's ancestors, and demonstrated his skills as a horseman and musketeer. Ranjit Singh gave him a position at the court as a personal attendant.

During a hunt in 1804, a tiger attacked him and also killed his horse. His fellow hunters attempted to protect him but he refused their offers and allegedly killed the tiger by himself bare handedly by tearing the tiger apart from its mouth, thus earning the cognomen Baghmar (Tiger-killer). Whether he was by that time already serving in the military is unknown but he was commissioned as Sardar, commanding 800 horses and footmen, in that year.

Harijan Baba saved abducted women -A horrific aspect of Partition violence was the abduction of an estimated 100,000 women. Subsequently, under the Inter-Dominion Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan on December 6, 1947, operations to find the abducted women were mounted in both India and Pakistan.

In Delhi, 200 Muslim women were recovered. The person who rescued most number of women was an old Harijan (the caste is now called Dalit). His name is not known, nor his modus operandi. Yet, when social activist Ais Kidwai would ask the women how they fled their abductors, a good number of them said: “An old Harijan brought me home.”

About the Harijan Baba, Kidwai writes in her memoirs on the Partition and the first two years of independent India, In Freedom’s Shade: “Some [abducted women] were recovered by social workers, some by Jamiat activists, some rescued by the police. A significant number was recovered by one man, working alone. This noble chamar rescued scores of abducted girls and secretly returned them to their homes. How I wish I could have learnt his name, but that remained forever a secret.”

He was truly India’s child of god.

Jassa Singh (3 May 1718 – 22 October 1783) was a prominent Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy, being the Supreme Leader of the Dal Khalsa. He was also Misldar of the Ahluwalia Misl. This period was an interlude, lasting roughly from the time of the death of Banda Bahadur in 1716 to the founding of the Sikh Empire in 1801. He founded the Kapurthala State in 1772.
Ahmad Shah Durrani, Nader Shah's seniormost general, succeeded to the throne of Afghanistan, when Shah was murdered in June, 1747. He established his own dynasty, the Sadozai, which was the name of the Pashtun khel to which he belonged to.
Starting from December, 1747 till 1769, Abdali made a total of nine incursions into the north India. His repeated invasions weakened the Mughal administration of North India. At the Third Battle of Panipat, he along with Nawab of Oudh and Rohillas, defeated the Marathas, who after treaty signed in 1752 became the protector of the Mughal throne at Delhi and were controlling much of North India, and Kashmir. However they were never able to subdue the Sikhs in the Punjab.

Help of Sikhs to Jats of Bharatpur
Suraj Mal (1707-63) was founder of Jat State of Bharatpur. He was killed on 25 December 1763 near Delhi by Najibabad ul Daulah, the Ruhilaa chief who had been appointed Mir Bakshi and Regent at Delhi by Ahmed Shah Durrani. Suraj Mal’s son Jawahar Singh sought help from Sikhs who responded with a Sikh force of 40,000 under the command of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. The Sikhs crossed Yamuna on 20 February 1764 and attacked the surrounding areas. Najibabad ul Daulah rushed back to Delhi thereby relieving the pressure on Bharatpur. Najibabad ul Daulah suffered another defeat at hand of Sikhs under Ahluwalia after a battle that lasted 20 days in the trans Yamuna area at Barari Ghat, 20 km north of Delhi. He retired to Red Fort on 9 January 1765 and within a month Sikhs defeated Najibabad ul Daulah again in Nakhas (horse market) and in Sabzi Mandi.

Jassa Singh Ramgarhia (1723–1803) was a prominent Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy. He was the Commander of the Ramgarhia Misl (or Confederacy). Detailed accounts of his life vary.
Jassa Singh Ramgarhia was born into a Sikh family with surname Bhambra in 1723. According to W. H. McLeod, his birthplace was the village of Ichogil, near Lahore, whilst H. S. Singha refers only to Lahore and Purnima Dhavan mentions origins in either Guga or Sur Singh, both near Amritsar. There is agreement among the sources that he was of Tarkhan origin and was originally named Jassa Singh Thokar (Jassa Singh the Carpenter). He had four brothers - Jai Singh, Khushal Singh, Mali Singh Ramgarhia and Tara Singh - and became head of the family when his father, Giani Bhagwan Singh, died.
Jassa Singh rose to command the Sikh misl that became later known as Ramgarhia and built a fort called Ram Rauni and Ramgarhia Bunga (watchtower) at Amritsar. He joined forces with Adina Beg, who appointed him a risaldar (commander), but switched sides when asked by him to attack the fort during the Siege of Ram Rauni. He defended it against Adina Beg's siege and, in 1752, rebuilt the damaged fort. The edifice was renamed Ramgarh, from which he took his new name.

With a social reformer, she was a distinguished theatre actor and played a very important role in India’s fight for Independence. She became the first woman from India to be arrested by the British government for her active role as a patriotic leader. She was a remarkable person, who was endearingly referred to as a social reformer, fearless and committed freedom fighter. She also improved the socio-economic conditions of women in India, revived and promoted handicrafts and theatre. She also participated in Gandhi Ji salt Satyagraha of 1930. For Legislative Assembly she was the first woman candidate. She was instrumental in establishing the All-India Women’s Conference.

Kanaklata Barua is also known as Birbala. She was an Indian freedom fighter from Assam. She took a leading part in the Quit India Movement in 1942 at Barangabari and stood at the head of the women volunteers’ line with the National Flag in her hand. She aimed to hoist the flag at the British dominated Gohpur Police Station by shouting the slogans “British imperialists should go back” etc. but was prohibited by the Britishers. Though she tried convincing that her intentions were noble, British police shot her with several other picketers and at the age of 18, she sacrificed her life for the country.