ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>DECCAN KH&#256LS&#256 D&#298W&#256N</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="DECCAN"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279DECCAN <u>KH</u>&#256LS&#256 D&#298W&#256N, a philanthropic organization of the Sikhs, now non-existent, was formed in Bombay on the eve of Indian Independence (August 1947), with Part&#257p Si&#7749gh as president and Har&#299 Si&#7749gh Shergill as general secretary. The D&#299w&#257n's main object was to provide help for the rehabilitation of persons uprooted from their homes in the north in the wake of intercommunal rioting. It also offered its services to protect the old Sikh residents of N&#257nde&#7693 in Hyder&#257b&#257d state, who were numerically a very small group and who felt apprehensive about the safety of their historic shrine in the town and of their own lives in the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, then held to ransom by the fanatical Q&#257sim Rizv&#299. The D&#299w&#257n sent a <i>jath&#257</i>, i. e. a band of volunteers, to N&#257nde&#7693 at that critical juncture. For resettling nearly 1, 000 displaced families who happened to come to Bombay leaving their hearths and homes in what became the State of Pakistan, it secured use of some military barracks in Kol&#299w&#257&#7693&#257 locality, built during World War II and had them renovated. The government later constructed pucca tenements which were rented out to the refugees, homeless immigrants. The colony is now known as Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur Nagar. Under the auspices of the Deccan <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n was established the Gur&#363 N&#257nak Vidyak Society which opened in July 1947 a high school. The Society is now running more than two dozen schools in different suburbs of Bombay. It also took up the cause of Punjabi and had an optional paper in the language introduced in high schools as well as in colleges within the jurisdiction of Bombay University.</p> </ol><p class="CONT">Har&#299 Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>