ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>GURMUKH SI&#7748GH BH&#256&#298 (1849-1898)</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="GURMUKH,SIDGH,BH*,Person,Person"> <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">&#65279GURMUKH SI&#7748GH, BH&#256&#298 (1849-1898), one of the prominent figures of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 movement, was born at Kap&#363rthal&#257 on 15 April 1849. His father, Bas&#257v&#257 Si&#7749gh, a native of Chandha&#7771 village, in Gujr&#257&#7749w&#257l&#257 district (now in Pakistan), served as a cook in the royal household of Kap&#363rthal&#257. Gurmukh Si&#7749gh was a promising child and caught the fancy of their master, Prince Bikram&#257 Si&#7749gh, who began taking personal interest in his upbringing and education. After he had finished school at Kap&#363rthal&#257, Gurmukh Si&#7749gh was admitted to Government College, Lahore. He, like his patron Bikram&#257 Si&#7749gh, felt concerned about the state of Sikh society, and when Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 was set up at Amritsar in 1873, he left off his studies without graduating with a view to propagating reform. He was instrumental in having Punjabi included, in 1877, in the curriculum at Oriental College, Lahore. He himself was appointed the first lecturer to teach the language. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh did not let his academic duties obstruct his Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 work. He was secretary of Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, Lahore, which he had helped to establish in 1879. Likewise, he was the first chief secretary of <i>Kh</i>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n, Amritsar, founded four years later.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gurmukh Si&#7749gh's zeal for radical reform brought him into conflict with the president of the D&#299w&#257n, B&#257b&#257 Khem Si&#7749gh. During the Bais&#257kh&#299 session of the D&#299w&#257n in April 1884, B&#257b&#257 Khem Si&#7749gh, being a descendant of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, sat on a special cushioned seat in the presence of Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. This was resented by Gurmukh Si&#7749gh, who said that none could claim such a privilege in a Sikh assembly where all sat together as equals, without any distinctions of class or status. In the same meeting he opposed the proposal sponsored by the R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257, which was under the influence of B&#257b&#257 Khem Si&#7749gh, that to enable non-initiated Sikhs to enrol as members the name Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 be changed to Sikh Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257. In May 1885, a book entitled <i><u>Kh</u>ursh&#299d <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257</i> was published by the brothers Bav&#257 Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh and Sarmukh Si&#7749gh of Chhichhraul&#299, followers of B&#257b&#257 Khem Si&#7749gh. It contained statements judged to be contrary to Sikh tenets. The book also pleaded for the reinstatement of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Duleep Si&#7749gh as the ruler of the Punjab and the appointment of &#7788h&#257kur Si&#7749gh Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 as his prime minister. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh proposed that the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n should publicly dissociate itself from the views expressed in the book. The differences came to a head at the D&#299v&#257l&#299 session of the D&#299w&#257n, when a representative of R&#257j&#257 Bikram Si&#7749gh of. Far&#299dko&#7789 surprised Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh by reading out a statement of charges against him. Bh&#257i Gurmukh Si&#7749gh resigned from the D&#299w&#257n, with representatives of several Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257s following suit. A schism in the D&#299w&#257n was now inevitable. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh and his supporters called a meeting at Lahore on 10-11 April 1886 and formed a separate <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n, with Sard&#257r Attar Si&#7749gh of Bhadau&#7771 as president and Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh as chief secretary. The Amritsar faction retaliated by getting Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh excommunicated through a resolution passed in April 1887 and issued under the seal of the Golden Temple. The <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n Lahore, which enjoyed the support of the majority of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257s, however, ignored the resolution. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh continued in office. The death, in May 1887, of his patron and benefactor, Ka&#7749var Bikram&#257 Si&#7749gh, meant a great personal loss to him; yet he did not slacken the pace of his activity. By now he had reclaimed two very energetic persons -- Bh&#257&#299 Jaw&#257hir Si&#7749gh and Gi&#257n&#299 Ditt Si&#7749gh -- from the influence of &#256rya Sam&#257j, and inducted them into the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257. The three of them working as a closely-knit team were henceforth the life and soul of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n, Lahore. They preached assiduously through press and platform the message of reform and awakening among the Sikh masses.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Education was considered to be the key to modern awakening and this was one of Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh's persistent concerns. As early as June 1882, a proposal had been made to set up a Sikh college. Soon after the establishment of the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299wan Amritsar in April 1883, Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh formally placed the motion before it at its special meeting held in June 1883. It was taken up more vigorously later by the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n Lahore. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh enlisted the co-operation of some government officials, and a <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College Establishment Committee was constituted with Colonel W.R.M. Holroyd, Director of Public Instruction, as chairman and Mr William Bell, a professor of Government College, Lahore, as secretary. The efforts of Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh and other leaders of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 bore fruit and the cornerstone of the college was laid at Amritsar on 5 March 1892 by Sir James B. Lyall, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To disseminate widely the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 creed, Gurmukh Si&#7749gh launched, one after another, the <i>Gurmukh&#299 A<u>kh</u>b&#257r</i> (1880), the <i>Vidy&#257rak</i> (1880), the <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257</i> (1885), the <i>Sudh&#257r&#257rak</i> (1886) and the <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Gazette</i> (1886). These were among the first newspapers and periodicals in Punjabi, and besides serving the cause of religious reform, they gave birth to a new literary idiom in the language. Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh also published, in 1889, a <i>jantr&#299</i> or almanac, called <i>Gur Baras</i>, the years of the Lord, the first of its kind in Punjabi in Gurmukh&#299 script. Another work by him is <i>Bh&#257rat d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>, a history of India in Punjabi. He also wrote <i>Gurb&#257&#7751&#299 Bh&#257v&#257rth</i>, a glossary in simple Punjabi to make the <i>gurb&#257&#7751&#299</i> of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib intelligible to the common man. The work, however, remained unpublished.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bh&#257&#299 Gurmukh Si&#7749gh married twice, but had no children. He died of a heart attack on 24 September 1898 at Ka&#7751&#7693&#257gh&#257&#7789, in Shiml&#257 Hills, where he had gone to see the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 of Dhaulpur for a donation for <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Jagj&#299t Si&#7749gh, <i>Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 Lahir</i>. Ludhiana, 1974<BR> <li class="C1"> Lakshman Singh Bhagat, <i>Autobiography</i>. Calcutta, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1983<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurdarshan Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>