Bhai Randhir Singh

Bhai Randhir Singh (1878 to 1961), known as Bhai Sahib, was a Gursikh of Narangwal in Ludhiana district. He took part in the Ghadar rising, spent about fifteen years in British jails, and after his release gave himself to kirtan and akhand paths. He is regarded as the founder of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, and left more than three dozen books and tracts, among them his jail letters. His father was first a district inspector of schools, then a translator of law books in Patiala, and later a High Court judge in Nabha state.

Key moments

• 7 July 1878: born at Narangwal; his earlier name was Basant Singh.
• 14 June 1903: takes the vows of the Khalsa at Bakapur near Phillaur.
• 1913: leads protest meetings against the demolition of the outer wall of Gurdwara Rikabganj at Delhi. That agitation ran about seven years, from May 1913 to a March 1920 settlement, but he was in jail from 1915.
• 19 February 1915: marches with about 60 comrades to help Kartar Singh Sarabha seize the Ferozepur cantonment in the Ghadar plan. It fails.
• 1915 to 1916: arrested on 19 June 1915 and tried in the second Lahore conspiracy case; on 30 March 1916 he is sentenced to transportation for life.
• 1915 to 1930: moved between the jails of Lahore, Multan, Hazaribagh, Rajahmundry and Nagpur. At Multan he fasted for 40 days to win religious rights for Sikh prisoners.
• 4 October 1930: released.
• 15 September 1931: Sri Akal Takht Sahib issues a hukamnama praising his steadfastness, selfless sacrifice and services to the Panth. He serves as one of the Panj Pyare at the start of kar-seva at Tarn Taran on 17 September 1931 and lays the cornerstone of Gurdwara Panja Sahib on 14 October 1932.
• 16 April 1961: dies at Ludhiana. Two hundred akhand paths were held in and outside India.

His writings include Jelh Chitthiyan (Letters from Jail, 1938), his account of prison, and Gurmat Bibek, on the Sikh code of conduct. After 1930 he turned inward, preaching the Guru's word through kirtan and akhand paths. The Akhand Kirtani Jatha grew from this. Accounts of its start differ, and it had no formal name for a long time; one account says he never named it himself and that it was registered in the 1970s. Wikipedia lists sarbloh and vegetarianism among its observances.

He is remembered as a figure who joined armed anti-colonial action and strict Sikh discipline in one life, and for the jatha that carries his name in Punjab and abroad.