Special thanks to Bakshish Singh Nijjar and Wasdev Singh Parhar who have opened our eyes.

Note:- Reference taken from Wasdev Singh Parhars Book- History of Sikh Rajputs. Brief observation of Babu Gurdayal Singh (93yrs), Retd. ACOS, Western Railways and son of Babu Sujan Singh Minhas, Daroli Kalan. 1) Dr Bakshish Singh Nijjar M.A., Ph.D (History), in preface to the second edition has pointed out as under - Nobody among Rajputs turned Sikh even thought seriously about writing their history with the result they suffered the fate without master, they remained thirsty even in Sawan (rainy month of monsoon). This indeed is a sad commentary but due to internal feuds attention was not given in this direction. However, this matter is being taken up at this later stage and a bit of the events of the last century as known to me are given below:2) In the village Daroli Kalan there are two Pattees. One Jagirpur and other Dherowal. Dr Mayyer Singh Kashmiri brought several reforms in the Rajput gathering of Daroli Kalan in Sept 1893 A.D. My grandfather Babu Bahadur Singh was the main architect and afterwards took service as accountant, on Rs 95/- pm in the yr 1899 at Kalka under the executive Engg. who constructed the narrow gauge line from Kalka to Shimla and completed the project in the year 1903. Presently a Sikh gurdwara exists at the railway ground. He managed to give big contracts to S. Kundan Singh of Baddon, S.Nagina Singh of Paldi and Hansa Singh, Pursa Singh of Kalara. These big contractors offered their valuable services to the cause of the uplift of the Rajput community which will appear separately. 2 A: Contracters S.Kundan Singh of Baddon S. Nagina Singh of Paldi both had performed the following services to the Rajput community and Sikh faith as under. 1. They built up the Khalsa High School in the village Baddon in the year 1911 AD. (page 236) 2. In the year 1923 contractors Kundan singh and Nagina Singh of Paldi with the permission of Sant Baba Nidhan Singhji of Hajur Sahibh constructed a langar hall near nagina ghat.Both the contractors had close relation with Matt family.(page 214) 3. S. Kundan Singh has constructed gurdwara at Bistipur Tatanagar for sikh sangat working in that area .(page-254) 4. In the year 1928 he had built up gurdwara in the memory of Shaheed Baba Karam Singhji who got badly wounded in Hoshiarpur in the jatha of Sahibjada Ajit Singhji, to save the daughter of a brahmin from the pathan fojdar of Bassi.(page-236) 5. S. Kundan Singh and Nagina Singh jointly offered Rs 1 lakh to Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar on the eve of taking charge from mahanths who were earlier in occupation of darbar sahibh before 1925. (page-256)

3) In my young age I often asked my grandmother, Parbati (Paro Matni) why this odd name is given to our people. She had stated that your ancestors (BADARUS) were very fat and went out on Palkis. This aspect it appears reflects the image of our jagirdari as my father Babu Sujan Singh had disposed off our Kilawali land in the village during the partition days. Babu Bahadur Singh had two sons named Sujan Singh and Prem Singh. They obtained their education from Roorkee and Lucknow as overseers in the yr 1917 and 1919 respectively. As their father Babu Bahadur Singh on completion of Kalka train line went to Gaya for new line project, where he met unnatural death and his wife Parbati had to come under the shelter of Hav. Udham Singh the elder brother of Babu Bahadur Singh. Babu Bahadur Singh had one daughter, Preetam Kaur, who became the first lady doctor LSFM in our community, in Punjab in the year 1931-32. She subsequently arrange marriage at Mathura (U.P.) in a Hindu family. 4) Babu Sujan Singh after passing the high school in the year 1915 joined services in Peshawar (Pakistan) as Supervisor in the 8th UP Works Battalion in 1918. On completion of the project he came to Bombay in the year 1920 and remained there upto 1928. 5) He worked there as Overseer and promoted as SDO in the City Improvement Trust, Parel, Bombay and released on the disbandment of the Trust in the early 1929. In the Gurdwara Prabandak Committee, Fariar Road, V.T., Bombay, he worked as Cashier and Vice President, on formation of Central Gurdwara at Dadar 1927-28. He was offered the post of a Trustee. 6) AJMER 1929-1950. After his release from Bombay, he had taken appointment in Ajmer (Rajasthan), 1929, as supervisor in-charge of Overseers in Ajmer Municipal Committee. In the long stay of about 20 yrs he worked as Secretary, Municipal Engineers and ultimately promoted as Executive Officer of the historical city of Ajmer. At the time of partition of India in 1947 as Municipal Engineer, he helped the Sindhi refugees by erecting tin shed compartments on the road paths so that they could earn their livelihood and also give appointments for the clerical jobs in the Municipal Deptt. However, this was resented by some Muslim members of the committee but nothing happened afterwards. Almost all the chairpersons of the Municipality expressed their views about his work and good behavior. In the case of Panthak activities he was more inclined to improve the better running of Gurdwara affairs and as such he formed the regular Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Ajmer in the yr 1930 and remained President for the next three yrs. During this period Vishal Gurdwara building was started with five Sikh personalities. After a few years Jat and Ramgharia dispute cropped up and both the parties accepted him as SALAS. He compromised with the police and the court cases were withdrawn. The khalsa sevak jatha on the eve of his retiremenr on their MAN PATAR had stated that the long stay of S.Sujan Singh has been full of great events and will never be a forgotten chapter in the history of sikh gurudwara (HATHI BHATA) 7) LESARIWAL 1951-1953. He retired from the Municipality in the year 1950 and came to village Lesariwal, Shahpur and greatly helped the village owners to build up the compound wall of Gurdwara and removed the old ruins of the muslim residents of Shahpur. He also helped Baba Sant Singh PARDESI to lay down the foundation stone of the Primary School

of Lesariwal and assisted the local Sarpanch Sardar Piara Singh on various development works in the village. He too remained one of the Panj Piaras of the village NAGAR KIRTAN. 8) GANDHIDHAM GUJRAT 1953-1959. On my visit to Punjab in 1953 from Gandhidham Gujrat I found my father finding difficult time in the village and so I requested him to take up a job in the Kandla Port project and accordingly he took the job as Executive Engineer and worked there for six yrs and on completion of the project he returned to Punjab in the year 1959. In Gandhidham too he organized Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar and remained President as long as he remained there. The Development Commissioner of Kandla Port Shri Ganpat had hinted my father to honour the then railway minister S. Swaran Singh who visited Kandla Port. He paid his visit in the local Gurdwara and impressed with the development work, made him the General Manager of the Western Railway.Babu Sujan Singh had six sons and two daughters. Their names are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. S.Gurdayal Singh S.Harjeet Singh S.Kulwant Singh S.Ajaipal Singh S.Tirthpal Singh S.Agyapal Singh

S.Harjeet Singh expired at Jodhpur in 1987 and the rest are living. To be very brief, the uplift of the MATT family is only narrated by the eldest son S.Gurdayal Singh, the undersigned, for the sikh faith. After putting up about 38 years of service in the Western Railways, I retired in the year 1977 and returned to village Lesariwal distt. Jalandhar, to Grand Father Hav.Udham Singh, whose land was allotted to us after partition of the country. No member of our family was living in Daroli Kalan. Here I only wish to state that in my service period I remained in all the projects as store keeper to lay out new Railway line from Deesa to Kandla Port (MG) line, Godhra to Ratlam doubling, Udaipur to Himmat Nagar, Gujrat (MG) and Jhind to Kandla (BG). As I was not mentally sharp I could not come on a better post earlier, but on return to the open line of Western Railway, I was posted as Depot Officer I/C Asstt. Controller of Stores of the Scrap Yard of Bharatpur from where I ultimately retired in 1977. The Bharatpur Gurdwara Committee generally use to appoint all the Sikh I/c of the Depot as President and accordingly I was also made the President for one and a half year and this period four shops were constructed in front of the Gurdwara and also laid down the foundation stone of a Primary School which turned out to be college in the course of time. Before joining the Construction Stores KD Railway at Deesa,1950, I was appointed as Movement Inspector for short period along with one Asstt. Engineer to chase up the supplies of wooden sleepers from the various places in the Behar area and arrange empty wagon from the railway headquarter Chakardpuri. At Tata Nagar when I was going to Badamphar in the train, I happened to meet one sardarji who had stated that he is also a contractor and started Gurdwara Bistipur at Tata Nagar. Further details were known to us afterwards. Since he was close to our family he stated that your uncle was in nature as fire

brand and your father S.Sujan Singh was an upright person. My uncle, S. Prem Singh in Central Railways in Igatpuri was in a good job, but resigned his job due to misbehavior with his XEN and finally he came to Ajmer. My father S.Sujan Singh however arranged a sub overseer post in the office of the Executive Engineer CPWD Ajmer Division. But he refused to accept the job being too low and returned to Punjab in Distt. Multan, where he expired after brief illness. In Bombay too he remained Secretary of the Gurdwara Committee for two years 1925-27, and earned good name. In 1932 his widow wife with three children remained under the charge of Hav.Udam Singhji, grandfather. In the early year of 1945 the old man got hurt and became bedridden and he sent special message to my father Sujan Singh at Ajmer to come to Punjab and take care. As my father Sujan Singh was performing double duty of Secretary and Municipal Engineer, so he deputed me to go to Punjab and look after him and accordingly I took a weeks leave and came to Punjab and reported sick afterwards for a month and half and during this time he expired and I performed his last rights and submerged his ashes at Hardwar in May 1945 and then returned back to Ajmer. In 32 years of my retired life in Lesariwal from 1978 onwards I have been coming across some Panthik and Samajik problems and I wish to narrate here. In earlier month of 1978 a group of Jalandhar Milk Managing Plant Director and couple of his associates visited the village Lesariwal and explained that many a village farmers have milk giving animals and as such a milk dairy can be established here and requested to help them in this direction. Since his approach was only from honourable old persons, I accepted the Secretaryship for Milk Dairy of village Lessariwal and on an average 6 to 8 quintal of milk was supplied daily to the Milk Plant at Jaladhar, and this village was the second largest supplier of milk and got bonus paid to persons whose milk supply was on top. The dairy is still running nicely but on a smaller scale as many of the big suppliers have gone abroad or else where. Gurdwara Lessariwal Shahpur was initially run by Sant Baba Sant Singh Pardesi and one Baba Ishwar Singh. When one of the Baba expired, running of the Gurdwara affairs became difficult. I felt that a regular Parbandhak Committee should be formed and accordingly a 12 member executive committee was formed with a President, Secretary, Manager and Cashier and six members. For running of the Gurdwara affairs on rules and regulations a local Vedhan was prepared with the approval of the sikh sangat and general members. A proposal came from Er Sardar Darbara Singh, President Gurdwara Committee that big alloties are few but if any cut is made for Panchat gram and this could be arranged for Gurdwara Committee. Accordingly the proposal was passed but to obtain this from an authorized person a half a dozen of court cases had to be faced by the committee from unauthorized persons and the committee had to be got registered to fight the cases. The court cased commenced from 1982 to 1990 and main part had to be played by Secretary (undersigned) and Bhai Gurbachan Singh Najjar, cashier. Ultimately the committee won the case and about 17 kanals of land came under possession of Gurdwara committee. On the average Rs 50,000/- contract money is coming annually.

The Session Judge Jalandhar who summoned all the members of Gurdwara working committee decided in favor of the Gurdwara religious institution. This resulted in opposite party to invoke a false case that two persons Secretary and cashier of the committee are helping Atwadi by sending trolley laden ration to Sant Bhinderanwale at Amritsar, but this was not arranged by Gurdwara committee. Village landlords were regularly sending rations to the Darbar Sahib Langar Hall, Amritsar the opposite party reported to the govt. army and one unit of army people circled our houses with fire arms and taken away Bhai Gurbachan Singh and his son, Satnam Singh in jail for unauthorized ammunition found with them. For myself nothing was found as my fire arm was complete in all respect. Bhai Gurbachan Singh and his son were released on bail and ultimately case was closed afterwards as nothing wrong was found in the false case. VIII) Babu Sujan Singh expired in village Lessariwal on 30 th May 1972 in a barren field said to be shamshan ghat. A memorial was engraved on a long cement plate with all details and kept near the water pump kept for the mourners to wash their hands after burial ceremony. As this was an open area somebody had removed the water pump and when this happening was discovered that the purpose of keeping the memorial plate has no meaning, I discussed the matter with my nephew, late Dr. Guriqbal Singh, MA, Ph.D of Jodhpur who was very close to me and stated that a second pump should be installed there, which I managed somehow. He further stated that he would come to Lessariwal and burning shed for dead bodies will be provided by him, he did so for the Lessariwal villagers. Th Panchayat did not take any interest earlier but finally the Gurdwara President and the Panchayat people took some interest to make the compound wall. When this was done I felt that a shed for mourners to be made and accordingly SUJAN SHED was installed for 20-30 persons. The President of the Gurdwara committee who helped in making the compound wall came to show the site of shamshan ghat, and stated that a gate of the shamshan ghat has to be provided and asked my advice and readily offered my services to provide a pucca gate with locking arrangements. I hope my insignificant services will tell us our achievements and tale of our ancestors to inspire the coming generation to do more noble deeds. In the MATT family most of the members have gone abroad and minor grand children are presently living. My cousin brother late Sardar Jiwan Singh whose one son Dilawar Singh had joined Sant Samaj and became second in command Dehra JABBAR and deputy chairman of Sant Baba Bhag Singh charitable educational complex. The mukh sevadar of Dehra JABBAR is presently Sant Baba Malkit Singh ji in whose able guidance the present backward area has come up and emerged as modern quality educational complex with various technical learning centers. All the sikh sangat visting Dehra JABBAR are being served with Guru Ka Langar on all the working days and on special samagams managed by Sant Baba Dilawar Singh (BRHAM JI)