Giani Ditt Singh (Aged 43) was born in 1858 and was a historian, scholar, poet, editor, and an eminent Singh Sabha reformer. He wrote over 70 books on Sikhism. His father, Diwan Singh, was a weaver who passed on his knowledge of the Nyaya and Vedanta religious philosophies to his son. After receiving initial schooling from his father, Singh was sent to be taught by Gurbakhsh Singh and Lala Dayanand in the village of Tiur, Ambala district, at the age of 8 or 9. There he studied Gurmukhi, Urdu, and Persian, as well as prosody, Niti Shastra, and Vedanta until he was around 16 years old.
Singh was drawn into the Sikh fold through Bhai Gurmukh Singh, an active figure in the Singh Sabha movement. In 1886, he became a principal contributor to and subsequently the second editor of the weekly Khalsa Akhbar Lahore, a newspaper founded by Bhai Gurmukh Singh following the establishment of the Lahore Khalsa Diwan.
When the Amritsar Khalsa Diwan excommunicated Bhai Gurmukh Singh, Ditt Singh responded by publishing excerpts from his book Svapan Natak, a thinly veiled satire ridiculing the Amritsar leaders, in the Khalsa Akhbar. This resulted in a lawsuit filed by one of the targets of the satire, which, although eventually dismissed, cost the Khalsa Akhbar dearly in time and money to defend. The paper shut down in 1889. With support from the Maharaja of Nahba, the paper resumed publication in 1893, again under Ditt Singh as editor. This led to the eventual launch of an English-language weekly titled simply Khalsa.
Though he maintained his ties to the Arya Samaj through all of his Sikh Sabha activities, the increasing discord between the Arya Samaj and Sikh leaders in 1888 led to Singh’s ultimate departure from the movement. After this, he threw himself entirely into the work of the Singh Sabha movement. As an educator, Singh helped in the setting up of Khalsa College, Amritsar, and wrote textbooks for the students of the college. He passed away by 1901.
Giani Ditt Singh
(1853 – 1901) – (Punjab)
Giani Ditt Singh (Aged 43) was born in 1858 and was a historian, scholar, poet, editor, and an eminent Singh Sabha reformer. He wrote over 70 books on Sikhism. His father, Diwan Singh, was a weaver who passed on his knowledge of the Nyaya and Vedanta religious philosophies to his son. After receiving initial schooling from his father, Singh was sent to be taught by Gurbakhsh Singh and Lala Dayanand in the village of Tiur, Ambala district, at the age of 8 or 9. There he studied Gurmukhi, Urdu, and Persian, as well as prosody, Niti Shastra, and Vedanta until he was around 16 years old.
Singh was drawn into the Sikh fold through Bhai Gurmukh Singh, an active figure in the Singh Sabha movement. In 1886, he became a principal contributor to and subsequently the second editor of the weekly Khalsa Akhbar Lahore, a newspaper founded by Bhai Gurmukh Singh following the establishment of the Lahore Khalsa Diwan.
When the Amritsar Khalsa Diwan excommunicated Bhai Gurmukh Singh, Ditt Singh responded by publishing excerpts from his book Svapan Natak, a thinly veiled satire ridiculing the Amritsar leaders, in the Khalsa Akhbar. This resulted in a lawsuit filed by one of the targets of the satire, which, although eventually dismissed, cost the Khalsa Akhbar dearly in time and money to defend. The paper shut down in 1889. With support from the Maharaja of Nahba, the paper resumed publication in 1893, again under Ditt Singh as editor. This led to the eventual launch of an English-language weekly titled simply Khalsa.
Though he maintained his ties to the Arya Samaj through all of his Sikh Sabha activities, the increasing discord between the Arya Samaj and Sikh leaders in 1888 led to Singh’s ultimate departure from the movement. After this, he threw himself entirely into the work of the Singh Sabha movement. As an educator, Singh helped in the setting up of Khalsa College, Amritsar, and wrote textbooks for the students of the college. He passed away by 1901.
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