PREDECESSORS AND SHORT
HISTORY: The Majithia Sardars are a set of
three related families from the area of Majitha, a town 26
kilometres north of the Punjab city of Amritsar, though
there common ancestor is 16 generations back. The town was
founded by one Madho, a Jat of the Gill clan. He was
'jetha' (the eldest son) of his father and hence the place
was 'Madho-Jetha', which became in time, Majitha. They
rose to prominence in the early 19th century by throwing
in their lot with the rising star of the Sikh misls, viz.
that of Ranjit Singh, during the late 18th century. As
Ranjit Singh established the Sikh Empire around the turn
of the 19th century, the Majithia sirdars gained
prominence and became very influential in the Maharaja's
army. Ten different Majithia generals can be counted
amongst the Sikh army during the period of 1800 to 1849,
and they became one of the three most powerful families in
Punjab under the Maharaja.
- Gujar, married and had issue.
- Veghu, married and had issue.
- Dargah Singh, married and had issue.
- Sardar Amar Singh Kalan, a distinguished soldier
he was appointed Governor of Hazara in
succession to Diwan Ram Dyal; married and had
issue. He died at Hazara.
- General Sardar Kahan Singh, he was granted
estates at Kot Bhai and Syadpur; he took part
in the second Anglo-Sikh war, where he fought
the British both at Cheliarivala and Gujra,
afterwards his jagir was confiscated and in
lieu he was granted a pension of Rs3,600 per
annum. He died 1853 at Majitha.
- Taighu, married and had issue.
- Izat Singh, with his brother, he followed the
fortunes of the Sukerchukia Sardars; he was able
to acquire a strip of the Dhanni country, and held
it till his death; married and had issue, two
sons. He died 1772.
- Sardar Fateh Singh, married and had issue.
- Sardar Chanda Singh, married and had issue.
- Sardar Karam Singh, married and had issue,
three sons.
- Sardar Rajinder Singh (second son)
- Wasawa Singh, married a daughter of Sardar
Gulab Singh Povindia (died 1854), and his
wife, Sardarni Nand Kaur, and had issue. He
died 1894.
- Kirpal Singh, born 1874, married and had
issue, two sons.
- Parduman Singh, born 1877, married and had
issue.
- Chanda Singh, born 1881, married and had
issue.
- Harnam Singh, died 1892.
- Sardar Attar Singh, he was adopted by Sardar
Uttam Singh (see below), appointed Governor of
the district around Rawalpindi in 1809; he was
granted estates worth 28,000Rs at Syad Kasra
and Ganja Mahal after his adoptive father's
jagir was resumed; he briefly managed the old
family ilaqa of Dhanni, but did not hold it in
jagir; married and had issue, one son. He died
1843 in Hazara.
- Partap Singh, Zamindar.
- Hira Singh, Zamindar.
- Jaimal Singh, married and had issue.
- Sahaj Singh, his nephews were only young boys at
their fathers death and he took possession of the
property which went to his own son after his
death; married and had issue. He died 1781.
- Sardar Uttam Singh, the whole of the Danni
country was forcibly taken by Maharaja Ranjit
Singh of Lahore in 1803-1804; he adopted his
nephew, Attar Singh, married and had adoptive
issue. He died sp in 1827 when all his jagirs
were resumed.
- (A) Sardar
Attar Singh (see above)
- Raja Surat Singh
C.S.I., commandant of the Sikh battalion posted at
Peshawar during the first Anglo-Sikh war, commanded
2,000 men in the division sent to Multan to quell a
revolt. After the annexation of the Punjab, Surat
Singh's jagirs were confiscated and he was removed to
Banaras with an annual pension of 720Rs. He lived at
Banaras in privation till 1857, when during the mutiny
he helped the British and saved the Banaras treasury,
which contained the jewellery of Maharani Jind Kaur,
on 6th July 1857. For these services, Surat Singh was
allowed to return to the Punjab, his pension was
raised to 4,800Rs and he was granted a permanent jagir
at Dumri in Gorakhpur district of the North-Western
Provinces, appointed an honorary magistrate in 1875 in
his village of Majitha to which he came back in 1861,
and was invested with civil and judicial powers. In
1877, the title of Raja and the Companionship of the
Star of India were conferred upon him, he married
1stly, a daughter of Sardar Ran Singh of Wachohar,
married 2ndly, a daughter of Sahib Singh of Attari,
and had issue. He died in 1881 at Majitha.
- Sardar Umrao Singh (qv)
- Hon. Sardar Bahadur Dr. Sir Sundar Singh Majithia
C.I.E., D.O.L., born 17th February 1872 at Majithia,
a village 18 kms northeast of Amritsar, educated at
Government School, Amritsar, and Aitchison College,
Lahore, finally joining Government College, Lahore,
to pass the intermediate (undergraduate)
examination, secretary of Sri Guru Singh Sabha,
Amritsar from 1894, became a member of the governing
council of the Khalsa College, Amritsar from 1895,
secretary of the college council from 1902 to 1912
and president of the council as well as of the
college managing committee from 1920 till his death
in 1941, a founder-member of the Chief Khalsa Diwan,
established in October 1902, holding the office of
secretary from 1902 to 1920 and again from 1934 to
1937. In 1932/1933, he acted as the president of the
Diwan. He took a leading part in the founding of the
Sikh Educational Conference in 1908, and presided at
its annual sessions in 1911, 1924 and 1935, was
nominated a member of the Viceroy's Legislative
Council in 1909, elected the first president of the
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on the 16th
November 1920, resigning the following year after
his election to the Punjab Legislative Council and
appointment as an executive councillor and revenue
minister in the Punjab Government, elected to the
Punjab Legislative Assembly from Batala constituency
on the nomination of the Kalsa National Party Sundar
Singh's field of activities extended to commerce and
industry as well, Sardar Bahadur [cr.1911], C.I.E.
[cr.1920], knighted in 1926, Doctor of Oriental
Learning (D.O.L) honoris causa in 1926 awarded by
the University of the Punjab, married 1stly 1887,
Sardarni Khushalpal Kaur, daughter of Sardar Bishan
Singh Virk of Kandaula,
maternal uncle of Raja Bikram Singh of Faridkot,
died 1887, married 2ndly, Sardarni Lady Parsan Kaur,
eldest daughter of Sardar Bhagwant Singh,
Rais-i-Azam of Bhadaur,
and had issue, and had issue. He died 2nd April 1941
at Lahore. The cremation took place at Amritsar on
the premises of his permanent residence.
- Sardar Kirpal Singh Majithia, born 1891, married
a daughter of Sardar Jiwan Singh of Shahzadpur
(see misl Shahidan),
and had issue.
- Sardar Gurnihal Singh Majithia, born 1917.
- Sardar Dilip Singh Majithia, born 1920.
- Kanwar Narayan Singh, died 1898.
- Sardar Surendra Singh Majithia, born 4th March
1895 (#2),
educated at Kalsa Collegiate High School and Kalsa
College, Amritsar; Senior Managing Partner, Saraya
Sugar Factory, Saraya Oil Works, Saraya
Distillery, Saraya Dairy Farm and Saraya Chemical
Works, Sadarnagar; Fairweathers, Muzaffarpur,
Bihar; Member, Kalsa College, Managing Committee
and Governing Council, Amritsar; Patron and Life
Member, Managing Committee and Vice-Chairman,
Managing Council, Maharana Pratap High School,
Gorakhpur; Member, Sugar Technologists'
Association of India; Member, District
Resettlement Committee and District Court of Wards
Advisory Committee, Gorakhpur and Sant Attar Singh
Educational Council, Mastuana, PEPSU; Life Member,
Sikh Educational Committee; Patron U.P. Olympic
Committee; married 1stly, a daughter of Sardar
Bahadur Sardar Bhagel Singh Kamla, Taluqdar of
Bhungha, Bahraich, she died 1919, married 2ndly,
Lady Balbir Kaur Surendra Singh Majithia, daughter
of General Hazura Singh of Patiala State, and
grand-daughter of Bakhshi Sardar Ganda Singh of
Patiala. (Saraya Estate, P.O. Sardarnagar,
Dist. Gorakhpur, U.P., India or Majithia House,
Amritsar, Punjab, India)
- Kanwar Bhagwan Singh, died 1918.
- Sqdr.-Ldr. Sardar Surjit Singh Majithia (by
Sardarni Parsan Kaur), born 8th August 1912,
Member of Lok Sabha I (1952), II (1957) and III
(1962), educated at the Khalsa College at
Amritsar, entered the Indian Air Force and reached
the rank of Squadron Leader, he became a member of
the Central Legislative Assembly in 1945, Indian
Ambassador to Nepal 1947/1949, served as India's
deputy defence minister 1952/1962, President of
the Wrestling Federation of India 1964/1976 and
President, Cricket Control Board of India
1956/1958, first President of the Yachting
Association of India when it was established in
1960, President of Khalsa College, Amritsar 1944
for three decades, married the daughter of General
Sardar Shivdev Singh, of an old family of the
Wazirs of the princely state of Nabha, and had
issue, four sons. He died in Delhi on 27th
September 1995.
- Sardar Satyajit Singh Majithia, born 1938,
former Deputy Defence Minister, married Sardarni
Sukhmanjus Kaur, and has issue.
- Bibiji Harsimrat Kaur, born 25th July 1966,
elected to the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009; Member,
Committee on Estimates since 6th August 2009;
Member, Committee on Social Justice and
Empowerment since 31st August 2009; Member,
Committee on Estimates;Member, Standing
Committee on Food & Public Distribution
since 5th May 2010; married 21st November
1991, Sukhbir Singh Badal, born 9th July 1962
in Badal, educated at Panjab University,
Chandigarh (Punjab) and California State
University, Los Angeles, USA; B.A (Hons.)
Economics, M.A (Economics), M.B.A.; Elected to
11th Lok Sabha 1996; 12th Lok Sabha 1998/- ;
and has issue, one son and two daughters. (Vill.
Badal, P.O. Badal,Distt. Muktsar, Punjab,
India)
- Kanwar Gurmehar Singh Majithia, married
Savpreet Kaur.
- Kanwar Bikram Singh Majithia, born 1975,
former Minister of State, Minister for Punjab
Revenue and Rehabilitation; married 21st
November 2009 in Delhi, Ganieve Grewal.
- Bibiji (name
unknown) Kaur, married Sardar Mangal
Singh Mann of Kotshera, and had issue (see Mogalchak). She died
1934.
- Bibiji (name
unknown) Kaur, married 1889, (as his 1st
wife), Sardar Bhagwan Singh Jalawalia of Alawalpur, born 1866,
died 1897, and had issue.
- Sardar Umrao Singh,
born 1870 at Majitha, a village in Amritsar district,
educated at Government School in Amritsar and later
joined the Aitchison College, Lahore; a Provincial
Darbari, visited England in 1896 with his wife and
again in 1897 to attend the Diamond jubilee of Queen
Victoria. A scholar in Sanskrit and Persian, he
studied philosophy and religion, dabbled in astronomy,
photography and carpentry, and spoke five different
languages fluently. As head of the Majitha family,
Umrao Singh was privileged to attend the Coronation
darbars in 1903 and 1910. In the autumn of 1912, he
went with his wife to Budapest, returning to India in
1921, after the general amnesty had been granted by
the King for political offences during the war. From
1929 to 1934, he lived in Paris, returning to India in
1934; he married 1stly, 1883, Sardarni Narindar
Kumari, died 1907, daughter of Sardar Gulab Singh
Attariwala of Attari,
married 2ndly, 1911, Marie Antoinette Gottesman,
pianist, a Hungarian lady whom he had met in Lahore at
the house of Princess Sofia Duleep Singh, died 1948,
and had issue. He died in Delhi on 17th December 1954.
- Kanwar Balram Singh, A.D.C. to HH the Maharaja of
Jammu and Kashmir; married a daughter of Sardar
Jiwan Singh of Shahzadpur (see misl Shahidan), and
had issue, two sons and one daughter. He died 1922.
- Kanwar Samarjit Singh
- Kanwar Ranjit Singh
- Kanwar Satyavan Singh, born 1894, married and had
issue.
- Kanwar Satindar Singh, born 1921.
- Kanwar Nirvar Singh, born 1924.
- Kanwar Vivak Singh, born 1898, married and had
issue.
- Amrita Sher-gil, born 30th January 1913 in
Budapest, educated briefly at Santa Anunciata School
in Florence, Italy and at the �cole des Beaux Arts,
Paris (Degree in Fine Arts); a famous painter, the
only Asian to be elected as Associate of the Grand
Salon in Paris; the Government of India has declared
her works as National Art Treasures, and most of
them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern
Art in New Delhi; she married in June 1938, her
maternal cousin, Dr. Victor Egan, who was a medical
doctor in her father's factory, she died sp 5th December
1941 in Lahore.
- Indira Sher-gil, born 28th March 1914 in Budapest,
married K.V.K. Sundaram of the Indian Civil Service,
and had issue. She died 1975.
- Vivan Sundaram, born 1943 in Simla,
studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts,
M.S. University, Baroda (B.A. Fine Arts, 1965)
and at the Slade School, London (Post-Diploma,
1968, on a Commonwealth Scholarship); a well
known painter, he held his first solo exhibition
in New Delhi in 1966; a founding member of
SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, a
collective to building solidarity among artists
and individuals on questions of conscience in
politics), presently a Visiting Professor at the
Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi;
married Geeta Kapur.
- Navina Sundaram, born 1947.
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