Bela Singh, Bhai
One of the Nankana Sahib Martyrs (1865-1921)
Son of Bhai Mayya and Mal Raji, a Saini Sikh couple, was born at Kartarpur in Jalandhar district. The family originally belonged to Faridkot state, from where Bela Sifgh’s grandfather, Bhai Sobha, had migrated to Kartarpur where he served in Guru ka Langar run by local mahants, who in recognition of his services had allotted some agricultural land to him.
Bela Singh was the first in the family, to receive the Khalsa-pahul. He engaged himself in agriculture but also continued to serve in Guru ka Langar. For some reason the mahants, towards the end of the century, resumed the land granted to the family. Bela Singh with his wife and two sons migrated to Chakk No. 10 Thothian in the newly developed irrigation district of Sheikhupura in western Punjab where he earned his living by ploughing land taken on annual rent basis.
At the outset of the Gurdwara reform movement, Bela Singh with some other Sikhs of Thothian joined the jatha of Bhai Lachman Singh Dharovall which was massacred on 20 February 1921 at Gurdwara Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib.