MUNSHĀ SIṄGH DUKHĪ (1890-1971), poet and revolutionary, was born the son of Sūbedār Nihāl Siṅgh on 1 July 1890 at Jaṇḍiālā, in Jalandhar district of the Punjab. He had little formal education, but had acquired a good working knowledge of English, Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi. In 1908, he migrated to the U.S.A. and settled down in San Francisco. While in the States, he became a member of the Ghadr party. On the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to India like many others of his compatriots to make an armed revolt, but was arrested upon arrival in the country. He was tried in second Lahore supplementary conspiracy case and was awarded life imprisonment with forfeiture of property. He served his term of imprisonment in jails at Hazārībāgh, Lahore, Campbellpore and Multān and was released in 1920 under royal clemency.

         Munshā Siṅgh Dukhī was also a poet and journalist. He edited the prestigious Punjabi magazine devoted to poetry, called the Kavī, which he published from Calcutta. In 1950, he started from Bombay a monthly journal, the Jīvan. He himself published more than a dozen collections of verse. Among his prose works the biography of Bhāī Mohan Siṅgh Vaid is well known.

         Munshā Siṅgh died at Phagwāṛā on 26 January 1971.