RĀM SIṄGH, CAPTAIN (1864-1949), soldier and Akālī politician, was born the son of Natthā Siṅgh of Sunām, now in Saṅgrūr district of the Punjab. His father had served in the army of the Sikh rulers of Lahore and later in the British Indian army. Born in 1864, Rām Siṅgh spent his early life in his native village where he received his early education. As he grew up, he enlisted in the Paṭiālā state army, but soon left it to join 15th Sikh Battalion of the Indian army on 15 April 1882. He served meritoriously in the Suḍān campaigns of 1884-85 and 1897-98 and on the North-West Frontier of India, rising steadily in rank and becoming a Sūbedār Major and Honorary Captain by the time he retired in 1908. He was also awarded Order of the British India (O.B.I.) and the title of Sardār Bahādur, and granted 125 acres of land in the Sargodhā canal colony in Shāhpur district (now in Pakistan).

         Captain Rām Siṅgh was a devout Sikh. While serving as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of India towards the end of his army career, he had taken initiative to establish a gurdwārā at Shimlā. After retirement he helped raise a gurdwārā in Chakk No. 127, close to his estate in Sargodhā, and rebuild a historical shrine, Gurdwārā Pahilī Pātshāhī, at Sunām. He also took active part in the Akālī agitation of the 1920's. A member of the first Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committe, he was elected its vice-president on 27 November 1921 following the arrest of the former incumbent in connection with the campaign for the recovery from the British of the keys of the Golden Temple treasury. He himself, along with 50 others, was arrested on the night of 13-14 October 1923, following the government declaration of 12 October outlawing the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromaṇī Akālī Dal, and was released on 26 January 1926. He continued to take active interest in Sikh. affairs till the end which came on 29 December 1949.

Sarmukh Siṅgh Amole