The Behra Line, Generation by Generation

Şehzade Bibiji … Sahiba, daughter of Nawab Bhag Singh of Kapurthala. Her personal name is preserved neither in the published compilations nor in the family records. She married — about 1812, the year of her son’s birth, though the papers do not record the date — General Sardar Rattan Singh, of Behra, head of a jagir of forty-three villages seated at Fatehabad: the old Ahluwalia capital on the Beas, where Jassa Singh had built his fort and where Fateh Singh and Ranjit Singh had sworn their alliance ten years before. The family record confirms his rank — a General of the Ahluwalia Misl, the forces of Riyasat Kapurthala, the army that rode beside Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the campaigns of the age — though the particular campaigns of his service remain to be traced.

Rais Sardar Thakur Singh, born 1812 at Fatehabad, the son of the Kapurthala princess, as the family record confirms. Through him every later generation of the house descends from Nawab Bhag Singh. He married and had one son.

Rais Sardar Ranjit Singh, born 1838 at Fatehabad. His lifetime spans the British annexations of 1846 and 1849, after which every jagir in the Manjha was formally reviewed — the records that should name this family precisely. He married and had two sons, Basant Singh and Jaswant Singh.

Rais Sardar Basant Singh, born 1857 at Fatehabad. He married, first, Sardarni Bishen Kaur of Tungwala, a descendant of Sardar Mirar Singh Tung — the son-in-law of Nawab Jassa Singh Ahluwalia himself — and, second, Sardarni Radha Kaur of Kasur, of a Waziri Pathan family that had converted to Sikhism. His one son, Dyal Singh, was born of Radha Kaur, as the family record confirms. The Tungwala match therefore stands as a distinguished kinship alliance with the house of Jassa Singh’s son-in-law rather than a second royal descent; the family’s royal blood flows through Nawab Bhag Singh.

Rais Sardar Jaswant Singh, his brother, married and had one daughter, who married into the family of the Sardar of Tanda.

Rais Sardar Dyal Singh, born 1896, son of Sardarni Radha Kaur of Kasur. He married Sardarni Jaswant Kaur of Kapurthala — a further match with the capital — and had three sons and six daughters.

Commander Sardar Paramjit Singh (1917–1975), born at Fatehabad; served in the Second World War, in which he was wounded in combat. In later life he lived at 114 Green Avenue, Amritsar — where he was remembered as Commander Paramjeet Singh Bhar, an anglicised form of the family name — and died there in 1975. He married Rani Sheila Kaur. Family tradition holds that Bhagat Puran Singh (1904–1992), the founder of the Pingalwara at Amritsar, mentions him in his autobiographical writings.

Rais Sardar Ravi Sher Singh (1924–1990), born at Fatehabad; a renowned politician and agriculturist of his day, named in the family record as a founder of the B.K.U., the Bharatiya Kisan Union; died at Fatehabad.

Rais Sardar Charanjit Singh (1927–2010), named in the family record as president of the B.K.U. Punjab and vice-president of the B.K.U. (India), and a strong advocate of farmers’ rights. He married Rani Harpal Kaur.

Bibi Rajjit Kaur married Sardar Joginder Singh of Mukerian, an executive member of the S.G.P.C. for some thirty-five years until his death. Şehzade Bibiji Harjit Kaur, Şehzade Amarjit Kaur, Şehzade Sukhjit Kaur, Şehzade Mohanjit Kaur and Şehzade Ajit Kaur died unmarried.

Rais Raja Barinder Dyal Singh, born 11 April 1969, Rais-e-Azam, son of Rais Sardar Charanjit Singh, is the present head of the Behra line and holds the old seat at Fatehabad. He married Rani Meenu Singh, daughter of Dr Surinder Nath Sharma of Kankhal, Haridwar. His three children stand in the fifteenth generation of the house.

Jaspal Singh, I.P.S., the only son of Commander Sardar Paramjit Singh, married Rani Renu Jaspal Singh. Their son, Harpreet Singh, and their daughter, Harmala Singh, stand in the fifteenth generation.

Rais Jagmohan Dyal Singh, born 9 December 1972, the son of Rais Sardar Ravi Sher Singh, of Fatehabad. He is unmarried.

Rais Varij Sher Singh, born 6 March 2006, the son of Rais Raja Barinder Dyal Singh and Rani Meenu Singh, stands in the fifteenth generation of the house, counting Sadho Singh of Ahlu as the first. His sisters are Şehzade Iris Singh, born 11 October 1996, and Şehzade Mehul Singh, born 30 June 2001.

Harpreet Singh and Harmala Singh, the son and daughter of Jaspal Singh, I.P.S., belong to this generation also.