Sant Jawala Singh, Dera Santgarh
Sant Jawala Singh, (1889-1957) widely revered for his piety especially among Sikhs in the Doaba region of the Punjab, was born on 1 May 1889 at Lagari, a village in Hoshiarpur district. Jawala Singh and his twin brother were the sons of highly religious parents, Narain Singh and Raj Kaur. He received instruction at the village primary school and at the gurdwara. Tall and of athletic build, he joined the army on 5 January 1907 as a soldier in the 35th Sikh Battalion. It was during his service at Rawalpindi that he came in contact with Sant Aiya Singh, spiritual successor to Sant Karam Singh of Dera Hoti Mardan, a village near Mardan cantonment in the NorthWest Frontier Province. He formally became a disciple of Sant Aiya Singh on 5 March 1911.
Jawala Singh saw action in France during World War I, but resigned from the army on 1 January 1917 and Joined the Dera at Hoti Mardan to devote himself to a life of contemplation and service. At the persuasion of Sant Harnam Singh of his native Hoshiarpur district and with the permission of his religious mentor, Sant Aiya Singh, Jawala Singh returned home to the Doaba in December 1918 and settled in a lonely place between the villages of Harkhowal and Pandori Bibi, about 11 km southwest of Hoshiarpur. Dera Sant Ghar, the name by which his Dera came to be known, attracted Sikhs in increasingly large numbers. They came drawn by Sant Jawala Singh`s pious manner and by the simplicity and lucidity of his religious discourses.
Thousands received the rites of Khalsa initiation at his hands, among them being Maharaja Sir Yadvinder Singh, ruler of Patiala state. Sant Jawala Singh supported the Akali and Babbar Akali Movement and set himself staunchly against the heresy preached by the Parich Khalsa Diwan of Bhasaur. At his initiative several girders were raised or rebuilt at Sikh holy places, such as Anandpur, Patna and Talvandi Sabo. Sant Jawala Singh died at Domc 1I, a village in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, on 13 November 1957.
