PRESENT RULER: Sardar (name unknown) SINGH, present Head of Family and Taluqdar of Aira (Village & Post Aira, Lakhimpur (Kheri) District, Uttar Pradesh, India)

PREDECESSORS AND SHORT HISTORY: The ancestors of the family belonged to the village of Rasulpur, Tarn Taran in Amritsar district of the Punjab. The founder of the family was Jodh Singh, a jagirdar of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Estate holders were....

• Sujan Singh, a Jat Sikh, he left the Manjha in around 1760, as one of the Sukerchakia misl, and acquired large estates in Ambala and in the Jullundur Doab, married and had issue.

  • Sardar Jodh Singh, he was driven out of the Moli ilaqa in Ambala by the Kalsia Chief, and later his family lost most of their possessions in Hoshiarpur and Jullundur; he was granted a jagir worth Rs10,000 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh on condition of military service, this was reduced to Rs2,000 after annexation in 1849, this grant was resumed on his death, a portion in mauza Rurki was continued as a compassionate allowance to his heirs; married and had issue. He died 1857.

    • Sarmukh Singh, married and had issue.

      • Taran Singh, married and had issue.

        • Narayan Singh

        • Narendra Singh, married and had issue, four sons.

      • Hira Singh, married and had issue.

        • Ganda Singh, married and had issue.

          • Sant Singh

    • Gurmukh Singh, married and had issue.

      • Sardar Punjab Singh (see below)

    • Tehil Singh, his descendants live in Hoshiarpur, where the village of Rurki, granted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to Jodh Singh, is still in the possession of the family, married and had issue.

      • Attar Singh

      • Chattar Singh

      • Ram Singh, born 1839, married and had issue.

        • Kehar Singh, born 1873, married and had issue, three sons.

    • Rup Singh, his descendants live in Hoshiarpur, where the village of Rurki, granted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to Jodh Singh, is still in the possession of the family, married and had issue.

      • Sham Singh, married and had issue.

        • Bishan Singh

      • Nihal Singh, a Risaldar in the Oudh Police; he wqas granted a property jagir of Rs50 and 45 acres of land in Banawalipur Rakh in the Tarn Taran tahsil; he was also awarded the Order of Merit; married and had issue.

        • Parsa Singh, married and had issue.

          • Bhagwan Singh, a zaildar, Member of the District Board, and a Divisional Darbari, he is connected by marriage to the Jandiala Sardars, and had issue, three sons.

            • Pritam Singh, he served as a Jamadar during WWI and afterwards he was appointed Sub-Inspector of the Mounted Police

            • Balwant Singh, a clerk in the Agriculture Department.

            • Harbant Singh, appointed a Naib-Tahsildar.

        • Harsa Singh, born 1886, married and had issue.

      • Man Singh, married and had issue.

        • Diwan Singh

• Risaldar Major Sardar Bahadur PANJAB SINGH, Head of the Family and 1st Taluqdar of Aira [15.2.1869] - [xx.12.1869], born 180x at Rasulpur, in present day Amritsar district, he became a soldier in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Ghorcharas (irregular cavalry) in 1834, and after annexation in the army of the British having enlisted on 4th May 1849, in the newly raised 2nd Punjab Cavalry, and promoted to Naib Risaldar on 1st June 1849 and then to Risaldar on 21st January 1857, he took part in British operations in 1857 for the relief of Delhi, Lucknow and several other places, he was decorated with the 2nd Class Order of British India and was granted the title of "Bahadur" on 7th June 1858 and promoted to Risaldar Major, early the following year, in January 1859, he was appointed commandant of the 5th Regiment of the Mounted Police, Oudh (now eastern Uttar Pradesh), he joined the 2nd Regiment of the Central India Horse as Risaldar Major on 15th February 1861, he was awarded the 1st class Order of British India, with the title of "Sardar Bahadur" on 15th February 1869, he was awarded a jagir in Oudh in recognition of military service rendered by him after the annexation of the Punjab to the British dominions, including during the uprising of 1857, this grant of land was worth about 4,000 rupees per annum in the Kheri district of Oudh, he was further given an estate of 700 acres in Rakh Sukerchak, Amritsar district, on the proviso of an annual payment of 584 rupees, married and had issue. He died in December 1869 at Rasulpur.

  • Sardar Jwala Singh (qv)

  • Ala Singh, a distinguished soldier, he served in the Central India Horse, married and had issue, two sons. He died 1870.

    • Rao Bahadur Teja Singh, born 1859, a Risaldar in the 11th Bengal Lancers, he accompanied the Boundary Commission and rendered good service in the Panjdeh incident, for which he was granted the title of Rao Bahadur; married and had issue.

      • Lieutenant Mula Singh, he received a commission and joined the 11th Bengal Lancers in 1902; he rose to the rank of Honorary Lieutenant and served in France during WWI where he was wounded; he retired from the army in 1916 and was appointed Superintendent of Post Offices; he was awarded a sword, a sanad and five squares of land; married and had issue.

        • Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur (eldest daughter), married Sardar Gurdayal Singh Mann of Mogalchak, and had issue.

    • Bhagat Singh, born 1869, married and had issue.

  • Chanda Singh, he was a Wardi-Major in the 11th Bengal Lancers, he died 1874.

• Sardar JWALA SINGH, Head of the Family and 2nd Taluqdar of Aira 1869/1897, he was a Zaildar, a Member of the District Committee and Divisional Darbari; he added to his possession in Kheri with the purchase of 14 additional villages if Rs5,500 revenue; his property at Rasulpur was small, only amounting to 500 bighas of land, all his possessions were split equally between his two sons; married and had issue, two sons. He died 1897.

  • Sardar Sant Singh (qv)

  • Sardar Sir Jogendra Singh, second son (qv)

  • Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur, youngest daughter, she married Sardar Basant Singh Attariwala, he died 1905, and had issue, one son.

• Sardar SANT SINGH, Head of the Family 1897/1913 and joint Taluqdar of Aira, he served for 15 years in the Central India Horse, and retired as a Risaldar; besides his share of property in Oudh, he owned 20 squares of land in Gujranwala and 275 bighas in Amritsar district; he was a Divisional Darbari, married into the Ghanauli and Nakai families, and had issue. He died 1913.

  • Sardar Parampal Singh, born 1904, educated at Aitchison College, Lahore; he was a keen sportsman and golfer; he was awarded the rank of Honorary Captain by the HH the Raja of Mandi; married and had issue.

    • Sardar Gajindarpal Singh, born 1933, married Sardarni (name unknown) Kaur, grand-daughter of Rao Raja Raghunath Singh of Bharatpur.

  • Sardar Prithipal Singh, born 1906, educated at Aitchison College, Lahore; married Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur, daughter of Sardar Harbans Singh Attariwala, and his wife, a daughter of Rao Umrao Singh of Kuchai (?Kuchesar), and had issue, three sons.

• Sardar Sir JOGENDRA SINGH, Head of the Family 1913/1946 and joint Taluqdar of Aira 1897/1946, born 25th May 1877 at Aira, in Kheri district in the United Provinces, he was self-educated, appointed Home Minister in Patiala State in 1911, nominated to the Punjab Legislative Council in 1926 and appointed minister for Agriculture and Public Works till 1937, he was knighted in 1929, a pioneer in tractor cultivation, he laid the foundation of mechanized farming in the Punjab, in collaboration with Sundar Singh Majithia, he founded the Khalsa National Party in 1936 which won a majority of the Sikh seats at polls in the 1937 elections under the Government of India Act of 1935, retired but was appointed Prime Minister of Patiala State, nominated a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council in July 1942, his portfolio included the departments of Health, Lands and Education; he served as Pro-Chancellor of Delhi University as well as serving on several committees and commissions, including, the Indian Sugar Committee, the Indian Taxation Enquiry Commission, and the Indian Sandhurst Committee; also a Fellow of the Panjab University; he worked for the Chief Khalsa Diwan, the Khalsa College Managing Council and the Sikh Educational Conference, presiding over four of its annual sessions, he was also one of the founders of the Khalsa Defence of India League and a member of the Sikh delegation meeting the Cripps Mission on behalf of the Sikhs on 31st March 1942; married a member of the Atari family, and had issue, two sons and at least two daughters. He died of a paralytic stroke on 3rd December 1946 at Iqbal Nagar, Montgomery district, now in Pakistan.

  • Sardar Jatinder Singh, born 1894, educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge.

  • Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur, married (as his 2nd wife), married Sardar Gurbachan Singh Jalawalia of Alawalpur, born 1891, and had issue.

    • Sardar Prabh Indar Singh, born 1923.

    • Sardar Maniv Indar Singh, born 1933.

  • Bibiji Mahinder Kaur, married The Hon'ble Lieutenant Sardar Buta Singh Naushahria C.B.E., Head of the Naushahra Nangli Jagirdari Family, born 1903, and had issue.

  • Sardar Iqbal Singh, born 1911, educated at Aitchison College, Lahore, at the Maclagan Engineering College at Moghalpura, and completed his education at Loughborough College in England; married and had issue.

    • Sardar Daya Inder Singh