PRESENT HEAD OF HOUSE:

PREDECESSORS AND SHORT HISTORY: The Majithia Sardars are a set of three related families from the area of Majitha, a town 26 kilometres north of the Punjab city of Amritsar, though there common ancestor is 16 generations back. The town was founded by one Madho, a Jat of the Gill clan. He was 'jetha' (the eldest son) of his father and hence the place was 'Madho-Jetha', which became in time, Majitha. They rose to prominence in the early 19th century by throwing in their lot with the rising star of the Sikh misls, viz. that of Ranjit Singh, during the late 18th century. As Ranjit Singh established the Sikh Empire around the turn of the 19th century, the Majithia sirdars gained prominence and became very influential in the Maharaja's army. Ten different Majithia generals can be counted amongst the Sikh army during the period of 1800 to 1849, and they became one of the three most powerful families in Punjab under the Maharaja.

• Gujar, married and had issue.

  • Veghu, married and had issue.

    • Dargah Singh, married and had issue.

      • Sardar Amar Singh Kalan, a distinguished soldier he was appointed Governor of Hazara in succession to Diwan Ram Dyal; married and had issue. He died at Hazara.

        • General Sardar Kahan Singh, he was granted estates at Kot Bhai and Syadpur; he took part in the second Anglo-Sikh war, where he fought the British both at Cheliarivala and Gujra, afterwards his jagir was confiscated and in lieu he was granted a pension of Rs3,600 per annum. He died 1853 at Majitha.

  • Taighu, married and had issue.

    • Izat Singh, with his brother, he followed the fortunes of the Sukerchukia Sardars; he was able to acquire a strip of the Dhanni country, and held it till his death; married and had issue, two sons. He died 1772.

      • Sardar Fateh Singh, married and had issue.

        • Sardar Chanda Singh, married and had issue.

          • Sardar Karam Singh, married and had issue, three sons.

            • Sardar Rajinder Singh (second son)

        • Wasawa Singh, married a daughter of Sardar Gulab Singh Povindia (died 1854), and his wife, Sardarni Nand Kaur, and had issue. He died 1894.

          • Kirpal Singh, born 1874, married and had issue, two sons.

          • Parduman Singh, born 1877, married and had issue.

          • Chanda Singh, born 1881, married and had issue.

          • Harnam Singh, died 1892.

        • Sardar Attar Singh, he was adopted by Sardar Uttam Singh (see below), appointed Governor of the district around Rawalpindi in 1809; he was granted estates worth 28,000Rs at Syad Kasra and Ganja Mahal after his adoptive father's jagir was resumed; he briefly managed the old family ilaqa of Dhanni, but did not hold it in jagir; married and had issue, one son. He died 1843 in Hazara.

          • Raja Surat Singh (qv)

        • Partap Singh, Zamindar.

        • Hira Singh, Zamindar.

      • Jaimal Singh, married and had issue.

    • Sahaj Singh, his nephews were only young boys at their fathers death and he took possession of the property which went to his own son after his death; married and had issue. He died 1781.

      • Sardar Uttam Singh, the whole of the Danni country was forcibly taken by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore in 1803-1804; he adopted his nephew, Attar Singh, married and had adoptive issue. He died sp in 1827 when all his jagirs were resumed.

        • (A) Sardar Attar Singh (see above)

• Raja Surat Singh C.S.I., commandant of the Sikh battalion posted at Peshawar during the first Anglo-Sikh war, commanded 2,000 men in the division sent to Multan to quell a revolt. After the annexation of the Punjab, Surat Singh's jagirs were confiscated and he was removed to Banaras with an annual pension of 720Rs. He lived at Banaras in privation till 1857, when during the mutiny he helped the British and saved the Banaras treasury, which contained the jewellery of Maharani Jind Kaur, on 6th July 1857. For these services, Surat Singh was allowed to return to the Punjab, his pension was raised to 4,800Rs and he was granted a permanent jagir at Dumri in Gorakhpur district of the North-Western Provinces, appointed an honorary magistrate in 1875 in his village of Majitha to which he came back in 1861, and was invested with civil and judicial powers. In 1877, the title of Raja and the Companionship of the Star of India were conferred upon him, he married 1stly, a daughter of Sardar Ran Singh of Wachohar, married 2ndly, a daughter of Sahib Singh of Attari, and had issue. He died in 1881 at Majitha.

  • Sardar Umrao Singh (qv)

  • Hon. Sardar Bahadur Dr. Sir Sundar Singh Majithia C.I.E., D.O.L., born 17th February 1872 at Majithia, a village 18 kms northeast of Amritsar, educated at Government School, Amritsar, and Aitchison College, Lahore, finally joining Government College, Lahore, to pass the intermediate (undergraduate) examination, secretary of Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Amritsar from 1894, became a member of the governing council of the Khalsa College, Amritsar from 1895, secretary of the college council from 1902 to 1912 and president of the council as well as of the college managing committee from 1920 till his death in 1941, a founder-member of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, established in October 1902, holding the office of secretary from 1902 to 1920 and again from 1934 to 1937. In 1932/1933, he acted as the president of the Diwan. He took a leading part in the founding of the Sikh Educational Conference in 1908, and presided at its annual sessions in 1911, 1924 and 1935, was nominated a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council in 1909, elected the first president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on the 16th November 1920, resigning the following year after his election to the Punjab Legislative Council and appointment as an executive councillor and revenue minister in the Punjab Government, elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Batala constituency on the nomination of the Kalsa National Party Sundar Singh's field of activities extended to commerce and industry as well, Sardar Bahadur [cr.1911], C.I.E. [cr.1920], knighted in 1926, Doctor of Oriental Learning (D.O.L) honoris causa in 1926 awarded by the University of the Punjab, married 1stly 1887, Sardarni Khushalpal Kaur, daughter of Sardar Bishan Singh Virk of Kandaula, maternal uncle of Raja Bikram Singh of Faridkot, died 1887, married 2ndly, Sardarni Lady Parsan Kaur, eldest daughter of Sardar Bhagwant Singh, Rais-i-Azam of Bhadaur, and had issue, and had issue. He died 2nd April 1941 at Lahore. The cremation took place at Amritsar on the premises of his permanent residence.

    • Sardar Kirpal Singh Majithia, born 1891, married a daughter of Sardar Jiwan Singh of Shahzadpur (see misl Shahidan), and had issue.

      • Sardar Gurnihal Singh Majithia, born 1917.

      • Sardar Dilip Singh Majithia, born 1920.

    • Kanwar Narayan Singh, died 1898.

    • Sardar Surendra Singh Majithia, born 4th March 1895 ^(#2), educated at Kalsa Collegiate High School and Kalsa College, Amritsar; Senior Managing Partner, Saraya Sugar Factory, Saraya Oil Works, Saraya Distillery, Saraya Dairy Farm and Saraya Chemical Works, Sadarnagar; Fairweathers, Muzaffarpur, Bihar; Member, Kalsa College, Managing Committee and Governing Council, Amritsar; Patron and Life Member, Managing Committee and Vice-Chairman, Managing Council, Maharana Pratap High School, Gorakhpur; Member, Sugar Technologists' Association of India; Member, District Resettlement Committee and District Court of Wards Advisory Committee, Gorakhpur and Sant Attar Singh Educational Council, Mastuana, PEPSU; Life Member, Sikh Educational Committee; Patron U.P. Olympic Committee; married 1stly, a daughter of Sardar Bahadur Sardar Bhagel Singh Kamla, Taluqdar of Bhungha, Bahraich, she died 1919, married 2ndly, Lady Balbir Kaur Surendra Singh Majithia, daughter of General Hazura Singh of Patiala State, and grand-daughter of Bakhshi Sardar Ganda Singh of Patiala. (Saraya Estate, P.O. Sardarnagar, Dist. Gorakhpur, U.P., India or Majithia House, Amritsar, Punjab, India)

    • Kanwar Bhagwan Singh, died 1918.

    • Sqdr.-Ldr. Sardar Surjit Singh Majithia (by Sardarni Parsan Kaur), born 8th August 1912, Member of Lok Sabha I (1952), II (1957) and III (1962), educated at the Khalsa College at Amritsar, entered the Indian Air Force and reached the rank of Squadron Leader, he became a member of the Central Legislative Assembly in 1945, Indian Ambassador to Nepal 1947/1949, served as India's deputy defence minister 1952/1962, President of the Wrestling Federation of India 1964/1976 and President, Cricket Control Board of India 1956/1958, first President of the Yachting Association of India when it was established in 1960, President of Khalsa College, Amritsar 1944 for three decades, married the daughter of General Sardar Shivdev Singh, of an old family of the Wazirs of the princely state of Nabha, and had issue, four sons. He died in Delhi on 27th September 1995.

      • Sardar Satyajit Singh Majithia, born 1938, former Deputy Defence Minister, married Sardarni Sukhmanjus Kaur, and has issue.

        • Bibiji Harsimrat Kaur, born 25th July 1966, elected to the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009; Member, Committee on Estimates since 6th August 2009; Member, Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment since 31st August 2009; Member, Committee on Estimates;Member, Standing Committee on Food & Public Distribution since 5th May 2010; married 21st November 1991, Sukhbir Singh Badal, born 9th July 1962 in Badal, educated at Panjab University, Chandigarh (Punjab) and California State University, Los Angeles, USA; B.A (Hons.) Economics, M.A (Economics), M.B.A.; Elected to 11th Lok Sabha 1996; 12th Lok Sabha 1998/- ; and has issue, one son and two daughters. (Vill. Badal, P.O. Badal,Distt. Muktsar, Punjab, India)

        • Kanwar Gurmehar Singh Majithia, married Savpreet Kaur.

        • Kanwar Bikram Singh Majithia, born 1975, former Minister of State, Minister for Punjab Revenue and Rehabilitation; married 21st November 2009 in Delhi, Ganieve Grewal.

    • Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur, married Sardar Mangal Singh Mann of Kotshera, and had issue (see Mogalchak). She died 1934.

  • Bibiji (name unknown) Kaur, married 1889, (as his 1st wife), Sardar Bhagwan Singh Jalawalia of Alawalpur, born 1866, died 1897, and had issue.

• Sardar Umrao Singh, born 1870 at Majitha, a village in Amritsar district, educated at Government School in Amritsar and later joined the Aitchison College, Lahore; a Provincial Darbari, visited England in 1896 with his wife and again in 1897 to attend the Diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. A scholar in Sanskrit and Persian, he studied philosophy and religion, dabbled in astronomy, photography and carpentry, and spoke five different languages fluently. As head of the Majitha family, Umrao Singh was privileged to attend the Coronation darbars in 1903 and 1910. In the autumn of 1912, he went with his wife to Budapest, returning to India in 1921, after the general amnesty had been granted by the King for political offences during the war. From 1929 to 1934, he lived in Paris, returning to India in 1934; he married 1stly, 1883, Sardarni Narindar Kumari, died 1907, daughter of Sardar Gulab Singh Attariwala of Attari, married 2ndly, 1911, Marie Antoinette Gottesman, pianist, a Hungarian lady whom he had met in Lahore at the house of Princess Sofia Duleep Singh, died 1948, and had issue. He died in Delhi on 17th December 1954.

  • Kanwar Balram Singh, A.D.C. to HH the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir; married a daughter of Sardar Jiwan Singh of Shahzadpur (see misl Shahidan), and had issue, two sons and one daughter. He died 1922.

    • Kanwar Samarjit Singh

    • Kanwar Ranjit Singh

  • Kanwar Satyavan Singh, born 1894, married and had issue.

    • Kanwar Satindar Singh, born 1921.

    • Kanwar Nirvar Singh, born 1924.

  • Kanwar Vivak Singh, born 1898, married and had issue.

    • Kanwar Rishikesh Singh

  • Amrita Sher-gil, born 30th January 1913 in Budapest, educated briefly at Santa Anunciata School in Florence, Italy and at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris (Degree in Fine Arts); a famous painter, the only Asian to be elected as Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris; the Government of India has declared her works as National Art Treasures, and most of them are housed in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi; she married in June 1938, her maternal cousin, Dr. Victor Egan, who was a medical doctor in her father's factory, she died sp 5th December 1941 in Lahore. (Allegedly poisoned by her husband.)

  • Indira Sher-gil, born 28th March 1914 in Budapest, married K.V.K. Sundaram of the Indian Civil Service, and had issue. She died 1975.

    • Vivan Sundaram, born 1943 in Simla, studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda (B.A. Fine Arts, 1965) and at the Slade School, London (Post-Diploma, 1968, on a Commonwealth Scholarship); a well known painter, he held his first solo exhibition in New Delhi in 1966; a founding member of SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, a collective to building solidarity among artists and individuals on questions of conscience in politics), presently a Visiting Professor at the Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi; married Geeta Kapur.

    • Navina Sundaram, born 1947.