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Also known as Giani Gurdial Singh or Sant Gurdial Singh Bhindranvale,
was born in 1886 at Adampur, near Moga, now in Faridkot district
of the Punjab. He studied up to matriculation. He enjoyed the patronage
of Tikka (later Maharaja) Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, whom he accompanied
to England in 1910. On return from abroad in 1912, he joined the
seminary at Bhindar Kalan run by Sant Sundar Singh where he studied
Sikh theological and historical texts. When the first Shiromani
Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was formed in November 1920, Gurdial
Singh was nominated a member. He was one of those who persuaded
the Committee to take up the question of the forced abdication and
dethronement of the Nabha ruler, Maharaja Ripudaman Singh, in July
1923.
Consequent upon the launching of what is known
as the Jaito morcha or agitation to protest against the government's
action, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was outlawed
and its members put behind the bars. Sant Gurdial Singh was arrested
on 7 January 1924 and imprisoned in Multan Central Jail. While under
detention he used to give discourses on gurbdni for the benefit
of his jail-mates. On release in 1926, he went back to Sant Sundar
Singh, who appointed him jathedar in charge of a newly established
gurdwara and missionary centre at Bopa Rai, a village in Ludhiana
district. He was elected to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
in 1945. Besides teaching regular students at the seminary, Sant
Gurdial Singh delivered a serialized discourse on the entire Guru
Granth Sahib spread over a whole year. He had given 23 such annual
series before he died at Bopa Rai Kalan on 28 March 1958.
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