Makandpur

The present head of the family is Sardar Amar Singh,a Gil / Shergill Jats .His home is at Makandpur, Tahsil Nawashahar, Jalandhar district. In the reign of Shahjahan, about three hundred and twenty-five years ago, the ancestors of Sardar Amar Singh were chaudhris in the Jalandhar Doab, and managed to make themselves masters of seventy villages on the north bank of the Satlaj. They built Makandpur, Nawashahar, where the family now has its head-quarters. Their chief enemies were the Jaijun Rajputs, the old proprietors, whom theygradually managed to oust by fighting or intrigue. There is an anecdote told in the family that Ganga Ram, one of the Makandpurias, in Public Darbar tore up a Sanad of the Emperor Shabjahan, confirming the Rajputs in their rights of ownership.The matter was quickly reported, and Ganga Ram was summoned to answer at Dehli for his disrespectful conduct.He pleaded that he had acted in the in-terests of his Sovereign, inasmuch as the Rajputs were notoriously bad cultivators, and the land was certain to thrivein the hands of the Jats.There was sufficient wisdom in theargument to secure condonation of the offence, and GangaRam and his brothers were maintained in possession of the patrimony of the Rajputs. But the latter were not prepared to accept this ex-parte decision without protest. They murdered Ganga Ram on the earliest opportunity, and attempted to take back their old lands by force.They were defeated, however, by Chaju Mal, cousin of Ganga Ram, whotook from them a considerable portion of what remained oftheir holdings. The fighting went on from year to year with varying results. Finally Chaju Mal and all the members ofthe family except one boy, Zorawar Singh, were killed off by the Rajputs, who became once more masters of the situation.Zorawar’s mother fled with him to her father’s house. She was summoned thence later on by the Mahomedan Governor Dina Beg, to take over thirty-five villages of the old posses-sions; the Rajputs, as predicted by Ganga Ram, not proving punctual in the payment of the State demand. Zorawar’s grandson Bhup Singh was the first Sikh in the family. He was an admirer and follower of the celebrated fanatic Bedi Sahib Singh of Una, Hushiarpur, and while still a mere lad, accompanied him on his expeditions south of the Satlaj against Maler Kola and Raikot in 1794-1798. Bhup Singh’s natural energy and love of adventure were, however, checked by an accident which left him blind before he had reached his prime, and he never attained a position of much significance. His elder son Gulab Singh was killed in 1838, fighting in Ranjit Singh’s service. Bhup Singh died in1865. On the accession of the British the Makandpuria claimsto headship were ignored except in Makandpur itself, of which one-fourth the revenue, now yielding Rs. 830 perannum, was released to Bhup Singh and his lineal male heirs. The jagir has since passed from his son Partab Singh, whodied in 1870, to the present holder Amar Singh, a youth of seventeen years, now reading in the Aitchison College. He owns 1,080 ghumaos of land in Makandpur and Sukar, Tahsil Nawashahar. He is a Zaildar under the guardianship of his maternal uncle Jawala Singh, Jagirdar of Thala.

The young Sardar’s name is on the Lieutenant-Governor’s Darbar List. He is an intelligent lad, and has married a daughter of Sardar Bakhshish Singh of Khamanon Kalan in Patiala. The estate is a small one, but has thriven during the minority of Amar Singh, About twenty-four ghumaos of land in Makandpur have recently been acquired by purchase, and there is a small cash balance in the guardian’s hands.