Not long after, in 1805, he received the commission with a command of 800 horses and foot and was given the title of ‘Sardar’ (Chief). In 1804, Hari Singh participated in a recruitment test for service in the Sikh army and so impressed Maharaja Ranjit Singh with his skill at various drills that he was given an appointment as a personal attendant. Dharam Kaur returned to Gujranwala when her son was about 13 years old. There Hari Singh learned Punjabi and Persian and trained in the manly arts of riding, musketry and swordsmanship. His mother, Dharam Kaur, had to move to her parental home to live under the care of her brothers. Hari Singh was hardly seven years of age when his father died. His father, Gurdial Singh, had taken part in many of the campaigns of the Sukkerchakkias. His grandfather, Hardas Singh, had been killed fighting against Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1762. The family originally came from Majitha, near Amritsar. the great General of the Sarkar Khalsa Ji Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born into a Sikh family owing allegiance to the of the Sukerchakia Misl. His spectacular achievements exemplified the tradition established by Guru Gobind Singh. Two centuries on, Britain, Pakistan, Russia and America have been unsuccessful in effecting law and order in this region. Hari Singh Nalwa’s performance as an administrator and a military commander in the North West Frontier remains unmatched. He successfully thwarted the last foreign invasion into the subcontinent through the Khyber Pass at Jamrud, permanently blocking this route of the invaders. In his lifetime, Hari Singh became a terror to the ferocious tribes inhabiting these regions. He took the frontier of the Sarkar Khalsa Jii to the very mouth of the Khyber Pass.įor eight centuries, marauders, who had indulged in looting, plunder, rape, and forcible conversions to Islam had used this route into the subcontinent. Hari Singh Nalwa was the Commander-in-Chief at the most turbulent North-West Frontier of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Sarkar Khalsa Ji.

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