Damandeep Singh

Damandeep Singh Sandhanwalia is a brilliant Sikh youth, who is involved in the research on Sikh history. He was born on 13.12.1990 at Amritsar. He is related to Maharaja Duleep Singh. His great-grandfather S. Pritam Singh Sandhanwalia initiated the demand for bringing back the mortal remains of Maharaja Duleep Singh to India for cremation and also asked for the Kohinoor diamond to be brought back to be displayed at Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar. Further his grandfather S. Beant Singh reiterated these demands and personally handed over a petition to Queen Elizabeth on her Amritsar visit. His father S. Sukhdev Singh Sandhanwalia, has been a State awardee teacher of Punjab Govt. who has done (and is still doing) a lot of work for propagation of Sikh religion. After his graduation, although he obtained an Engineering qualification, his interest right from his childhood has always been Sikh religion, particularly its unique history. Thus, after completing his Masters in Computer Science Engineering from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, he started paying more attention to his interest in Sikh history. The main reason that prompted him in this direction is his family background.

His natural ancestor S. Thakur Singh Sandhanwalia was the Founder and first President of the Singh Sabha Movement. S. Thakur Singh was the cousin of Maharaja Duleep Singh and it was he who brought Maharaja back into Sikh religion and acted as the Prime Minister of Maharaja’s Government in exile. Damandeep started his research by studying Dr. Ganda Singh and others including Christy Campbell who wrote, “The Maharajah’s Box”. His research led him to even those unknown materials which are available in British Libraries and London Archives. In addition, he has studied deeply the works of various Sikh Scholars like Bhai Veer Singh and Bhai Randhir Singh. Apart from having a one year experience working at Dell, he has given several workshops on his professional subjects like Android Application Development and Ethical Hacking at various Engineering Colleges and Universities, he has also given many talks and participated in discussion on Sikh religion. As he has a good knowledge of Dasam Granth also, he is generally invited for discussion on the related subjects too. Right from the school times, he has been reciting poems on religious and social subjects and showing his ability in acting and Gatka playing. He is a role model for the upcoming Sikh youth as he has a great interest, ability and will to promote and propagate Sikh history by all means including social media platform. It is because of this reason that he has created a Facebook page named:- Sikh Encyclopedia. Whatever research he does, he plans to put it on the Media so that the people may come to know those wonderful facts of Sikh History which are still not known or lesser known. The role model young researcher is living at Amritsar along with his parents and younger brother.