Satguru Jagjit Singh was the spiritual head of the Namdhari or Kuka sect of Sikhs founded in 1842 by Balak Singh (1799–1862) in northwest Punjab. Ram Singh a carpenter of Bhaini Arãean, a village in eastern Punjab, had served in the Sikh army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who was succeeded by Balak Singh. After the annexation of the Punjab by the British, Satguru Ram Singh grudgingly led the mass unrest by adopting socio-religious reformist posture against casteism and idolatry, which had crept into the Sikh faith. He claimed to be a reincarnation of Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the 10 th Guru of the Sikhs and the future ruler of Hindustan. His political message was anti-British. He openly called for total non-cooperation with the British and the promotion of indigenous industries and ran a parallel state structure which had its own law courts, schools, postal and taxation system. The British government saw him as a threat and arrested him. He was banished to Burma where he died in 1885 in custody. Forty years later, Gandhi was to pursue the same path of non-violent struggle.
Satguru Ram Singh was succeeded by his younger brother Hari Singh and Jagjit Singh was the fourth in the line. Jagjit Singh’s father Partap Singh was a staunch supporter of the Indian National Congress in the freedom struggle and this relationship still continues and Namdharis are guaranteed vote bank of the ruling Congress Party. A Namdhari industrialist headed the Punjab State Congress committee early this decade. Satguru Partap Singh was one of the leaders of the World Peace movement in the early 1950s sponsored by the Soviet Union. Namdharis’ soft-spot towards the atheist Indian communist party is well known. They harboured Punjabi communist leaders while the party was banned just after 1947.

What distinguished the Namdharis from the orthodox Sikhs was their belief in a personal line of Gurus after the 10 th Guru. They do not worship the Adi Granth the Sikh Holy Book. In the absence of the living Guru, in the Gurdwara –temple– his photographic image adorns the wall and in the forefront the raised seat is left empty. When he is present in the congregation, devotees touch his feet bowing their heads. The Namdharis strictly adhere to non-violence, vegetarianism, temperance, dress code of wearing white hand spun cotton and men wearing turbans horizontally across the forehead and drinking groundwater from the well. They have kept some typical orthodox Hindu rituals like havana (holy fire) for worship and mass wedding ceremonies. Austerely dressed in white with their heads covered women have equal rights and wear no gold ornaments and make up. The Namdharis claim that Satguru Ram Singh was the first to allow women to perform Amrit Sanskar – the Khalsa initiation; and to abolish dowry, child marriage and trade in girls.

In the first half of last century, the Sikhs were a well-established community in Kenya as compared to Sikh settlements in the Far East. As the Sikh community in East Africa comprised mainly of artisans, they after having newly acquired affluence asserted their identity by establishing East African Ramgarhia Board, Namdhari Sangat and caste and sect-based gurdwaras and even sought separate electorates and reserved seats for themselves in the Legislative Council of Kenya. (Kenyan Sikh communists Makhan Singh, Gopal Singh Chandan and his associates denounced such demand as ‘reactionary, disruptive and divisive’. In this cause, they found support from the Congress, the Agha Khan and his followers - East African Ismailis. As a matter of record, Makhan Singh went on a seven-day fast in June 1948 as ‘a supreme effort to rouse the honest consciousness of the Indian people, and that of the leaders of the East African Indian National Congress and other organisations’. Eventually the issue of separate electorates was shelved.) This was the phenomenon that could have happened abroad only, though it was to take place in the Punjab half a century later. Satguru Partap Singh was the first ever Namdhari head who visited Kenya followed by his successor son during the late 1950s. After that Satguru Jagjit Singh travelled regularly worldwide to his followers, which numbered about a million, mostly skilled workers and professionals settled in various countries like Thailand, Australia and the Americas including the United Kingdom.

In 1959, Jagjit Singh at the age of 39 assumed the spiritual throne after the death of his father Satguru Partap Singh. He was unassuming and soft spoken. Behind his pock marked face lay a humble soul. He had no formal education in the British colonial education system though his father had him privately tutored in Punjabi to read Sikh scriptures and theology. He religiously followed the routine of getting up early at two o’clock and washing with spring water. On his visits to England his followers collected water for him from the river Iver.
Though he made no claims of being a messiah he had one noteworthy miracle to his credit: In August 1976 while he was visiting London he made rain fall after a long spell of draught by performing havanayajna prayers. It poured down for twenty days. The British TV channels and tabloids hailed him as the Rain God and Rain Maker.

During the last 50 years apart from him preaching his faith, his most remarkable role was his dedicated efforts of keeping alive the tradition of Indian classical music. He himself was an accomplished player of Dil Ruba a traditional string and bow instrument and had encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient classical compositions. His father and four Muslim music teachers - Ustad Udho Khan, Ustad Rahim Bakhash, Bhai Naseer and Bhai Taba trained him.

Many non-Sikh maestros like Alla Rakha Khan, Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Krishan Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Rajan and Sajan Mishra held him in great esteem and gained from his vast knowledge of music sitting literally at his feet. Under his patronage all these masters trained many Namdhari vocalists and instrumentalists notable among them Gurdev Singh (Sarod) and Sukhwinder Singh (Tabla).
The Satguru patronised leading Punjabi authors like Sant Singh Sekhon and helped them in their hour of need. Apart from the cash they received a tin canister each full of ghee refined cow butter.

As a nature lover the Satguru cared for environmental issues. He oversaw several projects of growing gardens in desert areas, horticulture in sand dunes, seed farming through a multi-national company with multi-million dollar turnover, horse stud farms and cattle breeding centres.

The power tussle for his succession had started well before his end. On the day of his cremation his wife named his nephew Thakur Uday Singh (54) as the next Satguru, who is seen by his opponents as a tycoon and not a spiritual being.