Baba Prem Singh Hoti Mardan

Bawa Prem Singh Hoti Mardan, born on November 2, 1882, in Hoti Mardan, was a leading Sikh historian, theologian, and biographer of the Singh Sabha movement. Born to Bawa Ganda Singh and Bibi Kushalia, his aristocratic Bhalla family traced its lineage to Guru Amar Das and had been awarded a jagir by the Sikh Empire. Although this land was confiscated by the British after the 1849 annexation of Punjab, Buland Khan, the Muslim chieftain Nawab of Hoti, restored their patron status and appointed Ganda Singh as his chief administrator. Raised in a Pashtun-majority area, Prem Singh grew up speaking Pashto natively while studying Gurmukhi, Persian, Urdu, and English.

He succeeded his father as administrator in 1903. Strongly influenced by the educational reforms of the Chief Khalsa Diwan, he performed extensive missionary preaching (katha) across Peshawar, Nowshera, and Akora Khattak from 1909 to 1947, standardizing the Sikh wedding ceremony (Anand Karaj) in the frontier. A historic meeting in April 1908 in Gujranwala with the scholar Bhai Vir Singh redirected Prem Singh's focus toward academic Sikh historiography.

He compiled a personal library of 1,840 rare books and 130 manuscripts, and authored definitive biographies of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, his family, and generals like Hari Singh Nalwa. After the 1947 Partition, his family shifted to Patiala, where he donated 1,500 rare volumes to Panjab University. Prem Singh died in Patiala on January 10, 1954.