What may surprise many celebrated historians is the fact that Bir has had schooling only up to the 5th class. Born on October 26,1926, in Burma, where his father was in British Military Police, Bir was in Class IV when World War II broke out. Suffering one setback after another, the British forces in Burma were defeated by the Japanese. Because of rapid depletion in the British army ranks, Bir and several others were forcibly recruited into the British army on May 23, 1941.

His father was fighting in one part of the country, while Bir, who became personal secretary of Col Charles, was posted in the border area. However, Japanese onslaught made the British withdraw from Burma in February, 1942. This led to the splitting of the family.

His father, Partap Singh, who suffered bullet injuries near the Thailand border, was shifted to Mandalay Hospital. His mother Kartar Kaur as well as his younger brother and sister, and wives of other Indian soldiers in the British army were sent to India. Bir reached Imphal with his Ist Burma Regiment. He fell sick on the way and was admitted to a military hospital in Lucknow.

After recovering, he came to his village in August, 1942, where the family got reunited after a long separation. However, Bir’s joy soon turned into sorrow when he learnt that his younger brother and sister had died in Nagaland hills because of illness. Bir joined his regiment again in Burma. He quit the army on June 14,1947. Then he was a sergeant.

The second eventful story of his life started after he quit the army without any pension benefits. He joined the Parza Mandal Movement, which was waging a war against the local princely states and feudal lords.

The feudal lords, who had been taking a substantial share of food grains as a part of taxes from tenet farmers, operated through their agents, who used to be known bullies. They had been treating serfs like slaves. The most miserable condition was of non-occupant tenets (tenets-at-will) as they had neither legal rights of land nor any protection against eviction.

Bir dared to defy feudal lords by opening a school and constructing a gurdwara in 1947. "The feudal lords did not want that people should gather in gurdwaras against them and get education in schools. Hence, they opposed gurdwaras and schools in villages," says Bir.

He joined hands with Jagir Singh Joga, Dharam Singh Fakkar, Teja Singh Swantantar and others to engineer a revolt by peasants against the oppression and brutalities of feudal lords. Later Bir also became member of the Red Party, set up by Teja Singh Swantantar. Interestingly, revolts of peasants in the Malwa region were held at the same time when the Telengana peasant revolt ( 1946-51) against the Nizam of Hyderabad took place. However, these do not find adequate mention in history books.

The Red Party became popular in a short period and this became a cause of alarm for the big land owners. "In 1952, three candidates supported by Parza mandalites and the Red Party won the Assembly elections in Pepsu. This strengthened the struggle against the big landlords," says Bir. Gian Singh Rarewal, an aspirant for the chiefministership of Pepsu who needed the help of MLAs, gave a commitment that he would transfer the land rights to occupant serfs in case the three MLAs extended him help in the Assembly.

On May 29, 1952, a function was held at Mansa. Joga presided over the function, while Bir was its chief organiser. At the function, Ram Singh, Revenue Minister, and Dara Singh, Education Minister, announced the granting of land rights to occupant tenets.

"It was a big victory for the Red Party, which later merged with the CPI. And that was the first and last government function that was solely held under the Red Flag," says Bir. It is because of the Red Party, Parza Mandal Movement and people like Bir and Joga, that most of the farmers are owners of land in the Malwa region now.

Out of the about 3000 villages in Pepsu, farmers got permanent ownership rights of about 1.25 lakh acres. In 1953, Bir was arrested in connection with the Kishangarh case and in 1955 he was sent to jail under the charge of setting up a parallel government.

Bir, who speaks English fluently because of his association with the British, started writing articles about the struggle of farmers in print media in the 1960s. It drew the attention of an eminent historian. In the 1970s, eminent historian S.S. Bal invited Bir to present a paper in the Punjab History Conference hosted by Punjabi University. Since than Bir has became a regular participant at such conferences. He has presented a paper in almost every conference for the past 30 years.

Bir has authored about 11 books. Most of them have been published. He has also written on the struggle of peasantry against the big landlords. This manuscript is ready but Bir has no money to get it published. All his efforts to get it printed through official channels have failed.

Bir considers Sutuntarta Sangram vich Punjabana (Role of Punjabi women in Freedom Movement) his best work. He has written on decorated soldiers of Bathinda district and authored the origin and development of 70 important villages in Bathinda. The Defeat of Fascism in Second World War and Kishangarh Goli Kand are some of his other books.