Karam Singh was born in 1884. He was the first Sikh historian who used scientific techniques in documenting the Sikh history. He spent almost all his life in collecting the source material related to the Sikh history. He left his education when he was a student of B.A. final year and walked on foot from one village to another in search of historical material and documented the tales told by the older people of Punjab. It was a period (1905) of great plague in Punjab. Many old and young people were dying of plague left and right. He could not afford to wait and finish his degree. Had he waited, many more sources of valuable information would have vanished forever.

Karam Singh had heard that there lives a man at Kadrabad (Distt. Gujrat, now in Pakistan) who was present in the camp where Raja Sher Singh (son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh) had stayed. Plague was taking its toll and he was warned against going to that area. He went there anyway and found that all the village folks had either died or run away. He finally found the old man he was looking for. He was fighting for his life. The family members realized that this man has come a long way to talk to him, allowed him to talk to the old man who was semi-conscious, but the man died.

Most of his historical material originally published in a special issue of "Phulwari" published by Giani Hira Singh `Dard' in 1930. Phulwari was perhaps the best monthly magazine in Punjabi at that time.

Karam Singh thoroughly studied many books written in Farsi, Arabic, and English. Based on the historical clues in those books, he solved many mysteries of the Sikh history. He found many sources of information of the Khalsa Raj and collected some very valuable material which is fundamental in understanding the Sikh history.

Karam Singh wrote the following books in Punjabi:

• Katak Ke Vaisakh
• Banda Bahadar
• Gurpurb Nirnhai

In addition, he compiled and edited:

Bahumulle Ithasik Lekh

Karam Singh was the first historian to research and report that Khalsa even defeated the Chinese Khutan army and the rulers of Sindh and Shikarpur also paid tribute to the Lahore Darbar (Sikh Raj). It was not documented ANYWHERE ELSE before him. He thoroughly studied the official daily diaries "roznamachas" of Mughol and Khalsa offices and collected useful information.

Among numerous other rare documents, he found a document that described the time when Suba Aslam Khan bestowed the title of Nawab upon Kapur Singh, and when a "Jagir" of 19 villages was given to Sri Harmandir Sahib. The name of every village was written on it. He bought it for five rupees. The seller did not know the real value of that piece of paper which was smaller than the palm of the hand.

Karam Singh regretfully wrote that our history is spread all over the world and the Sikhs have failed to preserve it. He says that all the valuable material that he has come up with was obtained from non-Sikh sources, mostly Muslims.

Karam Singh met with some very old people. One of them was with Maharaja Kharak Singh when Chet Singh was murdered (Sikh Raj's last period). He also met another man who was a servant of the Sandhanwalias and was present when Prince Sher Singh (son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh) was murdered. He also met with a person who was an attendant (orderly) of Maharaja Dalip Singh, and another man who accompanied the Sikh army when Raja Hira Singh (dogra) was killed. Karam Singh also met with a man who had fought in the battles of Mudki, Feru Shehar, Sabhraon, Cheliawalli (where the Sikhs defeated the British) and Gujrat. He met with many men who had fought various battles.

Karam Singh died on September 10, 1930 of tuberculosis.