Kirtan or Kirtana (Punjabi: ਕੀਰਤਨ, Sanskrit: "praise, eulogy"; also Sankirtan) is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed mrdanga or pakawaj drum, and karatal hand cymbals. It is a major practice in Vaisnava devotionalism, Sikhism, the Sant traditions, and some forms of Buddhism, as well as other religious groups.

In the Bhagavad-gita (9.13-9.14) Krishna states that great souls worship and glorify him single-mindedly. In Maharashtra state of India Kirtan is a unique devotional solo performance and theatrical folk art which accompanies spiritual story telling along with call-and-response chanting or "responsory" that most of the times includes combinations of multiple element of Performing arts. Narada is considered originator of this tradition. The practice of kirtan was popularized as a means to this end in the Hindu devotional revival of the Moghul era.

Raja Sir Harnam Singh, KCIE (Punjabi: ਹਰਨਾਮ ਸਿੰਘ (Gurumukhi), हरनाम सिंह (Devanagari), ہرنام سنگھ (Shahmukhi)) (15 November 1851 - 20 May 1930) was the second son of Raja Sir Randhar Singh Bahadur, GCSI, Raja of Kapurthala and younger brother of Raja Karak Singh Bahadur, Kaiser-i-Hind, Raja of Kapurthala. Kharak Singh succeeded to the Kapurthala throne and died without any issue. Naturally Harnam Singh should have succeeded him as his younger brother but due to the dirty politics in connivance with the bribed british resident and a corrupt Civil Surgeon who declared the Maharani to be pregnant when his( Kharak Singh) husband was on the death bed , a unrelated child was smuggled into the palace and became heir to the Kapurthala throne with the name of JAGATJIT SINGH. Thus Harnam Singh was deprived of the throne but as a corrective measure the British Govt made Harnam Singh a hereditary Raja, awarded a Knighthood, KCSI, gave administration of his Awadh properties for his lifetime , an move which was objected by Jagatjit Singh but in vain.

Harjinder Singh Jinda was a member of a Sikh organization Khalistan Commando Force and one of the two assassins of Arun Vaidya (the Chief of Indian army at the time of Operation Bluestar and architect of Operation Bluestar). He was responsible for three high-profile killings; Arjan Dass, Lalit Maken and Gen. Vaidya. He along with other members of Khalistan Commando Force participated in Indian history's biggest bank robbery of Rs. 5.70 crore ($4.5 million) from Punjab National Bank, Miller Gunj branch, Ludhiana to finance the campaign for a separate Sikh state of Khalistan.

Harjinder Singh's mother's and father's names are Gurnam Kaur and Gulzar Singh. Jinda had two older brothers, Nirbhail Singh and Bhupinder Singh and one sister, Balvinder Kaur. Harinder Singh alias Mathra Singh and Jagjit Singh were nephews of Harjinder Singh Jinda. Sikh militant Surjit Singh Penta (who committed suicide by consuming cyanide during Operation Black Thunder in the year of 1998) was a cousin of Harjinder Singh Jinda. He belonged to a farmer family.

Indradyumna Swami is an ISKCON Guru and a sannyasi for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as ISKCON or the Hare Krishnas). He is a disciple of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and is known for his traveling and preaching activities around the world, especially in Poland. Indradyumna Swami shares his experiences and realizations as a traveling preacher in his journal The Diary of a Traveling Monk.

Born as Brian Tibbitts on May 20, 1949 in Palo Alto, California. He eventually joined the US Marines to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam; but a year later he was discharged as a conscientious objector. In December 1971 he was initiated by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and given the name Indradyumna Dasa.^{[citation needed]}

Indradyumna left the United States in 1972 journeying to Europe where he helped open new centers in France. In 1979 when he was 29, he took a vow of lifelong dedication to missionary activities as a celibate monk, entering the renounced order of sannyasa as Indradyumna Swami. In the early 1980s he served as the temple president at the New Mayapur château temple and farm near Châteauroux in France.^{[citation needed]}

Chaman Lal (born August 27, 1947) is an Indian academic and author. He is currently Professor in Hindi translation at Centre of Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

Lal was born on 27 August 1947 in Rampura Phul town of Bathinda district in Punjab and had his early education there. He received an Master of Arts degree in Hindi and Punjabi from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He has an MA in linguistics and a Ph.D in Hindi from Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Prior to his current position at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Lal was the head of the Department of Hindi at Punjabi University, Patiala. He served as Hindi Officer in Corporation Bank, Bombay, and as sub-editor in the newspaper Jansatta in New Delhi before joining Punjabi University as a lecturer in Hindi in 1985. He also served for two years at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, during 1994-95 as Reader in Hindi Translation.Dr. Chaman Lal is a well-known writer of Hindi, Punjabi, and English.He is presently Visiting Professor on Hindi Chair at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad&Tobago for year 2011.