Art of Letter as Heart of Matter: 'Selfie in the Shelf'

This article was published in the monthly magazine Identity, in the January 2014 issue.

The most interesting origin and bafflingly complex evolution culminating in the art and craft of ‘writing a letter’ would seem to embrace the entire history of the civilisation of humanity. The story telling, songs, festivals and rituals were the earliest oral attempts by our ancestors to preserve and underline their traditions and memories. The beginning of means of disseminating information to those located at distances might have included, ‘the marking of stone, indents of clay, knotted lengths of cord, scratching of plates of metal and wood, etc.’ The development of writing is understood to have taken place sometime after 3500BC. Sumerian writing had pictograms and ideograms for the start. Scribes were soon busy in simplifying the system, using symbols to represent sounds and syllables on tablets of wet clay to be baked later. This writing was called Cuneiform, from the Latin word cuneus, meaning a wedge. 

The ancient Egyptians were able to produce a large body of what could be termed as literature. An extract from one of the oldest book of letters containing instructions to his son by the Vizier Ptah-hotep to the Pharaoh, who lived about 2450BC, would seem to ring tellingly so true about the administration of state even today: 

“Do not let your heart be puffed up because of your knowledge… If you, as leader, have to decide on the conduct of a great many people, seek most perfect manner of doing so, that your own conduct may be blameless… Be active, doing more than what is commanded. Activity produces riches but riches do not last when activity slackens… Do not rebuff petitioner before he has said what he came for. A petitioner likes attention to his words better than fulfilling of that for which he came…”

The timelessness and universality of letter writing has indeed imparted this form of writing a rare uniqueness in terms of its historical, cultural and literary dimensions. By the 18th century, letter writing had become so common in the West that ‘one of the first prose narratives to be considered a novel, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela was composed entirely of letters of a daughter to her parents, and the epistolary method lent that novel what realism it possessed.’ The accomplishment in letter writing has been indeed considered for the last two centuries to be the finest attribute of a highly cultivated mind. The best minds in India’s struggle for freedom - from Assadullah Khan Ghalib to MK Gandhi including Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, RN Tagore, Sardar Patel, Sarojini Naidu, Bhagat Singh - all have left behind tons of 24 carat golden letters for historians and ‘aam Indian aadmi/aurat’ as their authentic legacy.

The sharp decline in the practice of letter writing in the beginning of the 21st century, in the wake of the revolution of the new technologies of communication, would seem ‘to constitute a cultural shift so vast that historians may divide time not between B.C. and A.D. but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not.’ The historians in general, and literary chroniclers in particular, have depended the most on the written references and the personal letters fall in the special category as evidence of how our ancestors once lived, loved, argued, thought and above all expressed their innermost feelings. The untouchables in India and slaves in the world over were often illiterate by the perverse moral prescription of the caste system and the enacted laws that threatened them with death. The epistolary tradition historically belongs to free people - that means the upper castes land owning groups in India and the white people of property in larger parts of the world. The authentically written record is indeed the most precious instrument to illuminate the past, present and future.

I have had the good fortune to be most rigorously tutored in writing letters and luckier to be recipient of the most loveable responses from respected elders, distinguished wielders of the pen and so many sincere friends. I can vividly recall how during my fourth class in 1952, my father, himself taught in the rigorously classical tradition by his scholarly grandfather, had guided me to write a letter in Punjabi to the husband of my BhuaJi - paternal aunt - who was serving in the military. I had to write letters to my father who served the Government of Punjab for about a decade between 1956-66 and a teacher uncle who always preferred to be posted at distant places. I was myself away from home for about 5 years till 1971 both as a student and as a lecturer at the college. Then the career in Indian Foreign Service till 2004 made me a compulsive writer of letters during my postings to nine different capitals of the world. Most of my letters were in Punjabi addressed to friends who also replied in elegant Punjabi. The letters to my most revered school teacher who taught me English were exchanged in English - I think that both of us felt mutually proud of each other over our proficiency in Firanghi Bhasha!

When I retired in 2004, I felt a strong desire that the select letters written and received, originally in Punjabi, and all meticulously preserved by me including copies of my own since the availability of the photo copying facility, deserved to be shared with the Punjabi knowing readers. My resolve was strengthened by the pleasantly surprising discovery that Prof Pritam Singh, the most distinguished scholar and “a teachers’ teacher” of Punjabi, had forwarded my letters to him to the Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana for preserving them for their literary merits! The task to get one’s maiden book published in Punjabi on its self-proclaimed literary merits is, however, to quote two English proverbs learnt in school, amounted to an ‘uphill task’ or even a ‘wild goose chase’. My perseverance coupled with sincere encouragement by the eminent Punjabi dramatist Prof Charan Dass Sidhu - I had come to know him only during my period of retirement - put me on the right track. Shilalekh, a publishing house patronised by Amrita Pritam and my school-time poet-hero, Krishan Ashant staked their reputation to publish this anthology of original letters, penned during 1967 to 2009. 

This anthology titled, ‘Sukh Sunehe - Epistles of being O.K.’, covering 208 pages, has 154 letters to and from 23 persons. There are 52 letters exchanged with their replies by Prof Pritam Singh, in his chaste and inimitable style characterised by clarity and stern sweetness about the tasks to be accomplished. There are 14 letters exchanged with Prof Sat Parkash Garg (1937-1996), a soulmate friend and colleague of the vintage of my lecturership in the Govt. College, Bathinda. In his letter of 23rd January ’96 he had written, “I anxiously await your letter… when are you coming - we shall definitely meet, if I would still be alive…”, and that was not destined to be; he passed away on the operation table undergoing heart surgery when I was on my way to India! The third main series of letters is with Jang Singh Gill who belongs to my village. He was my class fellow in the initial two years of school and has retired as a competent and popular science teacher in the Govt. Secondary Schools. Jang Singh has been instrumental in graciously keeping my umbilical link alive with my roots. The letters by Ajmer Singh, a twelve years senior distant cousin from my mother’s side, poetically recapture the most creative and enjoyable atmosphere of early 1950s in the Ripudaman College, Nabha. There are intimate literary letters exchanged with prominent writers of Punjabi including Balwant Gargi, KS Duggal, Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, Dr S Tarsem, KL Garg, and Dr SS Johl.

21-12-2013, Sukh Sunehe released at Sahit Sabha, Malerkotla
L to R: KL Garg, author, Balbir Madhopuri, Dr S Tarsem, Jagir Singh Jagtar,
Dr Rubina Shabnam, & Sh Mittar Sain Meet

Sukh Sunehe was released on 21st December at an impressive literary function organised by the Sahit Sabha, Malerkotla. The erudite young poet and critic Kamal Kant Modi presented a competent paper on the book highlighting “its literary character and its being an extraordinarily authentic document of the four decades of the period of these letters.” It was indeed a soulful delight for me that several of my dear and distinguished class fellows including eminent Punjabi satirist KL Garg, Prof AS Sidhu, JS Gill, industrialist Vinod Mehra - all my intermediate class fellows in 1959-61 in the Govt College, Malerkotla, were also in attendance. It was a rare personal privilege for me that many dedicated senior progressive literary activists including Jagir Singh Jagtar, SohanLal Bansal, Naz Bharati, Tarlok Singh Rai, Mittar Sain Meet had graced the function. Malerkotla has indeed significantly emerged on the horizon of Punjabi literary scene because a dedicated scholar and multi-talented writer of the stature Dr S Tarsem has made a choice making his nest in this historic city. The day - the shortest in the northern hemisphere of the planet - was his 72nd birth day and his latest book of literary profiles, ‘Sagar Tet Challan - Ocean and the Waves’, was released and also followed by an animated discussion.

Many devoted practitioners of the art of letter writing have been feeling gravely concerned that the new age of instant communication technologies might soon herald the end of traditional type of letters. There are also still incorrigible optimists, including myself, who are convinced that letters as ‘a dialogue of the soul’ can neither be replaced, nor is it going to disappear - ‘no other form of communication yet invented provides you to put your essential self on paper…’ I think that by putting this anthology of letters, written originally in Punjabi, in the public domain I have done my duty to my mother tongue… before the hand crafted letters become a thing of the past.

Book: ਸੁਖ-ਸੁਨੇਹੇ (Sukh Sunehe)

ਪਿਆਰੇ ਜੀਓ ,

          ਆਖਰ ਮੇਰੇ  ਪੱਤਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹ ਦੀ ਪੁਸਤਕ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ਤ ਹੋ ਗਈ  ਹੈ...ਸ਼ਿਲਾਲੇਖ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ਨ  ਵਲੋਂ 

          ਤੁਹਾਡੀ ਹੱਲਾ ਸ਼ੇਰੀ ਤੇ ਪ੍ਰੇਰਣਾ ਦਾ  ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ 'ਚ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਕਰਾਂ !

           ਹੁਣ ਵੱਡਾ ਕੰਮ ਇਸਨੂੰ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਪਾਠਕਾਂ ਤਕ ਪੁੱਜਦਾ ਕਰਨਾ ਹੈ। ..              

           

                                                         ਬਾਲ ਆਨੰਦ 

 Dear friends,

Finally, here published, is the collection of my correspondence, by Shilalekh Publications. I search for words to express my gratitude for your inspiration and encouragement. Now, the next step is to get it into the hands of dear readers.

                                Bal Anand

Details

Title: Sukh Sunehe

Author: Ambassador Bal Anand

ISBN: 978-81-7329-304-7

Publisher: Shilalekh Publications, New Delhi, India

Purchase site: http://shilalekhbooks.com/punjabi-books/letters/sukh-sunehe

Inching towards His 100th Year - ‘Whiskey-ing’, Ogling and Laughing in His Sleeves

This article appeared in the monthly magazine Identity, October 2013 issue

Sardar Khushwant Singh, once the young and struggling Sikh lawyer in the legendary Lahore – now batting at a dazzling score of 98 of an eventful life – indeed personifies an epochal transformation of himself over the many years as India’s most popular ‘money-spinner’ ‘author in English’. He has successfully worn an amazing variety of colourful turbans of being a novelist, historian, journalist, translator and, above all, ‘not a nice man to know’ who has always believed, with a childlike genius for mischief, in spreading the laughter all over the planet ‘at all costs and even high risks’. He has attained - with a devil’s diligence and an ascetic’s discipline - as an author the exalted stature of a ‘living human monument’ in the capital of Hindustan. He has been hailed as a wizardly-literary- monarch gifted with a rare impulse to feel the pulse of his vast empire of readership-cutting across all divides of age, gender, religion and international borders. The countless souls in India and abroad wonder - and pray too - whether he is destined to celebrate his so richly deserved century of life with the Nobel Prize for Literature - almost a century later than RN Tagore! 

Khushwant - even with his two sets of dates of birth of different years - happens to be several years senior to my poor but scholarly father who had passed away in 1978. I can vividly recall how I was introduced to Khushwant in the 1^st year of my college in 1959 by Shri A B (Arun Barun) Shome, a young and bachelor (soon to fall in love with a well-endowed Punjabi lady) teacher with an MA degree who had joined the High School in our small town, 20 KM from Ludhiana. He, a studious Bengali and I, a fresh collegiate, became quite friendly. Shri Shome had kindly suggested to me a reading list of books - novels and short stories - in English authored by the Indians. I recall that the names of Bhabani Bhattacharya, Mulk Raj Anand, Kamla Markandaya, RK Narayan and Khushwant Singh. I was soon able to obtain Train to Pakistan (1956) issued from the College Library and read it with a deep sense of awe, wonder and intimacy. I was then a daily commuting student from Ahmedgarh to Malerkotla and impressions of anecdotes of blood shed of innocent passengers in trains - to and from Pakistan - seemed still smelling in the air of Punjab. I had read some stories of the saddest and shameful spectacle of partition by Krishan Chander (Ham Vahshi Hai - We are Barbarians) and several other writers of Punjabi and Hindi. The Train to Pakistan, however, had left a uniquely lasting impression on my teen age mind. Being a student of the non-English medium school, the book made me familiar with a vastly new range of vocabulary and tons of tragi-funny usages! I had particularly shared with friends the translation of a popular film song - “In the breeze is flying, my veil of red muslin, o sir, o Sir…” and many typically naughty-including four-letter Punjabi expressions rendered into English. I have ever since been a dedicated - though at times a grudging and a protesting one too - reader of the inimitably thought provocative writings of Khushwant Singh. Another book in English by an Indian author which I had immensely enjoyed reading soon after - in the summer of 1960 - was Khawaja Ahmed Abbas’s semi fictional autobiography titled, ‘Inquilab’.

The Sikhs Today (1959) by Khushwant Singh, an attractively produced slim book with photographs of eminent Sikhs, was a very interesting and informative reading for me - particularly for the explosive foreboding that the symbols of Sikh identity might not last more than a few decades. During the next several years of my higher studies and till my entry into the Indian Foreign Service in 1971, I was more intensely occupied with the subjects of the curriculum but always enjoyed Khushwant Singh’s journalistic writings /columns particularly in The Illustrated Weekly and later the two national dailies, The National Herald and Hindustan Times. Khushwant Singh’s proximity with Indira Gandhi’s government and particularly his support of Sanjay Gandhi and the infamous Emergency earned him the title of ‘Khushamad’ - flatterer/sycophant - Singh. He had been awarded Padma Bhushan in 1974 and was also made a member of the Rajya Sabha for the term of 1980-86. The decade’s long extremist violence in Punjab witnessed Khushwant Singh taking a bold stand against perpetrators of communal violence. He wielded his powerful pen to voice reason and secular values and had to be provided security by the government against the hot headed of his own beloved community! 

The worst turmoil of eighties involving ‘Operation Blue Star’ and the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh body guards followed by the barbaric killings of the Sikhs must have left Khushwant totally shattered and perplexed. The publication of Delhi: A Novel in 1990 was marketed as a major event of literary career of the author – Khushwant claimed that it took him almost twenty five years to complete this work. He dedicated it to his son, Rahul - a confirmed bachelor - and his ‘long-time girlfriend’, Niloufer Billimoria. Khushwant further stated, in his trade mark style, that, ‘History provided me a skeleton, I covered it with flesh and injected blood and a lot of seminal fluid into it.’ I was destined to read this ‘seminal’ Khushwant work while posted in the distant canal country of Panama, sometime in 1995. I indeed pondered over each word and page of it. The history, society and culture of the legendary capital of Bharatvarsha-Hindustan-India is ruthlessly dissected and laid on the table as if for a class of interns for lessons not only in human anatomy and physiology but the entire gamut of life, particularly the perversities and depravities of the flesh juxtaposed against the sublimity and serenity of the human spirit. The narrator’s - suggestively Khushwant himself, disguising as an aging and foreign returned journalist’s - relationship with a hijra-eunuch, hermaphrodite whore, who is neither male nor female but possessed a ‘uniquely exotic sex appeal’ provides him the role of a classic Sutradhar to explain all the travails of the ‘damned-damsel - Delhi’ through Time, right up to the Sikh holocaust of1984. Some serious minded readers felt angry and disgusted over the overflow of ‘extensive erotica’ in the book and dubbed the 300+ pages as ‘nothing but sleaze.’ However to quote a learned critic, “The text seems to be liberating itself from the high seriousness of history… history is parodied, transvestited and travestied. The novel could be hailed as Singh’s significant contribution to English fiction for its erudite content and insightful recreation.”

Khushwant’s long-awaited autobiography titled Truth, Love and a Little Malice (2002) had remained mired for years in legal injunction obtained by the once protégé and friend Maneka Gandhi against its publication ‘for invasion on her privacy.’ “No autobiography”, according to erudite author-columnist Dilip Bobb, “has been awaited with as much tongue-hanging anticipation.” I rushed to obtain a copy of it while posted in New Zealand, and most interestingly, had read some of its chapters in the same room of the enchantingly located elegant home of Barrister Santokh Singh Bhullar in Tamaranui where Khushwant Singh had also stayed a few years earlier! The book was indeed a deep delight, great instruction and a sort of emotionally cathartic experience for me. After finishing the book, I tried to ponder over the years of my own life. I felt that every one’s life has its own riddles of plus-minus; multiplication-division and various kind of brackets - and one has to struggle to solve one’s own particular problems of the ever evolving body and calls of the mysteriously invisible soul too. I am inclined to agree with Dilip that the best parts of the book are the accounts of his early life, ‘as a pampered son of a prominent, affluent father…’ Interestingly, German Ambassador Riedler in New Zealand, my friend since our postings together in Pakistan and Panama, was a voracious reader of Khushwant and was immensely delighted to receive the gift of ‘Delhi’ from me!  

Khushwant Singh - In the Name of the Father
by Rahul Singh

In my years of retirement since 2004, I have been meticulously looking for reading Khushwant’s articles. I have enjoyed reading Rahul Singh’s, ‘Khushwant Singh - In the Name of the Father’ (2004) containing rare old family photos, published by Roli Books, in the Family Pride Series. Rahul details many intimately touching aspects of the personality of his father. He describes how Khushwant had tried to keep in touch with his Muslim friends in Pakistan and that brilliant Barrister Manzur Qadir and Mrs Asghari Qadir were his parents’ dearest friends. It is mentioned that Khushwant had ‘managed’ to pass BA from the Government College, Lahore in the third division and, therefore, did not qualify for admission in Oxford or Cambridge - “So, the choice fell on the King’s College, London University, where he enrolled for an L.L.B. while applying for admission to the Inner Temple to qualify as a barrister.” Rahul, like his father, has no hesitation in writing,  “Mangat Rai (E.N., ICS) was enamoured of my mother even after he married Champa… There was a time when my mother seriously considered leaving my father and marrying Mangat Rai. But, perhaps, because of the trauma it would cause my sister and me, they held back.” Rahul confesses that, “Delhi and The Company of Women got such scathing reviews that I decided not to read them… though both became best-sellers.” Rahul opines that Train to Pakistan remains to date his father’s finest work of fiction while in the two-volume A History of the Sikhs, Khushwant is at his scholarly best. 

My life-time ‘Khushwant - moment’ was destined to come, expectedly - where else, but in Pakistan in November 1993. Manzur Qadir’s son, Basharat and his wife Bambi had become our kind friends during posting to Islamabad. They had hosted an intimate dinner in honour of Khushwant Singh at their home - No.14, Street 37, F-7 / 1. I was seated with Khushwant and Begum Asghari Qadir and enjoyed intently listening to their conversation replete with references to their shared great pre-partition times in bubbling Lahore. Khushwant had to repeat himself and speak louder because Begum Ashgari had become audio-challenged. I could obtain Khushwant Singh’s autograph on the invitation card - it has been carefully preserved as a rare memento. 

I may raise a toast to ‘Mr Khushwant-Global Singh’, wishing him a reasonably O.K. health for his age and power to his pen! I am tempted to quote from his book, Absolute Khushwant (2010), “I would like to be remembered as someone who made people smile.” Musing over death, he had stated, “All my contemporaries - whether here or in England or in Pakistan - they are all gone… All that I hope for is that when death comes to me, it comes swiftly, without much pain, like fading away in sound slumber. Till then I’ll keep working and living each day as it comes. There is so much left to do. I content myself by saying these lines of Iqbal:

Bagh-e-bahisht se mujhe hukm-e-safar diya the kyon?

Kaar-e-jahaan daraaz hai, ab mera intezar kar.
Why did you order me out of the garden of paradise?
I have a lot left to do; now you wait for me. 

Khushwant had written his own epitaph many years ago:

Here lies one who spared neither man nor god
Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod
Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun
Thank the Lord he is dead, this son of a gun.

Zindabaad, Sardar Sahib - Long live, Sir!

__________________________________________

Links:

• WorldCat catalogue
• Wikipedia
• Goodreads page

An Encyclopedist ‘Sardar Bahadur’ of Sikh Renaissance

This article appeared in the monthly magazine, Identity,  August 2013

Dictionary: The universe in alphabetical order. - Anatole France

Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha (Aug. 30, 1861-Nov. 23, 1938) has recently received the most deserved attention as a rare breed of a deeply disciplined scholar-aristocrat. According to the modern researchers, he was indeed the tallest figure of the Sikh resurgence with the focus on Punjabi in Gurmukhi script during the complex socio-cultural and religious fermentation in the colonial Punjab. The life of Bhai Kahn Singh need be examined as an inspiring saga of the monumental dedication and labor of love in interpreting the Sikh scriptures in proper perspectives in their relationship with the other relevant works of divinity and principles of Indian literary traditions. He could single handedly accomplish what would seem beyond the combined capacity of the many times well provided teams of scholars in our contemporary academic institutions. The small princely state of Nabha situated in the back waters of Malwa region, always under the shadow of the next door larger Patiala state with its colorful rulers, has surely earned a rank above all the other states of formerly PEPSU because of the name of Bhai Kahn Singh associated with it. It is here in this sleepy town that seekers of scholarship and learning come across the brightest example of the pen proving mightier than the sword and tons of wealth.

As someone luckier to be born in the family of saint-scholars who had been imparting for generations the traditional classical learning in my ancestral of village of Falaund, 7Km from Malerkotla, I had been an innocent child witness to the rapidly disappearing old world way of learning. The Ashram type education of the Dera was free of cost, with the provision of even food and shelter for those who needed it. I vividly recall the entire sublime process of composing the handwritten books and preparation of Ayurvedic medicines under the benign supervision of my great grandfather Baba Pramatma Nand Ji who passed away on Oct. 16, 1947. The names of the eminent Gurmat - scholars, learned commentators on the Sikh scriptures and the Kaviraj - poet physicians - like Giani Gyan Singh, Giani Ditt Singh, Pandit Kartar Singh Dakha, Kalyan Dass Udasi, Hakim Kehar Singh of Kurali, Granthi Chanda Singh, Sant Attar Singh, Raj Vaidya Ram Prasad of Patiala and, of course, Bhai Kahn Singh, could be heard in the conversations of the elders. It was, however, in Dec. 1949 that I had listened to my father discussing passionately a recent debate in Patiala about the Punjabi language and how Bhai Jodh Singh had physically waved around on the stage the big volumes of Mahan Kosh – the Great Dictionary – by Kahn Singh Nabha to prove the point that Punjabi was indeed rich enough and developed to be the official language of the state of PEPSU / Punjab!

Bhai Kahn Singh was again the focus of my attention in the DAV College, Jalandhar, in Aug. 1966 when I had just realized my dream to be a lecturer. The vague expectations and anxieties were surcharging the atmosphere in the truncated ‘new’ Punjab in the wake of the reorganization of the state and the re-emergence, after evaporation in 1956, of the region of PEPSU as a more powerful political player. It was Prof VP Malhotra, my teacher and then guide as a colleague, who mentioned to me the name of Bhai Kahn Singh and his book, ‘Ham Hindu Nahin - We are Not Hindus’ as one of the first treatises of separatism among the Sikhs. I was, however, acutely aware of the references, listened to as a child, in the conversations at home that Swami Dayanand had used some derogatory expressions for Guru Nanak Dev Ji and how Giani Ditt Singh, the sharp witted scholar-orator belonging to the so called low caste, had out witted the Swami Ji in an open debate held in Lahore - recorded later in a booklet - titled, ‘Mera te Sadhu Dayanand da Samvad’.

I had moved on to join the Indian Foreign Service after a four year spell of sustained studies while earning much needed livelihood as a lecturer in English. The issue of Hindu-Sikh communalism which had started plaguing the Punjab in the last decades of 19^th century has continued to remain a subject of concern and enquiry for me. I recall an ominous song popular soon after the Partition, “Kaun Kahe Hindu-Sikh doven vakho vakh nen; Bharat maan di doven sajji Khbbi Akkh nen - Who says that Hindus and Sikhs are separate from each other; they are like the right and the left eyes of Mother India,” - I used to wonder if the Muslim were supposedly alluded as the mythological ‘third eye’ of Lord Shiva! My lifelong intellectual interaction with inspiring teacher-scholars like Prof Pritam Singh and Prof Harmandar Singh - not to forget my unique school teacher, Ashni Kumar (1916-1999) and poet-patriot A.J. Zaidi during my posting to Iran (1975-1978) - has indeed been a soulful blessing in my continued quest of an unbiased understanding of what drives many in their deadly agendas of dividing humanity in compartments on various pretexts and the root causes of cancerous growth of intolerance towards other faiths among even educated and gifted persons. It was in this background that I had requested, and received, the duly signed by Prof Pritam Singh - datelined Dec. 12, 2000 - copy of his book in Punjabi, ‘Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha: Background, Writings and Evaluation’, published by Guru Nanak Dev University in 1989.

Prof Pritam Singh’s book, like his other pioneering research works on Punjabi language and literature, proved a trend setter and an inspiration for several other researchers including the two highly gifted and scholarly ladies of Bhai Sahib’s family. I have immensely benefitted from my careful perusal of valuable books authored by Dr Devinder Singh Vidyarthi and Dr Jagmail Singh Bhathua in my understanding the totality of the vast variety of literary and lexicological works - listed to be 23 in Prof Pritam Singh’s book - by Bhai Sahib. I undertook a serious study of the ‘controversial’, ‘Ham Hindu Nahin’ - first published in 1897 - and was impressed by its overall contents which discount the orthodox rituals and practices of Brahamanical Hinduism. He emphasizes the elements of social equality and an honest living in Sikhism. Bhai Sahib underlines the total rejection by the Sikh Gurus of the disgusting caste distinctions. It needs to be understood that Sikhism had come under serious attacks from various quarters after the collapse of Ranjit Singh’s rule. The census of 1881 had indicated the figure of the Sikhs in colonial Punjab to be 1.8 million while at the peak of rule of Ranjit Singh’s rule, their number was estimated around 10 million. The long struggle waged by the community to reassert its identity and reclaim the control of the sacred Gurdwaras should be appreciated in the totality of the prevailing circumstances. Bhai Kahn was the precocious child of his time.

All of us have our interesting memories of the purchase and use of dictionaries. I am reminded of Principal RG Bajpai who was well in known in colleges of Punjab for his ‘battles’ about correct use of English. He would always keep the dictionary on his office table; the peon would carry it along when Mr. Bajpai would be on the move and he would say, ‘An English gentleman swears by GOD (of Bible) and COD (Concise Oxford Dictionary)’. My school teacher told me about his own famous teacher, Dr. Raghuvir who had said, “Don’t quote dictionary to me… dictionaries quote me!”  Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the compiler of the first dictionary of English, had also undergone such several difficulties as faced by Bhai Kahn Singh centuries later in a land so distant and different than the island of Britain. To quote from the foreword by Prof Teja Singh, dated 18^th January, 1930,

 “Gurshabad Ratnakar, his Magnum Opus, is Dictionary and Encyclopedia combined of Sikh Literature, a magnificent fruit of the author’s fifteen years hard and incessant labour. It contains 64,263 words occurring in the original Sikh scriptures as well as in other allied books… when we look at the volume of the work undertaken and carried out single-handed by the author, it appears nothing short of a marvel…”

Mr. M.A. McAuliffe, the author of the celebrated ‘Sikh Religion’, had said,

“I must acknowledge my indebtedness to Sardar Kahn Singh of Nabha, one of the greatest scholars and most distinguished authors among the Sikhs.” 

It is interesting to note that Bhai Sahib was conferred the title of ‘Sardar Bahadur’ for his scholarship - not the usual service of the British Empire.

I am proud of possessing the copy of Bhai Sahib’s Mahan Kosh. This is the sixth Special edition, published in 1999 - dedicated to the Tercentenary of the Khalsa. I could procure it at a wind fall price of ₹250/- against the printed ₹319/- in 2006 from the Bhasha Vibhag Office cum stall - located in an obscure and dark corner of Punjab Bhawan, New Delhi - managed by a Gurkha peon! The eminent Punjabi writer with impeccable secular credentials, Shri Gurbachan Singh Bhullar, who incidentally belongs to Bhai Sahib’s native village, has narrated the tale of the compilation for about 28 years, the tortuous efforts to raise resources and the ultimate printing of ‘Mahan Kosh’ in Amritsar, from Oct. 26, 1927 to April 13, 1930. The popular Punjabi poet Dhani Ram Chatrik, in the words of Bhai Sahib, had ensured that ‘Mahan Kosh’ was printed with the utmost care. The printing was indeed a great challenge in view if the fact that relevant words of Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and English were also been included for explanations. The cost of the first edition of 500 copies, financed by the State of Patiala, was about ₹51,000/- ; each copy was, therefore, priced ₹110. Bhai Sahib made it clear that the author has not charged any amount for himself - it was for him a labor of love for the language of the Punjabis.

I must mention that my good friend,  Ambassador Pripuran Singh Haer - great grand (maternal) son of Bhai Sahib - graciously proposed that I should pay a visit to the historic home of Bhai sahib in Nabha. It was an immense pleasure and privilege for me to stay, on 24^th March, 2013, in ‘Vrijesh Bhawan’, the beautiful abode of Bhai Sahib in Nabha. I had an intimate exchange of views with Major Adarshpal Singh - the great grandson of Bhai Sahib - about the glorious chapters of scholarship penned in these premises. I felt a strange spiritual and intellectual bond with this extraordinary scholar of Punjab. S. Divan Singh Maftoon, a distinguished journalist of Urdu who edited ‘Riyast’ to expose the wrong doings of native rulers, had the highest admiration for Bhai as a gentleman scholar. He said, “Had Bhai Kahn Singh been born in in the USA, Americans would have elected him as their President!”

Bhai Sahib’s birth day - 30^th August - is also the birth day of my father, with a difference of exactly 59 years; he too was a proud scholar and true seeker of knowledge till his last. The USA has designated 16^th of October as the National Dictionary Day to commemorate the birth day of the great lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843). It would indeed be most appropriate to declare Bhai Sahib’s birth day as  Punjab’s Day of Dictionary and Language.

Rajiv Gandhi’s Discovery of Spain - 25 Years After

This article appeared in the monthly magazine, Identity, July 2013

 

In his speech, made at the Banquet hosted in his honour - on Friday, July 15, 1988 in Madrid - by his Spanish counterpart Felipe Gonzales, Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi began by saying:

“My wife and I are delighted to be in Spain. It is the fulfillment of a long cherished desire.
We are honoured that when he set sail in the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus was looking for us. Unfortunately, he was stopped by a large continent that just happened to lie in the way. OTHERWISE, I MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SPEAK TO YOU IN SPANISH…”

There was indeed a spontaneous applause and loud laughter among all the guests enjoying the long awaited India-Spain Summit Party in the beautiful garden in the Moncloa Palace -  perhaps, imagining and wondering over the mightiest ‘If’ of History - or should one say, of Geography!

I was, however, struck to think differently - introspecting, “why an overwhelmingly elected head of the government of the Republic of India has ‘impulsively’ said so; why it had to be either English or Spanish - or even Portuguese or French for that matter! Was it the inevitable destiny of India to be colonized by one of the emerging European country and the Indian mind to get entrapped forever under the spell of an alien tongue?

It is interesting to recall the background-and environment - of the visit. Ambassador Krishana D. Sharma, our man in Spain since July 1985 - on his ‘swan song’ posting in a long career, coming there after his assignment in PAKISTAN - had been making every conceivable move in the text book of the profession for an early ‘maiden’ visit by the PM to the rapidly resurging - the post Franco - democratic Spain led by the youthful socialist Felipe Gonzales. A date for the visit had indeed been officially conveyed in 1987 by the Indian side to the eager Spanish hosts and it had even been mutually agreed. However, it had to be embarrassingly regretted a few days later because everyone in the PM’s office simply failed to check the calendar - the PM of India could not afford to be out of the country on the day of Deepawali! The lame diplomatic explanation given to the Spanish side was that the PM would be personally preoccupied in the massive relief effort in the face of an unprecedented drought in the country! More interestingly, by intriguingly strange coincidences, a couple of Ministers / senior officials had lost their positions soon after their visits to Spain - Minsters Abdul Gafoor, ND Tiwari, Jagdish Tytler and the powerful Vice Chairman of the DDA Prem Kumar are the few names that I can recollect. There was, therefore, even a murmur among us embassy officials whether we should persist in risking at all a visit by PM!

Author meeting with (3rd from right) Spain PM Felipe Gonzales, PM Rajiv Gandhi, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, and Spain PM's spouse Ms. Carmen Romero (shaking hands)


The PM’s Banquet speech - about 1,150 compact words - next referred to an enduring literary relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and the Spanish Nobel laureate Juan Ramon Jimenez. It was a pity that the name of the Spanish poet was not pronounced according to the Spanish ’J’ - though it was expressly conveyed in the draft of the speech by the embassy. Rajiv had, perhaps, no time and inclination to learn languages from his linguistically so gifted mother. He was, perhaps, closer to his father in his early  - children suffer silently when relations between parents get strained.

The speech had two interesting paragraphs - a good example of diplomatic euphemism and understatement - to the Spanish Civil War and Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit - exactly fifty years ago - to Barcelona to express solidarity with the Republicans who had been overpowered by the Hitler backed fascist forces plunging Spain into dark dictatorship for more than four decades.

The rest of the speech touched upon the predictable points about the ‘the substantial progress by India in the four decades’; ‘our agricultural production has trebled’ and ‘growing scope for India and Spain to expand their economic relation’, etc. The Nuclear Disarmament was explained at quite some length in the context of ‘India’s time bound Action Plan at the Third Special Session of the General Assembly on Disarmament.’ It was underlined that the ‘abhorrent practice of apartheid can be destroyed through the imposition of comprehensive mandatory sanctions under the UN Charter.’ The relations with neighbors found mention in ‘a peaceful border with China’; ‘a clandestine nuclear programme being pursued in neighbourhood’ and ‘terrorism being actively assisted from across our borders.’

While the Draft of the speech for the Banquet was in the process of the finalization in the Ministry of External Affairs, the Embassy received persistent queries about the ‘shared’ connection of Islam between Spain and India. It was politely indicated that the silence would indeed be ‘golden’ on the topic - though the ‘Moorish Islamic Rule’ over Spain from Cordoba and Granada spanning more than five centuries was indeed the ‘golden’ period in the history of humanity - and Jawaharlal has indeed been eloquent about it.

The year 711 AD - we may call it the 7-Eleven - could be considered unique for the two countries - Jabel al Tariq, the Arab-Moorish general, crossed Gibraltar (origin: Jabel al Tariq - the mountain Tariq) to begin the successful invasion of the Iberian Peninsula while Muhammad bin Qasim al Taqafi (695-715 AD) had also conquered the Sindh and Punjab regions in the same year. The history of Spain has remained mostly unread by the Indians or read only through the ‘jaundiced eyes’ of the British.’ The two countries had been long rivals for the brand of Christianity and strong competitors in the building of their vast empires. The re-conquest of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs, the inquisition and large scale expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain evoke complex and varying feelings among the Indians - depending on individual outlook on the role of religion in the contemporary epoch.

The deeply analytical and detailed political commentary on the visit was published in the interview carried in the Sunday edition, 10th July, of the leading Spanish Daily El Pais (The Country - then circulation:800,000 copies). The interview had quite telling and frank opening remarks stating, “Although diplomatic relations were established in 1958, our country had till now got left on the side in its openings to the great Non-aligned democracy… After four years of mandate which came to him unsought… (when) his mother was assassinated by the Sikh terrorists… The Indian PM is not only returning the visit of their majesties to India in 1982, but wishes to make good a deficiency… the visit is taking place in a context in which many of the hopes raised by the election of a young man to the helm of the government, a great believer and promoter of technological development and full of promise of fight against corruption and underdevelopment, are being vehemently denounced by a vociferous opposition. The recent losses in various by-elections… the rise of attractive figure of VP Singh-the inability to contain Sikh terrorism, the hornet’s nest of Sri Lanka… the increasing threat of Pakistan nuclearisation and the charges of corruption against elements close to the seat of power and to the Gandhi family itself, paint a picture almost of decline for someone who in December 1984 assumed control, with a smile which was innocent and confident...” How prescient and boldly objective observations!

There is no doubt that Rajiv’s visit had been a path breaking event and proved an important voyage of ‘discovery’ for the two countries. Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, eminent MP and former esteemed colleague from the IFS who functioned as ‘shadow of Rajiv for six years’, has been gracious to confirm to me a few days back that it was he who had crafted the Banquet speech. I have accepted ’in the fullest measure’ his advice to me to calm down and appreciate the ‘Columbus joke’ in its appropriate light hearted spirit. Another distinguished colleague who had served in Spain in the sixties on his first posting shared a fundamentally different take on ‘if Columbus’ saying, “Then India would have emerged as the largest Christian nation in the world and there would have been no Partition of the country!” The ‘ifs’ game reminds me of the story attributed to the Armenian Radio ‘political’ commentary, “If Khrushchev had been assassinated instead of Kennedy… well, Onassis would NOT have married Mrs. Khrushchev!!!”

As for my own posting to Spain, from April 1986 to July 1989, it was indeed a life changing experience for me and my family. Spain has been a unique super power for centuries with her everlasting contribution to human civilization, particularly in arts and literature. During my sojourn in Spain, I was indeed privileged to be a party to the tons true tales about the ‘discovery’ of Spain by so many VIP’s and other Indians who would often say, “We had seen all the other countries of Europe… thought that we should visit Spain also… and see the Bull Fight!” I may conclude for now by recalling the visit to Spain of a childhood friend who had become a prosperous doctor in the UK. After travels in Southern Spain, he said to me, “Baal, I could not resist the temptation to make a deal for a farm land which had so many almond laden trees… India must learn more from Spain about cultivation of sun flower and saffron i.e. Kesar…”

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Other links:

• El Pais Archives July 10 1988: La India busca el acercamiento a España

Pakistan‘s latest Tryst with Democracy - Promises and Pitfalls

This article appeared in the monthly magazine Identity, June 2013

The community of the democratic states of the world - including India, in the forefront - had already announced the award of the gold medal to Pakistan for establishing its maiden national record: an elected civilian government had been enabled to complete its mandatory term of five years! The traditional three A’s - Allah, America and Army had opted not to play the role of a ‘spoiler’; and it was the meek and humble, often forgotten, the fourth A - the Awaam - the People of Pakistan who gave their verdict in a loud and clear voice, braving all the odds to cast their votes. The ‘Lion’ of Punjab who had been in political wilderness for fourteen long years was installed as the King again: almost, every Pakistani has been proclaiming that the Lion has indeed been ‘tamed’ or transformed during the years of adversity; and that he was the best bet for his beleaguered country. Mian Nawaz Sharif, born on December 25, 1949, has been lucky for the unprecedented third time to lead his nation of 200 million people who are all desperately yearning for peace, progress and harmony.

The seasoned Pakistan observers - in London, Washington and, of course, Delhi - have struck cautiously optimistic notes on the emphatic electoral victory of Nawaz Sharif. “Right now people think he is the best hope the country has,” a media doyenne was quoted saying. Sharif has been given credit for refusing to conspire to bring down the last government and was even accused of running a ‘friendly opposition’. The Sharif family had cast their lot with Zia-ul-Haq in the late 1970’s in the wake of the nationalization of their metal factories by the ZA Bhutto led PPP. There was never a looking back for the Sharifs and Nawaz rose to be the Finance Minister / Chief Minister of Punjab under the Zia regime. He became Prime Minister during 1990-93 and again in 1997-99 when he was ousted in a ‘popular’ coup by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The friends quote him saying that ‘his entire outlook was changed by the misery of arrest and exile in Saudi Arabia and the UK... to his immense anguish, he was banned from returning to Pakistan to bury his beloved father.’ Sharif had finally returned in 2007 a ‘transformed man’, with even his enemies pointing to ‘his bald plate gaining hair transplants’. Dr AQ Khan, the (in)famous father of Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb, wrote in his column on 20th May, “As far as the position of PM is concerned, Mian Sahib’s long cherished dream has been fulfilled. The signing of the Charter of Democracy, the alliance with the PPP, the ‘friendly opposition’ and the 18th Amendment all have contributed to achieving this goal...”

Firstly, we must understand the complex dynamics of the forces attendant upon General election 2013 to 14th Parliament of Pakistan which have resulted in an emphatic win for Nawaz’s Pakistan Muslim League (N). The ‘Sharif’ Party scooped 124-116 out of the 148 from the province of Punjab - of the 272 seats of the National Assembly (NA), some 20 above the most optimistic forecast. It is further pointed out that PML-N has managed in Punjab to win higher number of seats out of a comparatively lower percentage of vote - 78% seats with 49% votes compared with 5% seats against 18% votes for Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and 1.4 seats against 10% share of the votes polled. The proportion of votes and seats share becomes slightly better at the national level. The PTI success - 17% votes and 9.6 percent seats - has been the biggest story of Election 2013. The PML-Q, the second largest in terms of votes and 42 directly elected seats has been almost obliterated. The commentators have drawn attention to the threats by extremist groups to the liberal / secular parties mainly the PPP and Awami National Party (ANP).The success of the role of media in inspiring people to come out to vote has been positive factor - the 60% turn out, against 44% in 2008, has been the highest and equaled the record of fateful elections in 1970. The backdrop of elections in terms of ‘failing economy, cruel power cuts, all pervasive corruption, militancy within and the unpopular alliance with America over terrorism’ made the people walk to vote.

The analysts in India have not sufficiently commented on the results of the elections to the Provincial Assemblies. The PML-N has secured 211 out of 297 seats decimating all opposition - full credit to Nawaz’s brother Shahbaz for managing the volatile province for five years with a degree of efficiency and reasonable trust among the people - ‘the younger Sharif, with a reputation for of getting things done, delivered several projects in time and faces no corruption charges.’ The province of Sindh has solidly voted back the PPP/MQM combine with more than 100 seats in the house of 130. The PTI led by Imran has won 34 seats out of 99 in the troubled Khyber Pakhtun Khwa province and the PML-N with 13 seats has decided to give him a chance to cobble up the coalition with the help of 14 independents. As regards the resources rich and violence rocked Balochistan, the local nationalist Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has emerged the largest group in an Assembly of 51 and is expected to lead the coalition with PML-N. To quote a Pakistani student in the Tuft University, “Sharif’s Party has won without a national mandate, causing many in the smaller provinces to call his victory the tyranny of the majority.” The independent observers emphasise that despite disarray at homeland obstacles to regional integration, Nawaz Sharif has the opportunity to make Pakistan, “a safe, pluralistic and prosperous trading hub and shun the path of becoming Asia’s second North Korea.”

Nawaz Sharif, a billionaire steel magnate who has been hailed as ‘comeback king’, has certainly raised a sense of confidence among the business community of Pakistan. The Karachi Stock Exchange saluted him with the 100 index crossing 20,000 points for the first time in history within the first session of trading the day markets opened after his victory. Nawaz was quoted saying that privatization, free market economy and deregulation have been hall marks of his party in government. While he expressed confidence that he could work with the IMF to put economy back on track, Sharif’s two time Finance Minister and enduring adviser, Sartaj Aziz said, “We need stabilization with growth... all we need from the IMF is a little more time to pay back $5 billion.” The usual IMF recipe of cutting subsidies would also not be an easy task. The habit of tax evading among the rich Pakistanis has been historically proverbial. The budget making process must already be under way and would send strong signals across the financial markets of the intentions of the third Sharif regime.

In foreign policy Sharif faces formidable challenges. To quote a former Pakistani diplomat, 

“Finding a balance in relations with India is an urgent task ... setting the tone during the ‘long chat’ with PM Manmohan Singh, both invited the other to visit their respective countries. There is, perhaps, no better time for the two countries to move forward.” - Nawaz

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The Old Ties Must Endure

Miangul Aurangzeb, former ruler of Swat and  prominent politician with Begum Nasim Miangul (daughter of Field Marshall Ayub Khan). He sent this New Year Card to Ambassador Bal Anand in 1994.

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Up turns and down turns of diplomacy

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A Memorable Literary Festival

Dr S. Tarsem being honored by Ambassador Bal Anand with a special commemorative Cap bearing prints of autographs of national leaders and a Red Shirt with insiginia, 'lover of books'

A well attended literary event was organised on 24th March in Barnala by the various Writers' bodies and the Punjab Welfare Association for the Blind to felicitate and honor eminent Punjabi writer and scholar Dr S. Tarsem on his 70th birth day.

Identity, a popular cultural monthly published from Chandigarh, had carried my article of tribute in its issue of last December dwelling on the sterling and versatile contribution of Dr Tarsem as a popular poet, a respected scholar-critic and a forceful prose writer.

Dr Tarsem has been conferred many prestigious awards as an inspiring professor and for his high quality literary output in spite of being visually challenged. Dr Tarsem's large circle of friends from the literary community and admirers from all walks of life including high dignitaries thronged to the spacious Green Palace in the city of Barnala famous for the historic tradition of literary activities by energetic and progressive local Sahit Sabhas since the PEPSU times. The city is once again proud to be the District Headquarters.

The highlight of the function was the release of the 450 page Abhinandan Granth - The book of honor - titled, "Dr S.Tarsem, Sangharash te Sirjana - the Struggle and Creativity”, edited by Mitter Sain Meet. The quality publication is indeed a collector’s item with 64 additional pages in color depicting the milestones of Tarsem's life and virtually the 'Who is Who' of Punjabi literature including all those who have contributed articles on his many faceted personality. Identity feels proud that its December issue article has been given the pride of place at number one in 104 learned articles.

The occasion was also utilised to release the Hindi edition of Tarsem's celebrated autobiography, 'Dhritrashtra' published by National Book Trust of India. Six other writers were also honored by various   Memorial Literary Trusts. The atmosphere at the function - a veritable Sahit Mela - was indeed so perfectly enjoyable for the writers, lovers of literature and cultural activists.

Friends and admirers of Tarsem Ji, salute him once again and wish him a good health and many more vigorous years of profound literary creativity, of love of humanity and 'living life like a light house'!

The SAARC Pilgrims’ Progress - in the Taj City

“Let governments keep playing devious political games;

Allow all diplomats to craft tons of cunningly noble documents;

Let us - we, the poets, painters, musicians, dancers and dreamers -

Come forward to celebrate Love of creativity in humanity ...”

It was indeed the above passionate inner awakening - adopted as a resolution at the SAARC Writers Conference in April 2000 - which became the motivational mechanism for ‘an immaculate conception’ of the noble idea resulting in the ‘natural birth’ of Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL). The chosen person by the Destiny of SAARC for the instrumentality of this challenging task was the steel-willed Ajeet Caur - born (in 1934) in legendary Lahore, with her new nest in New Delhi. She had been cherishing for years the dream of a forum of friendship for all the writers and artists who had been desperately ‘dying’ to come together in friendship and goodwill and restore the disrupted emotional human bonds of the civilizational harmony of South Asia. 

Ajeet Caur, a powerful voice in Punjabi literature and a formidable activist for legitimate cultural causes, had known how to persist and push in the intricate corridors of bureaucratic and political power for opening the windows of opportunities for the writers and artists of South Asia to chirp together. To quote her, “Times were turbulent in the SAARC region... Peace in these disturbed times is always a mad dream... (but her endeavors) grew into a full-fledged movement over the years, maturing into the first ever SAARC Writers Conference in April 2000... laying the foundation of cultural connectivity through interaction of creative minds and paving way for understanding and respecting the ‘otherness’ of others... FOSWAL was elevated to Apex Body at SAARC at the Summit in January 2002.” 

Thanks to the lifelong commitment, vision and devotion of Ajeet Caur - honored with Padma Shri for her role - FOSWAL has admirably organized - in India and other SAARC countries - 42 Major cultural and literary festivals. The themes have included the seminal subjects of Buddhism, Sufism, Folklore, gender-bending, environment, etc., inviting eminent and promising writers, artists and activists of different persuasions. The medium of films, theatre, visual / performing arts have also been promoted. An ambitious program of translations and publishing of anthologies of poetry and other categories of literature in the eight SAARC countries has been a great success. The quarterly SAARC journal Beyond Borders has earned a great reputation for the range and quality of its contents. Meanwhile the FOSWAL has kept commissioning eminent scholars to edit region, language, topic and literary genre specific anthologies of writings from all the SAARC countries. The SAARC Library of Literature is another pioneering effort of FOSWAL.

The Festival of SAARC literature held in Agra on 10-12 March, 2013 has carried forward the tradition of high quality manifestations of mutual appreciation of cultural and literary traditions. The theme of the conference was - ‘The Articulation of Environmental and Ecological Concerns in Contemporary South Asian Literature’ - the countries were well represented with distinguished delegates from Afghanistan(12); Bangladesh(10); Bhutan(6); India(60); Maldives(2); Nepal(14); Pakistan(25) and  Sri Lanka(10). The Conference was inaugurated by Dr Suresh K. Goel, Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations preceded by a thought provoking welcome address by Ajeet Caur Ji. Three books including an epic novel by Dr Abdaal Bela of Pakistan were released and 12 prominent participating writers were honored. There were six sessions for presentations of scholarly papers; two sessions of recitation of poetry and captivating performances of folk songs/dances by Pakistani  (Fakiri/Malangs) and Indian (Baul/Odissi) artists.  

It was a great delight and instruction for me to participate in this conference. I had earlier attended the   similar SAARC Conference on Sufism held in Bhopal in November 2011. It is indeed always a rewarding experience to meet and interact on such occasions with so many talented persons from the neighborhood of India. It was a special pleasure to discuss in Agra many matters of mutual interest with delegates from Maldives and Pakistan where I had been posted to represent India. It is natural to look back - after decades - and feel nostalgic about people and places one had known so intimately - and affectionately too! The details of location and owner of the house namely ‘Odessa’ in which I had lived Maldives in 1978-80 was known to the extremely popular Maldivian delegate, Ibrahim Wahid, Commissioner, Election Commission, who is an eminent intellectual and musician. The conversations with eminent novelist, Dr Abdaal Bela and Peace activist-philosopher, Nisar Chaudhary brought back touching memories many eminent friends in Pakistan - the late poet Ahmed Faraz; elderly politician Mian Gul Auranzeb (Wali of Sawat and son-in-law of President Ayub Khan); champion of Indo-Pak friendship writer Fakhar Zaman and other distinguished artists who would be equally admired in India. 

I was assigned the duty of chairing the second session after the inauguration involving the presentation of academic papers on the theme of the Conference - ‘Environmental and Ecological Concerns in Literature’. Prof. Samantha Herath of Sri Lanka and Dr Sudipto Chattopadhyay presented extremely competent papers along with several other participants. Chattopadhyay quoted Tagore, “Looking at the grass-covered quivering earth / in the new light of the harvest month... I search my soul...”. The poet from (land-locked) Nepal, Momila (B.1967) celebrated Himalaya and the rivers in her poetry, “My life is a life of river / calling for open seas. / Your song is song of river/ calling for open seas.” It was nice to meet the young Punjabi poet Gurprit; the celebrated Surjit Patar and Dr Kewal Dhir who added hue of Punjab in this colorful cultural festival. Distinguished poet - diplomat Abhay K., presently posted in Kathmandu, recited his recent poems dwelling on the subtle themes of nature.

The most impressively colorful and the most soulfully committed caravan of SAARC - consisting of its conscience keepers, community of its writers and artists - chose to meet and deliberate in the historic city situated on the legendary Yamuna. It is known the world over for Emperor Akbar’s visionary concept of ‘Sulahe Kul - Understanding among All’ and his grand-son Shah Jahan’s monument of eternal love. They all had prayers on their lips and noble thoughts in their minds for the lasting peace and prosperity of people of South Asia representing a quarter of humanity and concentrated in just four percent piece of land of planet earth!

Bhai Ditt Singh Gyani - the Poet-Polemicist and Scholar-Ideologue of Sikh Resurgence

This article has been published in, 'Studies in Sikhism and Comparative Religion', Volume XXXII No-1, January-June 2013

Bhai Ditt Singh Gyani

The last five decades of the nineteenth century in the history of Punjab had indeed witnessed an epochal and rapid transformation of the social, economic and spiritual domains of the vast former kingdom of ‘the lions of the Punjab’. The valiant Sikhs had been cheated - not defeated - by the dark deceit of the ‘Gora’ - the white British and the tragic treachery of traitors from within. The British had moved quickly to consolidate their position with a comprehensive political and administrative plan of action for the newly annexed kingdom of ‘Koh-i-Noor’, a territory of historic strategic significance to the vast empire of Malika Victoria.

The far reaching fall out of the uprising of 1857 had resulted in several rewarding dispensations - territorial and financial - for the Cis-Satluj Sikh rulers. The confused and demoralised Sikh soldiers who were licking their wounds after the loss of their popular and powerful kingdom were also sought to be mollified. The British administrators, to consolidate their control in a long term perspective, debated in depth the strategy to win over the hearts and minds of the Punjabis, the Sikhs in particular. They apparently invested considerable thoughtfulness in ‘Operation - Peaceful, Prosperous and Loyal Punjab’ undertaking unprecedented efforts to understand the Sikh mind and their energetic creed as a faith distinct from the fluid Brahamanical-Hinduistic traditions. A special space was soon sought to be earmarked for them, as a martial race in the British army - deeply reinforcing their particular physical identity with the Five K’s. 

The British administrators, in a good or bad faith, soon unleashed the ‘game of numbers’ of each faith - and it was never a looking back in the history of India. As could indeed be expected, an inevitable and never-ending tussle on the religious turf - with the innumerable attendant sects and sub sects of each religion and also the explosive caste divides among the Hindus and Sikhs - broke out soon to claim and reclaim the new and the lost religious and spiritual territories - more obviously in terms of the head count. The first comprehensive and reliable census in Punjab in 1881 reported a Sikh population of 1,716,114 - believed to be a gross underestimation because of census commissioner Ibbetson’s definition ‘appearing to be a Sikh’ - with a strong impression among the Sikhs that it had decreased from one crore when they were rulers. The British soon manouvered to slip into playing the role of an umpire - a schematic arbiter - with its own axe of Faith (Christianity) to grind - adopting a biased and motivated, albeit cautious approach in the battles among ‘warrior-preachers’ of the myriad hues of competing faiths. 

The Sikhs indeed faced a complex situation of being caught in the middle of cataclysmic changes of this unprecedented socio-religious and cultural-educational fermentation. The determined and state-supported Christian missionaries had started making daring forays of poaching on the Sikh elite - with the deposed Maharaja Dalip Singh and Kapurthala Princes as their earlier trophies. The large scale conversions to Christianity from the ranks of numerically significant but forever the humiliated and insulted as ‘Achhut - the untouchables’ among Hindus / Sikhs sent shock waves into the citadels of the self-aggrandizing custodians of the local religions. 

The rulers of Sikh states in the Southern Punjab and their attached feudal elements; the new aristocracy groomed by the British and also so many saints-scholars-soldiers had felt the urgent need of an organized body of the Sikh Panth to counter the newly emerged serious dangers posed by the Christian Missionaries and other reform movements including Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Ahmadiyas not to speak of the countless rebel sects of the mainstream religions. The result was the founding of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Amritsar on July 30, 1873. The body was registered with S. Thakur Singh Sandhawalia (1837-1887), a cousin of deposed Maharaja Dalip Singh, as President, and Prof Gurmukh Singh (1849-1898), Bhai Ditt Singh Gyani, Bhai Mayia Singh (1862-1928) and Bhai Jawahir Singh (1859-1910) as the other office bearers. Prof Gurmukh Singh as secretary and Giani Ditt Singh as in-charge of the office worked day and night to spread the mission of the Sabha. The Sabha was, however, soon rocked by differences. The immediate cause of rift was over Baba Khem Singh Bedi (1832-1905), a descendant of the first Guru, seating himself over the ‘mattress’ adjacent to the Granth Sahib and receiving ‘obeisance’ - ‘Matha Tekna’. The reform-minded group of Gurmukh Singh, Ditt Singh and Jawahir Singh parted ways and launched a parallel Singh Sabha in Lahore on November 2, 1879 with the avowed aims of undertake the contingent necessary reforms in restoring the pristine character and practices in strict conformity of the teachings of the most exalted Shri Guru Granth Sahib - the Living-Eternal-Guru. The war of words - and even court battles raged between the Amritsar and Lahore Sabhas for many years till the main protagonists passed away, within a couple of years of each other, at the turn of the century.

The life of Bhai Ditt Singh (b. April 21, 1850; d. September 6, 1901), the first to qualify formally the degree of ‘Gyani’ from the Oriental college, in the first ever examination held in 1878, is an inspiring saga of immense scholarship and dedicated service in the cause of the Sikh Panth during a very controversial and challenging period. He was born in a pious Ravidasia family - a low caste according to the practice of prevailing norms of social order - and his father Divan Singh was known as a Sant for his piety. Himself an admirer of the liberal and free-spirited Gulabdasia sect, his father sent him at the age nine years to be educated in the Dera in Teor, near the town of Kharar. Ditt Singh studied diligently for about seven years learning the various traditional studies in Gurmukhi, including grammar, prosody, Vedanta, Niti shastra, etc. Then he shifted to the main center of the Gulabdasis at Chathiawala, near Kasur and was soon initiated as an independent preacher. The contact with Jawahar Singh, a former Gulabdasia, who had joined the Arya Samaj led Ditt Singh also into this new wave organization. The two friends were soon drawn into Sikh fold by Bhai Gurmikh Singh, an educated activist for reforms in Sikhism and Ditt Singh’s life was transformed for ever for his most luminous scholarly contribution to the Sikh resurgence.

Apart from being one of the leading lights of the Singh Sabha movement, Ditt Singh was in the unique category of his own for inspiring the Sikh youth to follow the path of knowledge and being the pioneer to promote Punjabi language and literature. He was a crusader for establishing educational institutions and played a crucial part in the establishment of the Khalsa College in Amritsar. He pioneered, in close collaboration with Prof Gurmukh Singh, publication of journals and newspapers in Punjabi for social and spiritual awakening of Punjabis. He was amazingly prolific in his journalistic, literary and religious writings. According to Pritam Singh, a senior civil servant who retired in 2000, and has since been making Herculean efforts to retrieve and laboriously edit / publish the complete works of Bhai Ditt Singh, Giani Ji wrote 72 books - 60 in exquisite traditional poetry. The available works have been classified as consisting of the eight authentic accounts of the Sikh martyrs; seven biographies of the Sikh Gurus and twenty five didactic booklets and declamatory brochures explaining at length the Gurmat point of views on the raging controversies of his time. He has employed his immense talent as a poet and prose stylist in all his works. He was indeed a precursor and path finder for the entire next generation of Punjabi writers in the line of Bhai Veer Singh.

The folk fame of Giani Ditt Singh in the Sikh circles has been firmly woven around the three debates he had held with Swami Dayanand, recorded to have been held in Lahore on April 19, 24-27 and June 24-27, 1877. The 40 pages text titled, ‘My Debate with Sadhu Dayanand’ details an interesting account of the points and counter points of an extended discourse about the concept and identity of God; Vedas being of divine origin and the attainment of salvation. Giani Ditt Singh dared to assert that Swami Dayanand succeeded in impressing his followers in Punjab because of their limited knowledge of Sanskrit and linguistics and it also explains why he could not succeed in Bengal and southern India. Another longer essay titled, “How are Nations Born and How do They Prosper” dwells on the nobler tasks undertaken by the Christian missionaries in spreading education among all and providing the health facilities. Gyani Ji narrates the progress of Buddhism and Islam and the rise and decline of Hinduism and Sikhism. He quotes Kabir, 

Yahan gyan tahan dharam hai; 
yahan jhuth tahan paap. 
Yahan lobh tahan kaal hai; 
Yahan khima tanhi aap. 
Where there is knowledge, there is righteousness; 
ignorance is synonymous with sin. 
Greed breeds destruction; 
forgiveness is divine.

Gyani Ditt Singh has been rightfully, though belatedly recognised as the father of journalism in Punjabi. The British had undertaken the monumental ‘Project Punjab’ pushing and rushing province headlong from medievalism to modernity. The magical machine of the printing press of Gurmukhi was as much as much an engine new era as gigantic rail road projects. Prof Gurmukh singh and Gyani Ditt Singh and their close friends were all children of the spirit of the time and the saga of the ‘Khalsa Akhbar’, started in June 1886, indeed symbolized the new dawn. Gyani ji who edited 695 issues out of 699 of this first formidable weekly of the Panth till his last in September 1901 must be the most influential wielder of the pen in Punjabi. When Prof Gurmukh Singh was ‘thrown out’ of Panth by the feudal clique controlling the Amritsar Singh Sabha by adopting the Gurmata-religious edict, Gyani Ji stood up to valiantly defend him by writing the most convincing articles in Khalsa Akhbar and succeeded in forcing the withdrawal of the unjust edict. When Gyani Ji published in May 1887 ‘Swapan Natak - A Dream Play’, a satire targeting the false practitioners of Sikhism, the Amritsar faction dragged him to court in a defamation case - the conviction by the lower court imposing a fine of Rs 51/- was reversed by the higher court on April 30, 1888.

Biography by Pritam Singh

It augurs well that during the last three decades, the researchers in the universities of Punjab and public spirited cultural activists have invested lot of efforts to evaluate the multi-dimensional personality and totality of the writings by Gyani Ditt Singh. To quote Harjot Oberoi, “one man can rarely change the course of history, but without Ditt Singh the Singh Sabha might have been a rather different body. Author, publisher, journalist, public speaker, preacher, consultant, teacher and polemicist par excellence, Ditt Singh remained unrivalled in his command over print culture.” The books by Dr N.S. Kapur (1987); journalist-scholar Gurditt Singh ‘Giani’ (1999, Tercentenary of the Khalsa) and Dr K.S. Somal have comprehensively brought out the path breaking contribution of Gyani Ji in the social, intellectual and literary life of the Sikh people. According to the modern secular and Dalit scholars Gyani Ditt Singh courageously faced the personal insults inflicted on him by the feudal orthodoxy and the upper caste elite among the Sikhs. In the words of Dr. N.S. Kapur, “No doubt, Gyani Ditt Singh was a giant of his age. He was utterly lacking in material means but he turned the impossible into possible by dint of his dedication, determination and single mindedness… he steered the ship of Sikh Panth from the whirlpools to the shore of safety like an accomplished boatswain.” 

The untimely demise of Gyani Ji on September 6, 1901 had occasioned a deep and wide spread grief in the Panthic circles. Bhai Vir Singh paid rich tributes to his twenty years senior and precursor in a real sense of Sikh ideology, Punjabi literature and journalism by penning three poems and two touching tributes. A few lines are worth quoting, “Sade vicchon sajjan bhara guunm ho giya, bhai: Ditt Singh editor gyani, panth kare vadiaaee - A thorough gentleman has departed from among us, brothers: Ditt Singh, Editor and Gyani is most admired in the Panth.” The two other poems namely, ‘Long Lasting Sleep of Bhai Ditt Singh,’ and ‘An Elegy of Bhai Ditt Singh’s Pen’ express a deep sense of loss and bereavement of the Sikh community in the death of its most gifted scholar. The fairly longer ‘Editorial Note’ in Khalsa Samachar of September 11, 1901 titled, ‘Qaum Looti Gayee - The Nation has been Looted (Robbed)’ appeals that, “…The loss suffered is irreparable and nor can we ever repay for his services, but the best thing to preserve the memory of the dear departed is to make the best arrangements for the completion of the interrupted education of his son…” Gyani Ji’s son Baldev Singh ‘Sher’ did become a highly qualified doctor but found the doors in India to all the positions commensurate with his qualifications shut in his face - because of his being born in a low caste! H.W. McLeod has narrated how the curse of caste had vitiated the life of Dr Baldev Singh - even at the edge of the world in distant New Zealand!

One hopes that the Panth Khalsa in Punjab and its cultural historians will fully embrace and put this most scholarly son of soil on a higher pedestal of the honor that he had earned by his noblest pen.