Greeting the distinguished poet Gajinder Singh living in exile on his sixty-sixth birthday, World Sikh News editor presents an analysis of his poetry which touches the mind and soul of the reader. It’s time to revisit his verse in letter and spirit.

Iknow of very few revolutionary poets amongst the Sikhs. Poets who speak against injustice, poets who poke fun at Sikh leaders, poets who talk about politics, fundamental rights and not about soft issues of romance and environment.

In the late seventies and early eighties of the last century, due to the missionary work of the seminary -Damdami Taksal, Punjab was bidding goodbye to communist comradeship and atheism and rediscovering its love, affinity and regard for the fundamentals of Sikhism. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Sirdar Kapur Singh were revered by those keen to see communism fade away.

While a large section of the masses was happy at partaking Amrit, baptising themselves and others, there were some young visionaries who wanted to go beyond. Groups of well-meaning Sikhs in Ludhiana and Chandigarh, engaged themselves in debate and dialogue in their mission to rediscover their roots and redesign the destiny of the Sikh nation.

Guru Nanak has taught his followers the spirit of rebellion against tyranny. In 1971, when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Dera Bassi in Punjab on the Punjab-Haryana border, a group of youngsters led by an engineering student rose from the audience and cried hoarse.  Held, released and dismissed from his job, this student discovered poetry in him. He was Gajinder Singh.

He learnt to be outspoken and brave from his brave mother –Ranjit Kaur. His mother was perhaps one of the first few individuals who in contemporary times goaded his son to take up the cause of the Sikhs, to rise above the mundane and more significantly to rebel. She too died a rebel. Showing his humane side, Gajinder Singh fondly remembers his family in his poems, particularly his sister Bholi –with whom he had a keen revolutionary relationship. His recall of family ties is always in the spirit of a radical who has chosen to love a life in which familial bonds have due remembrance but hardly find any place in the life patterns of a revolutionary. He respectfully and fondly acknowledges that in his poems addressed to his mother, sister, wife and daughter.

“Nishana Paak hai isda, Kalam eh jang larregi -As the goal is pure, my pen will fight.”

Gajinder’s understanding of Sikh history and of the deceit and chicanery of the Indian leadership was acquired through reading and active interaction with Sirdar Kapur Singh in Chandigarh and Harbhagat Singh in Ludhiana. Apart from his close Dal Khalsa colleagues, he relished the company of Inderjit Singh Narangwal, Prof. Sukhjinder Singh from Sangrur, Joginder Singh Mann and Gurtej Singh. Having listened about and witnessed governmental interference in Sikh religious and political affairs, he understood the genesis of the Indo-Sikh conflict. Teenaged Gajinder was seething with anger, rage and rebellion.

He imbibed the words of the writer of Prachin Panth Prakash –Raaj Karein Ikke Lar Mar Hain –a Sikh is either a king or a rebel. Gajinder Singh chose to be a rebel. He became a rebel, revolutionary poet. 

 

It is time to revisit the revolutionary poet’s words and understand the meaning in each one of them, lest Gajinder Singh write again in a different idiom, what he wrote decades back, Doston, saath deo, dur khadhe ho ke na dekho assi ki karde haan, Assi taan raat din dardan de doonge sagar tarde haan. –Come join us, don’t stare from a distance and see what we do, we dwell in pain, day and night.”

In his preliminary work, published in 1975, he beseeched his Guru to grant him the boon of five new arrows as the tenth master -Guru Gobind Singh had bestowed on Banda Singh Bahadur –Panj Teer Hor. He asked for this so that he could sway the course of history of his people and set it on the path of sovereignty –”Tere Teeran Naal Chaldi Hawa da assi rukh modhange, Jina sangla’ch jakdhya Qaum nu, oh sangal todhange.”

His style was un-pardoning. Like all youth of those times, he too was disgusted with the Akali leadership. He spoke disparagingly about them and sought their complete removal from the political spectrum, as in his view they were guilty of cheating the Sikhs and compromising their interests.

“Assi itihas duhravange, oh takhto taaj lehn lahi, assi itihas duhravange, murr oh hi raaj lehn lahi, jang hind-punjab da murr hosi, sathon khusiyan bhaven sardariyan ne, Oddon tak nahi jang eh khatam honni, jad tak jitdiyan nahi jo haariyan ne. –We will repeat history to regain our lost glory, to regain our lost self-rule, even though we have lost our kingship, there will again be an Indo-Punjab battle and this battle will not end till we have won what we have lost.”

Gajinder’s reminiscence of the events of 1947 is also in his characteristic style. In the poem entitled 1947, his father –Manohar Singh tells him, while narrating the barbarism of the times, –Nahi afsos si honna, nahi beete te si rona, je chadh ke ghar aapne, kaum da koi ghar vasa lende. –We would not have regretted, had we built a home for the Sikh nation, after losing our own home and hearth.

Some forty years ago, Gajinder Singh wrote, ‘sunnya tusi savidhan te daskhat nahi keete, pata nahi satai vare kiven lange kive beete’ –I have heard that you did not sign the Indian constitution, then how come we have lived this far? Well, add another forty more today and ask oneself the same question. Are we not where we were? Aren’t these lines as relevant today as they were decades ago?

While politicians and activists in Punjab would mince words while talking about Sikh-Hindu unity or disunity, Gajinder Singh was categorical and straightforward, “Gangu Hi Gangu Ne, hor ithe ki hai and that “Gangu de nave varsaan di vaari hai.” –There are cheats all around (like Gangu, the servant of Guru Gobind Singh, who deceived the Guru’s sons and mother) and that, “it is now time for the new inheritors of the legacy of Gangu.” How appropriate, even today!

He does not just lament. He provokes his readers into action. He says that it is a now or never situation. It is time to “tear apart the discordant note with the Guru” –Bedava Paaddh Aaiye. He does not stop at that. He says, “it is time to work to put up a bridge across Sabhraon –Sabhraon’ch Tutte Pull nu judwa aaiye.

His manner of recollection of historical events is par excellence. How else can you explain the hoisting of the Kesri Nishan Sahib atop the Red Fort? He metaphorically says, Main Dilli de Lal Kille de samhne lang rehan haan, par aj isne sees nahi jhukaya –Today I walked across the Red Fort, but it did not bow before me. Main vi taan Baghel Singh Nahi Reha –He bemoans that “I too am not Baghel Singh.” He does not stop there. He says, “I will come again as an incarnation of Baghel Singh –Main Baghel Singh Bann ke murr aavanga.

His primers for young revolutionaries include Panj Teer Hor, Gangu Di Rooh and Wasihatnama –each a vast collection of poems on various religio-political aspects of Sikh identity and a reflection of contemporary developments offering a deep insight into the character of Sikh leadership. Gajinder Singh devotes an entire anthology of poems to his organisation which he modelled on the lines of the historic Dal Khalsa, both in name, spirit and action. The work, Jang Jari Hai is devoted entirely to each and every activity carried out by the Dal Khalsa.

Living in exile, cut-off from his homeland, his latter-day poetry is not as popular as the one written in the eighties. Suraj te Khalistan, Jang Jari Hai, Salakhan Pichhe, Sangarsh, Salakha ate Sajni are more a commentary on recent developments as he learnt about them behind the four walls of a prison and his inner thoughts about the fate of the Sikh struggle.

I wonder if some young university student would do a thesis on the verse of this revolutionary poet, the like of which the Sikh struggle has not produced contemporaneously.

His mission is clear, Assi itihas duhravange, oh takhto taaj lehn lahi, assi itihas duhravange, murr oh hi raaj lehn lahi, jang hind-punjab da murr hosi, sathon khusiyan bhaven sardariyan ne, Oddon tak nahi jang eh khatam honni, jad tak jitdiyan nahi jo haariyan ne –We will repeat history to regain our lost glory, to regain our lost self-rule, even though we have lost our kingship, there will again be an Indo-Punjab battle and this battle will not end till we have won what we have lost.

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As he grows old, his resoluteness shows no signs of bending. He is clear today, as he was years ago, when he wrote, Nishana Paak hai isda, Kalam eh jang larregi –my pen would surely fight this battle as my goal is pure.  More power to his pen, more days to his life and may he return to his pure and free fatherland Punjab in his lifetime.