34 years ago, a young Sikh, in his teens, for the love of his religion stood his ground and lost his life. Three of his dear friends, who were part of the Sikh Students Federation movement died with him. 34 years to that day, Ravinder Singh Littran’s brother -Harinder Singh Littran, for the first time in three decades, recalls his childhood, his hopes and aspirations on his 54th birthday in the public domain. He shares his maternal antecedents -the roots for his love of Sikhi and narrates how the family is coping with the memory of the loved one, whose killers are still beyond the domain of justice.

BARELY 19 YEARS OF AGE, 34 YEARS AGO, ON 4 FEBRUARY 1986, my elder brother Ravinder Singh with his colleagues Baldhir Singh Ramgarh, Jhilman Singh Gorsian and Harminder Singh Chaluper, set out from their homes to protest the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in the sleepy town of Nakodar on the outskirts of Jalandhar. Little did they know that they would not come back home.

While this is a personal reminiscence of my elder brother, in a larger sense, it is a recall of all the four young men who were killed in cold blood in a merciless manner by blood-thirsty police personnel, whose deeds has been covered by Punjab police higher-ups and a conniving political leadership over the decades.

Ravinder Singh was born to Baldeep Kaur at his grandfather Gurnam Singh Sandhu’s house in Muhema. His grandmother Charan Kaur was the twin-sister of widely-respected Jathedar Harcharan Singh Mahlon -former Jathedar of Takht Keshgarh Sahib.

Ravinder was a compassionate, altruistic, humanitarian, glorious, pious soul soaked in the love of Guru and always in high spirits. His relatives, classmates and friends loved and admired him.

Seeped in the love of Sikhism, like all Sikh kids, he started to wear the turban at an early age; saffron and dark blue were his favourite colours.

Once our Brahman neighbour asked him, “ ‘Binde’ wear a turban of another colour, as the villagers would assume that you have brought these turbans from Anandpur Sahib from your grandfather.” A keen listener to stories from grandparents, Ravinder responded, “Pandit Ji you may not know but Giani Harcharan Singh serves as Jathedar of Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib without any salary. My grandfather -Nanaji, even takes rations from his Mohalon home.”

My brother was a do-gooder. Once he took a village lady to a local hospital as she was expecting and her husband, who was in the Railways, was not at home. He stayed there the whole night until the child’s birth. I felt proud of my brother when the lady told me this story.

A village girl was once travelling from Nakodar to Littran in a tempo with her husband who was drunk and was abusively arguing with her with all co-passengers listening in. Ravinder was also in the tempo, maybe he was going to college. He advised her husband not to quarrel but suddenly he slapped his wife, instead.  Ravinder Singh, unable to bear abuse, stopped the tempo, taught the man a ‘lesson’ and since that day, he never raised a hand on her. She was sobbing inconsolably when she learnt about the killing of Ravinder and told me, ‘He was my Veer -brother.’

The ‘model student’ Ravinder aspired to be an electrical engineer, played hockey for his school and village team and loved weight lifting.

My brother received Khande-ki-Pahul -the Khalsa initiation, on the Vaisakhi of 1984 at Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib. A regular at Gurmat Training Camps of the All India Sikh Student Federation and the Youth Akali Dal, he became a devout Sikh and was often seen serving at the Village Gurdwara Sahib in the evening congregation.

1984 shook the Sikh world. 1984 saw the resurgence of the Sikh Students Federation despite the harassment and atrocities of the military and paramilitary forces across Punjab, especially the countryside, as part of Operation Woodrose. Ravinder Singh, with his friends, went to Amritsar post-June 1984 and witnessed the destruction caused during the storming of the Darbar Sahib. He was shaken. Being an Amritdhari -baptized Sikh, he suffered ignominy at the hands of the security forces, who had been officially told that, “every Amritdhari Sikh is a dangerous person.” He participated in the historic Sarbat Khalsa held at Sri Akal Takht Amritsar on January 26, 1986.

Whenever he was idle he used to write Sat Naam Waheguru Ji’s Jaap in his notebook. His love for things Sikhi reverberated around the village. His science teacher Master Balwant Singh’s younger son once told his father, “Papa ‘Binde’ must have taken more Amrit” Masterji said, “Why do you say that?” The young Guri replied, “No one else in the village wears such a big kirpan.”

Being the older amongst the siblings, he was the right-hand of his father Bapu Baldev Singh. To this day, my father, my mother and I spend hours on end, even nights, living in the chain of memories of Ravinder Singh.

Reflecting back, it appears as if Guru was grooming him for martyrdom. My father’s aunt told us that once when she asked Ravinder what he would want to become when he grows up, he said, Main shaheed honna hai -I want to become a martyr. Perhaps he did not understand the import of what he said. Perhaps, as a man of God, he did. She chided him and said, ‘You are just a kid.” He retorted Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s sons were also martyred at a very young age. He earned his word! I am proud of the great hero who by attaining martyrdom achieved Dashmesh Pita’s -Guru Gobind Singh’s abode!

We as a family will continue our efforts to bring the culprits of your killing to justice. The parents of your associates did not live up to the day to see justice done but I am determined to leave no stone unturned to get justice for our parents Baldev Singh and Baldeep Kaur.

I cry for my elder brother, yet I celebrate his martyrdom.  Our family, our village remembers him and so does the proud Sikh nation as he adorns the walls of the Sikh National Museum at Darbar Sahib in the holy city of Amritsar! Chardi Kala!

Dr Harinder Singh, younger brother of Ravinder Singh is a postgraduate from University of California, San Francisco and is practising pediatric medicine at Stanford University, responsible for medication therapy management. He tweets @sakanakodar to focus on justice for his brother and his colleagues killed extrajudicially.