Lawyer, activist and writer, lecturer of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law, Mallika Kaur, has painstakingly gathered details of three pioneering human rights defenders and weaved the story of contemporary Punjab around their work, especially looking at the role of women in her new book “The Wheat Fields Still Whisper” Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict. As she puts it, “The book seeks to make an urgent intervention in the telling of the history of the Punjab conflict, which to date has been characterised by a fixation on sensational violence—or ignored altogether.” It feels all the more timely now in 2022 to draw lessons from citizen activists who persevered in Punjab during “those days.” Co-founder and president of the Khalis Foundation -Prebh Dev Singh, famous for the Gurbani search engine SikhiToTheMax reviews the book for The World Sikh News.

IWAS VISITING PUNJAB WHEN I HEARD THAT MALLIKA KAUR’S MUCH-AWAITED BOOK “The Wheat Fields Still Whisper” Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict, based on human rights defenders’ stories post-1984 has finally been released. A printed copy was not available for purchase there at the time, so I bought the PDF right away and started reading it on my Kindle. It was a short trip home, and much of it was spent reading this book. I largely grew up in Punjab, and despite (or because of) that, such stories and details had never been readily available for me to read and digest. The book is now available in the Punjab at the prestigious The Browser Library and Bookstore, Chandigarh.

Mallika Kaur’s work has become my reference or go-to resource to look up specific incidents and events related to recent Punjab history. And now, importantly, the book is available for readers in India and worldwide.

The book revolves around Punjab’s resistance to oppression.

This book is based on factual and unbiased accounts, something that is hard to come across due to the State having passed its own narrative through academia, media, and journalism. Mallika Kaur has attempted to narrate Punjab’s history from an investigative point of view, instead of a defensive position. This is something new and refreshing, especially as this is likely the first time such a thorough record of the recent Sikh and Punjab history has been narrated by a woman, one who is also a Punjabi Sikh.

“I read Mallika Kaur’s beautifully written book at a gallop. Police raids, villagers’ resistance, women’s defiance, torturers, survivors, electoral violence, strategic silences. It’s all here. But what is remarkable is how Mallika Kaur allows us to listen in on these lively, risky conversations as Sikh women and men unravel the Indian official story and together weave a more reliable, complex political narrative.”

Cynthia Enloe, Clark University, New York

The book revolves around Punjab’s resistance to oppression. What I found most incredible is how the book is structured. Starting with chapter 2, each subsequent chapter eloquently draws parallels from the recent events (starting backwards from 1995) and a period of modern era Sikh history (starting with the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839). As the chapters progress, both timelines convene in chapter 10 – “Ten Thousand Pairs of Shoes”– the final chapter that covers 1984 and its aftermath in detail. It’s interesting to note that most accounts on the Punjab conflict start with 1984, but Mallika Kaur very skillfully brings her work to closure by going over the events of this period in the last chapter. The book effectively helps the reader travel from the end of the Sikh Raj (through colonial times; Gadhar mutiny; “batwara”) to very recent events of the 2000s that are relevant in what continues to unfold in Punjab in 2022.

“Deftly braiding oral history with recorded history, Mallika Kaur brings to the reader memories and tales of the long Punjab struggle with a painful, bracing immediacy. We listen as three ordinary – and not so ordinary – people describe how they chose engagement, not indifference; dignity and humanity over collusion with state violence and corruption. A vivid reminder that beyond the statistics in human rights reports and the details of unending legal cases, lie courage, humour, caring, and simple commitment to truth.”

Angela P. Harris, UC Davis School of Law, California

In addition, every chapter includes life stories of the protagonists: the three human rights defenders on the cover of the book, as well as countless others. The conversations grow, the stories have multiple voices, the reader is at once an observer and a participant in making sense of everything. Without the work of the three central protagonists–the famed Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Baljit Kaur, Inderjit Singh Jaijee–– perhaps today the entire narrative around the events of the 1980s and 1990s would have been even more biased and incomplete. We learn about the tremendous contributions of many of our bazurgs -elders. 

Narratives set prior to this book have seldom explored the roles played by women in the recent Sikh struggles. Mallika Kaur has challenged the usual narrative that the armed conflict of Punjab was led by irrational men who took up arms and had monstrous tendencies and that the women played no role besides being vulnerable and victimized. What you will read in this book are first-hand accounts by women who defied societal expectations and played a very important role during this period.

One such example is Baljit Kaur who tirelessly collected documentation and evidence of human rights violations and State coverups during the 1980s and 1990s. 

This book has not shied away from some of the most complicated events of recent Sikh history. At the same time, it does not propose to have “the” answer: it presents the various complications and in doing so highlights earlier lesser-known nuances. An example of this is the election boycott decision not only by armed Sikh separatist groups in 1992 but also what Jaijee calls the “Central government’s election boycott” in 1991.

“There are many people who talk, but not many who listen. And fewer still who listen with patience, respect, and faith that each person is the best authority on their own experiences. So it’s no wonder that many people who never told their stories or shared their records, opened their hearts and souls to Mallika.”

Paramjit Kaur Khalra, human rights advocate, Amritsar, Punjab

While many events will bring sorrow, grief, and feelings of disgust, there are real-life accounts that will leave the readers in Chardikala. Chapter 10, the final section of this book, has many such accounts. Readers will value details of how the events of 1984 unfolded, which are often not mentioned in other works, including smashing of the Darbar Sahib model and removal of Guru Ram Das’ portrait from the Amritsar railway station, the role of the Akali leaders, and how a majority of civilians were killed inside the rest houses located in the vicinity of Darbar Sahib.

The same chapter also reveals how even after 1984, the Sikh spirit and psyche was not damaged. Despite a strong army control of the area, villagers continued to amass inside Darbar Sahib. These people, regardless of their ideology, ran their fingers across the bullet marks on the walls and doors of Darbar Sahib and wept, as this was not just a mere building, but an incarnation of their Gurus.

Anyone wanting to get a glimpse of Sikh history and the events that led to 1984 and its aftermath will appreciate the work by Mallika Kaur.

Anyone wanting to get a glimpse of Sikh history and the events that led to 1984 and its aftermath will appreciate the work by Mallika Kaur. The book is a treasure in many ways and addresses many important topics that did not find a proper space in other recent publications. I was inspired in many ways by the chilling details and incidents that have been presented in this book, and I am sure other readers will too.

Prebh Dev Singh works as a senior product manager in a California based cybersecurity company and holds a degree in Information Technology and Corporate Management. He is the co-founder and president of the Khalis Foundation, a non-profit organization that spreads the wisdom of Sikh Gurus through technology. Some of the apps by the Khalis Foundation include the Sundar Gutka app and SikhiToTheMax.

“The Wheat Fields Still Whisper” Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict is available at The Browser Library and Book Store, Chandigarh.