British ac­tivist and pro­lific writer Jagdeesh Singh pays a mov­ing trib­ute to Deep Sidhu, call­ing him a pow­er­ful voice of Pan­jaabi na­tion­hood a cut above the rest of the pre­sent de­cay­ing Sikh lead­er­ship. His un­timely demise has awak­ened many a Pan­jaabi soul and is likely to im­pact the Sikh youth re­nais­sance in Pan­jaab, ir­re­spec­tive of the re­sults of the Pan­jaab elec­tions.

THE UN­TIMELY AND ABRUPT DEATH OF DEEP SIDHU (1984-2022), due to an ap­par­ent fa­tal car ac­ci­dent en-route from Dheli to Pan­jaab; has sent shock waves like no other death in re­cent times, across the Pan­jaabi peo­ple in­side Pan­jaab and across the world.

DEEP SIDHU, aged 37-years, young lawyer, promis­ing ac­tor-turned pas­sion­ate cam­paigner for Pan­jaabi na­tional rights and in­de­pen­dent state­hood; rep­re­sented a shin­ing star on the de­spoiled Pan­jaabi land­scape of crooked and un­prin­ci­pled mix­ture of politi­cians and pub­lic cam­paign fig­ures.

DEEP emerged from the com­mo­tion and fire of the Pan­jaabi farm­ers’ ag­i­ta­tion be­gun in 2020, as a pow­er­ful and pro­lific voice for Pan­jaabi na­tion­hood and self-rule. He was cer­tainly a much-wel­comed voice for deeper, search­ing analy­sis and op­po­si­tion to the en­dur­ing In­dia-Pan­jaab stran­gle­hold re­la­tion­ship, of which the Pan­jaab farmer mass dis­sent was a di­rect prod­uct. His ex­pres­sions of his deeper, in­tel­lec­tual mind were dif­fer­ent from the mun­dane, crass, repet­i­tive speeches of the farmer union lead­ers.

Rather than the min­i­mal rights and con­ces­sions from the Dheli cen­tral com­mand of the mono­lithic In­dian state, he was in­spired to vo­calise the as­pi­ra­tions of many Pan­jaabis for a com­plete break-away from the decades of mis­gov­er­nance and sub­ju­ga­tion which had af­flicted and de­spoiled the once in­de­pen­dent and eco­nom­i­cally and mil­i­tar­ily pow­er­ful na­tion of Pan­jaab.

His in­tel­lect, elo­quence and dar­ing in ex­press­ing this through­out his cam­paign­ing were fan­tas­tic. 

His in­tel­lect, elo­quence and dar­ing in ex­press­ing this through­out his cam­paign­ing were fan­tas­tic. The rest of the mass fig­ures across the Pan­jaabi farm­ers’ unions and the wider In­dian po­lit­i­cal groups: were sim­ply us­ing the grass­roots, Pan­jaabi-Sikh dri­ven and re­sourced phe­nom­e­nal ag­i­ta­tion, as they have al­ways done be­fore: to ex­ploit and ma­nip­u­late within an In­dian con­fined po­lit­i­cal con­text and to sim­ply, re­in­force their al­le­giances and ties to the supreme, sin­gu­lar In­dian power sys­tem.

DEEP SIDHU, as a con­scious and eth­i­cal voice for Pan­jaabi jus­tice and hu­man­ity, was pos­i­tively dif­fer­ent – earn­ing him the taunt of ‘trai­tor’ from that pro-In­dian crowd!

DEEP emerged from the com­mo­tion and fire of the Pan­jaabi farm­ers’ ag­i­ta­tion be­gun in 2020, as a pow­er­ful and pro­lific voice for Pan­jaabi na­tion­hood and self-rule.

To dare to as­pire, think for and seek po­lit­i­cal em­pow­er­ment for Pan­jaab: this sets apart the truly pa­tri­otic, cham­pi­ons of Pan­jaab from the gen­eral chaotic, messy mix of politi­cians and vo­cal spokesper­sons who merely and tem­porar­ily ride on the waves of Pan­jaabi as­pi­ra­tions and feel­ings. Deep Sidhu, was demon­stra­bly one of the for­mer.

He was re­cep­tive to the cut­ting-edge mes­sages and as­pi­ra­tions com­mu­ni­cated to him by Pan­jaabi ac­tivists around the world. Those mes­sages of com­pre­hen­sive self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, pos­i­tively in­de­pen­dent and shap­ing our own eco­nomic, mil­i­tary, ed­u­ca­tional and for­eign pol­icy di­rec­tion in the world.

This race-horse and lion of Pan­jaab sped far ahead of the gen­eral dead-mass of politi­cians and rou­tine pub­lic fig­ures, who have con­tin­u­ously shown nei­ther vi­sion nor courage for the pre­sent and fu­ture of Pan­jaab. That po­lit­i­cal class which is so clearly aligned, nur­tured and in­doc­tri­nated to abide by the In­dian power struc­ture: sim­ply could not, nor would not step into the rad­i­cal lines taken by Deep Sidhu.

Deep Sidhu, who had played such a pro­lific on the ground role in ini­ti­at­ing the bur­geon­ing Pan­jaabi farm­ers cause, was cut out and pushed away from the of­fi­cial grand stages of these con­tro­versy-rid­den farm­ers union groups in Dheli. The no­to­ri­ous lead­ers of some farm­ers unions have many gap­ing ques­tions to an­swer. They will be re­mem­bered, not least, for their vo­cal re­jec­tion of the Kesri Nis­han sahibs, the Ni­hang pres­ence and the Pan­jaabi slo­gans which en­riched and coloured the Dheli mor­cha.

To­gether on 26th Jan­u­ary 2021, this same group of farmer union rep­re­sen­ta­tives ended up de­clar­ing DEEP SIDHU for his dar­ing and ex­cit­ing ac­tions in tak­ing the pub­lic protests di­rectly to the Red Fort (sym­bol of In­dian power) and par­tic­i­pat­ing in the his­tory-mak­ing, en­thralling, rais­ing of the Pan­jaabi Kesri Nis­han flag on that sym­bolic build­ing of power and con­trol.

This spon­ta­neous ac­tion was an ex­pres­sion of our col­lec­tive re­jec­tion and re­sis­tance to In­dian state power. These farmer union lead­ers in their panic re­sponse re­torted with cries of ‘trai­tor! trai­tor!’ in their mis­er­able at­tempt to dis­as­so­ci­ate with these buoy­ant, spir­ited ac­tions. This was not just DEEP SIDHU on his own, hun­dreds of fel­low Pan­jaabi ag­i­ta­tors in the farm­ers’ cam­paign camped out in the Dheli mor­cha.

To­gether, they were all in­vig­o­rated and ac­ti­vated by the buoy­ant and pro­pelling spirit of au­then­tic Sikhi which has fought and strug­gled its way down the cen­turies, to em­power and lib­er­ate the Pan­jaabi hu­man­ity and so­ci­ety. It has pro­pelled us to iden­tify with and love our coun­try of Pan­jaab. To seek self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. To stand up and de­mand equal sta­tus in this world of di­verse and plural peo­ples. To seek state­hood.

We all cried at the loss of our rad­i­cal DEEP SIDHU. May many more DEEP SID­HUs rise in Pan­jaab, and out­shine the dead souls which pol­lute and un­der­mine our na­tional af­fairs and in­sti­tu­tions. DEEP SIDHU for­ever! An­other soul who has given his life for Pan­jaabi lib­er­a­tion and a Pan­jaabi fu­ture! We love you. May we col­lec­tively pro­pel his mes­sage for­ward of Pan­jaabi in­de­pen­dent state­hood! PAN­JAAB ZIND­ABAAD! United all Pan­jaabis!