Issue 53 Vol III, December 15, 2007

Sacramento’s Sacrosanct
Punjabi Literary Circus of California
Dr Jaspal Singh

THE annual conference of Punjabi Sahit Sabha of California last September attracted a good number of writers and their readers. By the U.S. standards, this three hundred strong gathering was really impressive. The participants in the conference were very enthusiastic in their response to the literary presentations made in the temple hall. Dr. Amrik Singh, president of the Sabha proved his mettle as an organiser of such functions. Now Harbans Singh Jagiasu, the newly elected president of the Sabha has taken over and it seems that the Sabha would be able to organise still more colourful functions in future. Mohinder Singh Ghagg, a well-known short story writer from Yuba City is the new General Secretary, thus relieving Manjit Kaur Sekhon, a poet and storywriter. Ghagg is a peach farmer but as a literary person he makes a perfect team with Harbans Jagiasu.

There are two other elderly writers in this coterie. Gurcharan Zakhmi, a ninety five years old Indian freedom fighter and Rabinder Atwal, an elderly novelist, who almost always keep the company of Jagiasu and Ghagg. These foursomes move together and are very passionate participants in the literary gatherings. Jagiasu and Ghagg are great fundraisers as well. Rabinder Atwal has lived in England for a number of years before settling as a farmer in the neighbourhood of Yuba City. Gurcharan Zakhmi, despite his age manages to compose a poem for every occasion. Even if he has to pay homage to a departed soul he would make it a point to write a touching elegy for the sombre occasion and recite it in an equally solemn voice at the service for the dead. Most of the small literary meetings take place at the residence of Manjit Kaur Sekhon. She is a host par excellence. Her husband Varinder Sekhon, though a lawyer, takes keener interest in literary personalities than in poems and stories. He is known for his raw wit and weaves hilarious tales about writers, particularly the poets and their craze for reciting their compositions at every available occasion.

Kamal Banga is another interesting poet-cum-storywriter from Sacramento. He is more famous for his combative role in the literary gatherings than for his poems. Usually he fights for the right cause and tries to keep everybody cut to his size. His organising competence is beyond doubt. Harjinder Pandher and Dr. Harbhajan Singh Bhaji (Shergill) somehow snatch time from their busy schedule to be present in the literary meets. Harjinder is a transporter and Bhaji is a doctor by profession. In San Jose, Prof. Harbhajan Singh is an uncrowned literary king. He has been a well-known story writer and novelist for a long time. Even before his migration to the U.S. a few years ago he was active in the literary field in Chandigarh.

Neelam Saini and Tara Sagar are the other two figures in the Bay Area known for their literary passion. So are Gurpreet Dhaliwal and Parvez Sandhu. The latter now is a little less active in the field because of the illness of her son.

Apart from this medley crowd there are other veterans like Amerjit Dardi, Ishar Singh Mamon and above all Azad Jalandhari, who makes an impressive appearance in every literary gathering with his unique dress code that provides him a distinct identity. There are quite a few other littérateurs and literature lovers in the Bay Area. All of them take literature seriously though their output is not as great as it ought to be. Maybe this is because of the rough and tumble of the American life that leaves them with very little time except for attending the literary meetings that are held on monthly basis like in many towns of Punjab. Sometimes literary politics plagues the different Sahit Sabhas in California as well. But there are certain senior writers like Dr. Gurumel Sidhu, Dr. Jagjit Brar, Sukhwinder Kamboj and Dr. Gurpal Khahra who intervene and resolve the differences.

Punjabi literary scene in the Bay Area of California and around is indeed lively and vibrant. An outsider can spend weeks without getting bored if one has a literary bent of mind.

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Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies
Amrik Singh writes from Sacramento, California

Harold A Gould’s book, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, And Spies: The India Lobby in the United States 1900-1946 is a landmark study of pioneers’  quest for freedom, love and justice both in lands of their birth and the lands they bowed to make green. Their contribution, according to Gould, will remain exceptional in the annals of history. Their dream of undivided India, though, could not become a reality due to the inept handling , yet their extraordinary role in becoming catalytic agent of change would alter our perception. Gould focuses on 1900-1946 period to dig out the truth behind the British’s eviction from India. His narrative flows uninterrupted through out 460 pages, mainly because he avoids hot spots of controversies for a more authentic account. Unlike most post-independence Indian historians, Gould constructs a comprehensive image of Ghadrites in championing the cause of freedom. Obstacles in the way to attain citizenship roused their ire creating a response that ironically advanced the cause of civil rights on both sides of the globe.

The author clearly explains how a small community of not more than 5000-6000 in 1910-20, had originally conceived a dream of claiming their country from clutches of the colonialists. In their monumental efforts, they struggled on behalf of then 260 million Indians who were being magnetized and mesmerized with glamour and glitz of colonial lifestyles. Pioneers’ lobbying efforts promoted the cause of freedom in American media, academia, and the society. The armed incursion of revolutionaries, though, suffered many jolts as British intelligence had made deep inroads into the very heart of Ghadr,  however, it fueled the imagination of Indians to explore possibilities of free India. The title of the book, in fact, is a quip of Lala Hardyal who used it to categorize Indians in America as Sikhs, Swamis, Students and spies; it is so apt and apposite to the subject matter that it holds readers’ interest until the end.

The main plot revolves round Ambassador William Phillips’s assignment to India and his highly confidential report on British Raj’s hollowness and callousness in suppressing the voice of freedom and jeopardizing ongoing war efforts. Through his private report, Phillips urged the President Franklin D. Roosevelt to take action against the British in view of the common agenda adopted by allies in World War II. Since the lobbyists had sympathizers in the US state department, the confidential letter to the President found its way in the most popular column of the Washington Post.  Drew Pearson’s “The Washington Merry-Go-Round” created a rift right in the middle of World War II . Who had leaked the information to the press? Gould reveals the name for the first time in the book under review.

The book has been dedicated to Professor I. Crane (1922-97) whose name is linked for the first time to the greatest mystery in the state department leakage case of 1943 to one of the columnists of the Washington Post. This disclosure hit hard at the British’s orchestrated campaign of constructing myths in America about benevolence of the British Raj.  J.J. Singh who was known as ‘one-man lobby’ and a genius of public relations among his American sympathizers, had worked hard to advertise Indian freedom movement. The author comments that firebrand leader like Lala Har Dyal though provided organizational support initially, yet could not manage to run the affairs for long due to British operatives’ threat. However the recruits mostly Sikhs, some Hindus and Muslims as well stood trial and some achieved martyrdom as wages for their allegiance.  Professor Crane says about Sikhs: “They were all patriots and wanted India to be free, but they also wanted American citizenship.”

The intertwined motif of ending discrimination on the basis of race made pioneers willing partners in fight to the finish. The struggle for freedom starting in 1900 in North America continued with the same fervor though different routes had to be followed for achieving results. After the First World War, Punjabi pioneers’ influence looked unstoppable as they had 122,000 acreage in their possessions.  Immigration & Naturalization Services’ decision to challenge the verdict of a district court in the US Supreme Court won support of Anglo Americans as a deterrent measure. Their main angst was pioneers’ unquenchable thirst for agricultural lands.  The British Raj succeeded in convincing US government to try in court of law all revolutionaries for conspiring an armed incursion with money pumped by imperial Germany. The trials, according to Gould, were a media circus. “It lasted 155 days; cost the US government $450, 000 and the British government 2.5 million. The amount the British spent is obviously a measure of how threatening they believed Ghadr, in concert with the German enemy, had become.” In trials, the British  had a motive for using American media for stereotyping ‘Hindoos’ as people of violent and criminal bent of mind. The phenomenal amount of dollar spending to suppress a small group of radicals through infiltration on the one hand and to egg on non-violent movement involving a larger population was the only course left to sidetrack barrels of guns from faces of Raj’s custodians.

In the 47 years of journey, Ghadr pioneers and their friends continued financial, moral and nationalistic support to the lobbyists. The median income of Indian Americans in 2005 is over $60.000 per annum, according to Gould, higher than any other minority group. Sufferings and energies of Sohan Singh Bhakna, Har Dayal, Taraknath Das, Syud Hossain, Anup Singh, Sridharani, JJ Singh, the Sikh leaders on thePacific Coast, and so many others like Professor Robert Crane made it possible. The tenacity of their purpose and steady financial support won a badge of American citizenship when President Harry S. Truman signed  ‘Celler-Luce Bill’ on July 2, 1946. The relief applied to all people of the Indian subcontinent. Gould emphasizes that isolating Ghadr from the latter-day campaigns will result in belittling its historical role.  Gould opines, “The intellectuals were especially crucial in developing the various organizations that promoted political awareness and provided framework for collective action. Ghadr was a classic manifestation of this fateful conjecture, as were the organizations that followed, such as the Friends for Freedom of India, the India League of America, the Indian Chamber of Commerce of America, the National Committee for Indian Freedom, the India Welfare League, etc.”

The armed invasion for liberation fantasized by Ghadrites may look a mere figment of imagination today, but for British intelligence it was a big plot to single out and dispatch white people from India.  The interception of a ship, Henry S loaded with 5000 pistols at the sea was though a major success of the British intelligence, yet it spread panic among whites. The great enthusiasm of revolutionaries had stunned the ruling minority of India. The intelligence planned to create a counter political movement that might be not only culturally savvy and socially well-liked, but also damaging to the radicals. The double edged sword fashioned by master minds of the British intelligence both worked to decimate the influence of radicals in India as well as in the US. The main goal of underground operatives was to send early signals of an impending uprising.

Lobbyists’ efforts definitely increased American intervention in forcing the British to leave India. The President Harry S. Truman’s declaration of citizenship to Indians in 1946, in fact, was the precursor to India’s liberation in 1947. It is a different matter though colonialism continued in post-independent era in different indigenous forms. This could have been the only reason that Indian successive governments became apathetic to the demand of erecting a commemorative structure for Ghadr martyrs.

Sage Publication has done a good job except for errors in Professor l. Crane’s year of birth. Readers won’t know which one is right— 1920, 1922 and 1927.

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‘HUN’ Heralds Professionalism in Punjabi Literary Journalism
Swaran Chandan

Although there have been a series of serious endeavours over the years to improve literary merit of Punjabi journalism starting with Gurbakhsh Singh’s  Preetlari, Mohan Singh’s Panj Darya and many others in the field until today. There is a happy addition in this genre with the advent of ‘Hun’ [ Now] edited and published by the Punjabi poet Avtar Jandialvi and assisted by an equally enthusiastic Sushil Dosanjh.

It seems a big leap forward both in quality and matter so as to juxtapose Punjabi Journalism against that of its western counterpart. The harbinger of such an idea and vision rightly deserves to be applauded for altering the ongoing milieu for the better.

I have two issues of ‘Hun’ in front of me, the sixth and seventh. Following in the vein of a western TV show ‘True Stories’ the editor has invited the writers to tell some true stories of their own life’s happenings. In line with this numerous stories appear in the issues of Hun. However, ‘Bhar’ published in the sixth issue and written by Maninder Kaang slices the heart. The issue was dedicated to the upheavals through which Punjab ungainly waded over the years, and one can affiliate the reasons of happenings in 1984 with those that preceded it in 1947.  That’s why the editorial eye sees one thing connected with the other. The articles on the mega-tragedy of 1947 prepare the ground for those of 1984 and others to follow.

Issue seventh is as much focused on the 60th year of Indian independence as the previous one. While the title page of the sixth issue carries a pathetic sketch of a Sikh gentleman caught in the ever mounting flames of hell on earth the seventh issue carries the painting of mourning widows in any village and city.

And the matter – it’s beyond complaint. The presentation, the need-dictated change in type, a museum of photographs from oblivion, the quality of paper and print, monitoring of size and stature of contributions and spacing it all – everything about the production elicits a glow from within your eye.

The most appreciative thing about the presentation is interlacing the contexts in a story or article so that a reader, though hearing a contextual name first time, gets to see the photograph of the context.

Another crucial feature of ‘Hun’ is its exhaustive interviews with established Punjabi writers. While the previous issues presented interviews with Gurdial Singh and Surjit Patar, which later appeared in the body of a book, the present issue illustrates the life and creative world of Dalip Kaur Tiwana. What is distinctive about Avtar’s interviews with writers is not merely the size but the style and acumen of questions posed. For such penetrating interviews one must read almost everything by and about the writer in minute detail and then structure the questions in a way that digs deeper into the unconscious of the writer in question so that no matter how much a writers tries to evade or hide behind superfluous words the efforts meet failure. This is unlike the traditional interviewing techniques of superficial questions of the hue of ‘ru-b-ru’ etc. Avtar has changed the rules of the game from then to now. In his extensive and intensive interview with Tiwana, as also in aforesaid others, he ventures into the unknown by posing such questions as foreground the inner hidden contradictions of personality and persona covered under the garb of genteelness. That’s where an intellectual reader bursts out laughing with his emotions divided into pro and against.

An issue of 200 or so pages produced over a span of four months making three issues per year is a huge and tedious task. It is all the more so due to persistence in quality of matter and physicality of the journal. A chain of feedback of letters from readers from the creative and critical literature as well as other areas with words full of appreciation and admiration prove the response to each issue if this is any measure to gauge its astronomical success by.

Let Avtar Jandialvi be offered a huge smile of wow or ‘wah-wah’ at this juncture so the task continues with vigour for many years to come.

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Day of Reckoning Raises Penetrating Questions
Sawraj Singh

Patrick J. Buchanan’s book, Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology and Greed are Tearing America Apart, has just arrived in the bookstores. This book has already caught the attention of the media. The book raises many important and penetrating questions. I was very surprised to see the book because the analysis of the crisis faced by America is very similar to my analysis. Patrick J. Buchanan is a very well known rightist and conservative; however, many times he reaches the same conclusions that I have reached. It is not surprising that he recommends very different solutions than I have suggested.

The book has eight chapters. The first chapter is “The end of Pax Americana” and the second chapter is the “End of a Unipolar World”. He suggests that arrogance, dogmatism, and greed are destroying America.  He feels that the end of American domination in the world is near.

Russia, China, and India are challenging America for world hegemony. Buchanan sees America torn apart by the struggle between the different cultures and has begun to balkanize and break down along class, cultural, ethnic, and racial lines.

He feels that free trade, loss of manufacturing jobs, and outsourcing of jobs are destroying the dollar and are weakening the American economy.  He is very concerned about the immigration of the people of the third world.  He feels that the third world invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to US survival than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq.

He is also very concerned about the declining white population in the US as well as in Western Europe.  In the sixties, whites made about 89% of the US population, but now they have become about 66% of the population. The low fertility of the white people in Europe is also reducing their population. Buchanan feels that if the present trends continue, then one day the white population of France, Germany, and Italy may disappear.

Buchanan thinks that by trying to enforce its democratic values on the other countries, America is antagonizing them. He feels that this phenomenon is responsible for Russia turning against us. America’s becoming a policeman of the world has done great damage to America.

A very large portion of the book deals with criticism of President Bush’s policy. Buchanan feels that President Bush’s policies have really hurt America. He feels that Bush’s ideological zeal has been counter productive.  Under President Bush, one in six manufacturing jobs has been lost. Buchanan’s criticism of Bush is very significant because it is the first time that Bush has faced such a severe criticism from the right.

I differ with the solutions suggested by Buchanan in the book. His main emphasis is on reducing immigration and rejecting multiculturalism. He also seems to be advocating protectionism and is against free trade.  He suggests that we should impose 20% duties on the imports. We feel that America’s future lies in tolerating and accepting diversity rather than rejecting it. True unity is achieved by accepting diversity. Trying to impose uniformity will only aggravate the cultural conflict and push America further into turmoil and instability. We also feel that diversity is America’s greatest asset rather than a liability. A new American culture can be synthesized from the healthy elements of the different cultures. He is promoting consumerist capitalism that has been rejected by historical experience. What America needs is to try to modify it and give a chance to the utilitarian capitalism that has some elements of humanism. The book, however, raises many important and penetrating questions and stimulates us to find solutions to these problems.

[PATRICK J. BUCHANAN, America’s leading traditional conservative, was a senior adviser to three American presidents, ran twice for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1992 and 1996, and was the Reform Party’s candidate in 2000.]

[Sawraj Singh M.D. F.I.C.S. is Chairman, Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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