Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

A candle light vigil in the memory of the first Indian martyr on the Canadian soil was organized at the Surrey’s Bear Creek Park this past Monday. Bhai Bhag Singh was the towering leader of the Khalsa Deewan Society, Vancouver - the oldest Sikh religious body of Canada . A pro British agent, Bela Singh shot him and Bhai Badan Singh on September 5, 1914 inside the Gurdwara. The two men succumbed to their injuries a day later.

The representatives of a number of progressive groups showed up at the vigil that was organized by the Indo Canadian Workers' Association (ICWA). Surprisingly, nobody from the Khalsa Deewan Society showed up at the vigil to pay obituaries to the leader who was not only in the forefront of the freedom struggle against the British rule in India but in the campaigns for the civil rights to the immigrants in Canada. Though the ICWA is an offshoot of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the supporters of its breakaway faction led by Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla also joined the vigil setting aside their differences with the mainstream party. Among them were Harkewal Singh Dhaliwal and Harmel Singh Sunar.

The two Surrey MLAs Harry Bains and Jagrup Brar were the only elected officials who joined the vigil. Harry Bains said that the Indo Canadians who own flashy cars and big houses should always remember the contributions made by the people like Bhai Bhag Singh. ``We should not forget that these great men had laid down their lives so that we could enjoy freedom and equality’’.  Jagrup Brar reminded the crowd that the history of Canada is full of instances of injustices. ``We must continue the struggle for a just society’’.

The ICWA President, Surinder Sangha listed the contributions made by Bhai Bhag Singh. He urged the community to continue the struggle against racism and discrimination to fulfill the dreams of the ``martyrs’’. Others who spoke on the occasion were the ICWA leaders, Kulwant Dhesi and Surinder Dhesi. Dr. Harshinder Kaur, a prominent social activist from India who was visiting Canada also attended the event. The two historians, Sohan Singh Pooni and Dr. Puran Singh also addressed the gathering. Besides, a Sikh scholar, Giani Harkirat Singh also spoke on the occasion. He condemned the absence of the members of the Khalsa Deewan Society Vancouver. Others who addressed the crowd were the Komagata Maru Foundation leader, Harbhajan Gill, the Bhagat Singh Foundation leader, Gurcharan Dhaliwal, the Communist Party of Canada leader, Harjit Daudhria, the community activists Amarjeet Sufi and Jasvir Sandhu. The prominent painter, Sheetal Anmol who had made the portrait of Bhai Bhag Singh for the ICWA also spoke on the occasion.

Others present during the event were the Taraksheel Sabha leader, Avtar Gill and Shahzad Nazir Khan from the Frazer Valley Peace Council.

Bhai Bhag Singh was instrumental in the struggles for citizenship rights for the Indian immigrants in Canada . He was a participant of the campaign that was launched to let Indian immigrants bring their families. He had also motivated former Sikh soldiers, who had fought for the British army, to burn their medals and break ties with the foreign rulers, and helped the passengers of the Komagata Maru ship that was turned away by the Canadian government under the discriminatory continuous journey law on July 23, 1914.

Bela Singh was spying on the revolutionaries in the Sikh community. He had killed him under a plan to prevent Bhai Bhag Singh and other community leaders from going back to India to launch an armed resistance against the foreign rulers.

The shooting had enraged Bhai Mewa Singh, who killed William Hopkinson, a British immigration officer, to avenge the murder of Bhai Bhag Singh. Bela Singh was murdered in India by the revolutionaries, including Hari Singh Soond who had also stayed in Vancouver and returned to participate in the freedom movement. Bhai Mewa Singh was hanged in New Westminster in 1915.

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Freedom fighter Gurdev Singh Grewal is no more

Gurpreet Singh writes from Vancouver

THE last surviving hero of the struggle that was launched to get the East Indians right of vote in Canada has passed away. Gurdev Singh Grewal died on the morning of September 2 at the age of 87. He breathed his last at the Vancouver General Hospital following brief illness.

Grewal was one of the participants of the struggle that was launched by the Indian immigrants after they were disfranchised in 1907. Their long arduous fight finally resulted in the Indians and other south Asians getting their right to vote restored on April 2, 1947.

A good respectable number of Indo Canadian politicians have made it to the Canadian parliament and provincial assemblies because of this right. In BC alone, there are three MPs, six MLAs of the Indian origin.  While the members of the BC legislature had issued statements on the centennial of the disfranchising of the Indians in 2007 and acknowledged the contributions of the men involved in the struggle, the Indo Canadian Workers Association had honoured him separately. Grewal had unveiled a calendar dedicated to the history of the Indo Canadian struggle that was issued by the Radio India in partnership with the Indo Canadian Workers Association in 2008.

Grewal and Mehar Singh Sandhu were the two last surviving members of that movement. Sandhu had died two years ago.

Among the ideologues of that movement were Dr. D.P. Pandia, Hussan Rahim and Darshan Singh Canadian. Both Grewal and Sandhu frequently participated in the meetings organized by these leaders and did fundraising.

The East Indians started arriving in Canada as British subjects in the beginning of the 20th century. The BC government disfranchised them in 1907 while a year later; they were disfranchised from voting in the municipal elections too. As a mark of protest, Hassan Rahim of Gujarat, India voted in the 1911 Vancouver municipal election. He was charged but acquitted for lack of evidence. The campaign intensified in 1942, when the British government tried to draft the Indo Canadian youth in the army.

Mehar Singh Sandhu had also received a letter from the authorities asking him to join the British army. The angry young men  refused to join the army until they were granted right to vote.

Grewal is survived by his wife, two sons and daughters and grandchildren.  His funeral will be held on September 6 at the Five River Funeral Home Delta at 10: 00 am. For more information call 604-325-1656.

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Smiling chappals

Pearl V.Jasra

VIKRAM is funny, happy and perky most of the times, but more than all this, his chappals are more remarkable in many ways which I spied just by chance.

“Vikram, teri chappalaan nu ki hoya?”

“Didi, ghiss gaeeyaan (worn out)”

“Kaise?”

“Didi , cricket khed ke, O main wicket keeper banda haan na”

(By now I was completely bowled, because I thought his chappals that you see in the picture were simply worn out of walking, playing….activities of a youngster of his age. Never knew worn out chappals can have something to do with wicket keeping.)

“Ki??Wicket keeping karke, o kiddan?”

The dialogue that continued in Punjabi was something like this…..

That he likes wicket keeping and since the ball is hard, his kainchi chappals (V shaped slippers) double up as wicket keeping gloves.

Vikram and of course his chapplas sure are multitasking. Obviously several other inherent questions were thrown up in this dialogue with Vikram, but I was more concerned with the sad fact that Vikram is going to school everyday with these chappals and someday he might injure his foot. 

Well folks, though Vikram got a new chappal there and then from me, yet it threw up several questions….

How come all the Vikrams coming from the fringes of our society make do and remain happy even without the basics, amidst all this they do “wicket keeping” ………We are talking about the social symbolism here, wonder had Vikram been going to a fancy school would he still be multitasking with such chappals, and would his smile be as happy as it is beaming through the picture we see?

[The writer is a young journalist but more involved in taking care of the poor children like Vikram. She says about herself, “We all should go on with our choices and good work and that's it. You know I am the only girl child of my parents who died 11 years ago and people then told me to apply for this/that grant (?) from the govt. to go on , to study. I was 16 then. Well I did not.

“And am happy that I chose this path six years ago where I am looking after 104 poor children teaching and sending them to schools after raising funds, clothes, stationary, shoes and medicines.”

She has worked Radio FM, as a producer. Quit it and now work for google, but only till 4 so that she can be with the poor children till 7, 8 pm, who go to her everyday except Sundays.

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Ive children: Saving a baby crow

AND the storm was so strong last Saturday that my two neem trees my mother left me with, were having tough time. I was beginning to get alarmed about the nest of the crows up there.

And that is what happened…one of the branches where the crow couple had built their nest broke and crashed to the ground.

The winged crow chick in it was flapping its wings in helpless panic and clung to the nest with its death grip (see pic). I was aghast to see that the crow couple had used so many thin saria-wires to make their nest. It actually made me sad that there aren’t many dry twigs left around (because there are hardly any trees).People prefer ashoka tree and get them cut and trimmed in decorative shapes and the birds just cannot make nests.

I did not want to touch this panic stricken crow chick lest its parents reject/kill it after smelling human touch, which is common to all animals that grow out there. With your pets it is different. Amidst all this, the papa and mama crow were attacking and pecking at my head and I was actually scared. 

Three-four of my stray dogs smelt the chick and started hovering around in hope of a quick lunch. I broke loose a neem branch and started shooing them away…thinking about my next move. I just could not leave that chick with those dogs around. All I could do was to haul that huge branch, pull it inside my gate and started waiting for the storm to stop.

Well it stopped. A ladder was placed and up went the huge branch with the nest with help from the nearby dhobi bhaiya. The baby chick inside the nest was still dumbfounded (see pic). The branch was tied and secured to the main branch amidst continued ruckus and attacks from the parent crows. Well the nest and the chick are up there. But since that branch could not be taken higher to its original safe spot mama and papa crows show their unhappiness by their occasional pecks on my head.

[IVE Children is in its sixth year. Every year she is able collect some money to admit/readmit what she says, “My poor children in various schools.  I approach this/that individual, motivate him/her to sponsor the annual education of 1, 2, 3 poor children.” Name of the NGO is IVE Children where IVE stands for Initiative for Viable Education. It is a registered initiative and it also has 100% income tax exemption, for anybody who wants to donate her e mail is Pearl V.Jasra < pearl.jasra2007@gmail.com > any help for this noble venture would enrich every one of us.]

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Revisiting school - Five decades later

Bal Anand

THE year 2009 has been curiously needling my mind about the days, months and years spent in my two schools. It was  full five decades ago that I passed my Matriculation Examination from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial National High School, Ahmedgarh, a grain market town situated about 20 km south of Ludhiana, Punjab. I have no hesitation in confessing that it was Master Ashni Kumar, my English & Social Studies teacher and Guru till he breathed his last in 1993, who made all the difference in life for me. I was back in my school on this 4th of September, to share the memories and impressions of my years in the same school with the present students. 
 
It is indeed so interesting to recall how an unusual happening had brought me to the attention of Ashni Kumar, a senior teacher, when I was a student of fifth class. Sohan Lal Joshi, a much younger teacher, considered bit of a maverick, had become a popular figure in our town by playing the role of Gandhi Ji in the drama staged in the school. He had awarded me 75 out of 75 in the paper of Geography in the December House Examination in 1953. This became a talk of the school because full marks were generally considered possible only in Mathematics.
 
Headmaster Hari Krishan Dutt, a staunch Gandhian and President of the Congress Party of Tehsil Malerkotla, had introduced the social service day on Saturdays for students from fifth to tenth classes along with their teachers. All used to work on a project of leveling and earth work of a 5 km stretch of a path to be linked to the main Ludhiana-Malerkotla road. It was during one of this work and fun session that my class-in-charge teacher Baldev Singh Maudgil asked Master Ashni Kumar if a student can be awarded full marks in subjects of social studies like Geography. Ashni Kumar unexpectedly asked, “But who is the student?” I was soon located and presented before this skeleton-thin bespectacled man who had a reputation in the area as a strict but most competent teacher of English & Social Studies. He asked my name and advised me to meet him later, when I would be in the sixth class, studying in the other building of the school used for higher classes.
 
As to the secret of my full score in the paper of Geography, I might explain that I had happened to read some parts of the text book of Geography belonging my uncle, a student of tenth class. The topics about the Himalayas, the ocean, sea ports, the land surface of India, forests, etc were the same as of my class. I had written my answers in greater detail than what teacher had dictated to us in the class notebooks! Ashni Kumar invited me to join the Literary Circle in the school, started by him. He guided and encouraged me to participate in the programmes of the school on Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti, Children’s Day, etc. In my eighth class, I was selected to participate in a debate in the school broadcast programme of the All India Radio, Jullundur. It was a uniquely joyful and significant experience for me. To my great surprise, I was paid Rupees 7 and 50 Paise by All India Radio for my two and a half minute participation! The amount was presented to me at school function on 14th November, 1957.
 
Ashni Kumar became my teacher of English & Social Studies for ninth & tenth classes. I was awarded Two Rupees by him for obtaining the highest marks in English in the very first test, the September Test, of ninth class. When he later asked me what did I do with the money, I told him that I had bought a book of general knowledge. He asked me to show it to him. It was a large and well bound - Gyan Sarovar (pool of knowledge) - brought out by Publication Division, Government of India. He glanced through the book, kept it, and at once gave me a note of Two Rupees saying, “You may buy another one”, which I did. Later for many, many years, this book remained my favorite gift item for friends, with price continuing to soar as high as Rupees Fifty!
 
I remember how he had given special coaching to us - a group three select students - during one month of the long summer vacations. He taught us how to read ‘The Tribune’ newspaper; the word ‘coup d’état’ was added to our vocabulary on 15th July 1958 in the context of the bloody overthrow of monarchy in Iraq! He guided me, as a class monitor, to write a letter to the publisher, requesting supply of Test Papers by VPP - explaining what Value Payable Parcel implied! When in the tenth class I was selected to play for the District Cricket Team and was required to attend the ten day coaching camp, he arranged that I could appear in the December Test later at his home provided I did not ‘see’ the question papers - and I complied with his instruction!
 
My Matriculation Examination over in March 1959, he would call me to his home to recheck the totals, etc of the university papers of Geography that he was evaluating. He made me read a few of the best attempted papers asking if I had also written similar answers. Incidentally, I obtained 50 out of 60 in Geography, 83.3 % - quite okay by the standard of those days. Since I was never a top scorer in Math, my score of 660 marks (79.8%) was considered commendable. It required a lot of courage of conviction on my part to opt for pursuing the stream of Humanities in college. I think that Ashni Kumar, and also my father, approved knowing my over all interests - distant dream being woven around academics, and of course the Administrative Services.
 
It is interesting to recall that Arun Kumar of D.A.V. High School, Gurdaspur had topped the list of successful candidates with 751 marks out of a total of 850. Usha Anand of Alexandra High School, Amritsar had stood first among the girl candidates obtaining 724 marks. As per the result declared on Tuesday June 16 1959, the total number of candidates who appeared in the examination was 123,287, out of which 68,406 had passed. One would wonder where the two toppers are today. Kanwal Sibal and Ashok Bhan of the Punjab University Matriculation class of 1959 have respectively occupied the prestigious positions of the Foreign Secretary of India and Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
 
I should mention that I had started my schooling in September 1949 joining the District Board (soon named Goverment) Primary School in village Sohian situated in what was then still called Angrezi Ilaqa, a couple of kilometres from my native village falling in Riyasati Ilaqa of erstwhile state of Malerkotla. It was a two room kutcha-mud-structure with two teachers for the four classes, with about 60 students. At the time of my admission, the head teacher Pandit Lachhman Dass had asked my father, “Vaid Ji, do you want the boy to pursue higher education or you would prefer him to take up service sooner?” I recall distinctly that my father had politely replied, “We wish that he should go for as much higher studies as he can.” The practical wisdom - or trick - perhaps, was that if someone was keen on seeking a job soon after Matriculation, his date of birth could be put in a year that would make him closer to eighteen years, the minimum age for entry into Government service!  In my case, I think that I have to be beholden to the wise head teacher of the village for bestowing an extra year of service at one of the highest levels of the Government of India!
 
I had joined M.G.M.N. High School, Ahmedgarh in May 1951 in the 3rd grade. The town seemed to me to be surcharged with an atmosphere of patriotic fervor in the wake of recently won freedom of India. The school was indeed the playground for local politicians and also the centre of cultural activities of the town. The Kavi Darbars by the local Sahit Sabha, Ram Lila, and regular discourses/Kirtans by visiting saints & Munis, etc was mostly held in the school ground. A number of new teachers were migrants from Pakistan and students found their accent of Punjabi quite alien and even funny; they would often imitate their styles. A young socialist leader, Tek Chand Diwana, had used the Gandhian weapon of fast unto death in October 1955 over his demand that the committee for managing the school should be democratically elected. The Deputy Commissioner of Sangrur, Satya Dev Bhambri - slim and in simple dress - resolved the problem by conceding the demand and offered a glass of juice to the fasting Gandhian! My father, pointing towards him, had told me that he had qualified the examination of Independent India’s new top service called IAS and that his father was a small-time shopkeeper!!

When I look back in ‘Wordsworthian’ tranquility and reflect over memories of my magical school times, millions of, ‘diyas’ - tiny earthen lamps - get lit up… The morning of my IAS, etc result … my name among the successful candidates … I come home and touch the feet of my father who says, “Bal, please do go to Master Ashni Kumar Ji, before you get busy.” I reply, “I have already visited Master Ji before coming home to you.”… “Well done, my boy … when a tree grows taller and bigger, many would come to rest under its shade and many would appreciate its fruit … but the tree must remember the gardener who nursed and looked after it when it was a tiny plant!”
                  
[The writer is a  former Indian diplomat]

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