Image below, of Sohan Singh Bhakna: courtesy, Amarjit Singh Chandan Collection.
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So Close, And Yet So Far!
India Drops the Ball in Honouring Independence Heroes
VISHAV BHARTI
The special postage stamp issued by India's post and telecommunication department to commemorate the Ghaddar Movement Centenary has started a debate among the scholars and activists of Punjab and abroad on the image printed on the stamp as it doesn't relate to the Ghaddar Movement.
The five-rupee postage stamp was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 8, 2012.
The image on the stamp shows a few hands with torches. However, scholars feel this image doesn't relate to the Ghaddar movement in any way whatsoever; the stamp should have been more specific.
There were four suggestions given by various scholars and Jalandhar-based Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall. These were photographs of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha, Yugantar Ashram located in San Francisco and the Ghaddar Party's tricolor flag.
Prof Harish Puri, an authority on the history of the Ghaddar Movement, who had sent four suggestions, said, "The stamp initiative of the government should be welcomed."
But it would have been better if the stamp comprised portraits of any of the prominent Ghaddarites like Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Kartar Singh Sarabha. Or the flag of the Ghaddar Party, which was so colourful, it would have made a wonderful stamp, he said.
"It is really disappointing; totally unimaginative," said London-based poet Amarjit Singh Chandan, who is a keen follower of the Ghaddar movement's history and had been trying hard for issuance of the stamp. The cliched image of the mashaal, he said, doesn't mean anything to him.
"I wonder whose idea was this? How does it relate to the Ghaddar movement? It is meaningless and sad; an opportunity has been wasted. We had expected Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna's photograph at least, as a stamp on Lala Hardyal was issued a few years ago," he said.
"The decision shows that finally the government has also recognised the Ghaddar movement. But people across the country must know who were heroes of this movement," said Gurmeet Singh, convenor of the Ghaddar Shatabdi Committee of Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall in Jalandhar, Punjab, which is celebrating the Ghaddar Centenary in Punjab ... and abroad, where it was mostly prevalent, spearheaed mostly by Sikh freedom-fighters based in US and Canada.
"It is nice that the [seminal] contribution of the Ghaddar Party in India's struggle for independence has been recognised. Though the current stamp indicates struggle, which the Ghaddar Movement was all about, but the tricolour flag of the Ghaddar Party would have made a far better stamp," said Gurmeet Singh.
The movement
The Ghaddar Party, which was founded
in 1913 by Sikhs and Punjabis in the United States and Canada,
is celebrating its centenary this year. These freedom fighters with an aim to
liberate the subcontinent the British rule returned home to start a
struggle against the colonial rule. But they were crushed by the
British.
[Courtesy: Hindustan Times. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 14, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: N Singh (Canada), January 14, 2013, 8:19 AM.
Would it be possible to publish some articles on the Ghaddar movement, especially on Sardar Sohan Singh and Sardar Kartar Singh, as well as on the US and Canada connections? I would like to learn more ... Thanks.
2: Harinder (Uttar Pradesh, India), January 14, 2013, 10:44 AM.
We must write our own history ... that is, by the Sikhs, for the Sikhs, of the Sikhs. We can incorporate history of non-Sikhs as parallel and competing realities. Stamps are an old way of honouring our heroes. We can do much better through cyberspace.
3: Kanwarjeet Singh (USA), January 14, 2013, 11:13 AM.
None of the hands on the postage stamp even has a karra - what does that tell you about how we Sikhs are credited for the India that exists today. Remember - those who forget history are bound to repeat it.
4: H. Kaur (Canada), January 14, 2013, 12:24 PM.
Maybe it is a good thing that the Ghaddar movement wasn't successful though nobody should have been subjected to physical punishment over it. If it had been successful and the British kicked out even earlier, we would just have been exposed to an extra few decades of ethnocide by India by now and we possibly wouldn't have the history of having helped out so much in the World Wars, something that gives us a positive identity around the world still. Sure, the British treated us extremely badly at times, but in the 2oth century they treated us far better in their rule than we have been treated by India since its independence. Sorry, if I offend anyone but these are my views. Yes, had the Ghaddaris fought for an independent Punjab, not for whole India, that might have been a different story.
5: Gurteg Singh (New York, USA), January 14, 2013, 8:10 PM.
The forces behind this deliberate lapse of not showing Sikh images as the heroes of the Ghaddar movement were also responsible for attempts to dissuade Queen Elizabeth and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien from visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
6: Gurjender Singh (Maryland, USA), January 15, 2013, 9:38 AM.
They will never give due credit to the Sikhs for independence ... ingratitude is the hallmark of the petty and the undeserving.
7: Sarjit Kaur (Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), January 15, 2013, 3:02 PM.
Bhai Randhir Singh's autobiography (bsrstrust.org) should be read to see who the real and true hero of Independence for India is, but if he was here today, he would decline such honors, as he is rejoicing in true honors today, along with Kartar Singh and Sohan Singh!