Kids Corner

Above: detail from painting of Sohan Singh Seetal. Courtesy, Amarjit Singh Chandan.

Books

Sohan Singh Seetal

T. SHER SINGH

 

 

 

Michael Johnson was a young man, new with the Irish Christian Brothers’ Order, when he was sent to our school and became our Grade Seven teacher.

Fresh off the boat, he still had to get used to the maddening idiosyncracies of the land. Which meant that, every now and then, when he encountered some obtuse silliness, he would burst into one of his Irish fits of rage, and bounce around the classroom like a firecracker, afire and spluttering, until he ran out of powder and slumped back into his seat.

But not before he had delivered “four of the best” from Nelly, the leather strap, to the offending student‘s outstretched palm.

We giggled away in our seats, not only at the infraction that had triggered the outrage, but also by the sight of the fuming and cussing Irishman who seemed to lose all control of himself when in the grip of a rage: we had learnt by then that his fits were harmless and merely a spectacle.
 
This time around it was over a history essay young Baidyanath, a new arrival at school, had handed in that morning as his homework.

“Research and tell us about the life and contributions of Babur, the first Mughal Emperor,” had been our assignment.

Baidyanath’s short essay had read something like this: I recall Br Johnson reading it aloud before he started turning crimson and losing it.

“Babur lived many years ago. He was a good king. He was a great king. He fought many battles. He won a few. He lost a few. He conquered many lands. He  died. His son became king …”

I was reminded of that incident -- still indelibly etched in my memory -- when I turned to the internet to find some biographical details of Sohan Singh Seetal, a Punjabi writer whose books had flooded the scene when I was but a child and being led through the laneways of Punjabi and Gurmukhi.

The paucity of material -- on a man who many readily recognize as a major influence on Sikh and Punjabi minds during the second half of the 20th century -- I found simply overwhelming.

There was only one biographical piece on him: a short one posted on the otherwise excellent “Sikh Encyclopaedia“.

It is what reminded me of Baidyanath’s reduction of Babur’s life and times. Had Baidyanath been resurrected to write on the life of Sohan sIngh Seetal, I wondered?

It said nothing. It gave no information. It expressed inane and unsubstantiated opinions. And by the time I had completed reading it, I knew absolutely nothing more about the subject than before I had begun.

I’m hoping my complaint will encourage some enterprising scholar in Punjab to pen a decent biography … in English! … and publish it, so that the man and his life-work do not get lost for ever.

His name looms big in my memory.

Once I had become reasonably deft with the paintee (the Gurmukhi alphabet), I was very led through the qaaida’s (primers) until I was ready to read, though not necessarily understand, lengthier texts. The goal, I was told, was to gain fluency with sounds of the language … the vocabulary, I was assured, would come later, gradually but surely.

I don’t remember it as a pleasant part of my holidays, which is when I’d be home and at the full mercy of my Dad’s plans for me. Strange: it ruined my holidays then. It makes my holidays now.

But progress I did, from the nitnem baanis to the Vaars of Bhai Gurdas (“the key to the Guru Granth Sahib”!) And then, invariably, to the actual reading of the Guru Granth and the learning of the ardaas.

With the rudiments of reading and enunciation out of the way, I was then introduced to fiction, history and poetry.

Nanak Singh’s “Chitta Lahu” and Amrita Pritam’s “Pinjar” were handy at home, and therefore became required reading. And so did Bhai Vir Singh’s “Vijay Singh,” “Satwant Kaur,” and “Sundari."

But, on my next visit to Amritsar, I discovered a mother lode of reading which was perfect for my level of expertise and my age-group.

Clusters of books, all by the same author, but which ranged from stories of ordinary men and women, to historical tales. And then, there were fables and poems, riddles and jokes.

The author was Sohan Singh Seetal.

He was prolific. Every time I went into a bookstore, there were new titles. I gorged them hungrily, and was ever ready for more.

I have found a list of some of his titles on one of the internet sites. Each one of them sounds familiar.

1  Sikh Itihas de Somey (5 Volumes)
2  Banda Singh Shaheed
3  Mere Itihasak Lecture
4  Lasani Shaheed Guru Tegh Bahadar
5  Mul Da Maas
6  Maharani Jindan
7  Sikh Raj Kiven Geyaa
8  Sikh Raj Kiven Banyaa
9  Gurbani Vichaar
10  Guru Itihas Dasaa(n) Paatshahiaa(n)
11  Seetal Tagan
12  Seetal Sugatan
13  Seetal Valvalley
14  Seetal Angiaarey
15  Seetal Prasang
16  Seetal Hanju
17  Seetal Umangan
18  Seetal Tarangan
19  Seetal Varan
20  Seetal Ramzan
21  Seetal Prakash
22  Seetal Kirnaa(n) 
 

I remember I soaked them up because they offered a wide variety of subjects  which fed my own range of interests. I could swallow religion willingly as long as it came with other stories, I could digest history if it was spiced with anecdotes and legends.

After all, I was a child.

It was only after I had been through all of Sohan Singh’s books and tracts and I couldn’t find any more, that I turned to Khushwant Singh and his paperbacks, “Sikhs Today” and “The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Kingdom” (a smallish book that seems to have vanished; there is no mention of it any more anywhere! It may have been an excerpt of or precursor to his later tomes on Sikh History.)

Sohan Singh Seetal was my introduction and my stepping stone to more serious reading. Without him, I would have headed off in other directions. He was my Enid Blyton, my C.S. Lewis, my Charles and Mary Lamb, all rolled into one.

Sure, he may not be literature -- I don’t know, because I haven’t read him since. But neither are Blyton, Lewis and the Lambs. But they were all fundamental to my growth as a reader, to instilling the hunger and thirst for more.

At the very least, we need to honour Sohan Singh Seetals’s role in shaping us.

But, more importantly, where are his books?

Why have they not been re-designed and modernized and re-published? Why haven’t they been turned into comic books? Why aren’t they available to our children out here in the diaspora, ready to be grabbed as soon as they get past Gurmeet Kaur’s folk-song and poetry board books, Parveen Kaur’s primers, Navjot Kaur’s and Jessi Kaur’s early reads, Inni Kaur’s Journeys …?

Why haven’t they been translated into English?

Are we too busy organizing the Sarbat Khalsa, and forgetting to look back and see if we have brought anyone along with us to the parade?

 

February 22, 2013

Conversation about this article

1: Daljit Sidhu (Isleworth, United Kingdom), February 25, 2013, 8:26 AM.

I was fortunate enough to hear Sohan Singh Seetal lecture live many, many years ago. His historical knowledge of the Sikhs was encyclopaedic. His rendition of the "Rise and Fall of the Sikh Raj" ('Sikh Raj Kivey(n) Banayaa' and 'Sikh Raj Kivey(n) Gayaa') was peerless and even today it is his material that most of the 'dhaadis' (balladeers) use when singing the epic tales from Sikh History. My father saw him in his prime at Sis Ganj Gurdwara in 1956 and would tell me how he had never heard a lecturer of Sohan Singh's stature before ... or since. He said that listening to him recount a saga from Sikh history filled him with pride and made his hair stand on end. I still have some of his books that my father bought when I was young and treasure them. Truly a great man!

2: Gurvinder Singh (Amritsar, Punjab), November 23, 2014, 3:53 AM.

Giani Sohan Singh Seetal is the best lekhakaar (wordsmith).

3: Jagpal Singh  (United Kingdom ), December 25, 2014, 7:18 AM.

Giani Sohan Singh Seetal was a great writer.

4: Rajinder Singh (Noida, India), January 14, 2016, 4:38 AM.

As a child my first reading of books other than school material consisted of S. Sohan Singh's books in my father's collection. These were a wonderful source of knowledge about religion and history. His poem "Bandagi" I partially remember and wish to have the full text. Can somebody help?

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