The Republic Day is a celebration of when the Constitution came into effect, the nation became a republic. In the case of Farm Laws, we know, the government has violated the Constitution, the citizens want to restore the Constitution.
Now there is news that the Centre has filed a plea to stop farmers’ tractor march on Republic Day. Nowhere have farmers said they will disrupt government RD celebrations. Why is the farmer intention to celebrate being read by the government as an intent to disrupt its celebrations?
Eerie similarity to how in 1982 the Dharam Yudh Morcha’s intent to symbolically protest during Asian Games was misreported by media as Akalis wanting to disrupt the Games. It led to Haryana government dragging out Sikhs from buses and trains, humiliating them, insulting them, brutally beating them – othering the community.
Question is: do farmers not have a right to celebrate Republic Day? Whose Republic Day is it – citizens or government? Whose roads, whose buildings, whose armed forces are these – citizens or their so called representatives who no longer represent the citizens?
Times change but events are from the same flawed playbook.
Tags: 1984, Dharam Yudh Morcha
Dear Friends,
On February 1st evening, I was gratified upon gifting my new book PANJAB to Mr Aurobinda Behera, retd Chief Secretary, Odisha.
When Roll of Honour released at my friend Sujit Mahapatra’s Bakul library in Bhubaneshwar in 2012, Mr Behera had walked up to me to ask if my parents had lived in Rourkela. Then he told me, in 1984, he was ADM Rourkela. At noon on 31st October, upon noticing vulgar graffiti and sloganeering, he had decided to shift the Sikhs to the Gurdwara. Police vehicles were deployed for the task. Hundreds of families were evacuated.
That is how my parents and thousands of Sikhs were saved. I do not wish such circumstances on anyone. But by simply following protocol, by doing the right thing, doing what a civil servant would do, Mr Behera became my hero. In the past few years Mr Behera has called me from time to time asking me about the progress of PANJAB.
I am forever obliged. Salute!
Tags: 1984, anti-Sikh pogrom, civil servant, Odisha, Rourkela
Book: Stillborn Season
Author: Radhika Oberoi
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Most of what has been written about the anti-Sikh pogrom over the last 35 years is either broad-brushstroke rage and rhetoric, pedantic information, or literal reportage. Oberoi breaks this mould by making Amrit a journalist seeking human stories beyond the clichés. Through her search, Oberoi takes a fresh and intimate look at the violence. The novel proves that fiction can do what non-fiction cannot — tell a thousand untold stories in a way that makes the violence more real, and so indict it more sharply.
Please read more here …
Tags: 1984, Delhi, pogrom, Radhika Oberoi
It is a measure of some satisfaction that even after years of its release readers and scholars are engaging with ‘Roll of Honour’. Here is Manjinder Kaur Wratch’s scholarly article on the book in Muse India’s latest issue. Very thoroughly she draws out the larger context of the book and presents it very well.
‘As a writer of testimonial fiction and non-fiction, Sandhu lays bare the Punjab crises in a nuanced manner, and fittingly problematises it from a non-partisan viewpoint.’
Thank you! Please read …
Tags: 1984, Manjinder Kaur Wratch, Muse India, Punjab, Roll of Honour
Friends, here is my translation of Daljit Ami’s column on how the politics of Punjab is now informed and even controlled by voices outside Punjab. How these moves reduce the issue to sloganeering and not much else.
Please read …
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Punjab, Punjabi diaspora
A day ago I put up a mock post on Facebook saying I was starting an Indian Grocery store in Germany. I got over 75 comments and 275 Likes. Friends were so encouraging. It is nice. I felt a lot of people have by best interest in their mind.
Yet, I have a different interest. I want to write. I want to write to get reviews like this one Sakoon N Singh did for ‘Roll of Honour’. To be reminded of greats like Amitav Ghosh and Agha Shahid Ali in a review by someone who has been an insider to Punjab all these decades and is a Professor of English literature. Thank you Sakoon. I am touched.
‘… here is an attempt to unearth Punjabiyat as a more valid marker of identity as opposed to religion. Sandhu does a good job with deconstructing a lot of Punjabi lore, Sikh shabads and mannerisms in an attempt to take the wider readership into the heart of Punjab.’
Please read, you will relish this review. …
Tags: 1984, Khalistan, Roll of Honour, Sakoon Singh, Sikh
The Punjabi translation of ‘Roll of Honour’ by Daljit Ami is now available online. It is reaching book shops across Punjab by the weekend and other e-commerce sites by early next week.
The Punjabi title is spelt as ‘Gwah De Fanah Hon Ton Pahilan’. The publisher is Lokgeet Prakashan/Unistar Books.
Please buy. Please gift. Please bless!
Link here …
Tags: 1984, Amandeep Sandhu, anti-Sikh, Daljit Ami, Gwah de Fanah hon to Pehlan, Roll of Honour
Kulpreet Yadav is an ex-Army man. He writes and promotes new talent through his magazine Open Road Review.
He liked Roll of Honour and sought to pursue the genesis of the book to the location in which it is based – Sainik School Kapurthala. Having visited the school, he wrote to me asking why I hadn’t visited the school after passing out from there in 1990. That and Lakshmi’s desire to witness/acknowledge the site led me to school last week.
This interview was done a few days before the visit but talks about how I was already making peace with the idea. Thank you Kulpreet.
Please read …
Tags: 1984, anti-Sikh, pedagogy, public schools, Roll of Honour, Sainik School Kapurthala
In this country, where societies have crumbled, systems have eroded, ideologies have been bartered, I still believe in individuals who have risen above sectarianism to uphold what is the idea of a nation.
Of everything I have heard about Roll of Honour, one of the most precious is this by Nandita Haksar, the human rights lawyer. Though I met her only recently she has been my hero for decades.
Read the piece, one of the finest testimonial account of the 1984 violence. Here …
Tags: 1984, Amandeep Sandhu, anti-Sikh, Nandita Haksar, PUDR, Roll of Honour
Aparna Banerji is based in Jalandhar. When we went there to participate in the Gadri Babeian da Mela, she caught up with Daljit Ami. It was covered the next day in The Tribune. Aparna is a second generation Punjabi. She was born in Jalandhar, speaks the language fluently, and example of what it means to find assimilation.
Please read …
Tags: 1984, Amandeep Sandhu, anti-Sikh, Daljit Ami, Gwah de Fanah hon to Pehlan, Roll of Honour
