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 Whose roads, whose buildings, whose armed forces are these – citizens or their so called representatives who no longer represent the citizens?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,

A few days back Sharanya Deepak interviewed me on the farmers protests. Please read her piece that mentions PANJAB, my quotes and much more in this prominent Left-wing American journal. This is an in-depth piece on the protests – explaining the Laws and the resistance, weaving in a plethora of voices.

Let the voice of farmers reach all corners of the world. See more here …

Thank you Sharanya.

Sayantan Bera from Mint looks up the faces who are negotiating with the government in the farmers protests. he mentions PANJAB and quotes me as well.

“Unless you get the cow-belt to protest, the goals of the movement could prove to be elusive,” said Sandhu.

Do see more here … Faces of Protests_Mint_07012021

Tags: Chaduni, Darshanpal, Kuruganti, Rajewal, Tikait, Ugrahan, Yadav

Facebook January 7, 2021

Day 43
Dhuni

Water and fire are both cleansing elements – embodiment of energies. Water’s property is having cleaned, it carries all the dirt in it and itself needs to be cleaned for use later. Fire, on the other hand, burns all and is always pristine clean.

The Fire practice is ancient, it is about survival, it predates organised religion. One of the earliest signs of civilization: in jungles when hunter gatherers used it to prevent attack from wild life, to cook food, to keep warm in the open. In the sub-continent, the Dhuni, the Havan, the Homa – whatever you may call a burning fire – has been part of Vedic religions and later Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism.

While Havan and Homa are for particular religious events – oblations; Dhuni is an unbroken tradition of fire to honour Shakti – the primordial cosmic energy. In that sense, kisani, farming, too pre-dates religion, is about civilisation.

This Dhuni under the Ghazipur Flyover started on November 27th when farmers from west UP just arrived to protest the Farm Laws. It remains a constant fire, embers in day hours, flames in night.

Veteran farmer leader Ranbir Singh, extreme left says, ‘This dhuni will continue until we are here, until the government repeals the Laws’.

Ranbir ji knows, he was in Delhi with Baba Mahendra Singh Tikait in 1988. ‘Even that time the Rajiv sarkar had to concede to our demands. What is this government? See the Tractor March on Thursday, then see it on January 26, you will know.’

Tags: Dhuni, Fire, Ghazipur Flyover, Havan, Homa, western Uttar Pradesh

Dear Friends,

it is always a pleasure when a book of its times is read in the current times and is found relevant. Sukhjit Singh reads PANJAB: Journeys Through Fault Lines in the context of the farmers protests.

—

From the first words, ‘Je ho ji tu samjhe mahiya, Oho ji main hain nahin’ ‘What you know of me, my dear, I am not that’, as the epigram to the last words 553 pages later, ‘However, like all communities painted into a corner, Panjab is a lot about not accepting how anyone understands it,’ Amandeep Sandhu’s ‘PANJAB – Journeys Through Fault Lines’ is an attempt, not the first, nor hopefully the last, but a sincere, detailed, timely and a significant one, at understanding the enigma that is Panjab. …

Should Sandhu have undertaken his journeys and made this call of his Panjab much earlier? Because it appears that Panjab has heard him. It has risen.

The fault lines are being challenged.

For more see here …

Tags: Sainik School Kapurthala, Sukhjit Singh

Facebook 31/12/2020

Dear Friends,

I am sure over the years you would have noticed my posts have been political, they call out wrongs by government or political parties, but they never promote any political party. This is because for a very long time now I have believed political parties in India, whatever be their compulsions, do not represent the general will of people in the country.

I know most of us look at our society in terms of political parties but I feel that is because we are accustomed to the ritual of electoral democracy, not because any political party actually serves anything more than their own needs. I confess, I do not know what is the solution, but I find my own time best fulfilled if I spend it listening to people instead of politicians.

That is why this post is an exception.

Yesterday, my MLA Sowmya Reddy from Bengaluru joined me at the #FarmersProtest at Singhu border. It was clear between us that she is coming like an ordinary citizen, coming to experience how farmers have mounted and are sustaining the biggest uprising against the Hindutva government propaganda machinery.

Sowmya was quite moved upon looking at the trolleys, the people, the food and medical stalls, the posters, she remarked: ‘I thought people in a protest would be angry, edgy. This is a Mela – a fair!’

I said, ‘assan nachh ke yaar manavange’ – we shall dance our way to repealing the Black Laws.

‘I swear, the whole of India should see this, the whole of India must rise,’ she said as she delayed her flight, spent more than three hours, partook langar, enjoyed herself and was intensely moved. ‘I have never seen something like this in my life!’

Last night, the defence minister’s statement, the government agreeing that Electricity and Pollution Ordinances will be scrapped, shows us we are all standing on the correct side of time.

We will succeed!

Tags: Jayanagar South, Sowmya Reddy

Dear Friends,

one of my pleasures during the Farmers Protest has been speaking to urban India print journalists (non-lapdog media) who connect to learn about rural realities. This is actually ironical or a statement on how far urban India is from rural India. At Partition and Independence 75% of the nation was rural, agrarian. Today 53% of the nation is rural, agrarian. Basically, given increase of population, we have moved 22% people from rural to urban – our bludgeoning urban middle class. We are all one or two generations away from rural India. Instead of talking to me, they can talk to their grandparents.

I love the eagerness, the openness to learn of these young journalists.  Many of them have browsed or read the book. It results in their being able to process what they are witnessing at the protest sites.

Sayantan Bera called a few days back to understand the ‘do or die’ spirit. We talked about how martyrdom is revered in the Sikh religion and Panjab culture. A history of three millennia where Panjab has stood up to defend its land and the Indian sub-continent.

Please see here … Mint_Farmer Protests 24122020

Tags: martyr, Mint, Sayantan Bera

Dear Friends,

It is silly, I guess, but I had a fond hope that someday one of our most revered literary magazines Biblio would review PANJAB: Journeys Through Fault Lines. That day came, and to my utter surprise and satisfaction, Rahul Singh, himself a journalist and man of letters, and son of the earlier chronicler of Panjab, the eminent Khushwant Singh, reviewed the book.

What I found interesting was, towards the end of the review, Rahul says: Is there a way out of the abyss Panjab finds itself in? Sandhu ends on a hopeful note:

‘… Panjab would need a push to bring in a structure where Panjabis not only in Panjab, but also those living in other parts of India, across the border with Pakistan, and in the diverse diaspora, could participate together in re-building Panjab. At the same time, to lift itself from the depression that gnaws at it and erodes it, Panjab needs to rise against patriarchy, feudalism and ritualistic symbolism. Throughout its long history, Panjab has always been more than its geography and its people. It has symbolised an idea of resistance and rebellion. In the past, in spite of grievous wounds, Panjab has always risen and proved its critics wrong. I believe that someday this Panjab too will rise to its challenges—in its own eclectic way.’

Then Rahul says: That is a forlorn hope, unfortunately. However, Amandeep Sandhu has a written a book that is deeply-felt, passionate and straight from the heart, one that is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand a community and a state that once led the way in the country, and which, he believes, could do so again.

Call it serendipity or call it Panjab’s historical task, right now Panjab has risen once again – this time to protect India’s Constitution.

Please find the review PDF here: PANJAB_Biblio_2020

Tags: Biblio, Khushwant Singh, Rahul Singh

Dear Friends,

on December 12/13, 2020 we had the Bangalore Literature Festival. With great planning and care, the organisers conducted the festival in-person at the Bangalore International Centre.

At the festival I conducted a session on our response to the COVID-19 pandemic titled: The Masked Intruder – Pandemic and You.

Senior therapist and author Anna Chandy, doctor, author and now writer Dr Farah Adam joined me to talk about the Pandemic and Us.

Please listen…

Shinie Anthony, one of the organisers wrote a piece today on the festival. Please read … 

Tags: Anna Chandy, BLF 2020, Dr Farah Adam