Contested Nationalisms; Negotiated Terrains: The Way Sikhs Remember Udham Singh 'Shahid' (1899-1940)

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 827-870

  Fenech, Louis E ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0042914626     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X02004031     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Originally presented at the 20th annual South Asia Conference at the University of Wisconsin at Madison held in October 1999 this paper has greatly benefited from the suggestions and criticisms of a number of friends and colleagues. Most significantly I appreciate the help and suggestions of Konrad Sadkowski, Christine Fenech, Hew McLeod, Stella Sandahl, Harish Puri, Sabinderjit Singh Sagar, Himadri Bannerjee, and the anonymous reviewer of this article selected by the editor of Modern Asian Studies.
2. For reference consult the Chandigarh Tribune's on-line editions of 23 and 31 March 1999.
3. According to Sikander Singh, since 1997 the government of India has declared Udham Singh's birthday a national holiday. My personal correspondence with Inderjit Singh Sandhu, the Director of Cultural Affairs, Archaeology, Museums and Archives of the Government of Punjab in 1999, moreover, states that the 'Martyrdom Day' of Udham Singh is celebrated in the city of Amritsar. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement and Jallianwala Bagh Udham Singh Alias Ram Mohammad Singh Azad A Great Patriot and Martyr who Challenged The British Imperialism (Amritsar: B. Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh, 1998), p. 80, n. 2.
4. J.S. Grewal and H.K. Puri, Letters of Udham Singh (Amritsar: GNDU Press, 1974), p. 37. More will be said below regarding both the Singh Sabha and the Chief Khalsa Diwan.
5. Gurcharan Singh, Sunām dā Surmā Sardār Ūdham Siṅgh (Jalandhar: Dhanpat Rae, 1974), pp. 50-60 claims as much. A glance at Sikh newspapers of the early twentieth century also confirms the CKO's regimen. The term 'full-fledged Singh' (tiār bartiār siṅgh) which is a part of the Sikh Rahit Maryādā first appears in the Chief Khalsa Diwan's Gurmat Prakāś Bhāg Sanskār (Amritsar: Chief Khalsa Diwan, 1915).
6. Village Shahpur Kalan also claims to be his ancestral home.
7. There are also a number of files on Ūdham Singh in the National Archives of India (NAI) four of which have recently been disclosed to the historian Sikander Singh The nature of both these and the sources released in Britain are revealed in the preface to Sikander Singh's book, A Saga of the Freedom Movement and appear reproduced in the appendices (pp. 307-76). Some of these are reprinted from Grewal and Puri, Letters of Udham Singh. Of the new files recently released by Britain and which appear in Sikander Singh's text, however, most files generally deal with mundane issues that have little to do with Udham Singh's ideological frame of mind. Others, however, recount in a rambling combination of English, Punjabi, and Urdu the final words he spoke during his concluding trial statement. The rest of the files dealing with the trial and arrest of Udham Singh (over 3000 according to Sikander Singh) will be released by the British government in the year 2016. There are also undisclosed files kept at the NAI but it is unknown when or if these will be released. A Saga of the Freedom Movement, pp. viii-xvii.
8. Martyrology is today a very popular genre of Sikh literature which has its origins in the gur-bilās ('Splendour of the Guru') literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Internal evidence suggests that these early gur-bilas texts were most likely prepared with an aim to inspire the Sikhs of their day to bear their daily tribulations and resist the tyranny of oppression by utilizing narratives of past Sikh sacrifice and martyrdom. The martyrology genre was further developed under the auspices of the Singh Sabha reform movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (see below) and particularly utilized by the new, print-literate Sikh elite during the Gurdwara Reform Movement (1920-25) to encourage Sikhs to join the movement and explain the basic postulates of the Indian National Congress and its Gandhian platform. For the history of this Sikh genre and its deployment today, particularly as a tool for resistance and national imaginings, see my Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the 'Game of Love' (New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000).
9. A case in point would be Bhajan Singh's Sād(Combining dot below)e Śahīd [Our Martyrs] (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 1997), pp. 243-46.
10. Apparently he was stationed in Basra, Iraq for some time. He returned to India only a few years later. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, chapter 3.
11. This is not unlikely, as Sikander Singh claims, that Udham Singh was serving water 'to the masses along with his comrades of the orphanage. . . [when he] had received a bullet in the arm. He had been getting treatment of this injury at Sunam. . . It was disclosed to the writer by Manjit Singh Kashid, Ramji Dass Sunami and Tara Singh Sunami who were friends of Udham Singh.' A Saga of the Freedom Movement, p. 86.
12. This is not the only story of Udham Singh's humanitarianism. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, pp. 144-7.
13. There is of course a long-running controversy over just how many people were killed at Jallianwala Bagh. Estimates range from under one hundred to several thousands.
14. Bhagat Singh, Sād(Combining dot below)e Śahīd, p. 244.
15. This evidence appears in Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement.
16. B.S. Maighowalia, Sardar Udham Singh A Prince Amongst Patriots of India. The Avenger of the Massacre of Jallianwala Bagh Amritsar (Hoshiarpur: Chhabra Printing Press, 1969), pp. 25-7, claims that Udham Singh was arrested in August 1927 in Amritsar.
17. Bhagat Singh, Sād(Combining dot below)e Śahīd, p. 243. It is worth noting that Udham Singh had gone by many different names throughout his lifetime. Among these are Ude Singh and Frank Brazil. Maighowalia, Sardar Udham Singh, p. 13.
18. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement . Also B.S. Maighowalia, Sardar Udham Singh, p. 24.
19. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement. Also B.S. Maighowalia, Sardar Udham Singh, p. 24.
20. M.S. Gill, 'Udham Singh: The Patriot who Avenged the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre', in The Illustrated Weekly of India (January 30, 1972), pp. 34-7.
21. Background of the massacre may be found in a number of books amongst which is Alfred Draper, Amritsar: The Massacre that Ended the Raj (London: Cassell, 1981).
22. Sir Michael O'Dwyer, India As I Knew It: 1885-1925 (London: Constable & Company, 1925), pp. 285-6.
23. Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba: The Story of the Struggle (Delhi: U.C. Kapur and Sons, 1970) for background. For Akali concerns regarding the new Punjabi- speaking state see J.S. Grewal, The Akalis: A Short History (Chandigarh: Punjab Studies Pub., 1996), pp. 139-62.
24. Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba: The Story of the Struggle (Delhi: U.C. Kapur and Sons, 1970) for background. For Akali concerns regarding the new Punjabi-speaking state see J.S. Grewal, The Akalis: A Short History (Chandigarh: Punjab Studies Pub., 1996), pp. 139-62.
25. Bv 1969 there can be no doubt that Udham Singh was known as a Sikh martyr. B.S. Maighowalia's 1969 Sardar Udham Singh claims this status for him throughout the book.
26. M.S. Batra (ed.), Memoirs of Giani Zail Singh Seventh President of India (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 1997), p. 130.
27. For the history of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution see Harbans Singh (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism I (Patiala: Punjabi Univ. Pub. Bureau, 1992), pp. 133-41. Although the ASR is often caricatured as 'communal' its pro-Sikh 'ethnic' portion is only clearly contained in the prologue. More background on the ASR appears in Dipankar Gupta, The Context of Ethnicity: Sikh Identity in a Comparative Perspective (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 73-9.
28. For the history of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution see Harbans Singh (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism I (Patiala: Punjabi Univ. Pub. Bureau, 1992), pp. 133-41. Although the ASR is often caricatured as 'communal' its pro-Sikh 'ethnic' portion is only clearly contained in the prologue. More background on the ASR appears in Dipankar Gupta, The Context of Ethnicity: Sikh Identity in a Comparative Perspective (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 73-9.
29. Essays which document the political manipulation of martyr relics in the Christian tradition are Simon Ditchfield, 'Martyrs on the Move: Relics as Vindicators of Local Diversity in the Tridentine Church,' and Richard Eales, 'The Political Setting of the Becket Translation of 1220,' both of which appear in Diana Wood (ed.), Martyrs and Martyrologies (London: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 283-94, 127-40.
30. Essays which document the political manipulation of martyr relics in the Christian tradition are Simon Ditchfield, 'Martyrs on the Move: Relics as Vindicators of Local Diversity in the Tridentine Church,' and Richard Eales, 'The Political Setting of the Becket Translation of 1220,' both of which appear in Diana Wood (ed.), Martyrs and Martyrologies (London: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 283-94, 127-40.
31. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was also the President of the All-India Shahid Memorial Committee. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, p. 301.
32. Chandigarh is India's most modern city planned out by the famous French architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s. It is as well a contested site as it was promised to the Punjab alone by the Congress government in 1966. That guarantee has yet to be upheld.
33. Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, pp. 303.
34. It is highly likely that many of the politicians who had accompanied the casket on its journey did so to achieve political gain and enhanced recognition.
35. See, for example, the 31 July 2000 article 'Shaheed Udham Singh Chair instituted,' in the online edition of the Chandigarh Tribune.
36. The three aforementioned sites to which urns were sent were Haridwar, Kiratpur Sahib, and Rauza Sharif, Sirhind. I have yet to discover the whereabouts or the history of the two urns which were 'preserved.' Whether these will figure in later commemorations is unknown. A more detailed account of this procession and funeral appears in Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, pp. 300-6.
37. Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1992), esp. pp. 12-18. For speculations regarding nationalist trajectories that developed in India see Partha Chatterjee's Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1998) and his The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).
38. Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1992), esp. pp. 12-18. For speculations regarding nationalist trajectories that developed in India see Partha Chatterjee's Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1998) and his The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).
39. Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1992), esp. pp. 12-18. For speculations regarding nationalist trajectories that developed in India see Partha Chatterjee's Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1998) and his The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).
40. Today even this belief is contested. Gerald Larson correctly states that what the later Indian National Congress championed was not a western secularism, but rather a 'Gandhian-Nehruvian Indic civil religion'. Gerald James Larson, India's Agony over Religion (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1995), pp. 198-203. Also van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 22-3.
41. Today even this belief is contested. Gerald Larson correctly states that what the later Indian National Congress championed was not a western secularism, but rather a 'Gandhian-Nehruvian Indic civil religion'. Gerald James Larson, India's Agony over Religion (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1995), pp. 198-203. Also van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 22-3.
42. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 2, 10-12.
43. Ibid., pp. 53-6; 73-6.
44. These examples are taken from the rahit-nama of Chaupa Singh Chhibbar (circa 1750). See W.H. McLeod (ed. and trans.), The Chaupa Singh Rahit-nama (Dunedin: Univ. of Otago Press, 1987), pp. 42, 156. Like McLeod, I am inclined to think that tobacco was tabooed because of its strong associations with Muslims.
45. Tertullian, ad Scap. 5: crudelitas vestra gloria est nostra as quoted in G.W. Bowersock, Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995), p. 20.
46. The text by this name was authored by one of the major figures of the Singh Sabha, Kahn Singh of Nabha. See Harjot Oberoi, 'From Ritual to Counter Ritual: Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question,' in J.T. O'Connell et al. (ed.), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century (Toronto: Centre for South Asian Studies, 1988). Background on reform movements and the Arya Samaj is in Kenneth Jones, Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-Century Punjab (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1976).
47. The text by this name was authored by one of the major figures of the Singh Sabha, Kahn Singh of Nabha. See Harjot Oberoi, 'From Ritual to Counter Ritual: Rethinking the Hindu-Sikh Question,' in J.T. O'Connell et al. (ed.), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century (Toronto: Centre for South Asian Studies, 1988). Background on reform movements and the Arya Samaj is in Kenneth Jones, Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-Century Punjab (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1976).
48. The Five Ks are kes (uncut hair), kaṅghā (comb), kaicchahirā (boxer shorts), kirpān (dagger), and kar(Combining dot below)ā (steel bangle).
49. Many of these publications are noted in N.G. Barrier, The Sikhs and Their Literature: A Guide to Tracts, Books, and Periodicals (1849-1919) (New Delhi: Manohar, 1970).
50. W.H. McLeod alludes to this fact in his 'The Sikh Struggle in the Eighteenth Century and its Relevance for Today,' in History of Religions 31:4 (1992), pp. 344-62.
51. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 25.
52. For an examination of the constructions of the female and male body in Hindu and Muslim religious nationalism one may consult any number of works. Among others are van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 85-105; Partha Chatterjee, 'Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: the Contest in India,' in American Ethnologist 16:4 (1989), pp. 622-33; and Joseph S. Alter, 'Celibacy, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Gender into Nationalism in North India,' in The Journal of Asian Studies 53:1 (February 1994), pp. 45-66.
53. For an examination of the constructions of the female and male body in Hindu and Muslim religious nationalism one may consult any number of works. Among others are van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 85-105; Partha Chatterjee, 'Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: the Contest in India,' in American Ethnologist 16:4 (1989), pp. 622-33; and Joseph S. Alter, 'Celibacy, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Gender into Nationalism in North India,' in The Journal of Asian Studies 53:1 (February 1994), pp. 45-66.
54. For an examination of the constructions of the female and male body in Hindu and Muslim religious nationalism one may consult any number of works. Among others are van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, pp. 85-105; Partha Chatterjee, 'Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: the Contest in India,' in American Ethnologist 16:4 (1989), pp. 622-33; and Joseph S. Alter, 'Celibacy, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Gender into Nationalism in North India,' in The Journal of Asian Studies 53:1 (February 1994), pp. 45-66.
55. For this form of art and its role in sustaining the Sikh discourse of martyrdom see my Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition, chapter 2.
56. One can also argue that the Adi Granth is a text for regulating behaviour. For the rahit-namas and the hukam-namas see Piara Singh Padam, Rahit-nāme (Amritsar: Bhai Chattar Singh Jivan Singh, 1991) and Ganda Singh (ed.), Hukam- nāme: Gurū Sāhibān, Mātā Sāhibān, Bandā Siṅgh ate Khālsā jī de (Patiala: Punjabi University Publication Bureau, 1985). The principal Sikh rahit-nama today remains the SGPC's Sikh Rahit Maryādā which was first published in 1950 by Sikhs strongly influenced by the Singh Sabha Movement. Incidentally hukam-namas are still issued by the Jathedar of the Akal Takht.
57. One can also argue that the Adi Granth is a text for regulating behaviour. For the rahit-namas and the hukam-namas see Piara Singh Padam, Rahit-nāme (Amritsar: Bhai Chattar Singh Jivan Singh, 1991) and Ganda Singh (ed.), Hukam-nāme: Gurū Sāhibān, Mātā Sāhibān, Bandā Siṅgh ate Khālsā jī de (Patiala: Punjabi University Publication Bureau, 1985). The principal Sikh rahit-nama today remains the SGPC's Sikh Rahit Maryādā which was first published in 1950 by Sikhs strongly influenced by the Singh Sabha Movement. Incidentally hukam-namas are still issued by the Jathedar of the Akal Takht.
58. Just what inclusion into the Khalsa meant in the last years of Guru Gobind Singh's life is still a matter of some controversy. See J.S. Grewal, Sikh Ideology, Polity, and Social Order (Delhi: Manohar, 1996), pp. 51-63. For the Singh Sabha Movement see Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994).
59. Just what inclusion into the Khalsa meant in the last years of Guru Gobind Singh's life is still a matter of some controversy. See J.S. Grewal, Sikh Ideology, Polity, and Social Order (Delhi: Manohar, 1996), pp. 51-63. For the Singh Sabha Movement see Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994).
60. We should note that van der Veer's claim that the integrity and modesty of the female body is also a part of the male's and the nation's self respect and honour also figures amongst Sikhs. See van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 85. What does not figure in Sikh nationalist discourse, however, is the identification of the nation with the female body. This is an interesting difference which merits some comment. This identification in Hindu nationalist discourse may be traced to early Bengali intellectuals who transferred the ideal of selfless devotion to the goddess Kali to Mother India in an effort to utilize it as a unifying symbol. The Sikh disdain for such an identification may thus have its origins in debates about Sikhs and goddess worship in the late nineteenth century. Singh Sabha writers were adamant that goddess worship had no place in the Sikh tradition and made a concerted effort to reinterpret those passages in the Dasam Granth which suggest that the tenth Guru propitiated the goddess Chandi. As well such an attitude may have arisen, perhaps, as an attempt to underscore the 'masculine' identity of Khalsa Sikhs as opposed to the effeminate caricatures of Hindu males like Mohandas Gandhi, Hindu males portrayed as the emasculated, Sikh 'Other'. In terms of behaviour and observance, however, Sikh men and women figure virtually the same in today's standard Rahit. Exceptions regard the tying of the turban: although women must also remain unshorn they need not tie a turban upon their heads. Sikh Rahit Maryādā (16th ed., Amritsar: SGPC, 1995), p. 18.
61. We should note that van der Veer's claim that the integrity and modesty of the female body is also a part of the male's and the nation's self respect and honour also figures amongst Sikhs. See van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 85. What does not figure in Sikh nationalist discourse, however, is the identification of the nation with the female body. This is an interesting difference which merits some comment. This identification in Hindu nationalist discourse may be traced to early Bengali intellectuals who transferred the ideal of selfless devotion to the goddess Kali to Mother India in an effort to utilize it as a unifying symbol. The Sikh disdain for such an identification may thus have its origins in debates about Sikhs and goddess worship in the late nineteenth century. Singh Sabha writers were adamant that goddess worship had no place in the Sikh tradition and made a concerted effort to reinterpret those passages in the Dasam Granth which suggest that the tenth Guru propitiated the goddess Chandi. As well such an attitude may have arisen, perhaps, as an attempt to underscore the 'masculine' identity of Khalsa Sikhs as opposed to the effeminate caricatures of Hindu males like Mohandas Gandhi, Hindu males portrayed as the emasculated, Sikh 'Other'. In terms of behaviour and observance, however, Sikh men and women figure virtually the same in today's standard Rahit. Exceptions regard the tying of the turban: although women must also remain unshorn they need not tie a turban upon their heads. Sikh Rahit Maryādā (16th ed., Amritsar: SGPC, 1995), p. 18.
62. The famous giani Sant Singh 'Maskin' is amongst these theologians. Anok Singh (ed.), Maskīn jī de Laikachar I (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 1992), pp. 42-60; 77-86.
63. Bhindranwale's speech of 20 September 1983 for example. Translated into English by R.S. Sandhu and distributed by the Ohio Sikh Educational Trust. For the masculine/feminine polarity in Bhindranwale's sermons and in Sikh militant discourse generally see Veena Das, 'Time, Self, and Community: Features of Sikh Militant Discourse,' in her Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India (Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 118-36, esp. pp. 125, 127.
64. gurdwara elections. See 'Need to Discuss Draft Notification' and 'Harbans Singh's Bid to Rebut Criticism' both of which appear in the Chandigarh Tribune online edition: 22 September and 24 September 1999.
65. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 23. Although van der Veer claims therefore that Congress ideology is not secular in the western sense, the Congress party uses the word secular to indicate its policy.
66. Udham Singh signed virtually all of his letters with this name while in London's Old Bailey Prison. These letters are shown and transcribed in both Grewal and Puri, Letters of Udham Singh and Sikander Singh's A Saga of the Freedom Movement. I have also seen the name 'Gonzales' appended to Udham Singh's sobriquet. This appears to be an obvious attempt to incorporate Indian Christians into Udham Singh's supposedly secular agendum.
67. This final statement appears in Sikander Singh, A Saga of the Freedom Movement, chapters 11-12.
68. Vir Singh, Bijai Siṅgh (New Delhi: Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, 1989), p. 123. This simile also appears in his novel Sundarī (New Delhi: Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, 1989), pp. 29-30. One may claim, too, that the inclusion of hymns by non-Sikh saints in the Adi Granth is also commensurate with the inclusive, secular policy of the Congress.
69. Vir Singh, Bijai Siṅgh (New Delhi: Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, 1989), p. 123. This simile also appears in his novel Sundarī (New Delhi: Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, 1989), pp. 29-30. One may claim, too, that the inclusion of hymns by non-Sikh saints in the Adi Granth is also commensurate with the inclusive, secular policy of the Congress.
70. See, for example, the exchange between the two sepoys of chapter two in Vir Singh's Sundarī, esp. p. 14: 'ih vad(Combining dot below)d(Combining dot below)e hathīle han / hindū tān makkhan(Combining dot below), par eh kathor patthar han [The Sikhs] are very obstinate. While Hindus are [as soft as] butter [Khalsa Sikhs] are as hard as stone.'
71. Examples of this brand of Khalsa Sikh historiography are many indeed. One of the most popular in Punjabi is Gian Singh's two-volume Tavārīkh(combining low line) Gurū Kh(combining low line)ālsā (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag Punjab, 1987, 1989). An English-language example is Harbans Singh, The Heritage of the Sikhs (Delhi: Manohar, 1985), esp. pp. 88-143.
72. This provides only one interpretation of the 'protection' theme. Another interpretation (which appears later in this article) asserts that the Congress governments of the 1980s were similar to the infamous eighteenth-century Dillī Darbār or 'Court of Delhi', the Mughal and Pathan states which persecuted the disenfranchised. It was against the bigotry and tyranny of this entity that the Sikhs collectively fought and died.
73. Background on Ardas and the history of martyrdom in the Sikh tradition is in my 'Martyrdom and the Sikh Tradition,' in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 117.1 (1997), pp. 623-42.
74. Joyce Pettigrew, The Sikhs of the Punjab: Unheard Voices of State and Guerrilla Violence (London: Zed Books, 1995).
75. David Lowenthal, 'Identity, Heritage, and History,' in J.R. Gillis (ed.), Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1990), p. 46.
76. Mark Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1993), pp. 84, 90-9.
77. Like Udham Singh, Bhagat Singh also cut his hair and shaved his beard. Whether he reverted back to a Khalsa Sikh identity during the last months of his life, however, is a matter of controversy. Most Sikhs agree that he did eventually take amrit, basing their conclusions on the statements of Sant Randhir Singh. In his autobiography, Jehl Chit(Combining dot below)t(Combining dot below)hīān (Notes from Jail), Randhir Singh claims that he persuaded Bhagat Singh to rejoin the Khalsa in October 1930. Randhir Singh, 'Bhagat Siṅgh nāl Mulākāt', in his Jehl Chit(Combining dot below)t(Combining dot below)hīān (Ludhiana: Bhai Randhir Singh Trust, n.d.), pp. 447-57.
78. All Sikh authors fail to mention the existence of these statues in Sunam. Unfortunately I am not yet aware of their history nor have I found out the exact date of their completion and unveiling. It was certainly before the arrival of Udham Singh's remains to India in July 1974 as the first reference to this double representation I have found is in M.S. Gill's 1972 Illustrated Weekly of India article, 'Udham Singh', p. 37.
79. As one scholar of Sikhism had mentioned to me, the reason for the inclusion of a painting of Valmiki, the famous low-caste devotee of Krishna not to be confused with the legendary high-caste author of the Ramayana, in the Central Sikh Museum on the precincts of the Golden Temple was to account for the many Hindu sweepers or Bālmīkīs (Valmiki was a sweeper by caste) who set up shop in the area around Harimandir Sahib. It is a well known tradition that Guru Arjan settled members of these low castes close to the Darbar Sahib.
80. John R. Gillis, 'Memory and Identity; The History of a Relationship,' in J.R. Gillis (ed.), Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, p. 5: 'Commemorative activity is by definition social and political, for it involves the coordination of individual and group memories, whose results may appear consensual when they are in fact the product of processes of intense contest, struggle, and in some instances annihilation.'
81. Dipankar Gupta, The Context of Ethnicity, pp. 74-6.
82. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle (London: Pan Books, 1985). There can be no doubt that Zail Singh and the Congress government played a large role in the events of the 1980s which ultimately led to Operation Bluestar. As can be expected Zail Singh himself denies most of Tully's accusations in his autobiography.
83. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 30. SSSSäSH-='« ;S3£Aî=?SAS,-iiiliMsièsà= is, let me add, just one of many such examples.
84. The destruction of the Central Sikh Library on the precincts of the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar in 1984 also lends itself to such claims by many Sikhs.
85. In fact on a visit to Amritsar in June 1997 I purchased a commercially produced painting in which Guru Nanak is wearing Sufi headgear, a tāj. Background on this aspect of the Sikh tradition appears in W.H. McLeod, Early Sikh Tradition: A Study of the Janam-sākhīs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), pp. 250-6.
86. An example of this modern nationalist retelling is J.P.S. Uberoi, Religion, Civil Society and the State: A Study of Sikhism (Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996).
87. Ganda Singh (ed.), Kavī Saināpati Rachit Srī Gur-sobhā (Patiala: Publication Bureau Punjabi University, 1988), esp. p. 100.
88. Background in Oberoi, The Construction qf Religions Boundaries, pp. 39-91.
89. Manohar Singh Gill, 'Ūdham Siṅgh,' in Harbans Singh (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism IV (Patiala: Punjabi Univ. Press, 1998), p. 382. Gill makes this claim in light of the fact that Udham Singh wrote very little apart from a few letters and his trial statement. It has often been said about the Sikhs that in the eighteenth century they were too busy making history to write it down. If such images do represent the community rather than the individual as Durkheim would have it, then this is indeed a suitable statue.
90. This expression is typical of Hindu popular and 'high' art as well. For sahaj and vismad in the Sikh tradition see W.H. McLeod, Gurū Nānak and the Sikh Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), pp. 153, 219.
91. Background on Sikh martyrdom discourse and its appropriation of the hymns of Guru Nanak is in Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition.
92. Guru Nanak, Rāg vad(Combining dot below)ahansu alāhan(Combining dot below)īān 2:3, Adi Granth, pp. 579-80.
93. It is fairly certain that a pro-Sikh bias was exercised during the period of the Maharaja (1799-1839). Note, for example, the observations recorded in Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara Together with a Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus III (London: J. Murray, 1834); and Charles Masson, Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab I (London: Richard Bendy, 1842). Desite the remarks of these and other early nineteenth-century European travellers the common understanding of Ranjit Singh's rule today remains one which privileges a secular, tolerant polity.
94. For background on the Rajiv-Longowol Accord see J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990), pp. 229-30.
95. Marina Warner, Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), p. 21 translates and cites Robert Musil's 'Denkmale' in Nachlass su Lebzeiten (Zurich, 1936).
96. Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 11.
97. Rajiv Gandhi actually stated that this release was such an attempt at healing. Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War?, p. 98.
98. The statue of course opens itself up to numerous other interpretations.
99. This is an allusion to Guru Amar Das' Slok vārān te vadhīk 28, Adi Granth, p. 1412: 'lahaur saharu ammrit saru siphatī dā ghar The city of Lahore is a pool of ambrosial nectar, the home of praise.' According to Sahib Singh, Sri Gurū Granth Sāhib Darpan 10 (Jalandhar: Raj Publishers, 1983), p. 588, it is Lahore which is here praised as it was in this city that the successor of Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das was born. The legend above the gate, one may assume, confuses the 'pool of nectar' (amrit saru) with the name of the city, Amritsar.
100. It is likely that Hall Gate was renamed Gandhi Gate sometime after Independence in 1947 and was purposefully chosen to carry the name of a famous Indian nationalist as it is the most civic of Amritsar's thirteen gates since it ushers one to the Municipal Town Hall. It is well known that one of the incidents which led to the drastic action at Jallianwala Bagh was the riot of 10 April 1919 which began at Hall Bazaar Bridge (it is at the base of the Bridge that the statue of Udham Singh is situated) as a protest against the deportation of Saif-ud Din Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, two local nationalist leaders. At this time two mounted police officers opened fire upon the rioters, an action which led to mob violence and the death of three Englishmen and the wounding of various other Europeans. The connection of this site to this nationalist action may have also prompted the choice of this site for the statue of Udham Singh. Background on these events is in Rajinder Singh, 'Heroic Tradition,' in Fauja Singh (ed.), The City of Amritsar: A Study of Historical, Cultural, Social and Economic Aspects (New Delhi: Oriental Publishers and Distributors, 1978), pp. 155-77.
101. That many young Sikh men resorted to this form of resistance is clear in the work of Joyce Pettigrew. See, for example, her 'Martyrdom and Guerrilla Organisation in Punjab,' in Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics XXX:3 (1992), among others.
102. These speeches have been recently translated and collected in Ranbir Singh Sandhu (ed.), Struggle for Justice: Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale (Dublin, Ohio: Sikh Educational and Religious Foundation, 1999).
103. Joyce Pettigrew, 'Martyrdom and Guerrilla Organisation in Punjab,' pp. 397, 405, n. 19.
104. That these assassins are celebrated by militant Sikhs clearly comes forth in Cynthia K. Mahmood's overtly pro-Sikh biased Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), pp. 155, 191, 201, 208.