harikumar1964's blog

As a young boy growing up in faraway Kerala, for me all Punjabis were Sikhs and all those who had a surname Singh was a Punjabi Sikh. It was  much later that  I realized  how ill informed I was then in the 70s. During my maiden visit to Delhi in 1974 ( I was In class-4 then) there was a fellow sikh passenger of army background and that was the first time I saw a Sardarji ( as we used to call Sikhs) from close range and  since I could not speak Hindi or English then, I was mostly silent with a smile for his frequent calls of Enna china thambi? (how do you do little boy? in tamil- and that was the only south Indian phrase he knew- and like many north Indians, he also probably might have thought all southies are Madrasis and we all talk tamil). But on my return in the class I was boastful  of my interaction with a Sardarji – the only one in my class to have done so,- much to the envy of my friends. During that period we genuinely had an impression that  Sikhs are something similar to alien beings with beard and turban and hefty built.

The first chance I got to visit Punjab was way back in 1986 in the final year of Engg college during the all India tour. We were on our way to Shimla and had to cross Punjab.  It was during the peak of the troubled phase of Punjab. That night, otherwise boisterous group of 50  was as silent as flock of chickens in the butcher’s shop.  Much later in 2007 I had visited Jullundhar twice on official trip and found Punjab really green and developed- both agriculturally and industrially.   

Insurgency in  Punjab  was so long and bloody that it grabbed  much of the headlines of papers and Doordarshan ( the only available TV channel then)  during the turbulent 80s -  for the wrong reasons. And that was the time  of Amritsar and Golden temple caught the national attention. Amritsar for a sikh is equivalent of Bathlaheim for Christians, Macca for Muslims, and Varanasi for Hindus – the Holiest of Holy. But again it caught the attention of the nation and the world for the wrong reasons-  Bindranwale and his associates and  Operation Blue star.  After reading various books and newspaper articles on Bluestar and aftermath and assassination of Indira Gandhi, I had a secret desire to visit those hot spots. But  Punjab  was a dangerous place to travel then.

Operation blue star, contrary to the anticipated outcome, actually stirred up the hornest’s nest. Various splinter groups aided by Pakistan’s ISI wreaked havoc in this most prosperous state of India- and at one point it seemed that Pakistan will be successful in taking revenge for liberation of East Pakistan as Bangladesh. Khalistan appeared all too inevitable until that bold step taken by the then PM Mr. Narasimha Rao- often wrongly portrayed by the media as the  indecisive PM (just think of liberalization) -  to hold elections in Punjab in  1993.

Wagha border is the only recognized road crossing point between India and Pakistan. (A second one -  Aman Setu- between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad has been opened since 2005). Since the first time I saw the retreat ceremony on TV, I wanted to be a part of that ceremony.  It looked patriotically entertaining. And more importantly I have never seen a border  crossing  between  countries before.

So after a couple of flopped plans, I finally managed to reach Amritsar on 30^th Sept.

Amritsar for an outsider still maintains the age old charm intertwined with modernity that too with perfect finesse. You have narrow streets with small shops selling curios and dhabas selling Amritsari Kulcha and Naan and above all Lassi,  which will transport you back to the forties- you have only seen in TV in the good old Doordarshan days of  Buniyaad. But just turn the corner and the main roads are packed with  big shops, malls and ATMs, bringing us back to the familiar  modern day city from a nostalgic 40s town. It is a perfect blend of medieval and modern era- like many other heritage cities of India.

The places of interest may not be many- but they are all historical. And you start getting a strange sense of unease engulf you. The recent past ( Last 100 years) have been particularly violent with a lot of blood shed for this region. You start smelling blood everywhere.

The first prominent location is Jalian Walla Bagh. We all have studied in our school History text book about this location where on 13^th April 1919, British Indian army under Brigadier- General Dyer opened fire on a group of peaceful demonstrators who had gathered, protesting against Rowlett act . This act  had given the British unchallenging powers to detain anybody without trial and to curtail press freedom under the guise of containing political and militant unrest threatening British rule. The resulting carnage left more than a thousand dead – many of them Ladies and children.

The extend of casualty is very evident the moment you reach the garden. It has only one narrow entry and exit passage which is hardly 8 to 10 feet wide. The entire ground is surrounded by old buildings with some temple like structure and a well . So when the 90 or so British Indian army soldiers entered the ground from the only entry- exit point and started firing  at the demonstrators, there was no escape for them. The official figure of 379 dead is grossly manipulated underplay by the British. Many of them jumped into the well on the side to escape firing and more than 120 bodies were recovered from this well alone later. This well is since renamed Martyr’s well. The unofficial death toll of that incident was well over a thousand. You still see bullet holes in the boundary wall and the temple like structure at the centre- which have been clearly marked and preserved by govt. to remind us how hard earned this freedom and democracy is. This incident was a watershed in the history of our freedom struggle.  General Dyer was removed from the Brigadier General Post and sent back to Britain on grounds of ill health where he died in 1927. There premises has a memorial Amar Jyoti and a monument along with a museum which has a painting of the day the massacre. A must visit for those who love India and our freedom. But the moment you enter the narrow passage to the ground – which has later been converted into a memorial garden, a strange gloom descends with a realization that this is the path through which the British Indian soldiers entered the garden and opened fire on those hapless gatherers and that too without any warning.  The place is a stark reminder of the darkest  phase of British rule and their ruthlessness. In this modern day of neo-colonials- the big corporations with turnover more than that of the annual budget of many countries, it is a signboard warning us of the possible future consequences if they are given a free hand the way post 90s govt policies are formulated in India and elsewhere in the WTO era. After all British also entered India through the trade route- The British East India Company.

                                                                                          (to be continued)

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