The forgotten sacrifices of Punjab
By Himmat Singh Gill

IT was the early 1930s in India, and unrest against the British was spreading in every corner. Yet the flame of revolt had not been ignited, and it needed an appropriate environment and self-sacrificing people, from wherein, the spark to lighten these fires could be conceived and nurtured, for use when the time arose. Though very many people will today lay claim to fame for their role in the freedom struggle, history (provided it is written honestly and without a motive) will tell one day, that it were the people of Punjab, and in that the Majha region of Amritsar and Tarn Taran, who produced many a firebrand and freedom fighter, who gave up their all, for the sake of their country.

It is my purpose today to write about one such family, who lived then in the village of Naushehra Pannu then, very near my own village of Aldinpur, and whose Herculean efforts in the freedom movement have gone largely unnoticed and unsung so far. The name that comes up immediately is that of Sardar Mangal Singh, and his associates, one of whom happened to be the irrepressible Jai Parkash Narayan, one of the greatest revolutionaries of all times.

Those were the days of war cries, slogans and sacrifice, cries of Dukhi parja; Hai nai Karja; Inqualab Zindabad, (the pained masses, suffering the yoke of debt), rent the air as Mangal Singh and his followers convened the first big conference for the attainment of self-rule in Sarhali town in Amritsar district. Baba Gurdit Singh of the ‘Kamagata Maru’ crusade fame was the President of the reception committee, and Mangal Singh the secretary. Readers would recollect that it was around this time, that the Congress and the Akali Party had reached an understanding with each other, for stepping up the freedom struggle in the north, and the scene of action shifted to the Majha belt of Punjab. This first conference at Sarhali was presided over by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who rode a white horse at the head of the procession, as some of the oldtimers from my village still recollect, and the spirit of azadi and the overthrow of the British was on everyone’s mind.

What followed thereafter, were secret meetings and conclaves in the havelies and outhouses of many of the villages in the Majha belt at great risk to life and property. Many were discovered, taken away by the police, never to be seen again. Training camps in the art of using firearms, disbursing literature and pamphlets, and the art of acting as messengers, all these were held in nearly every village of Amritsar district. The spark was about to be lit.

The second large conference was held at Naushehra Pannu, where Jai Parkash Narayan was the president, and Mangal Singh, the organising secretary. A photograph taken from the family archives of Gurmit Singh Rataul of California, shows a very young and rather handsome J.P. Narayan, seated with Mangal Singh on his (JPN’s) extreme right, with Shri Durga Das in beads, between the two of them. Incidentally, Sardar Partap Singh Kairon started his political career with an ardas performed at Mangal Singh’s haveli at this conference. He had the blessings of JP and Mangal Singh for his first ever election.

The ‘subversive’ activities as the British saw them, were bound to have their affect, and soon Mangal Singh, his brother Karam Singh, and their only sister Bibi Jaswant Kaur were arrested and lodged in jail. Sardar Mangal Singh was moved to Shahpur jail thereafter, where he organised a hunger strike, protesting against the inhuman treatment of the prisoners, and poor conditions and substandard food in jail. As a result, the authorities moved him out again, this time to Ambala jail, where he continued to resist the British, alongwith Gopi Chand Bhargava and Jai Vilas of Rajasthan, who were also lodged there. After his release he moved to Malaysia, where he joined the INA. Mangal Singh eventually came back to India, but this time, as a prisoner-of-war of the British.

Such then is the story of Mangal Singh of whom so little is known so far. Men like him are not remembered today, because possibly, they are not big names like some others, and because they lacked a good public relations department, an absolute must for today’s successful leaders. People of his kind also did not have any dynastic connections to propel them onto fame and riches.

Yet these, and many more like him, are the ones to whom the country owes gratitude. Today when I hear of only 40 or 50-year-old "freedom" fighters, I do not know which freedom they are referring to! The real freedom fighters like Mangal Singh travelled in their own bullock-carts or third class compartments and never asked for free railway passes. They did their best for a nation, which sadly remains ungrateful to them.

The government of Punjab, nay, the Central government too, would honour themselves if they named hospitals, educational institutions and roads after their names. It is time the true heroes of the freedom revolution were put on the right pedestal, irrespective of which state they belonged to. This has been the purpose of my article today.