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Darshan Singh Pheruman: What
he really died for
Dr. Tajindar
Singh
Sardar
Darshan Singh Pheruman's martyrdom, like Christ's, was expiatory. He
died to atone for the egregious sins of others, namely, the
so-called Sants and leaders of the Sikhs. But has his supreme
self-sacrifice done any appreciable good to the quality of
subsequent Akali leaders? The death anniversary of Sardar Pheruman
falls on October 27. The WSN pays a tribute with this article.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when will it suffice ?. . .
Was it needless death after all ?
- W. B. Yeats
 These words of
homage for the Irish patriots may be applied with equal justice to
the long string of Punjabi martyrs before and since Partition. There
is something in the very chemistry of the Punjabi blood which makes
it so eager to be shed for a cause, and sometimes even without one.
Only one Indian dies for the liberation of Goa and he, for sure, is
a Punjabi - S. Karnail Singh of Issru. And who can count the number
of Punjabi's who died for the freedom of India?
And even after Partition the number of Punjabis who have willingly
embraced tribulation and death is legion. How many were sent to jail
for agitating against the imposition of the infamous Emergency when
the rest of Indians had been browbeaten into silence and
acquiescence? The record of the Punjabi Suba
Movement and the
Anti - SYL Canal Movement constitutes some of the most tumultuous
pages of our history. Nineteen eighty-four was a watershed. The post
- 1984 events, however, cannot be dispassionately studied and
evaluated by anybody at present.
S. Darshan Singh
Pheruman (1883-1969) was a staunch Sikh and a staunch nationalist.
Ever since he
came of age he actively participated in every notable agitation for
the liberation of the country and the Panth. To start with, he
actively participated in the Akali movement for the liberation of
the gurdwaras (1921-25). He was arrested and imprisoned for a year
in connection with the Keys Morcha. He courted imprisonment again by
leading a jatha in the Jaito Morcha. After his release he emigrated
to Malaysia in 1929, but there too he continued to work for India's
independence. He was arrested and imprisoned. In the prison he went
on his first hunger strike in protest against being denied a
kachhehra . The strike went on for 21 days, that is, till his demand
was conceded.
After returning
from Malaysia Sardar Pheruman joined the Civil Disobedience
Movement and was
sentenced to imprisonment thrice. He took part in the Kisan Movement
in 1930. Later, he participated in the Quit India Movement and was
arrested and jailed again and again. By 1945, when he was finally
released by the Government he had spent as many as 15 years of his
life in Colonial prisons.
Like the
distinguished Sikh leaders of yore -- such as Baba Kharak Singh and
Master
Tara Singh -- he
made no distinction between the Akali and the Congress Parties.
Pandit
Nehru was
arrested in Jaito Morcha and Mahatma Gandhi described the success of
the
Gurdwara
Agitation as the first victory in the battle for India's
independence. Sardar
Pheruman
remained a member of the SGPC for a number of years and for two
terms he was elected its General Secretary. He was also a member of
the Rajya Sabha from 1951 to 1964.
Sardar Pheruman
was not only a firm and true Sikh as well as a nationalist to the
core, but was also sensitively alive to the post-independence
deterioration of moral, political, and religious standards. This
sensitiveness compelled him to leave the Congress in 1959. He was no
less disillusioned and disgusted by new crop of thick-headed,
ignorant, uneducated, and selfish "Sants"--Fateh Singh, Chanan Singh
et al -- who with their pusillanimity had made the virile Sikh
community a laughing stock of the world. Sant
 Fateh Singh went
on a fast unto death twice and, as had been predicted by one and
all, survived each time, with a vengeance. To add insults to injury,
before starting his second fast he got constructed two havankunds
projecting out of the third floor of the Holy Akal Takhat in one of
which he was to burn himself to death on the fifteenth day of his
fast. But, as even a most naive person could have predicted, the
havankunds remained unused. But long after the farcical drama of the
fast his havankunds was kept intact, of course despite the loud and
angry protests of people like Sirdar Kapoor Singh who described it
as a monstrosity and an insult to all the Sikhs. I personally
remember that the havankunds bore the following (or something like
the following) words in Punjabi in bold characters: Is than te Sant
Fateh Singh ji ne agnibhaint hona si.
Sant Fateh
Singh's fast was not unto his death, but it certainly led to the
death of Sardar Pheruman. The question of merger of Chandigarh
in Punjab, for which Sant Fateh Singh had undertaken his fast, was
still hanging fire. Some vague assurances from Mrs. Indira
Gandhi
communicated to him through S. Hukam Singh had provided him the all-toowell-anticipated
escape route to save his precious life (for, maybe, yet another fast
unto death), completely forgetting his ardas and pledge before Guru
Granth Sahib.
Sardar
Pheruman's fast unto death was, at long last, the real thing.
Ostensibly
Chandigarh as
also the control of Bhakra-Nangal were also the issues mentioned by
him, but if one examines all the evidence minutely one feels
convinced that primarily he died in protest against the gross
perfidy of the Akalis headed by Sant Fateh Singh who enjoyed all the
privileges which an Akali Government could grant. As Sardar Pheruman
said again and again, he had decided to immolate himself in order to
redeem the honour of the Panth which had been brought down by the
fraudulent showmanship of its leaders.
His sacrifice
was to be a practical demonstration of what a true and humble Sikh
could do. When he launched his fast on Aug 15, 1969,
leaders like Jiwan Singh Umranangal and Sant Fateh Singh decried his
"stuntmanship" wrongly thinking that he was also of their ilk. He
was put first in Amritsar Jail and then shifted to the hospital
where he successfully resisted being injected or force-fed. As per
her old practice Mrs. Indira
Gandhi also sent
him messages of promise to reconsider the Chandigarh
and other issues. A shamefaced and confused Sant Fateh Singh also
arrived in propria persona a day or two before his death, obviously
to persuade him to break his pledge and fast like he himself had
done twice. Sardar Pheruman expired on Oct. 27, 1969 on the 74th day
of his fast. All through his fast he remained either reciting or
listening to Gurbani, particularly the Sukhmani Sahib. Here is an
excerpt from his testament which was published in several newspapers
on Oct 28, 1969:
"For the last
half a century I have worked through sufferings and tribulations for
the freedom of my country and for ensuring ever increasing
ascendance and expansion of the Panth. The country is now free but
the Panth is still in bondage. In the country corruption and moral
degradation have vastly increased. The management of the Sikh
Gurdwaras and the conduct of Sikh politics have fallen into the
hands of hypocrites, styling themselves pious menand sants and those
who did not wish the Panth well. The doctrines of the Sikh religion,
the traditions of the Sikh religion, the traditions of the Khalsa,
the historical splendour of the Sikh Nation had been thus trampled
under the feet of these undesirable persons. Those who had played up
the drama of undertaking solemn vows before the Akal Takhat to
immolate themselves have, by taking recourse to lies and cowardice,
captured the decision-making centres of power . . . The traitors of
the Panth and the pious frands, called sants, have successfully
hatched an ugly conspiracy to eliminate every vestige of the
wholesome influence of Sikh religion from Sikh politics with the
purpose of making Sikh people………… slaves of others…… This grave sin
can be washed away only through a genuine and pure martyrdom. The
ugly and audacious memorials which Sant Fateh Singh has got
constructed, as rivals of the holy
Akal Takhat, are
calling loudly for genuine sacrifices from the Singhs………To achieve
this end, I am going to lay down my life. "Thus Sardar Pheruman's
martyrdom, like Christ's was expiatory. He died to atone for the
egregious sins of others, namely, the so-called Sants and leaders of
the Sikhs. But has his supreme self-sacrifice done any appreciable
good to the quality of subsequent Akali leaders?
17
October, 2007
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