Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com
Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com
34 / Bhai Vir Singh correspondence mainly supplying reports of the activities of Singh Sabha in the various parts of the country and abroad and of the performance of the offices of marriage, birth and death in keeping with the reformist sanction. The Khalsa Samacharwas very precious to Bhai Vir Singh and he kept it alive in spite of the financial loss it involved from yearto year. On what slender budgets the Punjabi newspapers then ran wouldbeapparentfrom thesefigures, roundedin rupees, from the first year's audit report: Subscriptions, Rs. 381; donations, Rs.l23; advertisements, Rs. 120 and printing costs, including paper, Rs. 539. Total expenditure amounted to Rs. 1069 and income, including a special donation, to Rs. 724, leaving a deficit of Rs. 345. Bhai Vir Singh built the Khalsa Samachar into a potent vehicle for the promotion of social and religious reform. Vernacular journalism was the creation of contemporary movements of resurgence and it functioned almost exclusively to propagate their aims. Collection and presentation of news took, at best, a secondary place. News occupied a bare two or three columns in the Khalsa Samachar and was obviously borrowed and translated from the English papers. Itwas brief andperfunctory. But the rest of the Writing came charged with the reformist passion and creative imagination of its author. It gradually gained a mighty hold over the minds of the Punjabi readers. Through it Bhai Vir Singh's influence and ideas penetrated into a wide segment of the community. Here he appears in the role of a dogged campaigner, an engage intent on change, renovation and reconstruction. In the columns of his newspaper we see a society sunk in ignorance, superstition and lethargy undergoing a massive transformation and awakening to a new consciousness of its identity and destiny. The issues urged by Bhai Vir Singh were the extension of education, the rights of women, development and use of the Punjabilanguageandsecuringit its dueplaceinthe academic, official and cultural spheres, cleansing Sikhism of the base elementsandpseudo-religiouspracticeswhichhadsubverted Page 42 of 108
Father of Modem Punjabi Literature / 35 its spirit and the elimination of caste and image-worship. He regretted espec1ially the neglect of Punjabi bythe people who had learnt to speak it on their mothers' laps. "They sing Urdu couplets andfavour ghazals. Theymaketheircorrespondence in Urdu or English. Their conversation is either pidgin Urdu or brokenHindi...no one usespurePunjabi idiom ... The officers of Sri Darbar Sahib and of the Sikh states are maintained in Urdu."l In editoJdals writtenknowledgeably andpersuasively he castigated conservatism (Pitapurkhi 2 or "Established Tradition"), disunity (Hanne hanne mif3 or "Every saddle is a sovereignty") and graft (lis brichhpurbehna use noon katna 4 or "To cut by one's own hand the branch on which one sits"). By exposing the superstitious ceremonies which had crept into the Sikh places of worship and the clerical abuses, he anticipated the vigorous and radical Gurdwara reform movement of the twenties of this century. He was fully conscious of the power of the medium in his hands and converted, atwill, matters of urgent moment into major public issues. He wrote with feeling and sincerity, supporting his argument with. easy illustration from his vast erudition in religion, history, mythology and folklore. Besides Sikhism, whose Scripture and history he had so well mastered, Bhai Vir Singh had studied with deep care Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. For the comparative study of religious traditions he had a definite philosophy: "For understanding different religions, the emphasisisnotsomuchonpointsofsimilarityasonuniqueness. There are manythings common betweena cow anda buffalo; butthe cow andthe buffalo are not one."5 His attitude towards religions other than his own was marked by respect and 1. ibid., Vol. I, No.7, January 1, 1900, pp. 3-4. 2. ibid., Vol. II, No.4, November 26, 1900, p.3. 3. ibid., Vol. I, No.13, February 12, 1900, p.3. 4. ibid., Vol. I. No. 37, July 30, 1900, p.3. 5. ibid., Vol. IV, No. 38, August 5, 1903, p.3. Page 43 of 108 --------- ----- -------------
- Page 1 and 2: Bhai Vir Singh Father' ofModem Punj
- Page 3 and 4: Preface In theyear 19'1'2 falls the
- Page 5 and 6: Foreword opularly Popularly known a
- Page 7 and 8: Contents 1. The Milieu." 1 2. Ances
- Page 9 and 10: CHAPTER ONE The Milieu F orPunjabil
- Page 11 and 12: Father of Modem Punjabi Literature
- Page 16: 8 / Bhai Vir Singh including the fr
- Page 20: 12 / Bhai V"1T Singh imbalance in t
- Page 23 and 24: Father of Modern Punjabi Literature
- Page 26: 18/ Bhai Vir Singh Duleep Singh mad
- Page 29 and 30: Father of Modem Punjabi Literature
- Page 31 and 32: Father of Modem Punjabi Literature
- Page 33 and 34: Father of Modem Punjabi Mterature /
- Page 36 and 37: 28 I Bhai Vir Singh completecontrol
- Page 38 and 39: 30 / Bhai Vir Singh Tractarianism h
- Page 40 and 41: 32 / Bhai Vir Singh tun kithon). Eq
- Page 44 and 45: 36 / Bhai Vir Singh tolerance. His
- Page 46 and 47: 38 / Bhai Vir Singh huntinginthe ne
- Page 48 and 49: 40 / Bhai Vir Singh witha horse and
- Page 50 and 51: 42 / Bhai Vir Singh This answerabil
- Page 52 and 53: 44 / Bhai Vir Singh was first publi
- Page 54: 46 / Bhai Vir Singh regainedtheirhe
- Page 58: 50 / Bhai Vir Singh We have to live
- Page 61 and 62: CHAPTER FIVE Rana Surat Singh Pathe
- Page 63 and 64: Father of Modem Punjabi Literature
- Page 65 and 66: Father of Modern Punjabi Literature
- Page 68: 60 / Bhai Vir Singh And yetinthis a
- Page 71 and 72: Father of Modem Punjabi Literature
- Page 76: 68 / Bhai Vir Singh intensity of hi
- Page 80 and 81: 72 / Bhai Vir Singh The same idea i
- Page 82: 74 / Bhai .Vir Singh Your flowers h
- Page 86 and 87: 78 / Bhai Vir Singh finalized byhim
- Page 88: 80 / Bhai Vir Singh footnotes. Wher
- Page 91 and 92: Father ot Modem Punjabi Literature
34 / <strong>Bhai</strong> <strong>Vir</strong> <strong>Singh</strong><br />
correspondence mainly supplying reports of the activities of<br />
<strong>Singh</strong> Sabha in the various parts of the country and abroad<br />
and of the performance of the offices of marriage, birth and<br />
death in keeping with the reformist sanction. The Khalsa<br />
Samacharwas very precious to <strong>Bhai</strong> <strong>Vir</strong> <strong>Singh</strong> and he kept it<br />
alive in spite of the financial loss it involved from yearto year.<br />
On what slender budgets the Punjabi newspapers then ran<br />
wouldbeapparentfrom thesefigures, roundedin rupees, from<br />
the first year's audit report: Subscriptions, Rs. 381; donations,<br />
Rs.l23; advertisements, Rs. 120 and printing costs, including<br />
paper, Rs. 539. Total expenditure amounted to Rs. 1069 and<br />
in<strong>com</strong>e, including a special donation, to Rs. 724, leaving a<br />
deficit of Rs. 345.<br />
<strong>Bhai</strong> <strong>Vir</strong> <strong>Singh</strong> built the Khalsa Samachar into a potent<br />
vehicle for the promotion of social and religious reform.<br />
Vernacular journalism was the creation of contemporary<br />
movements of resurgence and it functioned almost<br />
exclusively to propagate their aims. Collection and<br />
presentation of news took, at best, a secondary place. News<br />
occupied a bare two or three columns in the Khalsa Samachar<br />
and was obviously borrowed and translated from the English<br />
papers. Itwas brief andperfunctory. But the rest of the Writing<br />
came charged with the reformist passion and creative<br />
imagination of its author. It gradually gained a mighty hold<br />
over the minds of the Punjabi readers. Through it <strong>Bhai</strong> <strong>Vir</strong><br />
<strong>Singh</strong>'s influence and ideas penetrated into a wide segment<br />
of the <strong>com</strong>munity. Here he appears in the role of a dogged<br />
campaigner, an engage intent on change, renovation and<br />
reconstruction. In the columns of his newspaper we see a<br />
society sunk in ignorance, superstition and lethargy<br />
undergoing a massive transformation and awakening to a<br />
new consciousness of its identity and destiny.<br />
The issues urged by <strong>Bhai</strong> <strong>Vir</strong> <strong>Singh</strong> were the extension of<br />
education, the rights of women, development and use of the<br />
Punjabilanguageandsecuringit its dueplaceinthe academic,<br />
official and cultural spheres, cleansing Sikhism of the base<br />
elementsandpseudo-religiouspracticeswhichhadsubverted<br />
Page 42 of 108
Change language