In previous life, before the partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947, during a visit to Kahnau Nau in the outskirts of Lahore, I had bowed at this door as HIS humble seeker. Jhukiya Main Dar Tey Ban Key Sawaali I bowed at HIS door as a humble seeker Having been...
Our forefathers erred in 1947 to have fallen in the divisive traps laid down by the political leaders, the stooges of the British Empire, who cared less about humanity and more about their business of becoming the power wielders. Thereafter, for seven decades, the new leaders have built their fiefdom...
From the grounds inside the Lahore Fort, as I looked at the domes of Badshahi Mosque (left) and the Ranjit Singh Memorial (right), the similarities were striking. In addition, the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque reminded me of the Bungas (minarets) around the Golden Temple in Amritsar. In these architectural...
At Nankana Sahib in West Punjab of Pakistan, I was surprised to see a large concentration of Sikh community, none of whom are of Punjabi origin. The partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947 was founded on the concept of the ‘two-nation theory’ that Hindus and Muslims can henceforth never coexist...
As Ranjit Singh expanded his empire, it was Hari Singh Nalwa, his valiant Commander-in-Chief who took it to the mouth of the Khyber Pass in the western frontier. After the partition of 1947, Maulvi Mahmood Yasin who migrated from Ludhiana had occupied the residence of Hari Singh Nalwa in Gujranwala....
SINGH WAS KING: One cannot imagine that the lush green agricultural fields of today’s Punjab were once thick forests where lions (SINGH) roamed freely as the King of the jungle. Madho Lal Hussain (1538 – 1591), the great Sufi poet mentions about lions (SINGH) in his Sufi poetry about Heer-Ranjha,...
At Temple Road in Lahore (Pakistan), as I stared at the locked gates of the Mozang Gurdwara, built in the memory of the visit of Guru Hargobind, the sixth Sikh Guru, I recalled the testimony of Mujahid Taj Din on how during the partition of 1947, religious sentiments were nudged...
MOMENT OF EON: At the ‘Post Graduate Islamia College’ in Gujranwala (Pakistan), which in the pre-partition era was known as the ‘Guru Nanak Khalsa College’, a peeling poster on a column offered a clue of Gurmukhi inscriptions. As I took the liberty to scrape the poster, Mr. Baig, a teacher...
Khushwant Singh, the noted Indian novelist had written in his famous classic work of 1953 entitled ‘THE SIKHS’, “chief reason for my writing an account of my people is the melancholy thought that contemporary with my labours are being written the last chapters of the story of the Sikhs. By...
At Gujranwala in Pakistan, my destination was the mansion of Mahan Singh at Purani Mandi where Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the lion of Punjab was born. As the mansion is accessible only by foot, we moved through an alley via a crowded fish market to arrive at a dead end. Many...
In the market at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Administered Kashmir, as we were parking the car, a man had approached and asked in Punjabi, “Sardar ji, what brings you to Muzaffarabad?” Through our conversation, I had gathered that he hailed from a nearby village. Being aware of the vibrant Sikh community...
Excerpts from the brochure on ‘THE SIKH LEGACY IN PAKISTAN’, hosted by ‘Pama Peel Art Gallery Museum Archives’ in Toronto from April – July 2018.
In the map are pinpointed, the 126 cities/villages across Kashmir, Baltistan, North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan that are covered in the two books entitled “LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan” and “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”.
Indian subcontinent gained Independence in 1947 from the colonial rule, leading to the annihilation of Nanak’s appreciators from the Indus basin. Yet, in the hall of the abandoned Arambagh Gurdwara in Karachi (Pakistan), in a framed canvas picture, Guru Nanak sits awaiting! Photographed in Feb 2017, during the research for...
During a visit to the ‘Gurdwara Gali’ in Abbottabad (Pakistan), at a toy shop, peering at the decrepit Gurmukhi panel above the gate, I could read ‘Gurdwara Shri Guru Singh Sabha’. In that moment of intense gaze, I imagined my maternal grandparents visiting this site for their spiritual fulfilment. Since...