By Gurtej Singh
Hail anyone else gone at the age Of 82 it could have been said that ho has had a full inning. We can’t say the same of Sardar Daljeet Singh, civil servant, philosopher, theologian and writer. Until the last day he was hale and he any and had no complaints about health. Suddenly we find that he is no more, More than sons and daughters, by whom the ordinary mortals are remembered, Sardar Daljeet Singh leaves behind half a dozen original books on philosophy and theology. It is through these that his sharp penetrating mind will live to etemity. He can easily be acknowledged amongst the few first-rate theologians that the country has produced. The Sikh place him in the company of Bhai Gurdas and Sirdar Kapur Singh Kapur Singh himself thought highly of him. On reading his Sikhism a Comparative Study of its Theology and Mysticism, he is known to have remarked. “Daljeet Singh I envy you. I should have written such a book.”
He was a great man of great learning. He started very early and by the age of 28 he was already studying the Vedas and other basic religious texts. Soon he was ‘equally at home in the other Indian and Semitio traditions. He mastered the minutest details of great dispensations, He was fully conversant with the seminal ideas of every significant religious movement that flourished in history. He competently distilled the wisdom of east and west. His alert syn the Sizing mind wove into a pattern all “that was worth noting in any school that contributed even the smallest Measure to the welfare of mankind. His latest work, Sikhism and ‘Civilization, is in the manuscript form. During his last days he was working hard at it. He was in a great hurry to finish it. His visits to me had become when he got up gain to write or when he would have his meals. Trays of food would be placed on his table and empty utensils collected later. I have gone through several chapters of the manuscript and consider being a very significant contribution to the study of comparative religions.
In this he analyses the Graeko Roman concepts, Judaic, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Sikh religious doctrines having a bearing on the concept of Miri-Piri. He spoke of it as the unitary concept of Miri-Piri and not as that of Min and Pini, to him it was the single most potent spiritual idea which has influenced the course along which civilizations have developed, and this work will be considered as an authentic representation of the views of spiritual traditions analyzed by him. Secularists may also find that their point of view is correctly delineated. Of all the Semitic concepts, he was particularly appreciative of, “Love and Lord thy God with all they heart and with all thy might and love thy neighbor’s thyself.” He noted that the celebrated theologian Hilal, took it to be the essence of Torah. While discussing the subject with him, one could discem that it would have been difficult for him to be a Sikh had that concept not been present in Sikhism, It was a great satisfaction to him that it was there with even greater emphasis. He knitted it admirably with the Sikh concept of martyrdom, which was the second theme uppermost in his mind during his last days.
What really disturbed him was the Sikh failure to take up and finally resolve the long pending issue of authorship of the so-called Dasam Granth. Many times he remarked that he would not like to die without touching upon it. Towards this and he made sustained efforts and took time off from revising the manuscript to write an article which was published during his lifetime. His Sikh Ideology is a final blow Jo all those, who would consider Sikhism to be anything other than an independent, dispensation. Along with his other works, it firmly establishes the separate identity of Sikhism, The clear doctrinal position on the subject in Guru Granth Sahib has seldom received the attention if receives in the writings of Sardar Daljeet Singh, The crucial Sikh concepts are expressed with Clarity and dept. surpassed by none.
Though publicity shy and self-effacing by nature, he shunned no challenge. During the Dharam
Yudh Morcha, he founded the Council of Sikh Affairs which made an in-depth study of the issues of the Akali agitation, one result of the undertaking was his treatise on the issue of the Punjab river waters. It is the last word on the subject. Significantly no one was prepared to deal with it earlier, but since then it has been touched upon by every serious Punjab watcher.
To meet the motivated challenge posed to Sikh identity, he founded the Institute of Sikh Studies. Under his capable guidance and in a short while, it became synonymous for rational enquiry in the academic world. Its impact was worldwide. Sikh scholars everywhere took note of its work, and were drawn to him and to the Institute instinctively: he disappointed no one. However spared any effort and was always busy like the ants, inspiring all those around him to work equally hard. His response to challenges was always continuative and adequate.
It was difficult to love the great Sirdar for he was totally intolerant of mediocrity; it was so easy to love this ever smiling, compassionate, red turbaned Bodhisattva. He made special allowances for human frailties and was ever ready to take the woes of the world on his shoulders. He would take long periods off from his work to attend to mundane problems of others. He never forgot any nuance or detail of any problem brought to him. Nobody knows more about this aspect of his character than I, He was equally generous with money and would readily contribute to a public cause. In spite of his love for his work, he took his householder’s duties seriously. He was regular in attending to the studies of his grandchildren; One of his last acts was to fetch his granddaughter from school where he had to wait for more than half an hour in the unusual heat of that day. In retrospect, it appears that the least significant pan of his life was the one devoted to civil service; It is because the values that he stood for are no longer relevant today. When civil service has become anonymous with serving the mammon and vulgar whims of those in power, the likes of Sardar Daljeet Singh cease to be towers of light. Self-effacement, rectitude, efficiency, courage of conviction and the unsuitable desire to serve the people is the list of values he subscribed to. It was quite in order for him to risk his life to save a Muslim fugitive from the murderous mob in 1947? It would be termed foolhardy today.
As secretary education with the Punjab government, he had a hand in framing the charters of the Punjabi University and the Guru Nanak University. He, more than anyone else, is responsible for the establishment of chairs of Sikh studies at several universities outside the Punjab. Had he been given more freedom to frame the charters as he had planned, our Universities could today have been the envy of the academic world.
His retirement in 1969 can now be taken to be an important milestone on the road of Sikh studies, Thereafter he devoted most of his time to Sikh studies and gave to it respectability by his hard labor. His training as a civil servant came to his aid in his Essays on Authenticity of the Kartarpuni Bir and the Integrated Unity and Logic of Sikhism. He takes the Bir to be a document under examination and subjects it to rigorous tests, After sifting all available evidence, he appreciates it meticulously before passing a clear speaking judgment. By this particular book alone he has placed himself in line with some of the most productive Guru Granth Sahib scholars. His few predecessors are Bhai Gurdas, Bhai Jodh Singh and Dr. Sahib Singh.
On the day previous to his last, he fully participated in a discussion with Dr. Muthu Mohan who had come to the Institute from Kamraj University, Madurai. On the last day he sat through another long discussion, intervening briefly here and there, On the way back he joked with Sardar Jagjit Singh, making mock promises of becoming his acolyte in the event of his donning a saintly dress and threatening to dnifito some other popular and rich charlatan if he did not do so. He stood talking for a long while when I dropped him home.
It was near about four in the evening that I rushed to sec him “in great pain” and feeling a “tun of weight” on his chest. Doctors came within minutes. He recovered for a short while, “lam five percent better” and after a while, ‘with great satisfaction we heard him say, “I am 80% belter.” That is when the second bout came, He ‘was successfully revived with a defibrillator and shifted to the Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Research.
‘There he again recovered for 3 while and inquired who all come with him to hospital. But quite suddenly there was the third attack and he solemnly announces. “Tam dying, I am dying.” It being Sunday and there being some other difficulties, it took a long time 10 make the operation theater operational, He fought on bravely with the name of God on his lips. The operation was successful, the block in the artery was removed but the main heart muscle had died for want of oxygen. The end came just after 11.
By any reckoning, he was a great man, Just as his vision spanned centuries, his compassion knew no bounds and his wisdom scanned the minds of great men of all ages. His commitment to the principles of universal Sikhism was as firm as that of the Himalaya’s to the earth, His role in meeting the challenges to Sikh ideology posed by western scholars was as crucial and historic as that of Bhai Diljeet Singh in the Singh Sabha context. He was a fighter for righteousness fought relentlessly like big great ancestor who was at with the immortal Sardar Sham Singh of Attari His spiritual self-effacement left nothing to be desired. He some: times even wondered whether belief in the separate existence of soul would not eventually interfere with belief in the unity of We have no words to describe his departure from this world, Perhaps it was 4 festival of final self-effacement for him. It was exactly as the Guru had pronounced, he simply merged into Gobind as a drop disappears into the ocean.” To his friends and admirers, however, an era had come to an end, The lighthouse was no more. They recalled Amir Khusro’s tribute on the death of Khwaza Nizamuddin Aulia, fair one sleeps on the couch, her face covered with tresses. Let us depart for home Khusro, darkness is descending on the world.” a World Sikh News joins the Sikh community in its grief for the loss of this great writer.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 21, 1994
