By Lt. Col J.S. Gularia (Retd)
As writer of fiction, Bhai Vir Singh need not be judged critically from the point of view critically from the point of view of style and treatment of subjects in his novels, He wrote all his fiction works with a purpose. The purpose was to awaken in the Sikhs the sense of chivalry and to instill in them a sense of pride in their cultural and rich heritage.
Bhai Vir Singh emerged on the literary Scene at a time when the Sikhs had started harboring misgivings about the achievements of their ancestors. This is described piquantly by Khushwant Singh in his book “the Sikhs” (P. 166). He says, “English historians harped on the crude and corrupt rule which they had replaced by an enlightened one Sanskrit scholars belittled the religion of Sikhs as a poor imitation of the Hindus and ridiculed its forms and symbols.”
This was too much to endure for a person of Bhai Vir Singh’s sensitivity and understanding. He took it as a challenge and proceeded to blow away the dust almost single handily. Through his novels, he emphasized the ethical excellence of the Sikh religion and reminded the Sikhs of heroism and chivalry practiced, by their coféligionists. His novel Sundri, Bijay Singh, Satwant Kaur, and Baba Naudh Singh carried an instant appeal for the Sikhs who read them with enthusiasm and pride. They are historical novels written with a religious background. It may be argued that the style and treatment of subjects dealt with does not conform to the standards of fiction.
It has to be accepted, however, that these novels had succeed in bringing out the necessary change in the attitude of the Sikhs towards their heroic heritage. Novels like Sundri and Satwant Kaur have gone into scores of editions and are still read by persons having interest in history and religion.
By his novels, Bhai Vir Singh was able to put across his message and was thus able in warding off the challenge posed to the Sikh religion by the English historians and Sanskrit scholars to which a reference has been made above.
Bhai Vir Singh was not only an eminent poet, a great master of prose writing and an erudite scholar, but also a great humanitism. His writings and compositions played an important part in setting the literary trends for the past 80 years and odd. He never sought publicity. He hated displaying his scholarship. He was truly modest and genuinely shy by nature. He never spoke from a public platform. His life had a charm which won the hearts of all who came in contact with him. His conversation and discourses were highly elevating and truly illuminating. He had a personal charm. His presence inspired godly love and peace. Many are the stories of the people who went to him with problems and returned with smiling faces. He rose above all barriers. and had a sympathetic heart. He saw nothing but good in those who I came in his contact.
In recognition of his “great personality and service to Punjabi literature”, the University of East Punjab conferred on him the Degree of Doctor of Oriental learning, Honoris Causa, in 1949, in absentia. In 1952, he was nominated to the Punjab Legislature Council, under the now Constitution and to the Academy of Letters in 1957. mere Sainan Jeo, the last collection of his poems appeared in 1953. It won him the Sahitya Akademi Award. This created new awareness and fresh recognition of this literary giant and his numerous services to the Punjabi literature. This was a remarkable feat considering the fact that Bhai Vir Singh had already celebrated his eightieth birthday when Mete Saian Jeo appeared. It was a significant achievement of which all lovers of Punjabi are proud. In 1956, he was honored with the award of Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
Harindranath Chattapodhyaya said of him, “His is a clean white style resembling a diamond; austere and hard, and yet full of color, which can only be seen when held to the light of soul, which is also clean and white. Indeed, when one tries to conjure up the personality of this poet before the mind’s eye, it strikes one that is made up of white rays, which has been proved beyond doubt by his entire life which he lived in unyielding purity on the heights of truth.”
Dr. Mulk Raj Anand was so inspired by Bhai Vir Singh’s works that he mastered the Punjabi language with a great effort to know the philosophic content of Bhai Vir Singh’s verse and prose. He says, “throughout the early years of my writing life, fraught with the most hazardous battles for bread and liberty I had never forgotten some of the lesson taught to us by this colossus of modern Punjabi literature, who is Bhai Vir Singhapart from his teaching, some of which has become part of my inheritance, I shall always cherish the privileged moments during which I had known this poet as a human being of a rare dignity and sensibility.”
Dr. Radhkrishnan, in a foreward to “Bhai Vir Singh Abhinandan Granth,” said, “Bhai Vir Singh is one of those representative Indians deriving inspiration from the classical wisdoms of our land and living it before our eyes. In this world of easy going contentment with small thing, Bhai Vir Singh invites our attention to the goal of man’s life.
They say man is the crest of the wave of life But what is man, who is lost in the smoke of the fire that burns within him! SFl For he is the Lord of creation only if he be lord of himself.
*‘We need today men who ask us to lift our eyes from the narrow fanaticisms of the heights of universal religion. It makes one sick, not only mentally, but also physically, to think that we, so called civilized beings, should after centuries of enlightenment, be spending our time thinking how we can protect ourselves from the effects of atomic bombardment, how we can prevent poisonous gas from going down the throats of people. The world over, men ate obsessed by the most fearful terror of the prostitution of man’s knowledge of destructive ends. The life and work of authentic men like Bhai Vir Singh show that if the world is to be saved, knowledge should be redeemed by wisdom.”
Let ages come and go!
Let cycles roll as they may,
And let him be where he wills,
My heart shall never cease.
My longings for him will never end. Enough for me, this vocation of pain, I revel in this killing thirst,
The misery of this hunger is My life and joy forever.
BHAI VIR SINGH
Article extracted from this publication >> December 29, 1989
