PUNJABI POETS-2

GYANI GURMUKH SINGH MUSAFIR                  

                                              
                                     

     






The Life & Works of Musafir -


Prem Singh ‘Prem’

Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir was my mentor although he came from the family of my maternal grandparents. We came close to each other in 1935-36, when i was a Student of Khalsa College, Amritsar, which was managed and governed by Chief Khalsa Dewan the pro-British organization of the Sikh sardars.

I was born rebel and could seldom stand the irrational and autocratic decisions of the authorities. This spirit often brought me into conflict with the management of my college. At one stage the differences came to such a pitch that I was expelled from the hostel just a month before the final examination.

The headquarters of the Akalis in those days was the Sikh Missionary College, which was situated a stone’s throw away from Khalsa College. Master Tara Singh and Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir resided there. The Akali party was the main opponent of the Chief Khalsa Devan. My activities in the college attracted their attention. Along with this my nearness to Musafir ji whom I used to meet occasionally brought me close to them.

Just few days before my B.A. examination, Musafir ji met me and talked to me about the coming Assembly elections in 1937 and asked for my family’s support for the Congress-cum-Akali candidate who was going to contest from our area. I assured him of our support because of my leanings towards the Congress party and opposition to the Sikh nationalist party (Chief Khelsa Dewan) whose candidate was to contest against the Congress – Akali candidate.

After the examination, I left for my village in Campbellpur district. Musafir ji visited after sometime and I accompanied him ona tour of our area. This was the beginning of my entry into active politics.

After the elections were over, I was invited to work in the daily Akali Patrika. This daily paper was in serious difficulties at that time and therefore the responsibility of running it was placed in the efficient hands of Musafir ji.

Giani Gurmukh Singh was born in village Udhowal situated on the banks of the river Soan, on January 15, 1899. His father, Bhai Sujan Singh, was a small peasant. He passed his vernacular middle from the village school and later secured the degrees of Giani.J.V and S.V. training classes.

His mother, who died when he was only 12 years old, loved him dearly. At her insistence Musafir ji had to leave the village at midnight for some other place, as the police was pursuing him for writing a poem on the atrocities perpetuated by the authorities on the public.

Musafir ji was basically a poet. It was the Jallianwala Bagh and Nankana Sahib tragedies that prompted him to plunge into the Akali movement and later the Congress movement.

At the time of Nankana Sahib tragedy he was Student of J.V.Training School at Sargodha. He left his studies and reached Nankana Sahib. The head master of the school, who liked Musafir for his brilliance approached the leaders at the Nankana Sahib and requested him to coax Musafir back to Sargodha. He wanted him to finish his studies first and then to any thing he liked.

After he came out of J.V.Training school, his patriotic spirit threw him into the poetical field. He started composing revolutionary poems and singing patriotic songs. In one of his Poems, he finds himself pointed to his love of poetry over politics

He says. The delicate flower of poetry seems very cheap to you and you have crushed it with the load of mundane offices and positions. Heavens are not going to fall if you do not remain the President. Do not think that this universe stands on your shoulders. If you want to enjoy the fresh and sacred air of poetic heights, give up just serving leadership.

After his vernacular middle exams, Musafir joined as a teacher in a high school at Kallar. Master Tara Singh, who later became the recognized leader of Sikhs, was the head master of the school. The other teachers were Giani Hira Singh Dard, Lal Singh ‘Kamla Akali’ and Master Sujan Singh Sarhali, who all turned out to be prominent leaders in the Akali movements later.

It was there that Musafir decided to pass the Giani exam and then go in for J.V. and S.V. Training

At the time of Guru Ka Bagh Morcha, he organized a jatha from his village and left from Amritsar. The day his jatha was to leave for the front, he recited a stirring poem from the rostrum of Akal Takth to the congression

(O! my heart get up, let’s go to Guru Ka Bagh and see ourselves the miracles of the beloved. Bow our heads and kiss the sacred earth and see with our own eyes the stories heard)

Observing the spontaneous reaction of the people, Jathedar Teja Singh Akarpuri, Jathedar of Akal Takth, announced that Musafir would not be given permission to lead the jatha to the morcha because the cuase would be better served if he was kept back to organize more jathas with his inspiring poems.

According to the wishes of the Jathedar of the highest religious sawt of the Sikhs, Musafir did not go with the jatha but was sent to different parts of the state to recite his poems. He was later arrested along with Sardar Darshan Singh Pherum the great martyr. After sometime Musafir ji himself was appointed the Jathedar of Sri Akali Takth

Gurmukh Singh Musafir was a multi- dimensional personality. He rose to the positions of Jathedar, Sri Akal Takth, General Secretary SGOPC, President of PPCC, Member, Congress Working Committee, Member of Parliament and Chief Minister of Punjab. He had a host of friends all over the globe and was universally popular.

Along with his political career, he constantly wrote poetry, prose, short stories and biographical sketches. His stories are not merely imaginative, but based on his experiences in jail and politics

The eminent scholar principal Teja Singh wrote:

“Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir, because of his vast experience in life, writes his short stories on the basis of that experience. He writes of sufferings, with a pen dipped in blood in such a way that the paper on which he writes gets scotched.

Patriotism, love of the downtrodden and fearlessness with which he criticized his own Party’s governmenton its lapses were the characteristics of the great Giani

In a poem on the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy he says :

Tat tar goli chali wang holi
Hoia khun da harh ravan ethe
Haddi walam te jussa dwat bania
Likehia khun sang baith paiman the

(The firing started like Holi and there ran the flood of blood, with bone as pen and body as ink pot the pledge was written with blood)
In another poem while entreating for emanicipation from British rule, he asked his countrymen:

Uth naujawana zamana badal de
Azadi de bin jo nishana badal de
Sulanda jo tenu gulami di nindar
Uh takia badal de sirhana badal de

(Get up young man, change the times, change any other aim but that of swaraj. Change the pillow that sends you to the slumber of slavery)

Before 1946, when Musafir was sent to the Constitutional Assembly by the party, he remained hard pressed for money and could barely meet his day to day expenses. After that he remained a Member ofparliament till the end of his life excepting a few months in 1966-67 when he was the Chief Minister of Punjab. It cannot be said that he never turned rich afterwards. He died with no bank balance but he was not so hard up economically as he was before 1946. During the struggle for freedom, he was mostly behind the bars. He was in the jail when his daughter Rajinder, his son Bhicha and his father, Bhai Sujan Singh left for their heavenly abodes. His loving father, before his death, lamented for a glimpse of his son but the application of Musafir’s parole was rejected by the government. The dying father expressed a wish that his death bed be taken to the gates of the prison where Musafir was detained and that he wanted to end his life there.

In the Quit India Movement, I had been detained in Sialkot Jail. When Musafir was transferred from Shajalpur jail, he slept for a night in my cell. When I condoled the death of his father, I saw tears flowing from his eyes. I remained in the company of Musafir most of my life and I can confidently say that this was the first and the last occasion when I saw tears in the eyes of this great man.

A reference was already been made about the poverty and the economic difficulties faced by Musafir and his family before 1946. I am reminded of an occasion when on returning home after many days of political tour his wife came to him with tears in her eyes and narrated her woes of not getting atta (wheat flour) and other necessities of life for some days. She said that she did not like to stand in his way but the responsibility of running the house was also his. That night Musafir wrote the following poem:

Tang dasti bandish majburi
Jhuge which gisde eh muri
Hami usdi bhul ke koi bhare kion
Nal Musafir piar koi kare Kion
Bhav Sagar da dur kinara
De ditta kise rata sahara
Dubde de sang dub ke koi mare kion
Nal musafir piar koi kare kion

(A man whose lot is only poverty, privation and helplessness, who will come forward and vouch for him? Why should anyone love Musafir? Beyond is the shore of the sea. One can lend a little hand but who will like to drown with the drowning man. Why should anyone love Musafir)

About his wife who stood with him faithfully in all the ups and downs of his life, he wrote:

Hirda jis da preet khazana
Vasda Pia musafir khana
Usde sir di khain manan
Jindi rahe mere bachian di maan

His poem ‘Bachpan’ is his masterpiece. Whereever he went he was requested to recite it . Once in Lahore, Musafir ji recited the poem in the presence of Rabindranath Tagore. Although the great poet did not understand Punjabi, the rhythm of the poem and the spontaneous response of the audience so impressed him that he asked a copy of the poem which was later sent to him along with its translation

Shaitan ton chirna van main
Bhirna kaho bhima van main
Kionke main bacha nahin
Bache hia, sacha nahin

Musafir was a great soul. He face the worst of life bravely. His end was also very peaceful. He breathed his last on January 18, 1976

He remained budy throughout the day, attended the Nehru Award meeting, dined at the house of Sir Sobha Singh with Giani Zail Singh, then Chief Minister of Punjab. He returned to his house after 10 p.m. and then wrote a talk on Gandhiji for a radio broadcast. After midnight, he went to sleep.

After about two hours he felt a little restlessness and asked his son to summon the doctor. After the doctor arrived, Musafirji took his son’s hand in his own and said that his time was over. These were the last words he spoke

Musafir was gone, and in him went a statesman, poet, friend and freedom fighter. An institution came to an end and an era passed away.

Dr M.S. Randhawa once wrote, “If you want to meet a top creative talent, deep political intelligence, sweet and persuasive speech, sacred personality and sacred nature all of them together you can achieve this by meeting Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir”

Another great virtue of Musafir was his sense of humour.

He was a magnetic and attractive figure in any gathering he joined. Many incidents if his life depicting his sense of humour cannot be put in this brief article.

As I have earlier said , Musafir was a born poet. Poetry sprang from his very talk, speech and action. In his later life he became a bit hard of hearing. I inquired from him whether he had consulted the doctor about his trouble.

He said that he had done. The doctor had opined that there was nothing wrong with his ears.

“Did you not ask him the reason for your hard hearing?” I repeated

He replied that the doctor said that he was a Machla – a typical Punjabi word meaning one who cultivated and propagated a deformity which is not there.

On this he wrote a verse in one of his ghazals,
Loki kehnde ne Musafir uchi sunan lag gia,
Main bahana bhalia rata kun ere hon da

(People say Musafir had become hard of hearing, while I make it an excuse to sit a little nearer ‘to my beloved)

Giani  Gurmukh  Singh  Musafir:

A Profile 

Mubarak Singh

As the ancient land f Punjab, used to frequent historical and political charges, entered upon yet another phase of its career, a new leader was called upon to take charge into its destiny. On November 1st , when the new state came into being as a result of reorganization Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir took over as its first Chief Minister. Those who knew him and those who were in touch  with the affairs preparatory to the installation of the new ministry vouch safe that he was least ambitious of this office. Yet it came to him unsought and unsolicited. No other name was so universally acceptable for Chief Minister–ship of Punjba as that of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir’s was. Similar unanimity of opinion was responsible for his function into Presidency of the Punjab Congress a few months ago. What is the secret of this massive support and goodwill that Giani Gurmukh Singh enjoys? An immaculate political record, unique sacrifices in the cause of the nation’s struggle for freedom, an uncanny understanding of men and affairs and an innate sense of humour, courtesy and culture make Giani Gurmukh Singh popular with surprisingly wide and disparate sections of public life.

Giani Gurmukh Singh’s impact on the Punjab conscience has been many sided. There was a time in the early twenties when his stirring Punjabi poems rang though town and country rousing the people’s hearts to patriotic fervor. Besides providing stimulus to the national movement in this manner, he inaugurated a new style in Punjabi poetry and invested it with a social conscience. Throughout his hectic political years, he has retained his love of literature. As well as being a poet he is a recognized storywriter. His short stories reveal his wide human sympathy, his love of the underdogs and his intense patriotism. Literary societies compete for his patronage and no Punjabi poetical symposium is ever considered complete unless presided by him. His personal suffering and sacrifices in the national cause are gratefully remembered by his joie de vivre  and capacity for laughter is well known. He was one of the fewest of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru’s coworkers who could freely joke with him. His wit, heartiness and humility are his most endearing traits.

Born on January 15,1899 at village Udhowal in Dist. Campbellore (now in Pakistan) in a rural household, Gurmukh Singh received education to become a schoolteacher. He joined at the age of 19. His work in it for four years earned him the epithet of Giani. The Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy of 1919 left a  deep scar on his mind. In 1922 occurred a cold-blooded massacre of over 200 Sikh volunteers by paid assassins engaged by the Mahant of Nankana Sahib acting in connivance with the British bureaucracy. This ghastly act sent a wave of indignation through the nation. The Sikhs who were then locked in a desperate trial of strength with the Government with a view to reforming the Gurdwara administration were in a state of great agitation. Twenty three year old Giani Gurmukh Singh threw himself heart and soul into this struggle and found himself singing of the sufferings of the people and calling them to action through his sensitive and ringing Punjabi poems.

The Akali movement in the Punjab was the source of political awakening amongst the Sikhs  and its source ran parallel to that of the national struggle for independence. Some of the most prominent Congress leaders of the  Punjab were drawn to it through the Akali struggle of the 1920’s. Soon after he gave up teaching to join the movement for Gurdwara reformation. Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir was arrested and thus began a long-drawn series of jail-going pilgrimages, which ended only in 1947 with the independence of the country. Giani Gurmukh SInghs’s  spirit of faith, dedication and sincerity of propose brought him to the front rank of the movement and in 1930, he was appointed to the highest religious office of Sikhism i.e. Jathedar of Akel Takth.

Later he became the general secretary of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and he worked with such veteran leaders like  Baba Kharak Singh and S. Amara Singh. During this period of struggle against British authority, he came into contact with Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and their mutual affection and admiration grew over the years into a strong bond of friendship. Gianiji court arrested a number of times and in 1942, when he was in jail in connection with the Quit India Movement, his father and one of his sons and a daughter died. He refused to be released on parole even in face of such tragic personal deprivation. He was touchingly described this experience in one of most evovative short stories. Starting his career as a rebel poet of great talent and charm Giani Gurmukh Singh always eschewed the idle indulgence in poetic fancy for its own sake. He marshaled his poetic gifts to the cause of awakening the people to a new awareness of their political destiny. In recent years his trend has been towards metaphysical experience and has published a number of poetic anthologies, the most important being  Musafrianand Sehj Seti. His short stories mostly related to his own experience of public life and a large number of them describe jail-life with vividness and a charming sense of humour.

During the post independence period,  Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir  played a significant role in rehabilitating the Congress in Punjab. As President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee for 12 years and as an elected member of the Congress  Working Committee, he was the Chief Architect of Congress victory at the polls in 1952. His parliamentary association dates back to 1947 when he was elected to the Constituent Assembly. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1952 and continued such until he resigned upon hos election as a member of the Punjab Legislative council.

Apart from his involvement with  the political work, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir has actively participated in literary and cultural renaissance in the  Punjab. He was President of the Kendri Punjabi Lekhari Sabha and Punjabi Sahitya Sameekhya Board, for many years. He was also a member of the General Council of the Indian Sahitya Academy. As a representative of the Indian writers, he participated in world writers conference held in Stockholm(Sweden) in 1954. World progressive writer’s conference at Tokyo in 1961 and world peace conference at Helsinki in 1965. In 1966, he led a three member’s delegation of Indian writers to Afro-Asian Conference on Vietnam peace. The other two members were Mulk Raj Anand nad Sardar Jafri. At the poetical symposium, which was held during the conference and in which 30 countried participated, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir’s poem extracted the maximum applause. His journeys abroad have included visits to USSR, Uniteed Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Persia and Afganisthan.

On assumption of the Chief Ministership of Punjab, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir brought to his office the luster of an unblemished record of public life, a catholicity of outlook, political shrewdness, an amiable unflappable  and cheerful disposition and, a deep faith in the essential goodness of man. His upstanding, handsome bearing and sense of dignity and poise marked him out as a natural leaderof men and he has ample reserves of energy and understanding to draw upon in the challenging days ahead. That the challenge is worth tha capacities of a gifted and seasoned leader is obvious. The traumatic speed of political events made all the more capricious by mounting socio economic discontent, sharpening pre-election strifes and pressures and the tremendous task of rehabilitating. Psychologically and politically the reorganized state must induce a sense of deep humility in the man chosen for high responsibility. The fact that the leader pitched upon by destiny happens to be a child of the Indian revolution is really reassuring. Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir whom circumstances have pushed to the very center of stage belongs to that generation of patriots who emerged, as it were, out of the very bowels of the earth and came to command pre-eminence through selfless service and unswerving loyalty to the national cause. He belongs to the generation which blossomed into youth at a time when the whole atmosphere was charged with an unprecedented upsurge of national aspirations, the generation which came to maturity when the people of India themselves became after a heroic struggle, the masters of their destiny. It is highly satisfying that one of the noblest representatives of that generation has been entrusted with the charge of affairs in the Punjab.

  Musafir As Writer 

 Gurbachan Singh Talib

To determine the place of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir in the history of Punjabi literature, it is essential to dispel some pre conceived notions about him. There is one section of opinion, which regards him as versifier of political themes and restricts the literary values of his writing to the extent of political and social subjects. There is another class of critics who are placing Musafir in the category of stage-poets hesitates to position him at par with the higher level writers. Then there are some people for whom the literary importance of Musafir is only a reflection of his political position as a leader. Now that Musafir has become the Chief Minister of Punjab this last category of opinion is likely to gain more strength because in our country the qualities of a man are determined with reference to his position – thought this is not true in case of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir. People start seeing all qualities in a man of power – whether that power be of position or of wealth – and even the true intrinsic qualities of a person are not recognized if he is not highly placed. This is a common habit. For this reason certain prejudices are likely to be enveloped around a man in whose personality there is a flowering of both quality and action. Such is the personality of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir. Thourghout his life he has done the duty due to the country and simultaneously gave expression to his literary genius. In fact it is not easy to determine as to which aspect of his personality is more important and outshining. I dare say (though it may not be liked by many of his admirers) that his political struggle is a game where in many other people of Punjab has played their roles but his literary position is unique. Will any one remember after twenty years as who has been the President of Punjab Congress? People might not keep in memory the list of Chief Ministers. How many people are there who even now can recapitulate in detail the event of the past twenty years? But some of the poems and short stories of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir would continue having an irreplaceable position in the history of Punjabi literature. Only a few writers like Shakespeare, Ghalib, Prem Chand, are lucky to be immortal in literature; but writers next to them in stature also continue to be objects of peoples memory and warmth of love. Surely, Giani ji has his place in this second category. In the past twenty years many Punjabi poets and short story writers have emerged. Some have earned both name and wealth. But from an all-perspective angle, leaving one or two writers, it can’t be said that the stature of other writers puts in shadow the writings of the middle of the twentieth century. He deserves being placed and remembered in the galaxy of good writers.

Musafir is more popular as a poet. He started writing poetry in his early youth. It is true that he was infused with poetic inspiration by the then (1920) movement of patriotism. Poetry is born out of some love, dedication or quest. The love of freedom is not less enthusing than the love for women. I recapitulate I was a student,in those days, of Khalsa College, Amritsar. The year of 1928 and the following years were the period when one had to contend against Destiny – Simon Commission, Civil Disobedience, the Bhagat Singh episode etc. The leaders of all India level used to visit Amritsar quite often; meetings were routine in Jallianwala  Bagh. In those meetings a poem of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir was an essential item of the program along with the spirited speeches of Dr.Kitchlu. His poems in those days were in traditional style of baint. Though technique was old, the theme was – characterized by novelty. Slavery, the tyranny of the foreign rule, the black deeds of traitors – such subjects and the feelings of people were expressed by him by means of effective similies and metaphors which would spell bind the audience in thousands of those meetings. His recitation did not even have support of rag or rhythm, the effect of the poem emanated from his potent voice and the subject matter of the poetry. The standard of the poem does not depend upon its technique which is merely a means which does not and cannot add to the value of the poem, thematically it is insignificant. The two great Urdu poets – Ghalib and Iqbal made no technical experimentation. The value of their poetry lies in the pattern and metaphors used by them. Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir does not of course measure up to these poets but it is clear that starting from traditional poetry of his time, he has done new experiment with Punjab poetry. His recent poetry has a proclivity towards use of new metres and technical freedom. Though he is not much steeped in English literature, his individuality partook of new trends. In the past twenty years he has particularly, written emotional poetry which does not have the flat clarity of  ‘baint’  on the other hand, it has qualities of references, undertones characteristics of the modernist poetry, the appeal of which is more to imagination than to reason. His poetry gives vent to, apart from the social tendencies , the complexities of life and intellectuality in the form of undertones and symbolic references. In smaller poems and rubais (of Sehj Seti), he has expressed deep thoughts in an imaginative style. For this reason this book has an important place in the category of modern Punjabi writings. In an earlier collection the poem captioned as, ‘The Death of Dass’ is an immortal creation embodying the great event of martyrdom of Jatinder Nath Dass in an equally great poetic manner?

Along with poetry, short story also has his forte. Although short story is considered a less difficult genre, yet its creation requires restraint and technique capable of doing justice to the subsisting thought. The technique of short story, like a poem does not admit as is case of dialogue in a play. In the best writings of Musafir ji (which constitute a big number) there are numerous instances of techniques wherein a single sentence or utterance projects atmosphere, character or mental state followed by the end of the story at some symbolic reference or shake-up of the reader. Take for instance his short story-‘27th January’; herein the background is unfolded by the dialogue and in the end the difference between the power-enjoying class and the poor working class is worked out so forcefully that the mind of the  reader is filled with pathos for the human conditions.

Apart from short story, GIani Gurmukh Singh Musafir has also written philosophical prose as also literary prose in style, which is straightforward, clear, easily communicable to the masses. The manner is not pedantic but the thought content has clarity and logically about it. In Punjabi there is deficiency of good prose, Musafir ji’s prose makes up to this deficiency.

His mind was sensitive ot the miseries of life. Simultaneously he has participated in the field of service in the life struggle. This injected in his mental make up the love for humanity and consciousness of pathos of life. These qualities have percolated into his writings. The value of literature, I may repeat, is not due to clever and pedantic devices. The value of art is rather burn of that warmth which in words expresses the emotionality of Sadhna an artirst also is rendered by Saddna. This warmth, this emotional consciousness – we find in the writings of Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir and these qualities we do not encounter in some of those writers who have been drumbeat into prominence.