A Tribute

Doyen of Sikh Psyche and Polity

Near about 1950 a smart young Sikh boy addressed the students at Government College, Ludhiana informally during lunch break. He was speaking extempore on the Sikh History and Values, and the hard times Sikhs were going to face in the future. Although I was among the bunch of so called `Progressives', ridiculing his assertions, I was very deeply impressed with his eloquence. He rekindled in me an urge to study the magnificence of Sikh History, and this urge was revitalised when I met him very closely about 15 years ago in London, England. Soon after that, I made myself free of all monetary bindings. The luck had it for me once again. In 1985, when he saw me at a distance, he slipped out of an important meeting he was having with very high officials of Punjab and Sind Bank in Chandigarh. He was overwhelmed to learn about my project on Guru Granth Sahib. In a few minutes he endowed me with most valuable suggestions and promised to go through it when it was complete (I am now halfway on my work). But, unfortunately, it was beyond my destiny. Principal Satbir Singh's sudden demise is not less than a catastrophe particularly now when factional forces are enveloping the Sikh community as a whole, and the external negative coercion is distorting the Sikh hagiography and decorum.

He has been the most revered member of the Sikh Psyche and Polity. He has been an eminent member of Sharomani Gurdwara Parbandhik Committee for more than thirty years. His advice has always been sought and adhered to by almost all the Sikh institutions--various Khalsa schools and colleges, Sikh missionary establishments, and numerous Gurdwara boards.

He was a man of great energy and vigour. Out of his heavily committed social and community-orientated life, he found time to give the nation dozens of books on Sikh History, Hagiography, Ethics, Decorum, Interpretation of Gurbani, Current Problems, etc.

He was born in a Pooran Gursikh (Perfect Sikh) family in Puthohar (Rawalpindi Division, now Pakistan), probably under the recitation of Gurbani, and died on the table serving the cause of Gurbani; he was attending a meeting of the Khalsa college managing committee on August 18 when a massive heart attack subdued him. He is leaving behind him a kind widow, three girls and a son. His youngest daughter was getting married on September 8 this year.

Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra, President, Sharomani Gurdwara Parbandhik Committee, who was sitting beside him at the time, said with a very heavy heart, "... with the demise of Principal Sahib, the Panth (Sikh Nation) had been deprived of a Dedicated and Committed Scholar,... (Panth) needed him particularly at this present critical juncture... this loss is unbearable and... Irreplaceable...."