Historian of the Sikhs

DR GANDA SINGH HISTORIAN OF THE SIKHS HARBANS SINGH I SHIROMANI GURDWARA PRABANDHAK COMMITTEE AMRITSAR RITIKA _ * %l * ^ - . •. •w *. c^ _***"_" - •* * **- • - w » ANS SINGH CO JURDWARA PRABANDHAK COMMITTEE AMRITSAR RITIKA 999 . - V I • - • * * | , i • ^ - * MANI GURDWARA PRABANDHAK COMMITTEE AMRITSAR MARCH, 28 1964 Printed by Pritam Singh Chahil at the Manjit Printing & Publishing Co., Chandiaarh, Prabandhak Committee, Amntsar. Dr Ganda Singh's is the most honoured name in Sikh learning today. He has done more than any other scholar Sikh November 15, 1901, at Hariana, an ancient town in Hoshiarpur district, Dr Ganda Singh has been guided throughout his life by one single impulse, one sole purpose of researching and re-writing the history of the Sikhs. With uncommon zeal and energy, he gave himself to his chosen task and achieved an identity with his literary engagement which is rare among Punjabi scholars Over the years, his work has been dearer to him than anything else. He has allowed nothing to lure him away from it. Nor has he succumbed to any difficulties or trials of which he has seen many in his life. He has remained indifferent to fame and prospects of material advancement and scrupulously shunned the limelight. There is, altogether, a touch of nobility about the selfless and studious way Dr Ganda Singh has dedicated himself to the calling of his seeking. first of this centurv stirred vouns Ganda Sin turned to reading Sikh literature. The stories of Sikh >es of the 18th centurv—their spirit of bold adventure and 1 • » their brave deeds and sacrifices—made a deep impression on his imagination. This was the origin of his interest in Sikh history. The liberating impulse generated by the Singh Sabha, the Sikh renaissance movement, excited his spirit of enquiry and gave a critical bias to his study of Sikh history. A deeply embedded streak of adventure, tough physique and strong, indomitable character were other constituents of the equipment of the future historian of the Punjab. He interrupted his studies at Forman Christian College at Lahore to join the army in the Third Afghan War. He saw action in Mesopotamia in World War I and had his thigh torn with a bullet shot. Through an erroneous marking, the letter which arrived back in home—Pur Hiran, District Hoshiarpur— showed him as "dead". Recovering from his wounds, he came to his village a few months later. The hour was late and his knocking at the door of his house did not sound to the inmates an earthy phenomenon. He was not let in. Spreading out his rug on the bullock-cart in the Haveli, he slept out the night as well as he would have done in the most comfortable of beds. He went back to Mesopotamia and, thence, to Iran. In the latter country, where he spent nine years, he came in touch with Sir Arnold T. Wilson, then engaged on his Bibliography of Persia. Sir Arnold encouraged his literary interests and introduced him to English journals and societies devoted to oriental studies. Ganda Singh reviewed for some of these books on Indian themes. 2 In Iran, he started building up his private library, which, today, is perhaps the largest collection under a single roof of material on the history of the Sikhs. He purchased books from all parts of the world and undertook tours of England and other European countries where he visited museums and bookstores. He published his first book, My First Thirty Days in Mesopotamia, which was in English, while he was in Iraq. His next two books, Inkishaf-i-Haqiqat and Sikhi Parchar were * in Urdu and Punjabi, respectively. The urge to take up historical research in a more systematic manner brought him back to India in 1930. His object was to collaborate with Karam Singh who had done valuable pioneer work in the line and who, by his impassioned writings, had aroused considerable interest in the study and investigation of Sikh history. But before Dr Ganda Singh could meet him, the latter had died. Dr Ganda Singh settled down in Lahore and joined the Phulwari, a journal * devoted to Punjabi letters and history. Soon after, he was offered a teaching and research appoint ment at the Khalsa College at Amritsar. The college had just started a Sikh History Research Department which was placed in his charge. This was the beginning of a most fruitful period * of his career. Starting from scratch, he built the Research Department of the Khalsa College into a leading institution of its kind in the country. He equipped it with the rarest i books and manuscripts. His summer holidays every year he spent travelling in the country collecting for his college material bearing on the history of the Punjab. 3 His first major work was a biography, in English, of Banda Singh Bahadur. It was a piece of meticulous historical writing, marked by precision of detail and authenticity of evidence based on original and contemporary sources of information. This showed Dr Ganda Singh's wide historical learning and per- spective. A few more biographies, equally well documented, followed. Two of these, Maharaja Kama Mall and Sham Singh Atariwala, were in Punjabi. Ahmad Shah Durrani, a doctoral thesis in English, was subsequently published by Asia Publishing House. The scope of his activity widened when he joined PEPSTJ Government as Director of Archives. He stayed at the post until his retirement from service in 1956. He edited volumes of government records and wrote several books. A very remarkable publication was Private Correspondence Relating to the Anglo-Sikh Wars (1955). In this book was collected a voluminous mass of letters written by English army and poli tical officers dealing with events preparatory to the annexation of the Sikh dominions. In the light of the evidence thus assembled, the story of the subjugation of the Punjab stripped itself of the smoke-screen which had till then surrounded it and of the glib simplifications of the British writers of history text- * books. To this correspondence Dr Ganda Singh contributed a long Introduction which revealed the range of his historical erudition and his power of cogent reasoning. The British thesis on the subject was finally demolished. Critical discrimination is a characteristic of Dr Ganda Singh's intellectual discipline. With this he combines an ex- 4 i traordinary capacity for marshalling historical facts and a conscientious regard for truth. His patience and industry are prodigious and his archival sense absolutely immaculate. His prose, both English and Punjabi, is businesslike and straight forward, without any decorative frills, and his narrative has a simple charm and vigour about it. Dr Ganda Singh's contribution to the study of Sikh history is unique in several ways. In some fields his work is of a pioneering nature. Several of his published books are acknowledged as the most authoritative on the subjects they deal with. On certain periods of the history of the Punjab such as the 18th century and part of the 19th, especially the Anglo-Sikh Wars, he should be the most knowledgeable of scholars. Another criterion by which Dr Ganda Singh's achievement will be judged by the present and the coming generations is the spadework he has done—the amount of new material he has unearthed and brought to light. Apart from his work, Dr Ganda Singh's personality exacts both admiration and reverence. His spirit of devotion and self-effacement, and his deep humility, truthfulness and courage are endearing traits. A man of strict rectitude himself, he is always magnanimous in judging others. A crisis brings out his native love of adventure. He would automatically assume a position of command in such a situation and spare himself no risk or hazard in performing whatever duty he might be called upon to undertake. An unusual amalgam of scholar and man of action, Dr Ganda Singh has achieved a remarkable balance between his natural enthusiasms and powers of mental detach ment. This gives him his scholarly poise, without denuding him of his human qualities. 5 » SOME OF HIS PUBLICATIONS ENGLISH AND FRENCH Guru Nanak : His Life and Teach ings. Sikh Missionary Tract So BOOKS ciety, Singapore, 1940. A Short Life-Sketch of Banda Singh, Nanak-Panthis : The Sikhs and the Martyr, popularly known as Sikhism of the Seventeenth Cen Banda Bahadur. Khalsa College, tury, as given in Mohsin Fani's Amritsar, 1934. Dabistan-i-Mazahib. Journal i f Life of Banda Singh Bahadur. Khalsa Indian History, August, 1940. College, Amritsar, April, 1935. A History of the Khalsa College Amritsar Detachment of the Punjab Lahore, from its origin to Novem University Officers Training Corps, ber, 1935. December, 1935. I.T.F. Khalsa College, Amritsar, Maharaja: Ranjit Singh : First 1949. Death Centenary Memorial Volume, A History of the Khalsa College, edited in collaboration with Prof. Amritsar. 1949. Teja Singh. Khalsa College, Amrit >f Vol.1 sar, 1939. (1469-1765) (In Collaboration with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A life- Sardar Teja Singh). Orient Long sketch. Pub. Author, Amritsar, mans, Bombay, 1950. 1939. The Punjab in 1839-40 : Selections Qazi Nur Muhammad's Jang Namah, from the Punjab Akhbars, Punjab giving an account of the seventh Intelligence, etc. Sikh History Indian invasion of Ahmad Shah Society, Amritsar, Patiala, 1952. Durrani (1764-65). Khalsa College, The Patiala and the East Punjab Amritsar, 1939. States Union Historical Back Louis Bourquin, un Francais au ground. Patiala, 1951. service des Mahrattes Premiere Par- A Bibliography of the Patiala and tie Les Memoires Shir-o-Shakar de EPS Union. Patiala, 1954. Daya Ram, traduits de l'original Private Correspondence relating to the Persan, publies avec une introduc Anglo-Sikh Wars.

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