The story of a Sikh museum KANIKA SINGH GURDWARA Sis Ganj in old Delhi One enters the museum with is one of the holiest Sikh shrines in the head covered and without shoes, India. As one walks down the street of as one would in the sacred space of a Chandni Chowk, the main boulevard gurdwara. The entrance to the museum in the old city, the Sis Ganj gurdwara is on the busy fawwara roundabout does a prominent landmark. The fawwara not quite prepare the visitor for the roundabout on which it is located is space inside. The museum has large always busy with the traffic of devotees, open halls, spread over two storeys. both locals who visit the gurdwara daily The display is unusual. In a and those who have travelled into Delhi museum, one typically expects a col- as pilgrims. As a resident of Delhi and lection of old, rare objects which have a historian interested in the city’s past historical value. Here, the display is and its heritage dynamics, it is interest- entirely made up of modern paintings. ing for me to observe the commemo- There are portraits of the Sikh gurus, rations and celebrations around the stories from their life and that of their gurdwara. The gurpurab celebrations followers. These ‘history paintings’ and the accompanying nagar kirtans narrate the story of the Sikh past. are a regular feature of the Sis Ganj These are oil paintings on canvas gurdwara and Chandni Chowk. The made in a western realist style. While fawwara (a blue and white colonial- the workmanship in some paintings is period fountain in the middle of a crude, on the whole it is impressive. roundabout) is now a prominent Sikh Walking through the gallery of paint- shrine. What is not so prominent is the ings, I found myself drawn into the Sikh museum on the same roundabout. story of the Sikh community. Unless one is very familiar with The paintings with their short the area, it is often hard to spot indi- descriptions are like a story book vidual buildings in old Delhi; they are unfolding. The most popular stories hidden behind large hoardings and a of the gurus, familiar since our child- mesh of electrical wires, and one is hood, come alive once again. There often too preoccupied with negotiating is the young Guru Nanak asleep in the roads to spare a glance elsewhere. the sun, being provided shade by a A buff coloured building on the roun- cobra; Guru Nanak and his compan- dabout, across from the Sis Ganj gur- ion, Bhai Mardana, on their travels; dwara, has a charitable dispensary and Mata Khivi, famous for her generosity, a rest house for travellers. It also houses preparing the langar; Guru Harkishan 95 the Bhai Mati Das Museum, an ajaib- nursing the sick in Delhi; Guru Gobind ghar, attached to the gurdwara. Singh accepting baptism from the SEMINAR 701 – January 2018 Panj Piare. The dynamism of the calendars, over a period of more than ings. The key people behind PSB’s characters is so vividly depicted in the three decades. They were subsequently famous calendars were Inderjit Singh, paintings that I could feel both the donated by the bank to the DSGMC Makhan Singh and Satbir Singh. gentleness of the gurus’ expression for display in the museum. Inderjit Singh (1911-1998), a greatly and the energy of the Khalsa. What links this well known pub- respected member of the Sikh com- Like many of us, I was already lic sector bank to Sikh history and Sikh munity, was the general manager of familiar with quite a few of these museums? PSB has an interesting his- PSB from 1960 to 1968 and then its images: the portraits of the gurus, the tory of promotion of Sikh heritage. It chairman till 1982, when he retired. warrior Banda Bahadur striking a was founded as a private bank in the Inderjit Singh was keen to spread the militant pose, Baba Deep Singh charg- year 1908 by three prominent Sikh teachings of Sikhism and promote the ing into the Harmandir Sahib with a reformers: Bhai Vir Singh, Sardar gursikh way of life among the Sikhs. raised sword, the portrait of Maharani Tarlochan Singh and Sir Sunder Singh Under his chairmanship, PSB started Jindan. I have seen these images on Majithia. It was envisaged as a com- publishing calendars and books on wall and pocket calendars, magazines, munity bank for the Sikhs and had Sikh heritage. Makhan Singh (b. 1936) government advertisements celebrat- many branches in undivided Punjab. who retired from PSB as deputy gene- ing gurpurabs and death anniversaries After the Partition in 1947, it was left ral manager, worked in close asso- of Sikh heroes, and even academic with only two branches on the Indian ciation with Inderjit Singh. He was works. Animation films and songs on side, and it gradually grew from this responsible for coordinating among Sikh history available on the internet position. PSB remained a private com- the artists, historians and the bank for make extensive use of these images. pany till the year 1980, when it was publishing the calendars. Principal I had even used some of these images nationalized by the Indian government. Satbir Singh (1932-1994) of Khalsa professionally, when I was part of the College, Karnal, was a prolific writer design team creating the display for of popular books on Sikh history. He Virasat-e Khalsa, the multimedia In independent India, PSB is well was responsible for the historical con- museum of Sikh history at Anandpur remembered in the Sikh community tent of the paintings and the calendars. Sahib, Punjab. These images till now for its calendars depicting scenes from had seemed to me as simply popular Sikh history. The first calendar was bazaar art. I was now encountering issued in 1974 and paintings for calen- Each PSB calendar was based on a them within the portals of a museum. dars continued to be commissioned for single theme from Sikh history. For Who made these paintings and why? printing till the early 2000s. The bank instance, the calendar for the year 1975 How did they end up in a museum? still publishes calendars except that featured women from Sikh history, and photographs have now replaced paint- included Bebe Nanaki (Guru Nanak’s Bhai Mati Das Museum was com- missioned by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and was opened to public in the year 2001. It was on the initiative of Baba Harbans Singh Kar Sewa Wale, a much respected elderly Sikh who ran the vol- untary labour or kar sewa teams, that the building of Majestic cinema hall was purchased by the DSGMC and converted into a museum. The museum has a total of 166 oil paintings. Most of these were not created for the Sis Ganj gurdwara museum; they found their way into it 96 as an afterthought. These paintings were commissioned by the Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) for their annual Display at Bhai Mati Das Museum, Chandni Chowk. Courtesy DSGMC. SEMINAR 701 – January 2018 sister), Mata Khivi (known for her for the annual calendar was decided, The largest number of paintings are langar) and Mai Bhago (leading the the bank commissioned these artists those of Guru Gobind, Guru Arjan and forty muktas into the battlefield in to illustrate different episodes for the Guru Hargobind, followed by Guru support of Guru Gobind Singh). The theme. Teg Bahadur, Guru Nanak and Guru PSB calendar for the year 1976 was Amar Das. The narrative is personal- on kirtaniyas: the musicians and ity centric and follows a chronologi- singers who accompanied the gurus. Even after its nationalization, PSB cal order: from Guru Nanak to Guru It carried paintings such as that of continued publishing calendars on Gobind Singh, followed by stories of Bhai Mardana with his rabab, and Bhai Sikh heritage. Significantly, the decades Sikh heroes and military commanders Balwand and Bhai Satta. Many of these of the production of paintings for calen- who lived in the 18th century, and sub- paintings are now part of the display dars coincide with some very crucial sequently, Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s at Bhai Mati Das Museum. developments in the Sikh community’s rule in Punjab. history: the newly reorganized state of The museum has very little to Punjab, where the Sikhs became a tell us about what happens to the Sikhs The painting of Mata Khivi by the well majority community; the increasing after Ranjit Singh’s rule. There are a known artist Devender Singh prepar- tensions between Delhi and Punjab; few portraits of the Sikhs involved in ing langar is displayed at the entrance the Khalistan movement; Operation the national movement for indepen- hall of the museum. Other artists whose Bluestar and the violence against the dence (Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh, works are displayed in the museum Sikhs in 1984. Interestingly, none of Kartar Singh Sarabha), and then a cou- include Mehar Singh, Bodhraj, Kirpal these events are represented in the ple of canvases on their participation Singh, Rahi Mohinder Singh, Jarnail paintings. The museum overwhelm- in the army of independent India. It is Singh and Amolak Singh. When the ingly focuses on the guru period and almost as if Sikh history came to a Bhai Mati Das Museum was estab- the Sikhs’ struggles against the Mus- stop with the end of Ranjit Singh’s lished, Amolak Singh was employed by lims as events worth remembering in rule, or at least the glorious period did. the DSGMC to work at the museum. the community’s history. There are a number of paintings which Some of the paintings on display here Out of 166 paintings in the present Sikh struggles again the Mus- were painted by him exclusively for museum, 104 depict the life of the ten lims – Sikhs are shown sacrificing the museum.