May 16, 2004

The imposing home of Bhagat Singh’s family in an expensive area of Chandigarh in India is evidence of the honour given to those who struggled for freedom of the subcontinent from colonial rule

ON a warm evening last month, a group of lawyers and journalists from Pakistan on a visit to India met the honey-tongued Mahindar Kaur, the 93-year-old sister-in-law of Bhagat Singh, one of the heroes of the anti-British freedom movement, at her sprawling home in Chandigarh.

The lady has grown feeble, her voice trembles and her body shakes when she speaks. Yet, she greeted all of us warmly and embraced each one of us, saying “Get as old as I am, be in the best of health, be happy with your children and their children.”

Mahindar Kaur has no stirring memories of Bhagat Singh, the elder brother of her husband, Kulbir Singh. She was married in late 1930, when the revolutionary was already in Lahore’s Central Jail on sedition charges. She remembers once meeting “our hero” in jail. She did not speak to him because she was then a newly-wed bride and was accompanied by a number of family members.

But she remembers the moment after Bhagat Singh’s hanging when his body was brought to their home in village 105 GB in Jaranwala where he was born in 1907. She recalls those touching moments of March 23, 1931, when hundreds of political activists and other people had gathered outside their home, all in tears. “I just touched his body out of reverence. He was my hero, too.”

For years, she and other members of the family were virtually worshipped everywhere they went. This really gave Mahindar Kaur a sense of pride and an understanding of how big Bhagat Singh was.

Their families were distant relatives living in the same village of then Lyallpur. She does not even know that it is Faisalabad now. “I long to see my village once before I die.” But she cannot travel. Perhaps now that air links have been restored between India and Pakistan, she can still make the effort.

Mahindar Kaur had invited her two daughters — 73-year-old Narinder Kaur Sandhu and 65-year-old Gurmaninder Kaur Griwal — to meet us. The mother called Griwal “Guddi”, the youngest of her children. They took us round the home. One room appeared to have been dedicated to Bhagat Singh — there was a portrait of him and group photographs with communist leaders, books, a pistol and the clothes he wore the day before he was executed. Everyone in our group was overwhelmed by emotion.

One of Bhagat Singh’s sisters, Bibi Parkash Kaur, is still alive at the age of 87. Ten years younger than Bhagat Singh, she lives in Panjkula Township in Haryana with her son, Hakoomat Singh Malhi. She is bed-ridden because of a stroke she suffered last year.

The visit to Mahindar Kaur’s house in Chandigarh’s upscale Sector 8 was arranged by Arif Chauhdry, former chairperson of the Punjab Bar Council, who headed our 80-member group to east Punjab. We came away deeply moved by the love the family showered on us. But more than that, we were impressed by the recognition that the Indian government has given to freedom fighters. Successive Indian governments have rewarded them. Even a small sacrifice such as a day in a Raj jail has not gone unnoticed. The imposing home of Bhagat Singh’s family in an expensive area of Chandigarh is itself evidence of the honour given to those who struggled for freedom of the subcontinent from colonial rule.

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