- Santokh Singh Giani

A Snake of Rope 

The wise say that in darkness sometimes a rope appears to be a snake but my cousin and I got deceived in broad day light, that too completely. In 1962, we were transferred from Tarn Taran to the Jind city. This was against our wish but we had to move Jind, where we were posted at the Gurdwara Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib. This city is now the district headquarter in Haryana province but was earlier a subdivision the Sangrur district. Though official duty was to sing Kirtan, I was more interested in books and newspapers. The newspapers published from Jalandhar were not available there. The ‘Ranjit’ published from Patiala, used to come there but that did not satisfy me. After the morning Kirtan of Asa Di Var, I went to the city library and used to read Hindi newspapers. My favourite weekly the ‘Dharamyug’ was available there also, as it was at Amritsar. This being in Hindi, I had sufficient practice reading Hindi (not writing).Among dailies my first choice was the ‘Akali’, which, ‘thanks’ to Partap Singh Kairon, had been compelled to become the ‘Jathedar’. I subscribed to this newspaper from 1958 to 1960. Then in 1960 among the other stern steps taken by Sardar Kairon to make the screw up the Akalis in response to the Morcha of 1960, was the banning of this newspaper. After the Morcha when the publishers of the ‘Akali’ asked his permission to restart it’s publication, they did not get it and therefore brought out the ‘Jathedar’ as its new Avtar. Only the name had changed, the contents were the same. All the Punjabi newspapers remained behind in Tarn Taran andAmritsar; here we had only Qaumi Dard and Jathedar by post, that too after two days of their publication.‘Jathedar’ also published on the back page true incidents sent by its readers. Inspired, I too sent a true incident of my life, which was my very first literary effort. To my delight this got published in the paper; my happiness knew no bounds. I then did not know of such literary refinements as compound words, para making or word construction etc; but the editor had done all these for me, and seeing the article published in this form mae me ecstatic. But the sad part is, that I did not follow it up with more articles. Perhaps I did not then have anything more to write. Had I got some learned advice, I would have been able to join the literary brotherhood sooner.The true story was like this:In about the year 1957, my cousin Manohar Singh and I went to one of our fields, called ‘Baghiarhan Wali Paili’ to cut fodder. Approaching the edge of the field, we saw a ‘snake’ in the middle of the field. We watched it closely for any movement for long time but it did not move at all. I thought of making it run away by throwing a clod of earth at it but Manohar Singh implored me not to do it. Whenever I lifted a clod of earth to hit the snake, he would run away and stand at some distance from me. I too could not muster enough courage to hit the snake while I stood alone, There was not much difference between us, so far as bravery goes, but he was ever the more cautious one. So far as my views about bravery are concerned, it has become difficult for me to distinguish it from fool-hardiness. I think the two overlap. Without some fool-hardiness, it is difficult to undertake any risky action. If the doer of the action is successful, then he is considered brave, otherwise a fool. Others may disagree with my view as I cannot be always right.After a great deal of discussion and a bit of hot argument, we came back without cutting and bringing fodder. The next day, we told this to our younger ChachaJi, and requested him to go with us to the field. He said, “Oi, fools, do you expect that snake to be still there? It must have long disappeared.” But when we pressed him further, he went with us. Sure enough the ‘snake’ was still there, ChachaJi Said, “ Oi, it looks like a rope.“ Then he said, “ Oi, no, it is indeed a snake.” ChachaJi threw some clods at it but it remained unmoved. We did not this time run away, due to ChachaJi’s presence. Seeing no response from the ‘snake’ he said, “Oi, it looks to be a snake, but dead one.” He then went towards the ‘snake’ holding a sickle in his hand. He picked up the ‘snake’ on the sickle and came back towards us laughing. We also joined with him for a hearty laugh.The real thing was that my BhayaJi, being a baptised Sikh, wore the large Kachhaira instead of the smaller one which most of other persons usually wore. This Kachhaira had a waist band and required a long and thick cord to tie it around the waist. The cord must have been thrown away on the heap of manure and then it had reached its present destination along with the manure. It was this cord which had scared us as a snake.

On the Use of Surnames : Giani Santokh Singh

Transation Giani Santokh Singh 's article "Gotknala"

By,

Manjit Singh Gilhotra, 6 Sayce Place, Florey ACT 2615, Australia

Some time ago I read an interesting essay entitled 'Gotkanala'.  Written in Punjabi by Giani Santokh Singh. The essay deals with the use of surnames among Sikhs in a style which is both humorous and instructive.  After giving some background information on the caste system and the origin of gots, the author points out that the Sikhs of Guru Gobind Singh are expected to live only as Guru's Sikhs without using an appellation that differentiates them on the basis on caste/got. He adds that there seems to be no reason to differ from this view which has been confirmed from time to time by commands issued by the Akal Takhat.

So long as we remain in Punjab, says the author, we feel no compulsion to use a surname but when we move into the Western society, the use of 'family name' becomes an issue. If we don't use our family name on our official documents, all of us become 'Mr Singh' and our wives become 'Mrs Kaur'. Then in order to follow local practice, we start referring to our wives as 'Mrs Singh'.  Some whites, ignorant of our traditions, sometimes call us “Mr Kaur' by mistake.  We have to offer clarifications on many occasions.

The author then narrates some of his personal experiences on this matter.  In 1973, he went to Malawi and although the number of Sikhs was very small, there happened to be eight S. Singhs in the small town of Limbe and three of them were Santokh Singhs. Letters and cheques would often go into the wrong mailbox/account. In order to save himself from this hassle, the author started using 'Giani' with his name. This led to another conundrum when his wife was admitted to a hospital to give birth to their elder son. The wife of another Santokh Singh was also there for the same purpose of creation. Fearing that the infants could get mixed up, he took care to get the word 'Giani' added to his name.  However when he went to get the birth certificate of his son, the hospital clerk insisted on writing 'Giani' with the son's name. He tried to explain that 'Giani' was an academic degree, not a family name but the clerk argued that if the father was 'Giani', why not the son. Somehow a colleague of his managed to persuade the clerk to issue the birth certificate without the addition of 'Giani' to the child's name. 

On the matter of not using the family name, the author says that he was at first quite adamant. When his family came to Australia in 1981, and the children were going to school for the first time, an English woman, trying to be helpful, wrote “Raveen Singh' on his daughter's school bag. When he objected: why 'Singh' instead of 'Kaur'? she replied:  “I know your people have a family name.  You should get the family name added to your name by deed poll as that will save unnecessary misunderstanding at various places.” Being a lawyer, she knew all that and even offered to pay the fee of twenty five dollars for the poll deed. The author replied angrily, “I will leave Australia but will not become Mr Padda from Santokh Singh.  MY family has given me the name 'Santokh' and mY Guru has bestowed the name 'Singh' on me.  I cannot disown mY family and mY Guru by relinquishing these names and becoming Mr Padda” (pronounced by English speakers like 'paddy' with 'a' instead of 'y' at the end).   

The author then narrates how some of the respected Sikh scholars whom he had known earlier without their surnames had started using their surnames.  Giani Pritam Singh who had been a student of and a writer for Sant Baba Gurbachan Singh Bhindrawale and had also served as Head Granthi at some historic Sikh Gurdwaras, had added 'Kang' to his name on the passport.  When asked why, he replied that it was to save himself from hassles. Another religious scholar in Vancouver, while giving his address wrote his name as 'D.S.Thind'. Surprised, the author asked him how 'Giani Darshan Singh Shahid' had undergone a new incarnation.  He was told that writing the family name was a legal requirement there.  The name card of Giani Gurmukh Singh Diwana whom the author had known from an earlier visit to Vancouver, read as “Giani Gurmukh Singh Diwana Dhillon' at the later visit. This time the author did not feel it necessary to ask why. 

Towards the end of 1998 when the author and his family were getting ready to go to India for the marriage of their son, the son declared that he would get his 'got' added to his name before getting married. The family then decided that instead of creating “a mini U.N.” in the family with the father as Mr Singh, mother as Mrs Kaur and the son as Mr Padda, it would be better to get the family name added to the names of all members of the family. This was done after spending a fair bit of time and money. 

However, the author found being addressed as 'Mr Padda' by local officials rather strange as his ears had been used to 'Mr Singh' for decades.  Similarly, being addressed as “Padda Sahib” by new relatives and acquaintances was rather disconcerting.  So for his new email address, he added the prefix 'Giani' with his name and dropped the family name.  Thinking that he had done so perhaps under pressure of criticism by some fanatics, some learned friends encouraged him to continue to use his family name.  But since had been known for a long time as 'Giani Santokh Singh' among Sikh sangats around the world, he did not really like being addressed as “Padda Sahib”, even though he had no feeling of inferiority about his 'got' name.  

Referring to the Jathedars of Akal Takhat, the author points that many of them have  used some kind of surname or alias with their names.  Examples given by him are: J. Phoola Singh Akali, J. Teja Singh Bhuchchar, J. Teja Singh Akarpuri, Sant Baba Visakha Singh Dadehar, J. Udham singh Nagoke, J. Mohan Singh Nagoke, J. Mohan Singh Tur, J. Sadhu Singh Bhaura, Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir,  J. Gurdial Singh Ajnoha, Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode, Bhai Gurdev Singh Kaonke, Prof Darshan Singh Khalsa, Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti, etc.  Some other Jathedars do not use a surname but sometimes you get to know that Giani Kirpal Singh Ji, for example is 'Brar'  his son regularly uses this surname.  Even Bhai Ranjit Singh, whom the author refers to as the pride of Sikh faith, had to get his name written as R.S. Ghataura in official documents.

The author also points out the tradition of using “waale”, particularly with the names of Ragis such as Jagadhari Waale, Sri Nagar Waale, etc. and the tradition among writers of using a pen-name such as Chatrik, Parwana, Zakhmi, etc. Sometimes, when there are a number of persons of the same name, the got or name of the village or an alias is used to differentiate who's who.  The author gives the example of various Teja Singhs who were active at one time during the Akali movement.  They were differentiated with surnames as 'Samundari', 'Akarpuri', 'Sutantar', 'Kohli', etc. or with prefixes as 'Professor', 'Sant', 'Giani', etc.  Even in current times, various Manjit Singhs in Sikh politics are differentiated as 'Professor', 'Bhai', 'Kalkatta', 'Khehra', 'Tarantarani', etc.

Quoting Gurbani which instructs in strong words: “don't be proud of your caste, O ignorant fool” (SGGS, 1127), the author says you can do nothing about those people who carry the vain burden of high caste in their minds even without using their 'got' name.  It is not necessary, he says, that one who uses his 'got' name is vain or one who does not use his 'got' name is free from vanity.   He concludes by saying that where it is not necessary, showing off one's 'got' is vanity, but in a society where it may be necessary or helpful, not using the 'got' name under the influence of some religious thinking is sheer obstinacy.  These, he says, are his personal views and he has no intention of imposing his views on others who can think what is good or bad for them. 

Note: Many details given in the original essay have been omitted in this presentation.  Also, much of Punjabi witticism has been lost in translation.  Those who wish to read the essay in original, may contact the author by email:  gianisantokhsingh@yahoo.com.au. 

(On a personal note, I was known simply as Professor Manjit Singh at Punjabi University, Patiala.  MY matriculation certificate, university degrees, etc are without the surname.  However, two of mY brothers migrated to the U.K./ Australia before me.  So I had to put mY family name in the migration documents.  Even now, I use the family name only for official purposes and where it helps to differentiate me from other Manjit Singhs.)