Sardar-i-Azam and Ankhi Soorma
An extract from the foreword to Sarbloh Studio Publishing's latest republication of a contemporary biography of Master Tara Singh from 1942.
This foreword contribution was written by
for Sarbloh Studio Publishing’s latest republication of a contemporary biography of Master Tara Singh from 1942. His words echo a fresh new perspective, one that encourages the readers to use their own rationality and logic when judging Master Tara Singh. The Khalsa Chronicle and Sarbloh Studio Publishing are proud to share the valuable words of Khem Singh.“To live for abstractions involves suffering a destiny instead of being one. Its chroniclers are those individuals whose physiognomic tact enables them to apprehend the totality of events in a poetic unity, with a clear realization of the insufficiency of a causal analysis. Its representatives are the great statesmen who embody the meaning of the occurrences, the men of blood who feel the cosmic beat and actualize it.”1
FOREWORD
“Sardar-i-Azam… Ankhi Soorma… and the Punjabi title of the present work, Nirbhai Yodha (transl. The Valiant Fighter) are just some of the phrases that have been used to describe Master Tara Singh by his biographers. Although he has been the subject of much controversy in both life and death, there can be no doubt that Master Tara Singh was the most pivotal figure in the period of Sikh history between the fall of the Sikh Empire and the events of 1984. One of his biographers called him a Yugpurush, a man whose dominant personality comes to define the era in which he lived. The astute student of history will be hard-pressed to argue against this description of Master Tara Singh, who began his career as a schoolteacher in British India—hence the title of ‘Master’ that would follow him for the rest of his life.
But although his position in history is undeniable, was it, by some assumed criteria of Sikh prosperity, good that Master Tara Singh led the community through the Independence struggle and into the early years of the Republic of India? It is here where the reasonable observer may disagree, and it is a query that I encourage the reader to keep in mind as they read The Valiant Fighter. When one takes a panoramic view of the different factions of Sikh politics today, whether moderate, radical, or of the growing liberal pulse felt especially in the diaspora, there are not many who will openly praise Master Tara Singh’s contribution (perhaps ‘sacrifice’ is more apt to describe his life’s work). It is said around many a dinner table today that he was ‘tricked’ by some combination of Gandhi, Nehru, and the British, or that he ‘sold out’ the Sikhs at the negotiating table, or perhaps most insidious, that he was a Hindu masquerading as a Sikh—secretly a gaddar, ‘a traitor,’ from the very beginning…”
Khem Singh is a Sikh history and philosophy hobbyist, whose study focuses on Sikh legal history and jurisprudence. He can be found on social media at SikhsInCourt, and writes on at punjabdavakeel.substack.com. He also publishes on the Khalsa Chronicle substack, notably an ongoing series on Sikh Jurisprudence.
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Paperback: Canada, USA, UK, and Australia
To read more about the republication:
Henry A. Kissinger, The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant p. 39 (1950).