The Ballad of Darshan Singh Pheruman

A translation of Sohan Singh Seetal's vaar

ਮੋ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੈ ਮਨ ਤੇ ਤਨ ਤੇ ਸਿਰ ਲਉ ਧਨ ਹੈ ਸਭ ਹੀ ਇਨ ਹੀ ਕੋ ॥—In my house, my soul, my body and head, my wealth: all belongs to them [the Khalsa]. (Khalsa Mahima, Guru Gobind Singh)

“Tis love, not yeares, or Limbes, that can / Make the martyr or the man.” (Richard Crashaw, 1646)

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In November 1966, the Punjab Reorganization Act came into force and trifurcated the Punjab region, creating the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal. This effectively brought the Punjabi Suba Morcha, which had raged on for nearly two decades, to a successful end.

However, a wrinkle (among many others) that refused to be ironed out was the issue of Chandigarh. Sant Fateh Singh voiced his disapproval over Chandigarh not being awarded to Punjab. As the year drew to a close, he launched a fast unto death, which he intended to end by publicly immolating himself on the 27^th of December, unless the Act was amended. He performed an ardaas (a solemn, binding supplication) at Darbar Sahib to that effect.

An hour before the scheduled self-immolation, however, Sant Fateh Singh called it off after receiving assurances from the Prime Minister, who agreed in principle that Chandigarh belonged to Punjab. Nothing came of it.

In 1969, Darshan Singh Pheruman expressed his disappointment in the Sikh leadership over its failure to secure Chandigarh’s merger in Punjab, as well as for enacting what he considered a cynical contest for power in the name of religion. He especially took issue with Sant Fateh Singh for reneging on his promise to self-immolate, sealed with an ardaas. Pheruman’s mind looked beyond the whims of political turbulence and happenstance, and instead grasped the metaphysical import of the Sant’s actions. In his eyes, the whole affair was blasphemous, for the Sant had recanted on his ardaas seeking to fulfil his mission. To go back on this promise, made in the presence of the Guru, set a dismaying precedent. It had sullied not only the sanctity of the ardaas, he declared, but “the doctrines of the Sikh religion, the traditions of the Khalsa, the historical splendor of the Sikh Nation.”

Pheruman had lived a storied life, beginning as a sepoy in the British Indian army, before joining the Sikh Gurudwara reform movement. His participation in the Morcha Chabiaan and the Jaito Morcha saw him jailed twice. After his release, he continued to actively participate in the Indian struggle for independence. When the Partition of India triggered a violent civil conflict in Punjab, Pheruman was among the Akali leaders who led Sikh warbands into that terrible vortex of war and bloodshed.

Leaders of the Sikh warbands during the 1947 Troubles: Udham Singh Nagoke, Ishar Singh Majhail, Master Tara Singh, Darshan Singh Pheruman and Jathedar Mohan Singh

Later, he twice occupied the office of the Shiromani Prabandhak Gurudwara Committee’s General Secretary, and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as the Congress’s nominee. In 1959, he left the Congress to found the Swatantra Party.

Now, he had decided, in Sirdar Kapur Singh’s words, to “uphold the solemn promises which some false Sikh leaders had publicly made.” Pheruman expressed his anguish that “the country is now free but the Panth is still in bondage.” On the 14^th of August, he visited Darbar Sahib, and repeated Sant Fateh Singh’s ardas. He drank a glass of tap water and then declared an indefinite fast until the terms of the ardaas were met. Over the course of seventy-four days, lodged first in jail and then in the Government Hospital in Amritsar, he doggedly resisted attempts at being injected or force-fed food.

On the afternoon of the 27^th of October, he passed onto his great reward. Kapur Singh termed him ‘the first martyr of the Sikh homeland.’ In upholding the honor of Sant Fateh Singh’s ardaas with his own life, Pheruman can be called a shahid in the classical sense: as one who bears true witness to faith.

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In 1972, the renowned historian, poet and dhaadi bard Sohan Singh Seetal composed and performed a short vaar ballad in honor of Darshan Singh Pheruman’s martyrdom, published in the collection Seetal Vaaraan. The ballad places him among some of the most honored names in Sikh martyrology: his fast unto death is thus lastingly inducted into the holy catalogue of tortures and torments shahids through history endured in defense of dharam.

A humble attempt at translating it follows:

SHAHEEDI S. DARSHAN SINGH PHERUMAN 
Giani Sohan Singh Seetal, dated December 30, 1972

It was the True Guru Arjan Dev who founded this tradition
His disciples in turn have continued to unfailingly uphold:

The devout ones like Mati Das had their bodies dismembered
Many, as their limbs were severed, never uttered a sigh
Taru Singh laughed as his scalp was removed  
Bota Singh promptly roused death from her sleep

Of late some falterers had dragged their feet
The masses had taken to taunting the Panth

Thought Darshan Singh, this requires men of will
Making a supplication, the hero put his life on the line
As had Phula Singh Nihang, he has fulfilled his vow
The warrior has preserved Punjab’s honor with his life

This is called a worthy death, O blessed mother,
He who achieves it, Seetal, does so by offering his head.

Sardar Darshan Singh Pheruman, ‘the first martyr of the Sikh homeland’