 Sohan Singh Josh with his wife Mata Karm Kaur and sons Surinder Singh Josh and Devinder Singh Josh in the Meerut Jail complex in 1929. - A file photograph |
 A view of the library at Chetanpura, the ancestral village of Sohan Singh Josh. Also seen in the picture is the house of Josh. — Photo by Rajiv Sharma |
It was a long journey for Sohan Singh Josh, the son of an ordinary peasant from non-descript border village, Chetanpura (Amritsar), to become one of the most-celebrated revolutionaries of India's freedom struggle.
Josh, who waged unrelenting war against the mighty British regime, has not been given the place he deserved even after 58 years of Independence, though he was instrumental in shaping the destiny of the nation.
Born on November 12, 1898, at Chetanpura, Josh passed the Middle examination from Church Mission School and the Matriculation from DAV School, Amritsar. For higher education, he joined Khalsa College, Amritsar, but had to discontinue his education on account of financial difficulties.
In 1921, when the Akali movement started, he enthusiastically participated in it and travelled from village to village, preaching against the government. He was arrested for his seditious activities, and tried in the Akali Leaders' Conspiracy Case and sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment. The total jail sentence of Josh was more than 14 years.
Interestingly, he started his political career as a diehard Akali leader and frontrunner leader of the Gurdwara Reform Movement, but later joined the Communist Party and desired in his last will that no religious ceremony be performed after his death. He was cremated in his ancestral house itself without any rites. His ashes were immersed in the Ravi.
He led the movement to get back the keys of the Golden Temple that had been taken on November 7, 1921, by the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Mr Dunnet. The incident had come as a bolt from the blue for the Sikh community, wrote Josh. He went from village to village, narrating the Golden Temple key episode. At that time, he was a member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
He was a multi-dimensional personality. Besides being the close companion of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, he was the General Secretary of the Shiromani Akali Dal and one of the founder-members of the SGPC, the founder-member of the undivided Communist Party of India and the General Secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Party of the undivided Punjab. (Mr Partap Singh Kairon, who later became Chief Minister, was his office Secretary). He had a stint as a Politburo member and Chairman of the Control Commission of the CPI.
His activities compelled the British authorities to sit up and take note of the deep unrest prevailing in the country. He displayed great courage and determination in the face of cruel persecution.
Chetanpura village, which should have become the Mecca of the patriotic Indians, seems to have been forgotten by one and all. In his autobiography, "My Tryst with Secularism", Josh writes, "My participation in the Akali movement encouraged others to become Akalis… Soon Chetanpura village began to stir with Akalis, and their shouts of Sat Sri Akal."
It is indeed sad that the 'Pustakdwara' (the name he coined for the library) in his ancestral village has been closed down. Dr Parmjit Singh Josh, his grandson, rues that the portrait of his grandfather has not been put up in the SGPC-run Sikh museum so far, though he was the frontrunner in the Gurdwara Reform Movement. "It might be because of his joining the CPI, but his contribution in the formation of the SGPC and the SAD should not be forgotten by those at the helm of the Panthic affairs."
His son, Mr Devinder Singh Josh, says that his father would contribute his entire money collected from different sources, including the Soviet Land Nehru Award, Punjab Language Department, for the welfare of common people and the CPI. For him, the party was the foremost. "However, the same party seems to have forgotten the great leader," says his son. He adds that proper treatment was not arranged when his father suffered a massive heart attack that proved fatal on July 29, 1982. "Disillusioned" with the CPI, Mr Devinder Singh Josh has joined the CPM.
The statue promised by the then Chief Minister Darbara Singh was proposed to be installed at Rialto Chowk, Amritsar. It has not seen the light of the day so far. The promise (as announced by the Congress Chief Minister at his native village, Chetanpura) to establish a 25-bed hospital in the name of this great freedom fighter has not been fulfilled even after 24 years of his death. It was due to the efforts of the Josh family, along with the local people and the CPM activists, that a memorial gate was built in the village itself.
It is painful to admit that many noted visionaries, who had the courage to voice their opinion against what they thought was "wrong", have been meted out a raw deal. Macauliffe died heartbroken. G.B. Singh, the historian of the Gurmukhi script, was physically assaulted. Similarly, Josh, too, faced "humiliation" in the hands of Akali leaders for raising objections as per democratic norms.
Having a flair for writing, Josh adopted journalism as his major vehicle for propaganda against the British government. He was associated with the revolutionary paper "Kirti" (for which Bhagat Singh had worked for three months). When in 1935, "Kirti" assumed the name of "Parbhat", once again Josh was its editor and publisher.
According to Mr Niraja Rao, in 1925, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore and within the next year he and his colleagues started a militant youth organisation called the "Naujawan Bharat Sabha". In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh, and through him the "Workers and Peasants Party" brought out the monthly magazine "Kirti" in Punjabi. For the next year, Bhagat Singh worked with Josh and joined the editorial board of "Kirti".
Veteran CPM leader, Mr Harkrishan Singh Surjeet, says that it was most credible that Josh was elected the General Secretary of the SAD at the young age of 20-21 years.
"The Akali Dal of that time was not like the one of today. The Akali Dal at that time had the credit for waging a war against the British and the feudalism prevalent in those days. The freedom struggle in Punjab was fought as a 'religious movement'. After the ban on the Communist Party, Joshji joined the Kirti-Kistan Party (KKP), founded in 1927 at Hoshiarpur. The KKP was considered as the 'most dangerous' organ of left leaders by the British government. Almost all executive members of the KKP were arrested in the famous Meerut Conspiracy case," says Mr Surjeet. He adds that Josh was a close friend of his father, who himself was a senior Akali leader.
Josh's last will was published in his autobiography — My Tryst with Secularism — translated by veteran CPI leader, Ms Vimla Dang.
It reads: "I am a Communist — a firm believer in Marxism-Leninism. I have contributed to the best of my capacity towards the formation and growth of the Communist Party and propagation of Communist ideals. I am leaving after having lived a full life.
I am very happy that I dedicated my life to the toiling people who are the source of a country's wealth and on whose labour depends the very life of society. As far as I can say, my life has been purposeful and fruitful. Communist ideology is based on historical materialism, according to which it is not man who is the creation of God but God itself is the creation of man. Tell-tales of heaven and hell are myths without any basis in reality.
It is, therefore, my desire that after my death, there should neither be any crying or mourning nor any Kriya ceremony. There should be no other type of religious ceremony either. There should be no Path (religious recitations), nor any Ardas (prayers) for 'peace of my soul'.
I am satisfied that I have really lived to the best of my capacity a life of honesty, selflessness, sacrifice and devotion to our toiling people. Also that I have held the view that success in life lies in fighting struggles of toilers and in helping them to stand on their feet as proud, equal and self-respecting brave human beings. For me blessings of any religious personality has no value, nor is it needed. Souls of only those remain restless who have committed sins and acts of deception and betrayal against the people. Wealth could not lure or lead me astray. I am leaving behind all this in writing so that my dead body is not dragged into religious ceremonies.
After cremation, my last remains should be thrown into the flowing Lahore branch canal, as an expression of my eternal love for the Muslim people across the Wagah and of spotless and unblemished role of my party during the mass massacre at the time of the Partition.
Last of all, my life has been the disciplined life of a member of the Communist Party. I have always considered it my duty to abide by and implement the decisions of the party. After my death, only my will has the right to take decisions concerning me and not any relation of mine. Decisions of the party should therefore be honoured."
Josh was on the forefront of almost all Akali agitations launched to liberate gurdwaras from "corrupt" Mahantas. He, however, had a bitter experience about using his democratic rights and raising objections over certain contentious issues.
When Josh repeatedly objected to certain moves in an Akali meeting, he said he was physically removed by "bodybuilder" Akalis.
Josh had been stoutly opposing the stipulation on the wearing of turban by women and other issues.
Narrating his experience of the Akali meetings, Josh wrote, "Majority of the Akalis expressed opposition to me by heckling me, and demanding from the president that I should not be allowed to speak. A proposal was then put forward by a delegate that 10 of them should be permitted to bodily throw me out of the meeting. The proposal was passed by a majority vote, despite my protests. I was lifted up by 10 of the Akalis and thrown out."