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On the death of
Bibi Pritam Kaur
When I first
heard the news of the demise of Bibi Pritam Kaur, I called up a Sikh
activist and asked him,”do we have a study on her? “A study?, “what
study?”, “I mean what it was to live life with Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale? “How did she live as a widow of the great rebel after
June 1984?
I think naivety
and our collective somnolence made it impossible for us to think on
these lines. She is no more with us. Perhaps her illustrious sons
and grandchildren will tell us about her thoughts. Perhaps. I also
wondered if some Sikh women activists enedeavoured to delve deep
into her psyche and being. It would be a touching gesture if
someone has done this.
Apart from a
rickety gaudily painted structure proclaiming that Rode is the home village
of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, there was nothing unusual in the
village which had given Panjab, one of its most daring heroes. It
was like any other village. Life too was going on. People did not
stop work or down their shutters to pay homage to a woman who
belonged to that village. Or did she?
Bibi Pritam Kaur
rarely stayed in village Rode, but we have been fed with stories
about Pind di beti and Pind di Nooh, what about that. Less than a
thousand people, most of them representatives of various Sikh
religious, political and social organisations were present at the
cremation on the afternoon of 16th September. The common
man, the common Sikh –man or woman was conspicuous by absence.
The community
took 19 years to declare Sant Jarnail Singh a martyr. I wonder how
many more years or decades we will have to wait to recognise the
role and contribution of Sikh women as homemakers and supporters to
men struggling for community rights.
20
September, 2007
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