Foreword To The Book ‘Sardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala’ - Book By Gurbachan Singh Talib

This is the brief life-sketch of a simple, heroic man, who struggled like so many others in our country against the dark forces of despotism and tyranny. Any­one with even a cursory knowledge of the state of affairs in the Indian Princely States would know what centres of tyranny they were, with the absolute immu­nity which their rulers enjoyed under protection of British bayonets. By currying favour with the foreign imperialism which held India under sway, they abso­lutely rode rough-shod over the human rights of their subjects. There was hardly any rule of law in these States, where the will of the ruler alone constituted law and justice. The officialdom being entirely at the mercy of the ruler's whim, the subject could not hope for fair consideration of his rights or in case of conflict, for a fair trial. Now-a-days we are used to looking upon certain constitutional rights as axiomatic. No such thing existed in the Indian States. Men had to struggle with their blood for elementary human justice. It is in this background that the story of Sardar Sewa Singh's deeply touching struggle has to be read. Of course, there were numerous others in other Indian States who had to undergo trials similar to his.

The Maharaja of Patiala, Bhupendra Singh whose will Sardar Sewa Singh was charged with defying, was a brilliant, colourful and highly resourceful prince. With a slightly different, publicly-minded slant he would have  proved  with his gifts, a great ruler. But sheer arrogance and despotic mania led him on to the path of sadistic cruelty, which Sardar Sewa Singh withstood with lofty patience in the spirit of the true Sikh and Satyagrahi. The more we look at the conflict of this pair the more are we struck with its tragedy, on its needless waste of so much good human material. With each of these episodes narrated in this booklet, our respect for Sardar Sewa Singh rises. It is hoped that this brief story of an unknown heroic man will serve to fill up a blank in the history of our peoples' freedom struggle.

This sketch in English is based on the detailed and well-documented narrative done in Panjabi by Principal Gurcharan Singh of Faridkot. Both the original and this sketch owe their inspiration to the Panjabi University of Patiala.

GURBACHAN SINGH TALIB GURU NANAK DEPARTMENT OF SIKH STUDIES,
Panjab university, Chandigarh.
September 30, 1970