Bhai Vir Singh is a pioneer of modern Punjabi literature. Bhai Vir Singh was born on 5 December 1872 in Amritsar to Dr. Charan Singh. Bhai Vir Singh’s father Sardar Charan Singh Ji was a scholar of Hindi, Sanskrit and Braj Bhasha of the highest order and was one of the founders of the Singh Sabha movement. The Singh Sabha movement had a deep influence on Bhai Sahib Vir Singh from his childhood. The effect of this influence was that as soon as he completed his matriculation studies, he started Sikh religious activities in Punjab and he soon went ahead as a leader of Sikh religious movements. The ‘Wazir Hind Press’ started by Wazir Singh of Singh Sabha Amritsar with the support of Bhai Vir Singh played an important role in the history of Punjabi journalism. With the publication of the fortnightly newspaper ‘Nirgunara’ of the Khalsa Tract Society by Bhai Vir Singh in 1892, the number of Punjabi readers reached lakhs. It was the result of the influence of the Singh Sabha movement that the weekly ‘Khalsa Samachar’, which was the most widely published in the early period of Punjabi journalism, was started on 17 November 1899 by ‘Wazir Hind Press’ with the support of Bhai Vir Singh. Before the arrival of Bhai Sahib Vir Singh in Punjabi literature, samples of Punjabi sentence structure, vocabulary, diction and fluency are found everywhere. Bhai Sahib enriched the treasury of the mother tongue through many other literary forms including short poems, novels, plays, biographical literature, translations and editing works.
Bhai Vir Singh’s contribution in establishing the foundation of Punjabi journalism and improving its style cannot be ignored. The interpretation of Gurbani literature and the valuable literature on great Sikh personalities, from the Gurus to the Gurus, is the historical contribution of Bhai Vir Singh. The novel ‘Sundari’ published in 1898 not only increased the number of Punjabi readers, but also created immense possibilities in Punjabi literature. Later, the novels Bijay Singh, Satwant Kaur, the epic Rana Surat Singh, a collection of poems; Leharan de Haar, Matak Hulare, Kambdi Kalai, Preet Veena te Mere Saiyan Jee, plays; Raja Lakh Data Singh, a large-scale biography; Baba Naudh Singh, Sant Bimala Singh, Bharthari Hari Jivan and Niti Sahit, Gur Balam Sakhis in Children’s Literature, Devi Pujana Parool and Sant Gatha, besides Guru Nanak Chamatkar, Asht Guru Chamatkar, Kalgidhar Chamatkar prose works, Puratan Janam Sakhi, Kabit, Swaiye Bhai Gurdas, Jiwan Bhai Gurdas, Bhagat Ratnavali, Guru Granth Kosh, Santhiya Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Punjabi Granth Stick etc. Through literary works related to research and editing, Bhai Vir Singh connected Punjabi readers of all classes, from children to adults, with Punjabi literature and Gurmukhi script. He established the Chief Khalsa Diwan in the year 1901. In 1908, he brought a revolution in the world of Punjabi literature through Sikh educational conferences.
Bhai Vir Singh, while writing more than fifty books to take Punjabi literature to the world level and introducing many new literary forms to Punjabi literature, did such a favor by bringing many other great writers into the fold of Punjabi literature, which cannot be described in words. The fact that Prof. Puran Singh, the top writer of world-class literature in his time, wrote in the mother tongue Punjabi and added top-level writings to the treasury of Punjabi literature, was possible only because of Bhai Sahib. Dhani Ram Chatrik, the writer of sweet Punjabi poetry in folk idiom, became the rose of Gurmukhi’s courtyard only due to Bhai Sahib’s inspiration and support.
Not only this, from the luminaries of folk literature to journalists, novelists, playwrights and many artists, became the stars, moon and sun of Punjabi amber due to Bhai Vir Singh’s applause and encouragement. Bhai Vir Singh led the Punjabi literary field from the 1890s to the 1950s and continued to render literary service by writing continuously. In the year 1949, Panjab University awarded him the degree of ‘Doctor of Oriental Learning’. In the year 1952, he was nominated as an honorary member of the Punjab Legislative Council. In the year 1954, he was presented with a commemorative Abhinandan Granth and was honored with the title of Padma Bhushan.
After rendering great and tireless service to the Punjabi literary world for more than half a century, this saint poet, writer and great thinker bid farewell to this mortal world on 10 June 1957, giving us an eternal separation. The star of the sky of Punjabi literature, the beloved writer of the Punjabi mother tongue, the gentle, sweet-spoken, love-soaked, mystical and high-minded great scholar who enriched the treasury of Punjabi literature, Gurmat literature and emotional poetry, Bhai Vir Singh can be called the father of modern Punjabi literature.
The great poet of short poems, the creator of poems colored in the colors of nature and destiny, the great poet Bhai Vir Singh, who can be called the Wordsworth, Milton and Dante of Punjabi, has not yet been properly evaluated in a literary way. Among his contemporaries, the great poet Rabindranath Tagore has contributed to Bengali literature, and Bhai Vir Singh has contributed to Punjabi at the same level. Of course, it is true that by the time of Tagore’s arrival, educational expansion, universities and literary expansion in the Bengali language were at a high level, which played an important role in making Tagore world-famous, on the other hand, there was a huge gap in the educational and literary level in the Punjabi region until the arrival of Bhai Vir Singh. Punjabi studies started much later in Lahore University. At such a time, Bhai Vir Singh’s choice of Punjabi language and Gurmukhi script for literary creation can be called a revolutionary step.
Bhai Vir Singh’s contemporary Allama Iqbal has the status of ‘Shayar-e-Millat’ in Urdu literature. From abroadAfter completing his higher studies, Dr. Iqbal chose Urdu for literary creation, although he was Punjabi, but he did not write in Punjabi. Despite this, Urdu lovers honored Dr. Iqbal as a great writer by giving him the honor of ‘Shayar-e-Millat’ i.e. national poet. Dr. Bhai Vir Singh also belonged to a venerable family. In terms of language, he was knowledgeable in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian. Due to his family background, he could have gone to any university in England for high-level science education. He could have earned a high name by writing literature in English. Despite these golden opportunities, Bhai Vir Singh chose the path of Punjabi language, literature and Gurmukhi script, giving ‘proof of being a Punjabi son’ and dedicated his entire life to Punjabi. This was not a small matter, but a big effort to take the field of Punjabi literature to a higher level in the twentieth century. Bhai Vir Singh received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956 for his poetry ‘Mere Saiyan Jee’. Bhai Vir Singh is the first Punjabi writer to receive this award as a ‘Shormani Sahitkar’. While in the 1950s, on the one hand, Bhai Vir Singh received the Bhartiya Sahitya Akademi Award, on the other hand, a certain faction in Punjabi literature began to envy him. The tireless servant of Punjabi literature began to be criticized by the contemporary ‘literary mafia’. People devoid of literary insight have been criticizing Bhai Vir Singh ever since. These critics who reject Bhai Vir Singh on a self-imposed criticism scale allege that Bhai Vir Singh is a backward writer, his poetry does not explain contemporary conditions, he narrates a shallow romanticism, Bhai Vir Singh writes passionately about Sikhism, he does not criticize the British Empire, he does not talk about freedom and he ‘tear the fabric of Punjab’. In fact, the ‘literary mafia’ has been systematically campaigning to discredit Bhai Vir Singh’s literary contributions. By creating such a narrative, the mafia has succeeded to some extent in taking away Bhai Sahib’s rightful place as the pioneer writer of modern Punjabi literature. This same mafia has been in control of Punjabi educational institutions, literary institutions, colleges and universities for more than half a century. The reason why such jealous critics have succeeded in spreading hatred against Bhai Vir Singh is that either the number of writers who are aware of Bhai Sahib’s literary contributions is negligible or they are afraid of clashing with the ‘literary mafia’. The surprising thing is that despite Bhai Vir Singh being a ‘great scholar of Punjabi’, why do ‘groups of Punjabi writers and critics’ hate him and avoid him?
In fact, the biggest reason for envying Bhai Vir Singh’s literature is that he was inspired by Sikhism. The purpose of Bhai Vir Singh’s writings is definitely to promote the Punjabi language and to flourish the Gurmukhi script. Be it poetry, novels, stories or plays, Bhai Vir Singh encourages readers to read Punjabi. Here he openly admits that his inspiration is Sikh life and Guru Granth Sahib. Passing on the Sikh heritage to the next generation through the Gurmukhi script and Punjabi language, Bhai Vir Singh writes in the introduction to the novel ‘Sundari’, ‘Our intention in writing this book is that by reading and listening to the old news, the Sikh people should become firm in their religion, should practice both devotion to God and worldly conduct, should renounce evil practices, should increase religion, should love their noble principles, should be organized among themselves, should know other communities as one, should not have ‘extreme hatred and extreme affection for anyone’, but should remain steadfast by following the Guru’s teachings of ‘Manas ki jati sabhai ekai pehchanbo’.” It is true that when Bhai Sahib set foot in the field of Punjabi literature, on the one hand, Christian missionaries and on the other hand, Arya Samajists had attacked Sikhism. All the forces had come together and were determined to destroy Sikhism, Punjabi and Gurmukhi. Then the Singh Sabha movement confronted these forces and defeated the Arya Samaj and Christian missionaries. Prof. Gurmukh Singh, Giani Ditt Singh, Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha and all the Singh Sabiyas became swordsmen of the pen and stood firm against the forces that were destroying Sikhism and Punjabi. Bhai Vir Singh took this movement to the next stage.
Due to the influence of Bhai Vir Singh’s propaganda, many Sikh scholars left the Arya Samaj and joined their Sikh heritage. Those writers started writing in Gurmukhi script and Punjabi language. Since then, there was hatred towards Bhai Vir Singh among the Arya Samajists, which reached its peak when Dhani Ram Chatrik and Prof. Puran Singh were brought into the Punjabi literary field of Bhai Vir Singh. It was the Arya Samajists who insisted on adopting Devanagari script instead of Gurmukhi script and Hindi instead of Punjabi.
Even today, the slogan of ‘One Language One Nation’ that is being given is actually ‘an organized form of the Arya Samaj narrative’. Many patriotic Punjabis also fell victim to this, who, under the propaganda of Arya Samaj, kept on advocating the adoption of Hindi instead of Punjabi and writing in Devanagari instead of Gurmukhi. At such a time, Bhai Vir Singh used ‘the pen as a sword to protect Punjabi and Gurmukhi’ and while fighting against the opposing forces, he became a warrior of the Punjabi language.
Can a person who draws inspiration from Gurbani literature and Sikh heritage not be a Punjabi writer? This narrative is pure hypocrisy and conceit. If we look at the best literature of the world, we will see its essence.
