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Dr Kharak Singh – A Sikh Savant and Trailblazer
–
Prof Kulwant Singh*
A spontaneous wringing of one’s head and hands is
what a sensitive person does in a moment of extreme agony
when someone with whom one has been sharing views from
the most trivial to most profound and sublime of thoughts
passes away. In such a moment of agony, one is reminded
of the agonized cry of one of Shakespeare’s most
tragic character, King Lear. Carrying the dead body of
his most virtuous and beloved Cordelia, Lear cries to
the heavens:
“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And Thou no breath at all? Thou’ it come no more
Never, never, never, never, never!”
Soon after, the mentally unhinged Lear rushes out into
the wilderness and is no more. Sometimes the death of
such a rare individual leaves behind a vacuum no less
than that of an abyss into which, despite all the resolutions
and platitudes of those around, one keeps staring. There
is a sudden cessation of all mental, intellectual activity
despite the pledges and protestations of one’s own
heart for carrying on his legacy. An indescribable sense
of stupor and chill settles over one’s cerebral
well-springs. Such has been passing away of Dr Kharak
Singh. Like a colossus and an intellectual gaint among
his colleagues, he walked, talked, wrote and planned projects
of far-reaching consequences in his chosen fields of Sikh
religion and Sikh society. His has been a single-minded
round-the-clock occupation and commitment to conceptualise
the institutional framework for the reconstruction of
Sikh society for the coming millenniums. As if running
against time and ticking of the chock, he succeeded in
his task of sowing the seeds of societal regeneration
in the Sikh soil. May the progeny of his camp followers
in whose minds and soul he has planted this seed, be charged
with the same intensity of missionary zeal to fulfil his
manifesto. As far his other human qualities in addition
to his enlightened mind are concerned, we may equate him
with Shakespeare’s portrayal of Brutus in Julius
Caesar:
“His
life was gentle and the elements
So mixed in him that nature might stand up
And say to all the world, “This was the man!”
