Mahan Singh Dhesi memorial lecture organised at GNDU

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 22

Department of History, Guru Nanak Dev University, organised Mahan Singh Dhesi annual memorial lecture online. Sardar Mahan Singh Dhesi, a pioneer Punjabi in California, on whose name the annual lecture has been instituted by his family. Dhesi was one of the founder members of the Gurdwara at Stockton, famously known as Gurdwara of Ghadris.

The lecture was delivered by Prof Mridula Mukherjee, a former professor at centre for historical studies, Jawahar Lal Nehru University and Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. She spoke on the peasant-political protests in pre-independence Punjab. Prof Mukherjee has devoted most of his life to the study of kisan movements in pre-independence Punjab. According to her, the peasants all over the world have their distinctive way of life and culture. Speaking on farming community of Punjab, she said, “Punjab peasants also have their distinctive way of looking at life, their sense of community, their bhaichara, which is different from the peasants in rest of India. People here rarely used caste or clan names. Most of the heroes of the Akali movement, Ghadar movement and of Left political parties used their village names and still do. It is their heritage, an intangible cultural heritage.” She found many parallels in farmer protests of present and that of pre-independence Punjab. According to her, the present fight of farmers is not only about production, but a certain way of life and for preserving their past and culture. Prof Sarbjot Singh Behl, Dean, Academic Affairs, in his concluding remarks stated agriculture was the foundation of any civilisation.