Gurpurb broadcast scripted history

Harjap Singh Aujla

THE year was 1948. Punjab was picking up the pieces after the unspeakable horrors of the Partition. The Gurpurb of Guru Nanak was fast approaching. All India Radio (AIR), Jullundur-Amritsar, had just commenced its services on a small scale. Recruited as a senior programme executive at its mother station (AIR, Lahore), Kartar Singh Duggal — who went on to carve a niche for himself as an eminent writer — was serving as the acting station director of AIR, Jullundur-Amritsar. Among his subordinates was a young man with a free-flowing beard, Jodh Singh, who was recruited as the producer of a programme for rural listeners, but was handling much more. He was hurriedly assigned the task of producing a special programme to mark Gurpurb. Jodh Singh proposed live broadcast of at least one hour from the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple.

The energetic Jodh Singh arrived a day in advance and stayed in a serai of the SGPC. On Gurpurb day, he got up at 3 am and took a holy dip in the sarovar; after getting ready, he arrived at the sanctum sanctorum well before

5 am. The famous signature tune of AIR was heard in the studios at 4.58 am, followed by an announcement in Punjabi about a one-hour-long relay of the kirtan of Asa Di Vaar from Sri Darbar Sahib. Soon, a pleasing male voice greeted the listeners. Translated into English, the address went thus: ‘It is a chilly autumn morning of the full-moon day in the month of Katak; it corresponds to the Gurpurb of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji. Clad in multi-coloured clothes, a big number of devotees are coming to pay obeisance on this pious day. The Raagi Singhs are rendering the sacred Gurbani in the most captivating tunes. I don’t want to remain between you and the accomplished Raagis; please listen to the recital.’ After the programme ended, Jodh Singh made another announcement and took the listeners back to the AIR studio.

This story was told to me by Jodh Singh himself. I got to know that the rendition of Asa Di Vaar on the day of the broadcast of Guru Nanak’s Gurpurb kirtan from the Golden Temple was given by Bhai Santa Singh. After the legendary Bhai Chand, he was then the seniormost Hazoori Raagi in the holiest Sikh shrine.

In 1950, Bhai Santa Singh joined the staff of Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Old Delhi. He gave recitals at various historical gurdwaras of the national capital and earned goodwill everywhere. After the demise of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, Bhai Santa Singh was the only proponent of Sikh music who was invited to render a performance in the AIR studio on Parliament Street. He passed away in November 1966.

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