Bhai Sahib Bhai Vir Singh

Translated by Dr. G.S Mansukhani

Published by Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi

Based on a popular folk song and set in the historical period of Mir Manu that is notorious for large scale massacre of the Sikhs, Sundri is a symbolic representative of that milieu. Nawabs and courtiers were bent upon annihilating the Sikhs. The rulers were lustful and tyrannical. Hindu’s as a class failed to meet the challenge. At the best they could offer compensation to get back captured girls. Men like Balwant Singh, Sundri’s brother, and girls of her stock, faced all kinds of persecution at the hands of the Mogul sepoys and humiliation at the hands of Nawabs. The story depicts incidents and events which inculcate universal brotherhood and love for humanity. A sikh girl treats an injured moghul sepoy but on learning that she is a Sikh woman he attacks with his dagger. Surasti, the earlier name of Sundri, was forcibly taken away by the Mogul official but when she is baptized and renamed Sundri, she earns respect of the Sikh jatha who treat her as their own sister.

Sundri, Bhai Vir Singh’s first novel was written at a time when the Sikh people were at their lowest ebb of their morale after the fall of their empire and the annexation of the Punjab by the British. Bhai Vir Singh’s genius undertook upon himself to produce such literature at that time as would inspire the Sikh community and revivie their pristine glory. The book highlights the glorious manner in which the Khalsa remained steadfast to its high principles even when faced with the greatest odds.

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