Manohar Singh Gill: An Officer of the People
Punjab and Punjabi Diaspora
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The bitter waters of the Punjab Rivers
Read more here →: The bitter waters of the Punjab RiversI joined the Punjab IAS in 1958. In 1960, Prime Minister Nehru signed the World Bank Sponsored Agreement with Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan, to divide the river waters of the old Punjab. The East Punjab was allotted 15.2 MAF and the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers, while the West Punjab got Chenab, Jhelum and…
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‘Even after 33 years, the idea of Apni Mandi has survived’
Read more here →: ‘Even after 33 years, the idea of Apni Mandi has survived’The Tribune, Ludhiana | June 11, 2019 In 1985, on return from the World Bank, I became Development Commissioner, Punjab, responsible for the agriculture and rural sector. This unified authority, now split, was created by Kairon. I had spent the year 1967 in Cambridge and gone again on invitation in 1974-75 to write my book…
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Punjab’s never-ending woes
Read more here →: Punjab’s never-ending woesThe Tribune, Chandigarh | April 7, 2019 Partition was a great disaster – lost lives, migration, and other horrors. We left the west canal colonies created by the Sikhs, and got one-third sandy land in return. Laudhiana was all tibbas, growing groundnut. The rivers were divided and Punjab got 15 million acre-foot (MAF). Against the Constitution…
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Gas crematoria for Punjab
Read more here →: Gas crematoria for PunjabThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | June 25, 2017 Kaffeeklatsch: ‘Media would not be intimidated’, dated June 11, was a good read. Heera Chand Guglani’s verse on the futility of expenditure on last rites drew my attention in particular. When I was a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab (2004-2016), the then Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, who also…
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Men and Memories: A walk down history lane
Read more here →: Men and Memories: A walk down history laneThe Tribune, Chandigarh | November 3, 2016 Partition in 1947 was the greatest subcontinental disaster, leading to migration and misery for the people of Punjab. Governor Glancey wrote to M.A. Jinnah that he was doing everything to clear out the rural Sikhs from the rich canal colonies. Daily violence in Lahore pushed out Hindus and…
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Delhi lobby can hit Chandigarh airport takeoff
Read more here →: Delhi lobby can hit Chandigarh airport takeoffThe Tribune, Chandigarh | September 19, 2015 Sitting in Zurich on the 50th Anniversary of Corbusier passing away, I read that the international airport at Chandigarh has, finally, been inaugurated by the Prime Minister. The occasion fortuitously got linked with the memories of Corbusier, who is being celebrated in Chandigarh, as in Europe and particularly…
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She Could Only Be A Punjabi
Read more here →: She Could Only Be A PunjabiShe stood there alone like “Ruth amid the alien corn”. Behind her was the vastness of a tropical forest with trees more than a 150 feet high, enmeshed with myriads of creepers that kept out the sunlight and gave the forest a dark and forbidding look. Around her was a small patch of land, still half-reclaimed. Stumps…
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Water Crisis in East and West Punjab
Read more here →: Water Crisis in East and West PunjabThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | May 23, 2010Republished in The Hindu | May 29, 2010 Let’s tackle it with a steady application of science, says Manohar Singh Gill As the long hot summer sizzles, men’s thoughts in Lahore and in Amritsar turned to water. It is scarce on both sides of the border. When the British…
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Memories of Tarn Taran
Read more here →: Memories of Tarn TaranThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | June 4, 2006 June 1, 2006 is a happy day for me and all who have some connection with Tarn Taran. In the last 20 years, six new districts have been created by different governments, almost all south of the Satluj. Tarn Taran, which had the strongest claim, unfortunately was…
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Of Ajit Garh and Tarn Taran
Read more here →: Of Ajit Garh and Tarn TaranThe Tribune, Chandigarh | May 4, 2006 When Punjab was again divided in 1966, I was DC, Ambala. I proposed the creation of Ropar district in new Punjab. This was accepted. A decade later, Chief Minister Zail Singh changed the name to Roop Nagar. I could not see the rationale. Mohali township was started by…
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Bus to Nankana
Read more here →: Bus to NankanaThe Asian Age New Delhi | November 27, 2004 Yesterday was Guru Nanak’s birthday. All over this country, and around the world, people gathered to celebrate this remarkable figure of the Sufi-Bhakti tradition. Guru Nanak strove with all his might to promote the unity of God, the brotherhood of man and the equality of men…
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The Real Punjab Mail
Read more here →: The Real Punjab MailThe Tribune | July 18, 1980 The Orient Express was made famous by Agatha Christie. In the days of the raj the most romantic train on the subcontinent was the Frontier Mail which ran from Bombay to Punjab and the Khyber Pass. Men like John Masters have described the fascinating journey by this train, full…
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Empty Houses And Lonely Couples
Read more here →: Empty Houses And Lonely CouplesThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | July 6, 1980 We were sitting in a group with the conversation drifting from one thing to the other. The bank manager casually mentioned his doctor son, now settled in the U.S.A. “My other two sons have followed him”, he said with a tinge of sadness. “Once gone they never…
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Grey Beards, Green Hedges
Read more here →: Grey Beards, Green HedgesThe Sunday Tribune | June 8, 1980 We were sipping iced nimboo-pani with some friends. The conversation was about life at Chandigarh. “What is there to do in this dull city?” exploded the husband in virile Punjabi, “All you get here are serving or retired bureaucrats, and a duller lot would be hard to find.…
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A rare get-together
Read more here →: A rare get-togetherThe Tribune | April 18, 1980 Possibly the most exclusive Indian club is a worldwide group of Punjabis. Since Punjabis are spread over the far corners of the globe, the membership perforce has to be an international one. Of course, it is another matter that when the members, like good Americans, decide to exchange visiting…
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Punjabi films: hope on the horizon
Read more here →: Punjabi films: hope on the horizonThe Tribune | April 15, 1980 The Punjabi film industry will today receive formal recognition when the State Governor Mr Jaisukhlal Hathi, gives away the first ever State awards. The selections were made by a jury headed by Dr M.S. Randhawa. According to the jury, although State awards could only be given to Punjabi language…
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Captains of the sea
Read more here →: Captains of the seaThe Tribune | April 10, 1980 Punjab is a dusty plain a thousand miles from the sea. The only water it knows of are the five sluggish meandering rivers that sustain its people. Even these are valued only for their irrigation potential. The Punjabi does not sport with them as do the Europeans with their…
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Remembering Bhagat Singh
Read more here →: Remembering Bhagat SinghThe Tribune, Chandigarh | March 22, 1980 On a mild September day in 1971 I motored to a small fishing village on the east coast of England. I was in search of Shiv Singh Johal, a friend of Udham Singh, who was said to have in his possession Udham Singh’s last letters from jail. I…
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Chandigarh’s Hyde Park
Read more here →: Chandigarh’s Hyde ParkThe Tribune | November 26, 1979 He stands defiantly on the traffic island leading to the Punjab Secretariat. He wears a yellow turban and a military great coat, over which he carries a sword. A steel chakra in his hand, a distant and aloof look in his eyes, he occasionally walks with a proud and…
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A step towards cultural revival
Read more here →: A step towards cultural revivalThe Tribune | November 12, 1979 Mr Parkash Singh Badal will today lay the foundation stone of the Punjab Arts Council building near the Rose Garden in Chandigarh. This will be an important step in the cultural revival of the State. Ever since 1966, when the miracle wheat seeds came to Punjab, we have all…
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Ludhiana redeems a promise
Read more here →: Ludhiana redeems a promiseThe Sunday Tribune, Chandigarh | November 4, 1979 Today the Chief Minister of Punjab will unveil in Ludhiana a 10 ft. high bronze statue of Major Bhupinder Singh, M.V.C., of Hodsons Horse, who gave his life for the country in the Sialkot sector in the 1965 war. For me, personally, it is the fulfilment of…
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A Sikh from Norway
Read more here →: A Sikh from NorwayThe Tribune | September 27, 1979 He walked into the plush office of a refrigeration company in New Delhi and asked to see the managing director. His request was simple. Could they please build him a cold store in his native Jullundur? The managing director was surprised. The man who sat opposite him was a…
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A Punjabi Tamilian
Read more here →: A Punjabi TamilianThe Tribune | April 26, 1979 In a country obsessed with the activities of politicians, big and small, the death of a bureaucrat in distant Madras should be a matter of no importance to the people of Punjab. Yet Jeet Singh Bhangoo, former Transport Commissioner to the Government of Tamil Nadu, deserves notice, howsoever briefly…
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Chandigarh Footlights
Read more here →: Chandigarh FootlightsThe Tribune | March 4, 1979 At Cambridge University, achieving high academic results is not the main purpose of life. The students are there to savour the unique intellectual and social atmosphere of the place and to endeavour to develop their talents and faculties to the fullest extent possible. Some want to be artists, others…
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First flower of freedom
Read more here →: First flower of freedomThe Indian Express | October 6, 1978 Chandigarh: Glorious tributes have been paid to Le Corbusier by many great architects of the world. The great American Architect, Louis Khan, once said, “I came to live in a beautiful city called Le Corbusier”. On seeing Chandigarh in 1960, Paul Rudolph, a famous architect, remarked: “It is…