Monday 4 July 2011

A Message for Sikh Youth


Aspects of the Sikh Religion: A Dialogue with Prof. Hardev Singh Virk

* Excerpts of the Interview recorded by Asian Television in September 2003 in Canada for the Sikh Youth of North America by Professor H.S.Virk , after his retirement from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Q 1. What are special features of Sikh Religion?
A. (a) It is one of the five major religions of the world, viz., Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
(b) It was established by Guru Nanak in 15th Century, in the epoch when Martin Luther introduced Reformation in Roman Catholic religion in Europe.
(c) It is a unique religion and not a synthesis or syncretisation of Hinduism and Islam, as misunderstood by most of the foreigners.
(d) It has its own Holy Book, Aad Guru Granth Sahib, which contains hymns of Sikh Gurus, Hindu and Muslim saints of India.
(e) It has a universal message for whole of mankind: Reality (God) is one, its name is Truth, Creator Person, Without Fear, Without Enmity, Timeless Being, Unborn, Self Existent, Realised with Grace of the Guru.
(f) AGGS was installed in Harmandir Sahib by Guru Arjun, 400 years ago (Sept. 1604) (Bhadon Sudi 1, 1661 Bikrami).
(g) Creation.of Khalsa (Transformation of Sikhism) in April 1699, which gave distinct identity to the Sikhs.

Q. 2. What is your message for the Sikh Diaspora?
A. Diaspora is the term used for the Jews who spread all over the globe. Now same is the case of Sikhs. Guru Nanak visited many countries during his itineraries, called Udasis. He visited Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Uzbekistan, Tibet and Ceylon. Guru blessed his Sikhs in a unique way; if he was served well, he used to utter a blessing: Be uprooted. To others who misbehaved, He uttered: Be confined to your home and hearth! So the Diaspora Sikhs should prove themselves worthy of great Guru’s utterance by excelling in all fields of their activity. In Multicultural society of Canada, they have equal opportunity to prosper. My students in Abbotsford and Toronto are doing fine. Sikhs have established their own schools, Gurdwaras and cultural centers. While keeping their separate identity intact, they should participate in all spheres of activity. During my travels in B.C; Ontario and Alberta, I was pleased to see that Sikhs have created a niche for their religion and culture in Canadian society.

Q.3. What is the purpose of SGPC and role of Akal Takht?
A. Guru Nanak established Dharamshala at Kartarpur and started Sangat and Pangat. Guru Amardas set up 22 Manjis to propagate Sikh Religion. Guru Ramdas created Amritsar city and Guru Arjun, Tarn Taran. Sikh Gurdwaras were managed by Udassi/Nirmalas during the period of Sikh misals. During Ranjit Singh’s rule, it further degenerated into the Brahmanical tradition. Singh Sabha Movement (1872) was promoted by Professor Gurmukh Singh and Giani Dit Singh of Oriental College, Lahore. Sunder Singh Majithia, Harbans Singh Attari, and a galaxy of other Sikh intellectuals were involved in its activities. British Govt. wanted to perpetuate the Brahmanical tradition and accepted Mahants as owners of Gurdwaras. During 1920’s, the struggle for Gurdwara control by the Sikhs was started. Mahant Narayan Das of Nankana Sahib Gurdwara murdered 130 Sikhs and in Jaito Morcha nearly 200 Sikhs died in jails. Gurdwara Bill was passed in July 1925 and first election was held on 18 June 1926.SGPC came into power. Akali Dal became a political wing of SGPC. All evils of election process i.e. corrupt practices were used even during first SGPC election.

Q.4. What is the concept of Miri and Piri in Sikh Religion?
A. Since the times of Guru Hargobind, the concept of Miri-Piri was introduced in Sikh Religion. Guru Jee wanted to wear 2 swords at the initiation ceremony: one of Piri (divine power) and the other of Miri (temporal power). He also raised army to defend Sikh religion against the state repression let loose by the Mongol rulers. Akal Takht (The throne of Timeless Being) was set up by Guru Hargobind (as his seat of Temporal power) and political decisions were taken sitting there. It was constructed in front of Harmandir Sahib(Golden Temple), so that temporal power is subordinate to spiritual power or divinity of Sikh religion. During misal period all Sikh Sardars assembled here on two occasions, Diwali and Baisakhi, to take stock of the Sikh affairs. This gathering was called Sarbat Khalsa. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was also called by Akali Phula Singh to appear at Akal Takhat,when he violated Sikh Maryada by marrying a Muslim dancing girl ‘Moran’. Akal Takhat held a special role in Sikh religious and political affairs and its hukamnamas have sanctity for all Sikhs.

Q. 5. What is your message for Sikh Youth of America?
A.(a) Sikh youth must study history of Sikh Religion, its unique philosophy of
Universal brotherhood and other salient features in the comity of world religions.

(b)  They must keep and cherish their unique identity. I was the only Sikh
 student in Marie Curie university of Paris in 1970 amongst more than 100,000
 on its rolls. Hence I used to be invited as a special guest on all occasions.
 I always considered myself an ambassador of my country and Sikh Religion.
 So Sikh youth must behave in a manner which leaves an impact on the
 minds of other people with whom they interact.

(c)  Sikh youth must try to excel in their studies, professions and sports.

(d)  Participation in Sikh youth camps is useful.

(e)  Keeping Sikh and Indian traditions intact will be useful for the Sikh youth.

(f)   Exploring other cultures in a multicultural society is a useful act.

(g)  Sikh youth must aviod the use of DRUGS as forbidden by the Sikh Gurus
and Rehat Maryada.

Sunday 3 July 2011

My Teacher Who Inspired Me

Piara Singh Gill (1911-2002)

Piara Singh Gill, a pioneer cosmic ray physicist, died 23 March 2002 at Atlanta, Georgia. Born on 28 October 1911 in Hoshiarpur District, Punjab, Gill used to trek 10 km daily to attend primary school. Graduating high school in 1928, he sailed for America, working initially as a taxi driver in Panama to earn money for his education. He was later awarded tuition scholarships at the University of Southern California, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees there in 1935 and 1936. During this time, he picked fruit, scrubbed floors, and washed dishes to support him.
During 1936-40, Gill worked at the University of Chicago for his PhD under Nobel Laureate Arthur Compton. His thesis established the ‘latitude effect’ in cosmic ray intensity at sea level. In the course of this work, he travelled 15 times between Vancouver, Canada and Hobart, Tasmania during 1937-38 in a regular passenger steamship, the S.S. Aurangi, where he had installed an ionization chamber shielded by a 12cm thick lead enclosure. In June 1939, Gill attended the International Symposium on Cosmic Rays, presenting a paper on the ‘Size-frequency distribution of cosmic ray bursts’, which described the first experiment to provide clues about meson spin.
On his graduation in 1940, Compton offered Gill a postdoctoral fellowship to continue his research at Chicago, but Gill was keen to carry out experiments on the azimuthal variation of cosmic ray intensity in India. So Chicago awarded him a travelling Research Fellowship, and Gill sailed for India in April 1940, joining Forman Christian College, Lahore as a lecturer in physics, where he also set up a cosmic ray research laboratory. In the summer of 1945, he organized an expedition to the Himalayas to study the production of mesons by the non-ionizing component of cosmic rays, but the results showed no production of mesons. Later, these experiments were repeated using RAF planes and meson production was detected at altitudes above 20,000 ft.  In 1946, Gill visited the USA and Europe, delivering invited lectures on cosmic ray experiments carried out in India. Upon returning, he became a Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay, where he initiated high altitude experiments with hydrogen balloons. Gill resigned from TIFR the next year (probably due to personality conflicts with its then Director Homi Bhabha, himself an eminent cosmic ray physicist) and returned to the US to work at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, studying the relationship between solar flares and sudden increases in the intensity of cosmic rays, in collaboration with M. S. Vallarta and S. E. Forbush.
Gill was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission when he returned to India. Soon thereafter, he was invited to work at the National Bureau of Standards, when he also assisted the Indian Embassy in Washington DC as Scientific Advisor. In 1949, Gill joined Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as Professor & Head of the Physics Department where he spent a very fruitful decade-and-a-half. He took immediate steps to update course syllabi, improve physics instruction, and establish well-equipped research laboratories. Under his leadership, AMU became a leading centre for physics research in India by the late 1950s. In September 1963, Gill was appointed Director of the Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO) in Chandigarh. Under his leadership, CSIO established itself as a leader in instrument design in Asia. On retiring from CSIO in 1971, Gill joined Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana as Emeritus Professor. During this time, he also wrote high school physics texts in English, which I translated into Punjabi. Later, he became an entrepreneur, starting a company manufacturing magnetic heads for tape recorders. He sold the company to return to the US to spend the last years of his life with his daughter, Suristha G. Sehgal at Georgia State University, Atlanta.
Gill set an inspiring personal example to his students and colleagues. He was always punctual and never missed lectures, despite a busy schedule of non-academic engagements. His students eventually came to occupy eminent positions in Indian universities and scientific establishments. He was a first-class researcher, a teacher of teachers, an institution builder, an administrator and an entrepreneur who spent significant chunks of his career both in India and the US. Even in the Indian context, his is the story of a person from humble beginnings rising to great prominence in scientific and public life. His career is truly a testament to the power of the individual to succeed against all odds. His autobiography Up Against Odds, is compelling, inspirational and educative reading. May his soul rest in peace!

H. S. VIRK
Department of Physics
Guru Nanak Dev University
Amritsar 143 005, India
e-mail: hardevsingh.virk@gmail.com

100 Reasons To Be A Scientist

One Hundred Reasons To Be A Scientist

(40th Anniversary Volume of ICTP, Trieste, Italy)

Published by: Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy
Reviewed by: Prof. H. S. Virk, President Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT)
Pages: 263, Price: 3 Euro, 1st Edition: Oct. 2004

The book under review is a 40th anniversary volume of Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), which was founded by Professor Abdus Salam, Nobel Laureate, in Trieste in 1964. As the title suggests, the book contains 100 essays written by eminent scientists who were connected with ICTP during the 40 years since its inception. The galaxy of contributors to this volume include 25 Nobel Laureates, many Field Medallists, ICTP Dirac Medallists and other decorated scientists. Out of 100 selected contributors, 7 are of Indian origin. Most of the essays are written in the first person and revolve around the formative years in the life of the scientist. It mainly focuses on the trials and tribulations undergone by the scientists and their contributions to research.
              The opening essay of this volume is written by the late Professor Abdus Salam, narrating episodes of his student life, a scholarship to Cambridge University at the end of Second World War, his isolation in Lahore and return to Cambridge. Abdus Salam created ICTP to help Third World Scientists from developing countries. He had a prophetic vision and devoted his whole life in building up infrastructure at ICTP, for training of Third World scientists from all over the world. I had the privilege of visiting ICTP, almost a dozen times, first as a participant and later as a Senior Associate of ICTP. I feel delighted that the Director ICTP chose me as one of the contributors for the next volume of the series.
             Reading personal accounts of eminent scientists is an exhilarating experience for both students and teachers. Two decades ago, ICTP arranged special lectures by Nobel Laureates and this monograph was published by ICTP under the title, “My Life of Physics”. I believe this new volume is an extension of the same exercise at a bigger scale. Some of the common themes elaborated by most of the contributors are their adventure or accidental entry into field of science, rewarding experience of working in a world class laboratory helped by peers and reaching the pinnacle of their career resulting in Nobel Prize or some other distinction.
               It is not possible to quote from all essays included in this volume. Just for sake of citation, I choose from D. Allen Bromley’s essay, “A life of Literature, Science, Engineering, Business and Public Policy”. Professor Bromley describes vividly how he entered Queens University at Kingston in Canada by winning a national essay competition on the evils of alcohol. The family could not support his university education. Entering as a freshman in English literature, he shifted to Engineering Physics, then moved on to Nuclear Physics, became Chairman of Physics Department and Dean of Science Faculty at Yale University, Director of New York Stock Exchange Companies, ending up as Science Policy Advisor to the U.S President. In his own words: “Changes of field are actually important to maintaining intellectual interest and acuity and I would urge all scientists and engineers to consider spending some time in public policy and government activities as a small return for all the opportunities and activities that the public provides”.
                                I found equally or more interesting accounts given by some of the Nobel Laureates. ECG Sudarshan in his essay, “An Account of My Theoretical Physics Contributions” describes highlights of his research work. He ends his essay with remarks: “The great miracle is that the physical world can be understood in terms of mathematical models which can make predictions that could be verified by laboratory experiments. From the beginning of my career, I have been fascinated and even mystified by this”. CNR Rao was lucky to be brought up in Bangalore, a city famous for its Raman Research Institute and Indian Institute of Science. He was attracted to research even when he was in school after listening to Sir CV Raman, the Nobel Laureate. CNR Rao is a leading scientist of India involved in Science Policy and planning cell of Government of India. We have MGK Menon, JV Narlikar, K Kasturirangan, Roddam Narasimha and Partha Dasgupta, other Indian contributors to this special volume.
                        The most interesting essay by the Indian contributors is from Dasgupta: “The Making of an Academic Economist”. The author describes how he shifted from Physics to Economics in Cambridge University during his Ph.D; even without knowing an iota of economics. He is a leading economist in the world in the field of Ecological Economics. He is concerned with environmental ecology and developing world. There are more than a dozen women scientists included in the list of contributors to this volume.

Sonia Gandhi


My Encounter with Sonia’s Family in Orbassano


I have kept myself aloof from the din of elections but the sarcastic tone of Sushma Swaraj’s speech made at her Chandigarh rally (The Tribune May 4) induced me to write about my encounter with Sonia’s family in Italy.  Madam Swaraj has been a respectable minister in the NDA government and I could not believe she will cross the limits of decency in her criticism of Sonia Gandhi, the leader of opposition. Sushma Swaraj remarked that Sonia cannot feel the pulse of real India living in villages. “Does she know about the life of people who reared cattle in the countryside, cooked on earthen stoves, collected wood from jungles and ploughed the fields”? One may pose the same question to the urban-bred Sushma Swaraj to test her affinity for ruralites in India.

Very few Indians know about the rural background of Sonia Gandhi. She was born and bred in village Orbassano near Torino city of Italy. Her father was a mason and she went to Cambridge for higher education on Italian government scholarship. There she met Rajiv Gandhi and the friendship between the two, culminated into their marriage.

During 1970, I entered the portals of University of Paris for my Doctoral research. In summer, all students were asked to vacate the university hostels for a month. During 1971 summer holidays, I went on tour of Italy and reached Torino where my old colleague, Avtar Singh Rana, from Guru Nanak Engg. College Ludhiana was employed as an engineer in the Fiat factory. We planned our tour and Rana proposed to show me village life of Italy during the week end. Next day, we took the route to Orbassano. Rana told me jokingly that Indian Prime Minister’s son, Rajiv Gandhi, is married to Signorina Sonia whose family lives in this village. He knew Sonia’s parents as her brother-in-law was also employed as a technician in the Fiat factory. On reaching Orbassano, we stopped at a street shop for a while. The girl at the counter, recognizing me as an Indian, offered cold drinks and told us that she is a friend of Sonia. Our next stop was at Sonia’s house in Orbassano where his father entertained us to tea and made lot of enquiries about Punjab and the Sikhs. Italians are talkative in nature and so was Sonia’s father. The family owned a modest house in Orbassano in1971.

Rana got married and moved out of Torino city. He purchased a house in Orbassano to reside near his Fiat factory. In 1985, I was visiting Europe on research fellowship. From Rome, I called Rana who was pleased to know my itinerary. He guided me to reach Orbassano by a local bus when I reach Torino on my way to Paris. I was excited to meet my friend and his family. Next morning, Parminder, Rana’s wife, forbade me to go for a morning walk. After 1984 riots in Delhi, Sonia’s family was provided a security cover by Italian government. My wish to walk in the streets of Orbassano again was never fulfilled.  I left Sonia’s village with heavy heart and took the train to Paris.