For The Sunday Tribune | March 12, 1978 He sits opposite me with the inherent dignity of those born to the soil. A tall grey-bearded man...

For   The Tribune | February 26, 1978 A Delhi newspaper earlier this month carried two innocent looking news items behind which lies a much bigger story. According to the Special Representative of this newspaper, “the Shah of Iran said today that he hoped Indian visitors to Iran would feel as at home there as he and the Shahbanou had felt in Delhi during their visit. The Shah said that he andShahbanou do not feel like strangers in India. They felt as if they were in their own

For The Tribune | January 29, 1978 Delhi is full of marvellous names: Maharani Bagh, Sunehri Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Gulmohar Park, Green...

For The Tribune | October 24, 1977 I grew up in the shadow of Amritsar, or Ambarsar, as we say in that part of Punjab. My village lies...

For The Sunday Tribune | October 16, 1977 A general view of Leh, with the Raja's palace in the background In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground, With walls and towers were girdled round; And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfold

For The Sunday Tribune | September 4, 1977 This is not the only Punjab there is. There is another one – the original one – that lies some thousands of miles away in the Northwest, across a series of mountain ranges. The historian always has known about it. The people of Punjab, a mixture of Aryan, Hun and Sythian, came long long ago from Central Asia, either as refugees or as colonisers. Both roles are familiar to us to this day. Col. Todd, the man who wrote “The Annals of

For The Sunday Tribune | March 20, 1977 I first heard of Kalapani as a boy in an Amritsar village. It was a place familiar to every Punjab villager, for that is where you were bound to be sent, if you were unfortunate enough to kill a neighbour, in a sudden fit of anger. When the 'Session' sahib pronounced ‘Umr Qaid’ on a sultry summer afternoon, while the flies droned around your head, you took a last look at your brother Banta Singh, for you were never likely to see him

For The Sunday Tribune [Magazine Section] | December 19, 1976 The Anglo-Sikh wars were the last campaigns fought by the British in India....

For The Tribune (Magazine Section) | October 24, 1976 Republished in The Statesman | January 2, 1977 We were standing at the bar sipping pints of bitter. The pub was rather special. Indian owned and Indian patronized, "The Oxford" stood in the seedy harbour front area of Southampton. The area around it was peopled by working class Indian immigrants. We were there because I had persuaded my host, to show me this symbol of the Indian presence. The pub was as run down as t

For The Illustrated Weekly of India | July 11, 1976 The author, visiting Southall after eight years, finds the immigrant community in...

For Shankar’s Weekly | September 2, 1973 The dramatic break-through, achieved recently by our rainologists (rain makers) has created a...

By M.S. Gill, Secretary, National Co-operative Development Corporation For Hindustan Times Weekly | July 22, 1973 During the last 70...

For The Sunday Tribune | July 1, 1973 Republished in The Statesmen Magazine | August 12, 1973 Darjeeling has always been associated...

For The Tribune | March 13, 1973 Even though Cooperation was introduced in the years of the 20th century, the movement did not make any significant impact on the economy till after independence. Till 1947, the cooperative movement concerned itself primarily with credit activities. With the introduction of planned development in 1951-52, the attention of Government came to be focussed on Cooperation as a suitable organisation for undertaking programmes of economic development

HAIR RAISING STORIES FROM LAHAUL For The Tribune | September 10, 1972 The following are extracts from MANOHAR SINGH GILL'S forthcoming...

For The Tribune | September 3, 1972 It is not often that one is invited to travel with a Judge. I never dreamt of doing so, till one...

For The Illustrated Weekly of India | July 30, 1972 The Punjabi farmers migrated to Madhya Pradesh in 1947. They cleared forests and...

The Patriot Who Avenged The Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre For The Illustrated Weekly of India | January 30, 1972 The day of reckoning came after 21 years. Sir Michael O'Dwyer left the Punjab as Governor in 1921, censured for having condoned the killing of over 375 innocent men and women by General Dyer. Sir Michael was shot by Udham Singh on March 13, 1940. In search of history – Punjab's, India's – in Birmingham, I ran into a Sikh immigrant from Sangrur. The conversation inev

For The Tribune (Magazine Section) | June 13, 1971 “There they sit”! cried my guide excitedly as we spied a group of old men sitting on a park bench in Southall. His voice had the thrill of one who had spotted a covey of partridges in a Punjab field during a winter shoot. “They are here every day without fail at exactly the same time. You could set your watch by their arrival.” We parked the car and walked over towards them in the summer sunshine. On other benches spread in