SINGH WAS KING: One cannot imagine that the lush green agricultural fields of today’s Punjab were once thick forests where lions (SINGH) roamed freely as the King of the jungle.

Madho Lal Hussain (1538 – 1591), the great Sufi poet mentions about lions (SINGH) in his Sufi poetry about Heer-Ranjha,

Neeyn Bhi Dhoongee, Tulaa Puraanaa, Singha Taa Pattan Malley!

Deep is the stream, old is the boat, and lions await to pounce!

Hari Singh Nalwa, the valiant Commander-in-Chief of Ranjit Singh, received the appellation ‘Nalwa’ because he flung an attacking lion (SINGH) by holding it by its jaws.

‘Umdat-Ut-Twarikh’, the eye-witness accounts on the life of Ranjit Singh mentions the encounters he had with Lions (SINGH) in the jungles.

After the demise of the Sikh Kingdom in 1849, during the British period, West Punjab (Pakistan) was subject to rapid deforestation as canals were built to connect the rivers with canals. Military personnel were allocated large blocks of land for agricultural purposes. With rapid development of new canal colonies, they were consistently named as ‘Chak’ (block), followed by a number (village identifier) and an alphabet (canal source).

During a visit to the village Chak 4/14 L in Pakistan, which before the partition of 1947 had a large Sikh presence, I was appalled to witness the abandoned gurdwara being reconstructed to a mosque. In that moment I was reminded that life and habitat are closely dependent on each other for their existence. With the rapid development of canal colonies, the changing habitat had made lions (SINGH) extinct from the lands of Punjab. Change in habitat made their life extinct!

The names of men of the Sikh community always carry the appellation ‘SINGH’ as their last name. SINGHS having departed from these lands during the partition of 1947, their habitat is today on the verge of extinction. Partition did not spare any community as the habitats of Muslims, Hindus and Jains across Greater Punjab are facing similar issues. The expulsion of living communities has made their habitats extinct!

In that moment, I heaved – SINGH WAS KING!

Photographed in Feb 2017, during the research for the book “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”