Bhai Vir Singh

Singh had both a traditional indigenous and a modern English education. He learnt Sikh scripture as well as Persian, Urdu and Sanskrit. He joined the Church Mission School in Amritsar and took his matriculation examination in 1891, coming first in the entire district. Singh received his secondary education at Church Mission High School, and it was while attending this school that he found the conversion of some of his classmates from Sikhism to Christianity to fortify his own religious convictions toward Sikhism. Influenced by the Christian missionaries' use of and reference to literary sources, Singh began to teach others the main dogmas of Sikhism through his own written resources. Using the skills and techniques of modern literary forms, learned in his English courses, Singh produced stories, poems and epics, and recorded the history and philosophical ideas of Sikhism.

Beginnings

Singh chose to become a writer. After passing his matriculation examination, he worked with a friend of his father's, Wazir Singh, and set up a lithography press. His first commission was to write and print geography textbooks for schools.

In 1893 at age 18, Dhani Ram Chatrik found employment at Wazir Singh's press and met Vir Singh, who advised him to learn lithograph engraving and inspired him to write poetry in the Punjabi language. The Wazir Hind Press was the main press publishing literature for the Singh Sabha movement, and Vir Singh would purchase it after Wazir Singh passed away after illness. Thus he would begin a long association with Dhani Ram Chatrik, who had an 11-year career with the Press, and who subsequently wrote for the Khalsa Samachar, in which Chatrik would hone his poetic skills. Chatrik's contact with Vir Singh turned him into an ardent admirer of the Sikh faith, influencing his syncretic poetic style that reflected composite Punjabi culture.

Role of women in his writings

Sikhism stresses equality between men and women and that it is sinful even to consider either sex above the other. Singh reflected this belief in his novels, and featured it in a number of strong female characters. His first novel was Sundari, which featured Sunder Kaur, a woman who converted from Hinduism to Sikhism and then proceeded to lead a life of adventure in the jungles with a band of Sikh warriors. This was the first novel penned in the Punjabi language. Through Sundari, Singh hoped to embody all the ideals of Guru Nanak’s lessons. The book was well received by the Sikh community and gained popularity almost immediately. Other important female characters were Rani Raj Kaur, Satvant Kaur, Subhagji and Sushil Kaur. Even by today's standards, these female characters are considered well rounded and an inspiration to male and female Sikhs alike. Singh often portrayed women in his novels as more prone to spiritual enlightenment than their male counterparts.

Born in 1872 in Amritsar, Singh was the eldest of Charan Singh's three sons. Vir Singh's family could trace its ancestry back to Diwan Kaura Mal, a vice-governor (Maharaja Bahadur) of the city of Multan. His grandfather, Kahn Singh (1788–1878), spent a great deal of his youth training and learning traditional Sikh lessons in monasteries. Fluent in Sanskrit and Braj, as well as in the oriental systems of medicine (such as Ayurveda, Siddha and Yunani), Kahn Singh influenced his only son, Charan Singh (1853-1908), who later fathered Vir Singh, to become an active member of the Sikh community, often producing poetry, music, and writings in hopes of restoring the Sikh culture. Vir Singh's maternal grandfather, Giani Hazara Singh (1828-1908), was a leading scholar of the Giāṇīā Bungā in Amritsar. A scholar of Persian and Sanskrit, Giani Hazara Singh translated into Punjabi the Persian classics such as Saadi's Gulistan and Bustan. At seventeen, Vir Singh married Chatar Kaur and they had two daughters. He died in Amritsar on 10 June 1957.

Language politics

Singh argued that Sikhism was a unique religion which could be nourished and sustained by creating an awakening amongst the Sikhs of the awareness of their distinct theological and cultural identity. He aimed at reorienting the Sikhs' understanding of their faith in such a manner as to help them assimilate the different modernising influences to their historical memory and cultural heritage. At the time, Sikhs were persecuted by the British, often being pressured or threatened into assimilating into mainstream culture. Acts such as publicly shaving off the hair and beards of religious Sikh officials were performed to humiliate and demean them. Amidst this political discontent, Singh sought to revitalize Sikh culture and religion through peaceful means, by writing a myriad of novels, epics, and poems. With the fall of the Sikh Empire and the modernization of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu proselytism, the Sikh faith began to wane, until scholars and theologians began revitalizing Sikhism through their works of literature.