One of the most difficult tasks for an intellectual is to recover the lost history from the margins of times. Stories of toil and trials remain buried under twists and turns of those at the helm of affairs. Dr. Nirmal S. Mann’s reconstruction of Pakhar Singh’s life is emblematic of towering Punjabi pride that blossoms in the distant lands in spite of all-pervasive threats to its existence. It has a great significance for the emerging history of Punjabis in California. It is a multilayered story that needs to be carefully understood in a larger context. It is as much a saga of struggle and survival as it is a patriotic response to India’s freedom and love for America.

Pakhar Singh was first and foremost a Jutt with Scythian blood in his veins. Scythians of Steppe, according to the author, settled in India during 7th B.C. On top of it Pakhar Singh was a Sikh with an outgoing and friendly attitude towards others. Rising from a farm hand to a lease holder of 320 acres land in Imperial Valley, Pakher Singh became an envy of Anglo American settlers. He worked shoulder to shoulder with Mexicans to produce a rich lettuce crop. They looked upon him as their leader.

However, it was not a smooth ride for him. Alien Land Act of 1913, 1920 barred Indians to buy lands in their names, therefore, verbal leases became common. Pakher’s three Anglo American friends violated the verbal agreement with him that not only exiled him from his leased-estate but also racially abused him. Since the law was not on his side, Pakher settled scores first by shooting two of them —Victor R. Sterling and William B. Hagar and then battering their heads with his axe. He went off to kill the third one too, but changed his mind on the plea of his pregnant wife. The story created a sensation in the Imperial Valley. Each community reacted differently to two white men’s murders.

The story of Pakhar Singh Gill unfolds in the second half of the book. In the first part, the author tries to solicit all influences that worked in making up of Pakhar Singh’s character. The foremost influence, according to the author is his ancestry and racial stock. Scythians invaded Punjab in 6-7th BC and Jutts according to Mann are the direct descendants. The fearless fighters, great revenge seekers, ruthless killers, Scythians can survive in the most hostile circumstances. They literally sleep on their horsebacks. The next immediate influence, the author has tried to trace is Pakhar Singh’s Sikh heritage. Mann tries to sketch an outline of Sikh history with a view to illustrate the psychological factors in determining Pakher’s volatile action.

Pakher started his life in Imperial Valley in 1917 with his active involvement in India’s freedom movement by the Gadhar Party. He would help it in fund raising efforts. Lala Hardyal would stay with him during his visits to the valley. He knew about atrocities on freedom fighters in India by the British. Interestingly, a majority of white settlers in the Imperial Valley hailed from Britain. Some of them behaved like colonial masters. Preceding Pakher Singh’s murders on 1st April, 1925, Jallianwala incident in Amritsar had shaken all Indians. Peace loving protesters were showered with bullets killing several thousands of them just in a single incident.

The gold rush in California drew Anglo-whites to California. They constituted a multi-cornered system of repression to establish their hegemony on other communities. American Indians became the worst victims of discrimination. 100 Native Indians were executed for every white man killed by the American Indian. Black, Mongolians, and American Indians were not admitted in Public schools. When California Constitution was ratified, other minorities didn’t get the right to vote. Slavery was though illegal, but Fugitive Slave Act was operative under which any slave could be arrested. Negroes were not allowed to testify against white people. American Indians and the Chinese, being from Mongoloid stock, were barred from testifying against whites. In 1870, California formally established segregation system for separate schools. Whites having preemption right to American Indians’ land expelled them from their own lands which they had occupied for thousand of years.

After the annexation of California, Mexicans were the great target of discrimination. Mexicans too became a helpless minority. The California gold rush attracted all sorts of outlaws, gambler, criminals from the west and the Europe. The foreign Miners’ tax in 1850 mainly affected the Chinese and Mexicans. In 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. Japanese too were stereotyped. In such a background, Indian immigrants to California shores wouldn’t have been welcome.

When they started settling in the Imperial Valley in 1910, it appeared as if the ‘Turban Tide’ would occupy the whole valley. Most Anglo farmers benefited from Punjabis’ hard work and they relied on them more than anyone else. But they didn’t like voraciousness for owning more and more lands. Punjabis enlarged their land holding to 32,380 acres in a short period of hard labor. They supplied for large corporations and British shipping companies. The trio Victor R. Sterling, John B. Hagar and William Thornburg worked for British Shipping Company.

Victor R. Sterling was an agent who entered into lease agreement with Pakher Singh Gill. Sterling was the one who insulted Pakher by blurting out “goddamn Hindu” that triggered his ire to commit the crime. At the time of the murder there were some Mexicans and a white man present there. Their witnesses ultimately bailed Pakher Singh Gill out of the prison. The author rues the fact that Congressman Dalip Singh Saund hasn’t mentioned his name in his autobiography. It is a fact that Pakher Singh went to Jail for 10 years and after that he was a freeman. It had a very momentous effect on people at large. His friendship with the Judge, Bank Manager of Brawley, and Sherrif point out to the fact that Pakher was regarded basically a good man. Dalip Singh Saund may have been benefited from the situation that was created by Pakher Singh, yet he refrained from acknowledging it simply because he professed Gandhianism in Public.

Nirmal S. Mann’s effort in recreating Pakher Singh’s genealogy deserves appreciation on all accounts. He has done a lot of research work to authenticate his narrative. He seems to have spent sometime in the Imperial Valley to connect bits and ends of Pakher Singh Gill’s story. Mann has tried to incorporate as much background knowledge as possible to delineate the story of Pakher Singh Gill. As a result, his life embodies a multilayered narrative of his struggle. His marriage with an 18-year-old Mexican women, Alicia, at 66 is another chapter. The author’s endeavor to interview Gill’s wife and four sons was not a happy experience. Sons didn’t permit him to interview Alicia. It points out to the alienation that might have taken place in Mexican Punjabis due to the lack of a viable connectivity with the mainstream Punjabi community. Mann’s book raises many a question about the next generation, and the present efforts to integrate them with values. The author suggests that Mexican Punjabis have done a lot to sustain the pioneers in California; therefore, a suitable way of appreciation should be worked out for their honor.

The author appears to suggest different and sometimes intersecting perspectives in demonstrating underlying factors of Pakher Singh Gill’s action. The racial superiority shown by Anglos in their actions in India and California comprises a system of exploitation of non-white races. The actions of Udham Singh, Bhagat Singh and Kartar Singh Sarabha were free responses to the regime of repression. Nirmal S. Mann’s Scythian discourse about Jutt’s ancestry appears congratulatory at times. The racial factors are not fixed contingencies in the long history of mankind, but they are manipulated to segregate one from the others. The study of races had been pioneered by the British; therefore, it was a greatest invisible weapon in their hands.

Shakespeare’s predecessor, Christopher Marlowe in his play Tamburlaine presents Timur, the lame as a Scythian shepherd who rose to become the most powerful on earth. Elizabethan knowledge of Timur was influenced by Ottoman Empire and Europe’s anxiousness to stop its expansion whereas the real Timur that India knew was much different. Dr. Nirmal Singh Mann is a Clinical Professor of Medicine & Gastroenterology at UC Davis. He has won many awards for teaching excellence. The biography of Pakher Singh Gill will go down as a major work to reconstruct lives and times of Punjabi Pioneers in California.


Copyright©2006 Amrik Singh. About the author