Makhan Singh, an unsung Sikh hero of Kenyan and Indian freedom struggles, who has been forgotten by India and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), has been portrayed in a play Mungu Comrade (Mungu is a Swahili word for God), by noted playwright Atamjit.
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1913-73~Makhan Singh, Few Indians know Makhan and other India-born persons who had made sacrifices in the freedom struggle of Kenya. He was born at Gharjakh village in Gujranwala, a Sikh majority area in the province of Punjab (now in Pakistan).
1927~At the age of 13, he moved with his family to Nairobi.
1935~Makhan Singh formed the Labour Trade Union of Kenya.
1949~Makhan Singh and Fred Kubai formed the East African Trade Union Congress, the first central organisation of trade unions in Kenya.
A Sikh by faith and true Communist leader, Makhan Singh was the founder of East African trades union movement. He spent 17 years in prison during the struggle for Indian and Kenyan independence.
Alas! Makhan has been virtually forgotten both by India and Kenya after their independence.
While the Punjabi version of the play will be staged in various parts of India and other countries, its English version will be arranged in African countries where Makhan waged a non-violent war against British imperialism.
Inspired by Zarina Patel’s book, Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh published from Nairobi in 2006, Atamjit visited Kenya twice to write his play Mungu Comrade.
After reading sessions, one each in Delhi and Ludhiana, amongst a select audience of literary and theatre persons, he read out his long play at Naat Shala, opposite Khalsa College, here. He plans to go to Kenya once again with the English translation of his latest script after one or two more readings in different cities of Punjab.
Supported by Makhan Singh’s son Hindpal Singh, Atamjit shall produce the play later.
Explaining the rationale behind all these readings before its production, Atamjit explained that the play depicts an unsung hero who contributed to the freedom struggle of Kenya. He wishes to be sure if the play projecting an Indian situated in an entirely different political and social setup makes sense in an environment where he is totally unknown. Similarly, the author wishes to correct himself if he has given any wrong information on Kenyan politics and society.
There are interesting references to Sikh, Gandhian and Marxist philosophy in the play.
The biggest contribution of Makhan Singh was he crossed the race barriers and brought together African and Asian workers on a platform. Though the British offered to release him on condition he left Kenya forever, he did not pay any heed and continued to fight for the struggle of Kenya.
Makhan Singh also ignored the advice of his near and dear ones to leave Kenya and save his life.
He fought for independence, suffered in the struggle and sacrificed all he had, including his family life and comforts, to see Kenya free from colonial rule.
“Other Resistors: The Asian African Community
In fact, the Asian African community had long been involved in dissent and political activity against oppression Kenya.
As Kenyan history shows, there are figures such as Makhan Singh and Pio Gama Pinto spent years in detention in the struggle for Kenya’s freedom.
Pio Pinto, over the 35 years since his assassination. Both Pio Pinto & Makhan Singh remain one of the major influence and national role model for Kenyans.
Joseph Murumbi was the voice in exile of a silenced Kenya during the Emergency, and later Foreign Minister and second Vice-President.
1952-53~In law, advocates such as A.R. Kapila, Fitz de Souza, and Jaswant Singh defended Bildad Kaggia, Jomo Kenyatta, Paul Ngei, Fred Kubai, Achieng Oneko and Kungu Karumba at their trial at Kapenguria. They and others such as Chanan Singh defended in hundreds of Mau Mau Causes and appeals.
A.M. Jeevanjee and M.A. Desai, who continuously and successfully challenged and controlled settler ambitions for their self-rule in Kenya on the apartheid model of South Africa.
In the struggle for the freedom of the Press, Asian African journalists and publishers also played a critical part . These included Haroun Ahamed, Editor, The Colonial Times, D.K. Sharda, Sitaram Achariar (The Democrat). N.S. Thakur, and four generations of the Vidyarthi family.
Achariar also printed the Gikuyu newspaper Muigwithania, (1928) the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) paper edited by Achieng Oneko.
Among others that the Vidyarthis published were Sauti ya Mwafrika, the Kenya African Union (KAU) newspaper, Henry Githigira’s Habari za Dunia, Henry Mworia’s Musmengerere, and Francis Khamisi’s Mwalimu.
1920-63~The printing of all these papers for the forty years were direct challenges to the colonial government which sought to suppress the African voice against colonialism and for freedom."
Sources:
"See Joseph Harris THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN ASIA(Evanston, North-Western UP, 1971);
Joseph Harris ABOLITION & REPATRIATION IN KENYA
Historical association of Kenya Pamphlet No.1 (Nairobi, E African Literature Bureau, 1977);
Ochieng Omondi; THE SIDDIS OF INDIA (Nairobi, Asian African Heritage Trust, 2000).”
Kenya: The Man who Refused to Keep Quiet ~ by Mwangi Githahu
Unquiet~The Life and Times of Makhan Singh is published in March 2006 by Awaaz in collaboration with the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
It is available at Shs 1,200 at Simple Books at ABC shopping centre on Nairobi's Waiyaki Way and also at the KHRC offices, which can be reached at 3874998/9 or 3876065/6 - Email:awaazmag@rediffmail.com
When people speak of Kenyan freedom struggle, they are most likely to mention the Mau Mau and the Kapenguria Six - Jomo Kenyatta, Achieng' Oneko, Paul Ngei, Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia and Kungu Karumba.
They will no doubt mention Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Tom Mboya and even Daniel Arap Moi. Few, if any, will recall the massive contribution to the independence struggle made by the trade union movement and one pioneer trade unionist in particular, Makhan Singh (1913 Gharjakh, Gujranwala - 1973 Nairobi).
Fewer still will be able to tell you that when the Kapenguria Six started serving their seven-year term in detention, they found Makhan Singh already in jail. And when they were freed in August 1961, Makhan was still in the in hospitable area of Dol Dol under restriction for almost another year.
When people talk about the Indian or South Asian contribution to Kenya, they are most likely to speak of the building of the Uganda Railway and commercial life.
When they speakof commercial life, many Kenyans will then get on a tirade about how "Asians control the economy and are corrupt" and then drop the namesof certain young businessmen to illustrate their point.
Few, if any, modern Kenyans will recall members of the South Asian community such as Makhan Singh, Isher Dass, Pranlal Sheth, Ambu Patel, Manilal Desai, AR Kapila, FRS De Souza, Pio Gama Pinto, Chunilal B Madan and others who made huge sacrifices and personal contributions to the struggle for independence.
With the launchof her biography of Makhan Singh a week ago, Zarina Patel - writer, artist, human rights activist and one of the foremost experts on Kenyan South Asian history - took a significant step towards righting this wrong that has for toolong been visited on Kenya's South Asian community.
In the foreword, Steve Ouma and Makau Mutua of the Kenya Human Rights Commission describe Makhan Singh and his mission and vision quite eloquently: "Makhan Singh is among a select pantheon of Indian settlers who not only made Africa home but also became leading anti-colonial freedom fighters."
But what distinguished Makhan Singh from many legendary leaders - including even the great Mahatma Gandhi - was that he went out of his way to bring together all the races in his politics.
He refused to accept a trade union movement segregated by race and poisoned by the colonial apartheid that classified black Africans and Asians in a humiliating hierarchy.
He demonstrated, for the first time in colonised Kenya, that Asians and black Africans were bound by the same fate and that their liberation was inextricably linked.
This is a challenge to all communities that make up Kenya, not just Kenyan South Asians, to come together and see what unites them rather than what separates them and work together for a truly proper multi-racial and multi-cultural future.
Zarina Patel: the biographer
Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh is the story of one of Kenya's great unsung heroes who was about to fade from the national collective memory despite having been instrumental in the setting up of the Kenyan trade union movement.
Indeed, Makhan Singh was already a forgotten man by the time he died of a heart attack in 1973 aged only 59. Says Patel: "Friends, relatives and workers and a handful of trade unionists attended the funeral; there was no official government recognition of the passing of this great Kenyan patriot."
This quiet, unassuming man had a will of steel and a mission to fight for social justicefor all Kenyans irrespective of colour, tribe, race, creed or religion.
Patel adds:"Makhan Singh crossed the race barriers and brought together African and Asian workers on a common platform. This was British colonialism's worstnightmare - the fusion of Indian political experience and the African mass struggle. So they detained him, first in India,then in Kenya's Northern Frontier District, for a total of almost 15 years. They offered to release him on condition he left Kenya forever but Makhan Singh would not hear of it. Once, when his lawyers appealed for his release and, in order to elicit a favourable response, in their petition termed him as 'this misguided man', Makhan Singh objected strongly and retorted that it was not him, but the colonialists, who were misguided. His advocate, CB Madan, later Chief Justice of Kenya, said in his eulogy that it was kind of him not to call his lawyer misguided."
Makhan Singh had no problem being called a Communist, or a Marxist, or a Leftist, or a Kenyan.
He fought for independence, suffered in the struggle and sacrificed all he had, including his family life and comforts, to see Kenya free from colonialism. At the end of it all, not only was he not properly recognised by his erstwhile comrades-in-arms, he was also to be sorely disappointed when many of these people came to power and forgot what the struggle had been all about.
As Patel said at the book launch: "Makhan Singh would not dance, he would only march, and soon he was out of step with the post-independence leaders. He was not alone. Pio Gama Pinto was assassinated, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was detained, Pranlal Sheth was deported and many other great stalwarts, including Bildad Kaggia, were sidelined. The calls for land reform, fairer distribution of wealth and democracy for the majority did not sit well with the neo-colonial regime which had grabbed 'independence'."
Makhan Singh may have faded from the national consciousness into near oblivion after Independence, but he did not completely go away.
He joined theHistorical Association of Kenya and, with the help of old comrades such as Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia, Dennis Akumu, Bethwell Ogot and others, he wrote a detailed history of Kenya'strade union movement up to 1956.
Never once did he express any bitterness or even criticism, despite the fact that the Kenyatta regime not only sidelined him, it harassed him. Promises were made, only to be reneged upon: Voice of Kenya requested him to write a script of Jomo Kenyatta'slife for a series of 15 broadcasts. From 25 March 1966 to 17 April 1967, Makhan Singh made 62 phone calls and 31 visits only to be finally told that his scriptshad been lost.
"His son Hindpal tells me that he urged his father not to pursue the matter - the fact that Makhan Singh not only persisted but noted the date and time of every calland visit is evidence, I think, of his determination to have Kenya's neocolonialists exposed someday," says Patel.
Zarina Patel borrowed the words of another writer when she said at the launch: "Makhan Singh could have amassed a fortune, instead he chose to ride buses. Whether it was the colonialists, his family or the comprador leaders of the day, they could not prevail upon him. He could not have been an easy person to live with and yet he inspired, and continues to inspire, thousands if not millions of'the wretched of the earth'."
This is not a book review, but I will say that if you want to know just a little bit more about why Kenyawas, however briefly, the original Rainbow nation before the South Africans came along with their great public relations coup in the wonderfully glorious Nelson Mandela, reading this book could set you on your way.
At the booklaunch, attended by Makhan's son Hindpal Singh Jabbal and his family as well as friends, associates and admirers of the great man, there was a 24-minute documentary film that gave a further insight into Makhan Singh's life and how he was seen by others.
Zarina Patel spent over five years researching material for the 563-page book. She had tremendous difficulties getting leads into the man's life and work.
"Everyone I spoke to would say 'Great man! What a sacrifice!' and that would be the end of the matter. His two books had every detail about the trade union movement but nothing at all about himself. Even the family had very scantinsight into his daily life and thoughts. I almost gave up the project."
And then in the library of the University of Nairobi I came across the name of George Gona.
He is a lecturer based in the History Department and specialises in the labour movement.
As a last resort, I met with him. Dr Gonaled me to the Makhan Singh papers stored in 25 boxes in the University Archives. I had fianlly found a gold mine!"
He noted not just the date he received a letter but even the time of the day. He labouriously hand copied the minutes, correspondence, press briefings, and reports of Cotu from its inception in 1965 to the early 1970s.
Patel adds:"Makhan Singh was truly a most remarkable man - he ranks among Africa 's great leaders. Born in the revolutionary Punjab of the Indian sub-continent, he imbibed the anger against British injustice and learnt the scientific bases of exploitation and racial oppression."
He was a man totally given to the cause of the worker in Kenya.
Aged 14 when he came from India to Kenya to join his father, Makhan attended the present-day Jamhuri High School. A brilliant student, he graduated in 1933, but the family could not afford to continue his education. So he joined his father's Khalsa Printing Press in Nairobi. It was here and from the African workers that Makhan Singh learnt the effects of colonialism on the Kenyan people.
Meanwhile, Indian workers were then organising labour protests, but it was on and off - Until 1936.
When he was barely 23, they appointed Makhan Singh the secretary of the Indian Labour Trade Union. He took it on knowing full well that it was a purely voluntary job.
Patel puts it this way: "Makhan Singh never looked back, and never earned a cent, leave alone shillings and pounds. He dedicated his life to establishing trade unionism in Kenya and linked the movement to the struggle for freedom. His entire living, being and thinking were focused on these goals and no-one, but no-one, could deflect him from his chosen path."
1962 (9 Sep)~Makhan Singh was seen and photographed addressing a workers' rally in Mombasa.
Said she:"I would like to see Makhan Singh's home in Park Road (Nairobi) preserved and rehabilitated into a library, archive and research centre for labour and trade union relateds subjects. He deserves to have a major road named after him, not just the lane opposite Jamhuri High School. What could be more apt than renaming Park Road ... Makhan Singh Road?"
Patel, who is one of the founders of Awaaz magazine, says the magazine had organised the Makhan Singh Memorial Lecture last Monday in what they hope will be a series.
Patel also announced that the Makhan Singh Memorial Trust was being formed and this body would then be expected to drive "these and other projects."¡
[Abridged version. Courtesy: The Nation, Nairobi.25 March 2006]
http://www.apnaorg.com/articles/makhansingh/
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