Although these details may sound surprising, it is true that Balraj Sahni and his younger brother, Bhisham Sahni both known for their left-leaning, progressive views were sent by their father, Lala Harbans Lal Sahni, to a Gurukul for their early education. There, during the sacred-thread ceremony, their heads were completely shaved, including the removal of their braids.
When Bhisham Sahni visited Ambala Cantonment in the 1970s and 1980s, he mentioned that he had once taught at GMN College. Though he taught English literature, he wrote his stories in Hindi. While walking with me along Mall Road in Ambala Cantonment, he recalled, “As a child, I had to memorize the Rigjupath in the Gurukul, and my brother Balraj was made to memorize the Laghukaumudi.” After their sacred-thread initiation, both brothers had to follow tradition and beg for alms with a bowl for a few days. Later, they were enrolled in an Arya School in Rawalpindi. Reflecting on those early years, Bhisham Sahni described how, during the Arya Samaj’s 50th anniversary, his father took the whole family to the rundown home of Swami Virjanand, the teacher of Maharishi Dayanand. He also remembered how both brothers participated in a school play based on the life of Shravan Kumar. I met Bhisham Sahni again in Delhi when he was editing a literary magazine. In interviews from that period, he spoke insightfully about the ways ideological shifts can reshape a person’s life.
He also recounted the days when Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, along with his wife Balraj Sahni, came to Lahore and Rawalpindi with the aim of raising funds for Shantiniketan. He said that among the prominent people of Lahore who provided financial support to Tagore for Shantiniketan at that time was S. Dayal Singh Majithia (later founder of the Tribune Group) and Sir Ganga Ram were also present. Gurudev was also invited to read poetry at Bradlaugh Hall, and some of his poems were translated into Hindi and English by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and his wife Teji Bachchan.
Faiz, Ellis, and Qasmi were also present in the audience. In the same Bradlaw Hall, Uday Shankar and his dance troupe had performed to raise funds for Shantiniketan. Later, the same Bradlaw Hall became a secret hideout for the activities of Sardar Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries. An interesting anecdote was that some of the dancers and prostitutes of Hira Mandi had also donated cash and jewelry to Gurudev for Shantiniketan. That day, a letter from Gurudev Tagore to the then Viceroy, Lord Chamsford, dated May 30, 1919, was also distributed, in which he wrote, “The time has come when the honors bestowed by the British Empire have become a source of shame, and I am proud to stand with my struggling countrymen.” History also records that Tagore returned the knighthood and the title of Sir bestowed by the British government, deeply hurt by the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh.
In this context, the conversation between Gurudev and Balraj Sahni remains in the news, when Balraj Sahni affectionately complained to Gurudev, “You wrote the national anthem and the national song, but you didn’t write the world song.” Gurudev replied, “Balraj, you’ve probably forgotten. That world song was written almost 500 years ago. You’ll remember Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s aarti, ‘Gagan mein thaal…’, which he sang with Bhai Mardana in the courtyard of the Jagannath Temple in Puri. That was a world song. Now, how is it possible to write anything after that?”
In those days, a photograph of Gurudev was taken by Niranjan Singh Nakodri, a Lahore-based photographer. In one photograph, Gurudev, Milap editor and Arya Samaj leader Mahasya Khushal Chand, are seen with their host Lal Dhaniram Bhalla and Mahatma Hansraj. Circumstances and historical context bear witness that present-day Lahore, now dominated by radical terrorist groups, was once a major center of Indian culture, art, and literature. It was in this city that Vivekananda delivered three-day discourses, and Gurudev also stayed for seven days.
