Pash fans’ counter to Dinanath Batra: A poster with ‘most dangerous’ poem

“Our reply to the move [to take Pash out of school books] is that we are going to distribute this poster in every university, every college across and outside the state directly to the students. No one can stop us from doing this in a democratic country like India,” he said. “The poem is as relevant today, when a journalist like Gauri Lankesh can be killed for expressing her views. Those who think they can suppress our voices by resorting to such measures are mistaken,” he said.

The poster is in the form of an undated calendar, with a photograph of Pash, and a print of the original handwritten copy of Sab Ton Khatarnak in Gurmukhi. The poem was written in 1987, at the height of Sikh militancy. “The most dangerous thing is to be filled with deathly silence, to not feel the agony of injustice, to bear it all, the most dangerous is the dying of our dreams,” the poem says.

Pash was the pen name of Avtar Singh Sandhu, whose poetry has a huge following in Punjab. He was shot by militants a year after he wrote this poem, in his village Talwandi Salem in Nakodar Tehsil of Jalandhar district along with his friend Hans Raj.

Gurmeet Singh, the trustee of the Pash Memorial International Trust, said people in Pash’s village and the region were shocked at the moves to erase his work from memory. On Saturday, which was Pash’s birth anniversary, his friends lit candles in the village. “We took a pledge that his dreams will never die,” said Gurmeet Singh. “Sab Ton Khatarnak is still so relevant today with the rising intolerance in the country when people are being killed for speaking their mind.” Amolak Singh said other efforts are also being planned to spread the word about Pash’s works. ‘Wakt De paran Te’, written and directed by renowned Punjabi playwright Kewal Dhaliwal and dedicated to Pash’s work, would be performed across Punjab soon. The Manch, which has a seven-member committee, two dozen drama groups, and 15 song groups, would also work to spread Pash’s work among the youth.

He said this poem of Pash was even translated in Hindi, Bengali, English, Tamil and other languages by National Books Trust. Pash’s entire family is settled in USA, including his wife Rajwinder Rani and daughter Vinkal.