The Poet as Fighter

On march 23, 1988, exactly fifty-seven years after the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, ‘Pash’, a young Punjabi poet was killed as he defied threats to his country. This time the deed was done by the pro-Skhalistan terrorists. Born September 9, 1950, avatar Singh Sandhu ‘Pash’ was one of the most promising names in Punjabi poetry of the seventies and eighties. His first poem was published in 1967 when he was a mere teenager. By the time he was twenty, he was known all over Punjab as the writer of intense, lyrical and poignant verse like shiv Batalavi, another Punjabi poet who died young. Unlike Batalvi, however, Pash was not a romantic rebel or a poet of death. His poems celebrate life and togetherness and speak out against the injustices of the system against the poor and the weak.