Friend Of The Sikhs Ram Narayan Kumar Passes Away

[Trigger Happy]

Article taken from: http://www.worldsikhnews.com/1%20July%2020...20no%20more.htm

Ram Narayan Kumar is no more

Adieu, Friend of the Sikhs

Jagmohan Singh

It was striking that a frail man, a one-time monk, living in the backwaters of Delhi, well informed about world developments should take so keen an interest in Sikh affairs and particularly the human rights violations of the Sikhs in the last few decades. Such was Ram Narayan Kumar. He is no more. He expired on Sunday June 28 in his house in Kathmandu.

When the powers that be in Punjab and India were ruling Punjab under their jackboots, this skinny activist was running helter-skelter mustering support for the Sikhs. He was seen interacting with lawyers, families of militants and the militants themselves whenever he had an opportunity to do so.

I had a brief association with him. Whenever I met him, he used to say, "your party (Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has a lot of potential, but somehow is not able to catch the bull by its horns". He wanted me to "come on his side". He wanted me to quit politics and take up serious human rights activism. It is sad, that now that I am keen to do so, he is no more.

Not many people would know that despite having a house in Delhi, Ram Narayan Kumar would live for months in a hotel room so that he could complete his book on the Sikhs without disturbance. I am sure there are a few handful who know what risks he undertook to familiarise himself with all aspects of the Sikh struggle.

Notwithstanding some people's doubts and cynicism, the Sikhs will certainly remember you for the monumental work that you have done in spearheading the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab. Last year, around this time, Ram Narayan Kumar and Ashok Aggarwal of CIIP came to Chandigarh and declared that they would, now “focus on legal research, besides building of clarity and solidarity on the issues like the principles of liability, in understanding aggregated violations, which the matter of cremations encompasses, and in developing standards to legally capture and quantify suffering, damages and losses for the purpose of evolving standards of reparation”.

Contemporary history of the Sikhs will not be complete without reference to your work in action and your academic inputs in the writing of Reduced To Ashes: The Insurgency and Human Rights in Punjab co authored by Amrik Singh, Ashok Agrwaal and Jaskaran Kaur. This compilation at a time when the whole country was not willing to touch the Sikhs with a barge pole and the international community was found wanting in supporting or even taking up the case of the Sikhs, speaks volumes for your commitment to the cause of fighting state impunity.

There will be some who will contest your contention that the issue of Sikh sovereignty was used by the State to divert attention from real issues of democracy, constitutional safeguard and citizens' rights, but there will none to doubt your steadfastness in upholding human rights and the search for truth and nothing but the truth.

Rest in Peace, friend of the Sikhs

Woopsy posted this in the wrong section Admin move it when your ready to do some work :D

[Trigger Happy]

Another article about his death and unwavering commitment to Human Rights: http://www.himalmag.com/The-third-Sikh-gha...mar_nw2960.html

Extract from the article

The extensive elaboration and documentation of this non-violent character of Akali struggles enables the author to expose the intellectual poverty of the international media in its narratives and unidimensional portrayals of the Sikhs and the Akalis as 'militants', 'violent' and 'terrorists'. Kumar attributes this to the lack of resources made available to journalists to investigate relevant issues, and their consequent reliance on Indian government briefings and police handouts. Some space is also devoted here to a critical evaluation of the partisan and destructive role played by the Arya Samaj-controlled media in Punjab. (With origins in the late 19th century, Arya Samaj, a reformist and Hindu supremacist organisation has extensive cultural and political influence in North India, particularly in education and media in Punjab.) This aspect of Kumar's work is especially fascinating, and confirms this reviewer's own research on the anti-Sikh bias of government media (Doordarshan and All India Radio) and Delhi-based English-language dailies.

[KH4L1$T4N1]

:o R.I.P, a great man, truly a great man, thank you for all your support R.I.P

[Mehtab Singh]

This man risked his own life to get justice for the Sikhs. If I am not wrong, he was even banned from India, and lived between London and Austria. He died in his home in Kathmandu, Nepal. He was a human rights activist who exposed the Punjab government's and police's brutality against innocent Sikh youth.

Ram Narayan Kumar's write up exposing the truth about Operation Bluestar: http://www.sikhreview.org/june2000/chronicle.htm

Watch more videos here: http://www.punjabjustice.org/interviews.htm

May Vaheguru bless his soul

[manni007]

God Bless Ram Narayan Kumar

[Into the Light]

Vaheguroo

[Trigger Happy]

This man risked his own life to get justice for the Sikhs. If I am not wrong, he was even banned from India, and lived between London and Austria. He died in his home in Kathmandu, Nepal. He was a human rights activist who exposed the Punjab government's and police's brutality against innocent Sikh youth.

Ram Narayan Kumar's write up exposing the truth about Operation Bluestar: http://www.sikhreview.org/june2000/chronicle.htm

Watch more videos here: http://www.punjabjustice.org/interviews.htm

May Vaheguru bless his soul

This is all true bhai sahib ji and he was banned from India more than once in his great life. His books are great reads just like Cynthia Mahmood's.

Vaheguru

[Inder Singh]

My heart felt tribute to Ram Naryan ji. Does anybody know how he died?

[dalsingh101]

Respect to him. He was producing balanced books on the subject 0f 1984 when even people who claimed to be Sikhs were siding with Congress.

God bless your soul.

[buddasingh]

A courageous hero of humanity, Vaheguru.