I
The Roots
The Roots
One of the oldest profession of
human race is associated with land and the beginning of agriculture demarcated the age of savagery from age of civilization. Even in the bible first human
pair’s work was to tend the Garden
of Paradise Punjab . Unfortunately in India the system of distribution of
work in the society which initialed was based on aptitude and capability
converted with time on the basis of a birth. Just by taking birth in a family
an individual gets entitled for a particular profession. In the struggle of
life the people associated with land were by and large at a loss, due to
inability or organize themselves, till during the 17th and 18th
century peasantry became an object of dual exploitation on the one hand by the
state which in every regime whether it was of mughals, or the Britishers charged
unreasonably high rate of revenue and on the other hand by money lending and
merchant class which charged exorbitant
rate of interest on the money advanced to them. Situation was quite grim
even in the beginning of the 20th century till Sir Chottu Ram
succeeded in getting the legislation passed regulating money lenders regarding
the rate of interest. But still the landed class has survived through the ages
and perhaps it is due to its tenacity to struggle and attachment with land in
particular and with country in general that they have enjoyed reputation and
respect atleast in the rural society of the country. Even the Britishers
recognized the dominance, though to serve their own interest, the landed class
of Indian society as they feared resistance from this class at one or the other
juncture of history. Britishers also reaped the sense of loyalty and devotion
of this class by recruiting them in their armed forces like The Gurkhas.
It is certain that my ancestors were
associated with land but the origin of my ancestors is still unclear. There are
certain theories regarding the origin of my ancestors. As it is a common
practice in Punhab, particularly among the landed class or jats as they are
known in local dialect the generally they base their surname on the name of the
village to which they belong. And still in Amritsar
and Jalandhar district of modern day Punjab
there are villages by the name Kang which shows that my ancestors were attached
with agriculture. However, the first reference to Kang is as old as Mahabharat
age in which people who brought horses for the Yagna of Yudhishtra were Kangs
or Kanks. Some associate with the Canal digging work in China and Russia . Hoshiar Singh Duleh in his work History of the
Jats says “ Many Jat clans had already settled in the regions of Caspian sea,
Aral Sea, Volga , Syer River Ammu river, etc.
many hundred years before Christ “(84).
He believes that Kangs- an ancient Jat clan came to India from the regions of River Syer and Aral
sea of Mid Asia through Bal after roaming
about on horse backs and grazing their cattle in many countries. Even at the
time of Mahabharat Kangs had already entered Punjab .
R.S. Dahia considers them as from Saka dynasty (51). Due to Huns invasion they
moved southward to Kathiawar in Gujarat, Ujjain
in M.P and towards Southern Maharashtra .
However Muslim invasion brought them back to Punjab .
Kangs also trace back their origin to shri Ram Chandra as they consider Jogra
as their founder. Natt and Rai Jats also trace back their lineage to Jogra.
After muslim invasion they moved northwards from Ujjain
and moving towards Ayodhya and Delhi
they reached Bathinda and made Kangarh or Kanggarh as their capital.. But they
lost it to Huns, so after it they moved towards Moga and Ferozepur including my
village Dharamkot.
Mostly Kangs inhabited the Doab
region of Punjab, between Sutlej and Beas in Punjab .
Sikhism and its founder Guru Nanak Dev captured the imagination of peasantry of
Punjab as it promised more equal society. the
earliest trace of Kangs conversion to Sikhism can be seen in the person named”
Bhai Bannon” who became “ the devotee and follower of 5th Guru.”(
Dahia, 118). Though there are muslim Kang clans also settled in Pakistan in places like Multan , Muzzafargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Hazra
but mostly in Indian Punjab Kangs are sikh Jats. One of the most illustrious
personality among the Kangs in the history so far was Tara Singh Kang or Ghebba
who became chief of Dallewali after the death of its chief Gulab Singh as he
had no son, during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Tara Singh was born in
1717 A.D in Kang village
of Kapurthala Rahon where he made his residence. In 1763
A.D he joined Bhangi, Kanhaiya and Ramgarhia Misls against the Pathan Nawab of Kasur
and in the sack of the town collected Rs. 4 lacs as part of his war booty. He
joined other Sikh leaders in laying siege of Sirhind in 1764 A.D and defeated
its governor Zain Khan and razed the fort of Sirhind to the ground. Tara Singh
developed close intimacy with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. However after his death in
1807 A.D at the ripe ageof 90 years the territories of Dallevalia misl were
annexed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh which was a large area yielding the revenue of
17 lacs per annum. Thus ended the life of perhaps one of the greatest Kangs in
Indian history.
One of my ancestors was perhaps one
of the son of Tara Singh who got the
fort of Dharamkot as his share. Another personality mentioned by my father was
his great grandfather Sardar Buta Singh, who was perhaps son or grandson of
Tara Singh. He was not only dominating personality of the village but he became
Kankash also, who was sort of supervisor
of Lambardars, which was a system evolved by the Britishers to realize the
revenue from the peasants and deposit it to the Government treasury of the
Tehsil. The duty of the Kankash was also to anticipate the value of a land in
the term of yield so as to ascertain the amount of the revenue. I came to learn
from my father that Britishers were very much pleased with the work of Sardar
Buta Singh and besides honouring him with golden citations which then were
known as golden letters they were ready to give the whole neighbouring village
of Pandori as reward but Buta Singh was apprehensive of his son who was idle
and lazy so he refused that offer. He was not certain that Buta Singh would be
able to look after this property well. Perhaps he was right as Buta Singh’s son
Mhia Singh, who was my father’s grandfather did not do much to increase the
assets of the family. Next in line was my grandfather Sardar Khazan Singh who
was popular enough to become the member of Muincipality of Dhaarmkot. He was
well respected in the society as he was Lambardar too and he collected revenue
from he farmers of his part of the village and deposit it in the Government
Treasury at Zira. All the Lambardars of the village used to go from Dharamkot
to Zira on foot ferrying the heavy bags of coins on their back. After
depositing the money in Treasury of the Tehsil Zira all the Lambardars used to
take a cup of tea at the tea stall outside with white bread soaked in it. In
such an environment and family my father was born, though the date is not
certain, however according to his documents his date of birth was 1-05-1926.
The story of my father’s life will come in the subsequent pages
