Dr Atamjit

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 10

Noted Punjabi playwright and Sahitya Akademi award winner Dr Atamjit read out his unpublished play based on World War I at Virsa Vihar here today. The celebrated writer, who is known for his research work and acclaimed writings, agrees that World War I is the least documented event in the Sikh history and 13 lakh soldiers, who were a part of it, need to be owned. “My pain behind conceiving the project was that despite 70,000 Sikh soldiers sacrificing their lives and 13 lakh soldiers braving it out at the war front, we as a society have failed to remember them. The only memorial in their name is the one in Delhi and that, too, was established by the Britishers. My play is dedicated to the memory of all those soldiers.”The title of his play ‘’Ve Mur Aa Lama Ton’’ (loosely based on a song that has a woman calling on a loved one to return from war) is a result of two years’’ research on the subject. “Many people still believe that those soldiers didn’t fight for their country but for the Britishers when instead their participation in the WWI was backed by many nationalist leaders, including Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Mahatma Gandhi. They thought that India will achieve independence after the Indian soldiers won a war for Britishers. When that didn’t happened, where was an ordinary soldier at fault?” questions Atamjit.His play somewhere also echoes his own opinion and his research, he says, has managed to back up with facts and description of events. “That war was an outcome of nationalist egos, parochial nationalism, if I may call it. The pretence of nationalism fuelled it.”The session will be attended by history students, historians, writers and eminent citizens and Atamjit says that the attempt is not to gain any headlines, but to remember the heroes of Sikh history and take responsibility for the years of disregard for their lives.