Witnessing the advent of modernity and country’s changing social fabric

Kurukshetra: Ranjit Singh Sandhu finds modernity in the little things. At 101, after a lifetime of experiences, the appreciation helps him. Born on January 1, 1923 in a shanty with mud walls and straw roof in Mohri, Haryana, Sandhu appreciates the plush, multi-storeyed home he now lives in, on the same spot, in the same village. Sandhu worked as a farmer for much of his life, toiling away under the brutal Haryana sun on fields of pumpkin, sugarcane.

Those fields are now gone. Handed to the family by the colonial government under a feudal land grant, the State, several reclaimed the plots soon after Independence.

His family moved to Mohri, in Kurukshetra district, from Tarn Taran, a town in Punjab decades ago.

As the years unfurled, Sandhu watched modernity spring up around him – at home, and beyond. He watched in real-time as communication evolved. In a village still largely untouched by the ferocious growth of artificial intelligence or other hot-button tech, Sandhu appreciates basic amenities. After all, as he said, “When we were young, horses used to deliver the mail.”

A changing world

The charpai Sandhu sits on barely registers his weight. The thick jute rope is taut. A thin, coarse cotton towel is wrapped around his head like a turban.

A flat screen TV is nestled on the wall across his charpai, where he sleeps. “He only uses the TV to listen to gurbani,” says Jaskeerat Sandhu, his great grandson.

“The highway connecting Delhi to Amritsar extended till Lahore. The British used horses to send letters and posts from here to Lahore and vice versa,” he said.

Then came the railway line.

“They laid train tracks through our village that went up till Ambala,” Sandhu said. The mail moved faster after that.

“I remember there was a madi (a place of worship) on the alignment of the railway line. The British demolished it to make way for the track and built it somewhere else,” he said.

Then came the radio.

“They were the only source of information during the liberation movement,” Sandhu said.

A witness to the Partition of 1947, Sandhu said that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs had cordial relations. “The bonhomie between our communities was remarkable. I must have been in my mid-twenties when the Partition took place and I remember that Muslims used to have raths (chariot) and took them along when they migrated to Pakistan during Partition. Only a few Muslim families from nearby Samalki village who worked as ironsmith stayed back,” he said.

At the time, the postal system of the British was dependent on horses. “The highway connecting Delhi to Amritsar extended till Lahore but was unmetalled then. Horses were used to send letters and posts from here to Lahore and vice versa. The Britishers first set up a railway track and then the road was metalled,’’ he said.

The indoor toilet is just as unique for him.

“We had to go outside in the open if we needed to relieve ourselves,” he said.

“Isn’t it nice that we have toilets inside our houses now? Going outside was a problem, especially for women and particularly after sunset.”

Societal churn

Growing up in north India at the height of the freedom struggle, Sandhu saw as the fabric of the country changed around him. Friends turned enemies overnight. Bonhomies melted away.

“Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims had remarkable camaraderie,” he recalled.

“I was in my mid-20s when India was partitioned. Muslims migrated to Pakistan. Barely a handful of Muslim families from nearby Samalki village who worked as ironsmiths stayed back,” he said.

He lost his father young and was brought up by his elder brother Pritam. He had four children. He outlived all of them. “But it’s alright. I have lived a full life and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by loving grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

Farming and the absence of a formal education left him with little time to think about politics. But he never missed a vote.

“I never missed out on voting in all these years. I remember the voting system changing from stamping a ballot paper to pressing a button on a voting machine,” said Sandhu.

He’s glad the Election Commission’s provision allowing people aged 85 and above to vote-from-home allows this record to go unblemished.

“But election officials keep coming home to verify if I’m alive,’’ he quipped.

Taking things in stride

The man from Haryana has one distinct political memory – Chaudhary Devi Lal, the state’s chief minister between 1987 and 1989, hiking the state’s social security pension from ₹100 to ₹300.

Sandhu turned 65 in 1989.

“Devi Lal was a people’s man. He selflessly worked for public welfare. There is no comparison between him and other leaders. He was the most selfless and committed to the farmers and the poor,’’ he said.

After a series of bumps by successive governments, the pension has now increased 10-fold to ₹3,000. But even then, Devi Lal’s contribution is undiminished in Sandhu’s eyes.

Sandhu now lives with his two grandsons and great-grandchildren.

“He is very patient and took adversity in his stride. Even when he was struggling, we were told, he never complained and was always thankful to God, ’’ said Jaskeerat.

He just has one complaint of modernity. “The food used to be much better when I was younger.”