By Harjap Singh Aujla

I always take pride in mentioning the name of Sardar Kartar Singh Duggal as one of the most accomplished icons of Punjabi literature. He is a story writer, a playwright, an essayist as well as a critic. He has served at high titles in All India Radio and he has been a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. As a member of the Rajya Sabha, he spent most of his local area development funds on the setting up of Virsa Vihars in several district headquarters of Punjab. During his long career as a literary figure, he has won several national and state level awards and appreciations. During the infancy of All India Radio, he served as a senior officer at All India Radio Peshawar and later on at All India Radio Lahore. What most people don’t know is that he was the catalyst who helped the creation of All India Radio Jalandhar – Amritsar in 1947-48.

Duggal. circa 1955
Photo Amarjit Chandan Collection

Way back during the mid-Thirties, after several private and half-hearted government efforts, the British Indian government decided in 1936 to open government owned and operated radio stations in the vast country. To start with, a few medium-powered and medium-wave radio outlets were planned in the metropolitan cities of India. As expected, the first four radio stations fell into the share of India’s largest cities of Calcutta, Bombay, New Delhi and Madras. The fifth city to get a broadcasting outlet was Lahore, the capital of the Province of Punjab. A full-fledged radio station, along with a modern studio complex, opened in Lahore in 1937.

From 1937 to 1947, All India Radio Lahore served as the cultural melting pot of Punjab’s three major religious groups and an information and entertainment hub of all the Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs of the region. Then came August 14, 1947, the Independence Day of Pakistan, and this radio station got converted into Radio Pakistan Lahore.

The communal atmosphere in Punjab was getting disturbed since March that year. But since Lahore was the seat of administration, the communal harmony at All India Radio Lahore remained remarkably undisturbed for an unusually long time. Things remained peaceful till the end of July, but as the movement of religiously divided mankind gathered momentum in the month of August, the radio station started losing its Hindu and Sikh staff members.

From August 15, Radio Pakistan Lahore became the instrument of carrying out the policies and programmes of the newly-formed government of Pakistan. On the Indian side the cities of Amritsar and Ferozepur were getting flooded with refugees coming from all the districts falling in the Islamic nation of Pakistan. Amritsar’s population, which stood at 400,000, lost half of its population, which happened to be Muslim. But what the city got in return, at any given time, was twice and thrice of what it lost. The Khalsa College, Qila Gobindgarh, the Golden Temple with its serais, the Durgiana Temple and all the schools and colleges in the city got flooded with refugees. The same was true for Ferozepur too. But the population holding capacity of the city was much less, causing serious logistical problems. The government of India had appointed two senior Indian Civil Service officers Sardar Tarlok Singh and Dr Mohinder Singh Randhawa to quickly move the incoming refugees from Amritsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Pathankot to other places in Punjab, Delhi and the other provinces of India.

Rehabilitation of the refugees was a gigantic task. Many had lost their blood relations in the communal frenzy and many families got scattered without a clue. There was no way to trace the lost family members. Everybody felt the necessity of having a dedicated radio station to announce the names of lost refugees and their former places of residences. This message was forcefully conveyed to the interim government of India in New Delhi. Sardar Kartar Singh Duggal, who was a senior official at the erstwhile All India Radio, Lahore, knew the acute need for a radio station in East Punjab. He composed the letter justifying the need of a new radio station in Punjab. The letter was hand delivered to Sardar Swaran Singh an important leader of Punjab with a lot of clout with the central leadership. Swaran Singh delivered it to the Prime Minister.

My late father Sardar Sochet Singh was a senior official in the administration of erstwhile Kapurthala State. He was privy to some of the information about the flood of refugees entering India. He narrated to me some of the heartrending stories about refugees and the government’s inability to help them much. Some information, of course, died with him.

Acting on the letter of Sardar Kartar Singh Duggal, in 1947 it self, the government of India decided to open two transmitting stations in East Punjab. At that time India had very few spare radio transmitters. Most of the spare medium-wave transmitters were meant for emergency duties to fill in for the under repair high-powered transmitters. Two transmitters of the one kilowatt power denomination each were identified and dispatched to Amritsar, the premier gateway of India and Jalandhar, the more centrally located city and the stopgap administration centre of East Punjab. Construction of the transmitting towers and the buildings took several months. According to Duggal, initially some bamboo poles were joined together and bolted and riveted together to improvise a crude transmitting tower with transmitting elements installed towards the top. But this stopgap arrangement was unlikely to deliver the desired results. There was a fear of its falling apart during a wind storm. Very soon, it had to be discarded and replaced with a properly designed steel tower. Between June and September of 1948, both transmitters started functioning. The new combined radio entity was named All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar. Most of the refugees entering India had still not settled. The first task before these radio stations was to announce the names, villages, tehsils and districts of the missing individuals and repeat the messages again and again.

The day time range of both radio stations was a little more than fifteen miles (twenty five kilometers) each. Therefore, the broadcast hours were planned mostly in the evenings after sunset, when the range increased manifolds. Both stations used to go on the air between 7 am and 9 am in the morning service and then in the evening service between 6 pm and 10.30 pm. In order to help these radio stations, All India Radio, Delhi, started two news bulletins one each in the morning and evening to be relayed by All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar. The first news bulletins were in Pothohari dialect of Punjabi language. Later on, the dialect was changed to standard Punjabi spoken in Lahore division in Central Punjab. The bulletins in standard Punjabi are still continuing with the addition of a third one at noon time.

All the staff artistes and casual performers at Lahore Radio Station were approved by the new radio outlet. The programme for rural listeners was initially used for broadcasting information on the refugees. Later on, as the problem came under control, announcements about weather, commodity prices, innovations in agricultural techniques, etc started being broadcast. Sardar Kartar Singh Duggal became the station director.

On the information front, especially for the farmers and agricultural labouers, the station became very successful, but on the entertainment front, it always played second fiddle to Radio Pakistan Lahore as East Punjab’s most popular singers, including Surinder Kaur moved to Bombay in 1948. Her elder sister, also a very popular singer, Parkash Kaur settled in New Delhi. In 1952, Surinder Kaur also moved to New Delhi. They both performed extensively at All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar but as guest artistes from New Delhi. Yamla Jatt, another folk singer was a prolific performer at this radio station. Rehmat Qawaal of Malerkotla and his party were the leading Qawaals of All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar. Bhai Samund Singh was acclaimed as the crown jewel of Sikh religious music.
I have written extensively about Sardar Jodh Singh’s special role at All India Radio Jalandhar. An other person at All India Radio Jalandhar, who deserves a special mention, is SS [Sohan Singh] Misha. He was a lecturer at National College Sathiala in Amritsar from 1957 to 1966. In 1966, he joined as a producer at All India Radio Jalandhar. He was a fine poet. He died in harness. He deserves credit for standardisation of spoken Punjabi at this radio station.

In 1952, after the first elections to the Parliament of India, Dr BV Keskar, a scholar of eminence and a great lover of classical music, was appointed the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting. It was he who was instrumental in developing a master plan to replace the low-powered transmitters with high-powered long range transmitters all over India. This plan led to the strengthening of the power of the radio station at Jalandhar to 50 kilowatts and the closure of the radio station in Amritsar.
Since 1953, All India Radio Jalandhar is counted amongst the most powerful capital stations of India. But the fate of Amritsar station is still a state of flux. A high powered FM transmitter is being installed at Amritsar but it appears that this premier city of Punjab will be deprived of the facility of a full-fledged studio compliment. Amritsar deserves a full-fledged originating facility with a compliment of a studio complex.

harjapaujla@gmail.com