Smt Hardeep Kaur Mann and Shri Jaspal Singh Ji arranged the Langar (Community Meal) at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, Medford, MA, on Sunday July 29, 2018 to commemorate the 38^th death anniversary of her grandfather Shri Baba Bujha Singh Ji. Shri Baba Bujha Singh who was a freedom fighter, Indian revolutionary leader and an activist of the Ghadar Party died on July 28, 1970. Singh later became a symbol of the Naxalite movement in Punjab. Hundreds of devotees attended Satang and Langar at Gurdwara to honor his life and work for social justice and dignity of common people.

As a Ghadar Party leader in Argentina, he tried to overthrow British colonialism in India. He returned to India, after studying at the Comintern University, Moscow and China. Shri Baba Bujha Singh later joined the Communist Party of India. Within the Communist Party, he was a prominent figure in the protester faction that eventually formed the Lal Communist Party in 1948. After the Lal Communist Party was dissolved, he joined back into the Communist Party of India as one of the leaders of CPI and later of CPI (M-L). Baba Bujha Singh became passive and did not involve himself in party politics. Later, he became a symbol of the Naxalite movement in Punjab.

Shri Baba Bujha Singh criticized the positions adopted by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as 'anti-communist' and argued that the 1956 congress would eventually lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In 1967, he resumed political activism in the wake of the 1967 Naxalbari uprising. Shri Baba Bujha Singh began contacting leftwing protesters inside the Communist Party of India (Marxist), urging them to rebel against the leadership of the party. In the later years of his life, Baba Bujha Singh became passive and did not involve himself in party politics. Even then, he was killed in a fake police encounter on July 27, 1970 by the Indian state at the ripe age of 80 years near Phillaur.

After his death, Shri Baba Bujha Singh became an icon of the Naxalite movement in Punjab. His struggle for justice and dignity has been recognized in the Punjabi literature and feature film field by poet, Shri Shiv Kumar Batalvi who wrote the poem Budhe Rukh Nu Fansi and film maker, Shri Bakhshinder who produced Baba Inqlab Singh on his life respectively.

After Baba Resham Singh Ji offered Shraddhanjali to Shri Baba Bujha Singh, Smt Hardeep Kaur Mann also presented her deepest Shraddhanjali to her grandfather and the Hero of Punjab by narrating his life and work to the devotes. Members of Cambridge Wednesday’s Discussion Group offered their heart felt Shraddhanjali along with many other community dignitaries and actively participated in the Langar event along with all the devotees.

Baba Bujha Singh was a pure communist in his spirit and supporter of the people’s struggle for better life. He dedicated his life’s 40 years to the struggle of freedom and revolution in India. His remarkable achievements and multifaceted personality will remain as a real light-house for the other revolutionaries even after his departure.

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