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hen one thinks of Toba Tek Singh, one also thinks of Saadat Hasan Manto. One is reminded of his bone-chilling story, Toba Tek Singh, published in 1955, that depicted the horrible human condition and miseries in the wake of the partition of the sub-continent in 1947. Manto immortalised the name, Toba Tek Singh. Now one cannot detach Manto from it. They are inseparable, to say the least.
But there is another story which needs to be narrated for the sake of posterity. It is about the Tek Singh who gave the city its name. Toba Tek Singh is 188 kilometres from Lahore lies in Faisalabad division. Once a part of Faisalabad district, it was carved out as a new district in 1982.
The city reminds people of Tek Singh, the saintly Sikh who used to serve selflessly the people of the area. To honour his memory and his services for the people of the city, a park was built near the railway station in 2000 and named Teku Park. According to the district administration, the site where Tek Singh used to sit was where Teku Park stands today. They have also built a mound in the park to keep the memory alive.
Tariq Saeed is a seasoned journalist, political worker and social activist. His knowledge of the district, its people and its political history is encyclopaedic. Saeed says he had tried hard to establish the whereabouts of Tek Singh’s mound (Toba means a mound). He says he was finally able to trace an old man who shared with him some facts about Tek Singh. “My neighbour died at the age of 85 a few years ago. He had told me that he had met a man almost sixty years ago. That man, in his nineties, had told him that he saw Tek Singh serving water and roasted grams to the passers-by. He was an employee of postal service. He would bring the post from Jhang and carry it to Toba. He used to sit near the present-day house of the session judge in the city,” Tariq Saeed says.
The old man also said that Tek Singh had two earthen utensils for Hindus and Sikhs and he did not charge a penny for water or the roasted grams. If the old man is to be trusted, the mound where Tek Singh used to sit was near the residence of the Toba Tek Singh sessions judge’s residence.
Nothing apart from this is known about Tek Singh. Nobody knows when was he born or when he died. Sixty or seventy years ago there might have been some people who had caught a glimpse of him. But much water has flowed down the river since.
According to the district administration, the site where Tek Singh used to sit was where Teku Park stands today. They have also built a mound in the park to keep alive the memory of Tek Singh.
The disagreement about the mound where he sat notwithstanding, it is remarkable that the city continues to carry his name and that a park has been developed to honour his memory.
During Gen Zia-ul Haq visit to the city in 1982 some citizens demanded that the name of the city be changed. But this suggestion was met with strong opposition by a majority of the people present.
Tariq Saeed tells The News on Sunday that Tahira Latif, a vocal leader and member of the Toba Tek Singh district council stood up and denounced those who wanted to change the name of the city. She told the president that the name of city was their homage to the man. She said the city should not be renamed at all. She was the wife of leftist leader Mian Latif and sister of renowned TV compere Tariq Aziz. Former MPA Mian Rafique, then a member of the district council, moved a resolution in the district council to condemn those who had tried to change the name. The house agreed to retain the name that celebrates its pluralistic culture.
So the city still carries the same name. It hosted the histiric Kissan Conference on March 23, 1970, in which thousands of people took part from across the country. Maulana Abdul Hameed Bhashani was the chief guest and was accorded a historic welcome.
Maulana Bhashani in his speech, buoyed up by the reception and the large number of participants, called the city the Stalingrad of Pakistan.
In an era when changing the names of cities and monuments was the dominant trend, it is heartening to hear stories of people like Tek Singh whom the city continues to remember fondly.
The writer is afreelance journalist based in Lahore