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| Prof. Birbal
Sahni |
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| Parental
Background |
Birbal was the third child of his
parents, the late Prof. Ruchi Ram Sahni
and Shrimati Ishwar Devi. He was born on
the 14th of November 1891, at Bhera, a
small town in the Shahpur district, now
a part of the West Punjab, and once a
flourishing centre of trade, which had
the distinction of an invasion by the
iconoclast, Mahmud of Ghazni. The
immediate interest that canters round
Bhera is enhanced by the fact that this
little town is situated not far from the
Salt Range which may be described as a
veritable "Museum of Geology
". Excursions to these barren
ranges, where lie unmasked some of the
most interesting episodes and landmarks
of Indian geology, were often
coordinated with visits to Bhera during
our childhood, particularly to Khewra.
Here occur certain plant-bearing
formations concerning the geological age
of which Birbal made important
contributions in later years.
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Bhera was
his ancestral home, but his parents were at one time settled much
farther a field, in fact at the reverie port of Dehra Ismail Khan on
the Indus, and later migrated to Lahore.
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Prof. Sahni's father was
obliged to leave Dehra Ismail Khan owing to reverses of fortune and the
death of our grandfather who was a leading citizen of the town. With
the change of fortune, life became different and difficult. Undeterred, Ruchi
Ram Sahni walked with a bundle of books on his back all the way from Dehra
Ismail Khan to Jhang, a distance of over 150 miles, to join school.
Later at Bhera and at Lahore, he distinguished himself as a scholar. He
educated himself entirely on scholarships that he won. He was thus
brought up in a hard school of life, and was entirely a self-made man.
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Prof. Ruchi Ram Sahni was a person
of liberal views, and during his career he became one of the leaders of
the Brahmo Samaj movement in the Punjab, a progressive religious and
social upsurge which had then freshly taken root. Undoubtedly father
imbibed these ideas during his sojourn in Calcutta in his early days.
He gave practical effect to his views by breaking away completely from
caste. And when the call came, father, then a man of advanced years,
stood knee-deep in the sacred mud of the tank of the Golden Temple and
removed basket load of it upon his frail shoulders to assist in
clearing the accumulated silt. His religion knew no boundaries. Always
a patriot, he threw himself heart and soul into the struggle for
independence and even tasted the severity of the bureaucratic baton at
the Guru ka Bagh. He fought valiantly for the rights of his
countrymen, and was more than once on the verge of arrest.
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About 1922, when he
returned the insignia of the title conferred upon him by the then
government, Prof. Ruchi Ram Sahni was threatened with the termination of his pension, but
his only answer was that he had thought out and foreseen all possible
consequences of his action. He retained his pension !
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It was inevitable
that these events left their impress upon the family and were also
imbibed by Birbal. If Birbal became a staunch supporter of
the Congress movement, it was due in no small measure to father's
living example. To this may be added the inspiration he derived, even
if on rare-occasions, from the presence of political figures like
Motilal Nehru, Gokhale, Srinivasa Shastri, Sarojini Naidu, Madan Mohan
Malaviya and others who were guests at Ruchi Ram's Lahore house, situated near
the Bradlaugh Hall which was then the hub of political activity in the
Punjab.
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Birbal's mother was a
pious lady of more conservative views, whose one aim in life was to see
that the children received the best possible education. Hers was a
brave sacrifice, and together they managed to send five sons to British
and European universities. Nor was the education of the daughters
neglected in spite of opposition from orthodox relations, and Birbal's elder
sister was one of the first women to graduate from the Punjab
University.
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Such then was the
family and parental background which influenced Birbal throughout life.
In later years he prided in calling himself a "chip of the old block"
which he was in every sense of the term. It can be truly said that he
inherited from father his intense patriotism, his love of science and
outdoor life and the sterling qualities which made him stand
unswervingly in the cause of the country, while he imbibed his
generosity and his deep attachments from our unassuming and
self-sacrificing mother.
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