Amrita Pritam’s poem inspires opening lines in Delhi High Court’s verdict

“In the summer of 1947, during Partition, this country witnessed horrific mass crimes where several lakhs of civilians, including Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus were massacred.

“In the summer of 1947, during Partition, this country witnessed horrific mass crimes where several lakhs of civilians, including Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus were massacred.

A young poet, Amrita Pritam, who fled to this country with her two little children from Lahore, was witness to the manifold tragedies during that perilous journey,” the bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel noted.

“She was moved to pen an ‘Ode to Waris Shah’ in which she spoke of the fertile land of Punjab having ‘sprouted poisonous weeds far and near’ and where ‘seeds of hatred have grown high, bloodshed is everywhere/poisoned breeze in forest turned bamboo flutes into snakes/their venom has turned the bright and rosy Punjab all blue’. The killings would continue in the streets of Delhi,” it added, referring to the 1984 riots.

Newsletter

Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Atal Tunnel - longest tunnel above 10000 ft

Ladakh: The Prime Minister today inaugurated the Atal Tunnel and took the inaugural drive through in the 9km long tunnel...

Orissa High Court Order regarding migrant workers entry into Orissa put on hold by the Supreme Court

The Orissa High Court order to permit the entry of migrant workers only if they tested Negative for COVID-19 was put on...

Coronavirus Lockdown - First Flights To Bring Back Indians Stranded Abroad Land In Kerala

On Monday, the central government announced plans to begin a massive repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad, dubbe...

Reacting to Trump's retaliation threat India allows Hydroxychloroquine export

In a move after Trump's threat to retaliate if India fails to send medicines, India has lifted ban of export of ess...

All Domestic Passenger Flights Suspended from Midnight Tomorrow

The operations of all domestic schedule commercial airlines will stop operations from 23.59pm on March 24, a government...

Iran says it ‘unintentionally’ shot down Ukrainian plane, blames ‘human error’

Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft. But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, sa...