| Recalling the campaign, he says, “Saund got the Democratic Party ticket under the name of D.S.
Saund, not revealing his full name. Had he mentioned his full name, he would not have got the ticket. Of course, a couple of things helped him. One, he was very fair and people thought he was a white man. Two, his wife Marian was white. So when we would go to people to seek votes for him, we would put Marian and her daughter in front of us. Only when he was elected did we reveal his full name. Saund wento on to serve three terms and I came here every time for the campaign.”
Having played a high-profile American innings, Dr Marwah is winding down these days. “Oh, no. I have a few things going. I am investing in education in my native Faridkot and
Kotkapura, where I have opened a college and instituted scholarships. At Mahindra College in
Patiala, we are building an auditorium at a cost of Rs 50
lakh.”
|
|
Born at Bhera in Shahpur district of present-day Pakistan, Dr Marwah belongs to a family of doctors. “My father, Dr Chanda Singh, was chief of medical services in Faridkot state in the mid-1910s. my grandfather, Dr Sucha Singh, had also held the same post in the 1880s. I did my high school from Kotkapura in 1941 and then went to Lahore for higher education.” At Lahore’s Sikh National College, young Marwah was a close witness to the Quit India movement that shook the nation. “Those were tumultuous times. Demonstrations were the norm. I used to live in the hostel. Niranjan Singh, the younger brother of Master Tara Singh, started the Sikh National College. While Tara Singh was an Akali, Niranjan Singh was a Congressman. He was professor of chemistry as well as principal of the college.
At college, his contemporaries included former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, former Punjab police chief Bhagwan Singh Danewalia, Indian minister of state (under Nehru) Iqbal Singh, Frick India founder (late) Manmohan Singh and former PGI director (Dr) Jaswant Singh Neki. “I knew Kartar Singh, Master Tara Singh, and Giani Gurmukh Singh Musafir who used to stay with my family whenever they visited
Faridkot.”
After his F.Sc, Marwah joined the King Edward Medical College for his four-year dentistry course. “It was the only college in India with a dental wing.” Hardly had he finished his degree when the Partition shook India.
“As violence broke out, I moved to live with my uncle, Sardar Bahadur Ram Singh, who was chief engineer in the railways. On August 11, 1947, I left Lahore with my uncle in military cars under police protection. On the way, I saw poeple killing one another. It was raining heavyily and one could see bodies lying around. I was 21 at that time.”
From Lahore, they reached Kotkapura. Within a couple of months, young Marwah was appointed a first-class officer. “I was the only dentist in the whole of Faridkot state. Within six months, Faridkot merged with Pepsu (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) in 1948 and I was posted in Rajendra Hospital in Patiala, and then in Nabha and Kapurthala.”
Then America beckoned.
Excerpted from California Dreams by Gurmukh Singh
|
