Remembering Gurmit Kaur

 My husband's  older  sister Gurmit died this past Sunday night at the age of 91. Here are a few of his thoughts and remembrances of her. Although her last years were blighted by dementia and Alzheimer's disease, she had in her long life exerted a powerful and positive influence on her family, friends and community.

She was the mother of three children.Her marriage to Surain Nunner ended in divorce decades ago.

Gurmit was an active supporter of her younger brother, Hardial Bains, a brilliant progressive leader in Canada who also inspired the foundation of political parties in Ireland and England.

Always involved in social and political activity, Gurmit's interest took the form of talking to  people about political problems and encouraging peple  to participate in the political life in India.

The child of the village Sarpanch, Gurbakhs Singh, who had played a major role in the anti-colonial struggle against the  British  in India,  Gurmit grew up supporting that progressive struggle to free India from British domination. 

Both  sisters Gurmit amd Ranjit  attended the college that opened in their village of Mahilpur in 1946.

This move reflected their parent's progressive attitudes towards educating  women  beyond their traditional roles of wife and mother.

It is important that we remember Gurmit as she was for most of her long and dedicated life. We should not allow the later years of mental chaos shape  our memories of her.

Most of us to do not get better with age,  and we ask that our dear sister be remebered for all the ways she encouraged and advanced the  progress of humanity that we hail in the INTERNATIONALE.

Eugène Pottier, 1871; English lyrics by Charles H. Kerr, French lyrics

Arise, you prisoners of starvation! Arise, you wretched of the earth! For justice thunders condemnation. A better world's in birth. No more tradition's chains shall bind us. Arise, you slaves, no more in thrall! The earth shall rise on new foundations. We have been naught, we shall be all. 'Tis the final conflict; Let each stand in his place. The international working class Shall be the human race.

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The "Internationale" was written in Paris, in June of 1871 by Eugène Pottier, who was born in Paris in 1816 and died in 1887. He was a member of the International and of the Central Committee of the Commune. He was condemned to death in May of 1873, but sentence was never carried out as he took refuge in America. The song was published in Chants Révolutionnaires (1887), and dedicated to Gustave Lefrançais, member of the Commune.

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