In Memoriam
Ajmer Singh Bains
February 13, 1933 - August 8, 2013
It is with deep sadness that RCPB(ML) announces the
passing of one of its dearest comrades, Ajmer Singh Bains, who died at the
Walsgrave University Hospital in Coventry on August 8, aged 80. He had been
unwell for some time. The Party sends its heartfelt condolences to his family
and to his many friends and comrades in Britain, India, Canada and other
countries.
Ajmer Singh Bains was born in Mahilpur in the Punjab, India,
on February 13, 1933. He was educated at the local secondary school, at
Mahilpur College, and at the University of Punjab. In these student years he
became a militant communist activist and forged a comradeship in struggle,
which was to be lifelong, with the younger Hardial Bains, late founder and
leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), and with the late
Kewal Singh Purewal, both of whom came from Mahilpur or its surrounding
district. Ajmer started work as a teacher in Punjab and then in 1964 emigrated
to Britain, settling in Coventry, where after further study and gaining an MA
he took up work again as a teacher. Very quickly, he began to militate in the
ranks of the Indian Workers Association (Great Britain). For some years he was
editor of its journal Lalkar. He fought over many years to ensure that
the IWA(GB) adhered to the broad and non-sectarian principles laid down at its
founding in Coventry in 1938 by the great martyr Udham Singh. Ajmer Bains
consistently resisted all attempts to replace these principles with a sectarian
outlook.
Thus the IWA(GB) of which Ajmer was to come forward as
leader had the strength and unity to face the difficult challenges which would
confront it in the period beginning in the mid-1980s. That leadership was
ratified at an important Conference held in Woolwich, south-east London, in
1993, which reorganised IWA(GB) and at which the guest speaker was Hardial
Bains. The Conference confirmed Ajmer Bains as General Secretary and Kewal
Purewal as President. Ajmer, always supported by Kewal, worked tirelessly for
the programme of IWA(GB), fighting for the rights of the entire working class
and people, defending the interests of the Indian and other national minority
communities against racism and discrimination and for their full participation
in the political affairs in Britain and the affirmation of their rights second
to none. In so doing, IWA(GB) gained over decades a proud reputation for being
in the forefront of political affairs not just in the Indian community, but
among all the national minority communities as well as in the entire workers'
movement. It was no coincidence that for many years IWA(GB) hosted the Coventry
May Day celebrations, with Ajmer in the chair or as lead speaker. He was also a
leader of the Coventry Anti-Racist Committee and of other local organisations,
including pensioners groups in later years.
Ajmer Bains was an Indian patriot and proletarian
internationalist, devoting his efforts to the liberation of his motherland and
of all countries. He was a highly regarded poet, widely known throughout India
and the diaspora as "Ajmer Coventry", and a writer on political,
scientific and cultural matters and editor of literary works, all in the
Punjabi language.
The memory of Ajmer's wise word and fine deed, we are
convinced, will be an inspiration not only to those striving to renew and
further advance the work of IWA(GB), but also to the wider workers' and
progressive movement of which it is a part, as the resistance grows today to
the vicious anti-social offensive, the destruction of public services, and the
drive to fascism and war.
Ajmer Singh Bains was a man of unwavering principle and
dedication to humanity's cause. Those who knew and worked with him will never
forget his infectious good humour, his wise counsel and his concern for others'
well-being, which he maintained until the very end. He will be sadly missed.
Ajmer, whose wife predeceased him, leaves two sons and
daughters-in-law and five grandchildren.
Ajmer Bains at the Memorial
Meeting for Kewal Purewal, 2006
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