Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary Diplomatist July 19 Edition . | Page 50

CULTURE CONNECT
DIPLOMACY IN TUNE
WITH MARTIAL MUSIC
BY ANIL BHAT*
I
n the late evening on 09 April 2019, the
Vancouver Police Pipe Band visiting India
for the fi rst time and the Indian Air Force
(IAF) Brass Band invited by the Canadian High
Commission, regaled an audience on the lawns
of Canada House, Residence of Canada’s High
Commissioner to India, Mr. Nadir Patel. With the
High Commissioner being out of town, Deputy
High Commissioner, Ms. Soyoung Park, hosted
the event, which began with the Indian Air Force
Band playing a series of catchy Indian fi lm tunes.
The heady sound of bagpipes preceded the
Vancouver Police Pipe Band as it came marching
into the lawns of Canada House playing a grand
march, ‘Sixth of June’. The band, with its 24
members — the youngest is in their 20s and the
oldest almost 75 —thereafter, played their “usual
repertoire,” as Pipe Major Constable Cal Davis, put
it, which included Lord Lovats Lament, Pathfi nder,
Crescent Beach, Jig Set - Walking the Floor, Donald
Willie and his Dog, Ricking the Baby, Battle of the
Somme and Heights of Darghai.
Constable Sukhi
Sunger with the dhol
Picture by Anil Bhat
50 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 7 • July 2019, Noida
Then came a marvellous surprise. Constable
Sukhi Sunger, the only turbaned Sikh bandsman
-a drummer- unhooked the Scottish drum and
took up a colourfully tasselled Punjabi ‘dhol’. For
over the next few minutes, the summer evening air
was fi lled with Muhammad Iqbal’s ‘Sare Jahan
Se Accha’, rendered most melodiously by the
Canadian bagpipers to the unmistakable beat of
Sunger’s dhol.
This was followed by the last four tunes, Caber
Feidh, Garb of old Gaul, Scotland the Brave and
Sarie.
The band’s delegation was headed by Chief
Constable Adam Palmer of the Vancouver Police,
accompanied by Deputy Chief Constable Steve
Rai and Barjinder S Dhahan, member, Vancouver
Police Board from Canada. Dhahan informed
the gathering about the incorporation of ‘dhol’ in
the Band performing multiple shows in diff erent
locations in Amritsar on April 13 and 14, one show
in Nawanshahar on April 15 and the fi nal show in
Chandigarh on April 16. Their tour of India was
timed to straddle the 100th year of the 13 July 1919
massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, which they visited
and paid homage at the memorial to the martyrs.
They also visited the Golden Temple at Amritsar
and the Wagah Border Post.
Known for being ethnically diverse, the
Vancouver Police Department has a growing
number of Punjabi’s in its fold. The department’s
band performs at various events for the Punjabi
diaspora, including the annual Baisakhi Parade in
Vancouver. The band had previously toured Britain,
China, Switzerland, France, the USA, Mexico,
Scotland, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Singapore, Japan, The Netherlands, Italy, and
Portugal.
The Vancouver Police Pipe Band, raised in
1914, is the oldest non-military pipe band in
British Columbia and ranks amongst the most
senior police pipe bands in the world. Like the