About 50 km to the west of Chakwal city, the historic village of Neelah lies on the bank of Soan River. Located at the central point of the districts of Chakwal, Rawalpindi and Attock, village Neelah got a police station in 1890.

But what changed the fate of not only Neelah but also other surrounding villages of the three districts was the establishment of S. S. Mota Singh High School by Sardar Mota Singh Bhasin in 1916.

The school is now known as Government High School Neelah and is serving as one of the leading institutions in the area.

Mota Singh was born in Neelah in 1885.

According to a brief biographical account prepared by his heirs in New Delhi and obtained by Dawn, Mota Singh was hardly 10 when his parents passed away.

The demise of parents took a toll on young Mota Singh who himself could not get school education at all.

However, the talented young Mota Singh developed an interest in trade as he grew up.

His first business venture was in Kashmir in 1909, the then princely state where Sikhs were holding sway.

But soon he shifted his interest of business to Iran as at that time another business tycoon from the Sikh community of Chakwal, Sardar Chet Singh, was also doing business in Iran.

“Mota Singh started trading in oil and dry fruits, establishing his main office in Zahedan in Iran which borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. He would import oil and dry fruits,” Gurcharan Singh Bhasin, the youngest son of late Mota Singh, told Dawn from New Delhi.

He established branches of his business in various cities of Iran and also in Karachi, Lahore, Gujar Khan and Amritsar.

In 1915 when he returned to his village Neelah after taking a break from his business activities, he gathered all the villagers and told them: “School education was not in my lot but I do not want my village mates to suffer as I did. Let us start here a first class educational institution which should serve as a beacon for not only Neelah but for also the entire area of Dhanni-Soan (the area of tehsil Chakwal and Soan River).”

The village elders, including Muslims and Hindus, assured Mota Singh of full cooperation and thus the foundation of the S. S. Mota Singh School was laid in 1916.

Eight classrooms, a hall, an office of the headmaster and a room on the roof were built while the school had a spacious lawn.

It must have a hostel as well but there are only its remains.

Its palatial building made it look like a royal mansion. All the budgetary expenses of the school were met by Mota Singh. He also provided free books and stationery to the deserving students.

Due to his extraordinary services in the field of education, the British government conferred the title of Sardar Sahib on Sardar Mota Singh.

Tragedy visited Mota Singh on May 31, 1935, when a powerful earthquake rocked Quetta.

Mota Singh’s eight close family members were in Quetta at that time and only one of them survived.

Then came the trauma of partition. In 1947, Mota Singh was in Iran when he got to know that he would not be able to visit his hometown Neelah and his beloved school.

After getting forced to migrate to India in the wake of partition, Mota Singh relocated to New Delhi where he wanted to build another school but could not do it in his lifetime.

He passed away on May 11, 1967. However, after his death, his sons established S. S. Mota Singh Model School in 1976 in Narang Colony, New Delhi.

“Now we have three schools in Delhi in the name of our beloved father while S. S. Mota Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament started in 1982 is an annual activity which is awaited by all schools in Delhi,” said Gurcharan Singh.

While back in Neelah, the school founded by Mota Singh is grappling with different problems.

“We do not have a science lab and have turned a classroom into the science lab,” said Khalid Saleem, the headmaster of the school.

He said currently the school had 450 students, including those from Rawalpindi and Attock villages.

“Not a single classroom was added to the existing building despite the passage of a century. Only ceilings of the building were changed in 1985,” he said.

“We have to take some classes under the open due to shortage of classrooms,” added a teacher.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2020