Golden Temple Raid I

 

Punjabi Suba Chav

 

The Punjabi Suba Movement was a long-drawn political movement, started by the Sikhs, demanding the creation of a Punjabi-speaking Suba, or Punjabi state, in the post-independence Indian state of East Punjab. Led by the Akali Dal, its As a result the state of Punjab was formed, although the opposition of Punjabi Hindus led to its division into three parts. The states of Haryana and Some were doing hill- most parts of East Punjab were also merged with Himachal Pradesh after the movement.

 

 

Early years

 

Background

Slogans for Punjabi Suba were heard by February 1947, and the demand for Punjabi Suba as a policy designation was first presented in April 1948 by Shiromani Akali Dal Master Tara Singh, a Sikh. The political party is mainly active in Punjab. After the partition of Punjab, the Sikh population became the majority population in a contiguous, strategic land area for the first time in its history, with a new socio-political status that allowed the Akali Dal to be free, unencumbered, from the politics of the former Muslim majority. It focused on expressing the Sikh political needs, which had previously needed to be accommodated on its political platform, and provided the opportunity for Sikhs to express themselves with a degree of autonomy. Congress Party and Central Government through Akali Dal.

The movement was conceived after independence to secure a separate Sikh political status as a safeguard for being a small minority; As Tara Singh wrote in 1945, “There is not the least doubt that Sikhism will survive as long as the Sikh Panth exists as an organized entity.” The Akali Dal recognized the continued existence of Sikhism based on the community acting as a cohesive political unit, Which can be effective only with its regional unit. Sikh political participation is an integral to Sikh theology itself, as the Khalsa was founded in 1699 to organize religious Sikhs into a political community, one of Guru Gobind Singh’s signature contributions to Sikhism, He built his base by visiting this political organization rooted in a religious tradition with strong support from the party.

 

Date – 15 August 1947 – 1 November 1966

Location – East Punjab, India

Objective:  Creating a separate Punjab state for Punjabi-speaking people from the bilingual East Punjab state

Methods – Protest marches and demonstrations, hunger strikes, general strikes

The result – The formation of the states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh on 1 November 1966. Transfer of Hilly areas to Himachal Pradesh

 

In January 1948, a three-member delegation of Akali Dal leaders, Harcharan Singh Bajwa, Bhupinder Singh Mann, and Giani Kartar Singh, met the Minister of Law and Justice, Dr. BR Ambedkar. Ambedkar suggested that the Akali delegation seek a Punjabi-speaking state or Punjabi Suba (Punjabi Province) as a Sikh state, as the central government had announced a commitment to the linguistic basis for the reorganization of the states.

Although at the time of independence it was generally believed that the Indian states were not created on a rational basis, the result of the imperatives of the progressive British conquest of the subcontinent, and the Congress advocating for the reorganization of the provinces as a quarter-century earlier,  A commission set up by the Government of India in 1948, tasked with creating clean-cut states along demographic and linguistic boundaries, was not effective in the northern part of the country. Because it reconsidered its position in the North. While states across the country were largely redrawn at the behest of linguistic groups, only Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu were not granted statehood. Its jurisdiction was limited to the southern states, northern India was kept out of its purview, to avoid problems such as Punjab, especially on issues raised by the Sikhs.

 

Sikhs formed a majority at that time in seven districts north-west of the thirteen districts of eastern Punjab state: Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Firozpur, Ludhiana, and Ambala, along with Patiala and East Punjab States Union, or PEPSU, which formed In May 1948, one of the six Sikh princely states, with large populations in and around districts. Meanwhile, Hindus formed a majority in the remaining six, including the southeastern districts between PEPSU and Delhi (Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, and Gurgaon) and the eastern Kangra and Shimla divisions. Furthermore, while Sikhs made up 35% of the population of the province, the demographic pattern of urban and rural settlement was such that the Hindu population, whose majority was new, was largely grouped in urban areas. The seven Sikh-majority districts would be the suggested base of the Punjabi diocese, for which Tara Singh campaigned vigorously between late 1948 and early 1949.

The Akali Dal’s new platform garnered strong support among Sikhs, and the Akali Dal passed a resolution in October 1948 in favor of continuing the separate representation of Sikh minorities through a Punjabi subah, in order to avoid the aggressive communal mindset displayed by them. can be defended. Few in the majority if weightage or reservation for Sikhs in the Constituent Assembly was not possible, although a decision was adopted by the Congress in its annual session held in December 1948, “We are of the unequivocal opinion that there is no question of reform. Whatever the merits of such a proposal, it should be raised to the present-day boundaries of northern India.” The Minorities Committee, constituted by the Chief Minister of Punjab, made the case in the Assembly three weeks after the resolution was passed, although the Assembly was against proportional reservation as it was likely to give Sikhs more than their fair share of produce, Denying even the concessions given to the Hindu Scheduled Castes to the Sikh representatives of the Scheduled Castes; Sikh members of the Legislative Assembly would refuse to sign the draft constitution to come into force on 26 January 1950. Tara Singh himself was arrested on 20 February 1949 and imprisoned for several months, during which the movement continued under the leadership of Sardar. Hukam Singh, described the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state in the early 1950s, as both secular and democratic. The Akali Dal working committee passed a resolution in May favoring a state based on the Punjabi language and culture.

 

 

Sachar Formula

The Sachar Formula was introduced on 2 October 1949 under the government of Bhim Sen Sachar to curb the growing movement. Drafted by two Hindu members and two Sikh members of the Congress party, it proposed making Punjabi the medium of instruction in the “Punjabi region” region up to matriculation level, with Hindi being taught as a compulsory subject from the end. The “Punjabi region” included the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Firozpur, and Ludhiana, as well as Hisar district north of the Ghaggar river and the Ropar and Kharar tehsils of Ambala district. Its goal was bilingualism, but as it divided eastern Punjab into Punjabi and Hindi regions, it had the effect of intensifying the division between a majority Sikh in the north and a majority Hindu south. While many Akali leaders were initially receptive to the formula, Tara Singh was abandoned at this point in the hope that the formula would be accepted by the party, with Tara Singh turned it down, reminding the Congress of its commitment to linguistic states, and that a Punjabi-speaking region had already been delimited for the purposes of the Sachar formula. The Akali Dal would hold its first major protest in August 1950.

While earlier, in June 1948, both Punjabi and Hindi had been made the official media of educational instruction, in February 1949 the Municipal Committee of Jalandhar resolved to make Devanagari Hindi the sole media in its schools, and the Panjab University Senate approved the use of Punjabi. refused to use. any script; Both were strongholds of the Arya Samaj, which, supported by its Jana Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha allies, never accepted the formula or implemented it in its schools. To reduce the linguistic base of the demand, the Arya Samaj launched a newspaper campaign to encourage Hindus in the Punjabi-speaking region to abandon Punjabi altogether and choose Hindi in the census that began in early 1951. did; Ten years later in the 1961 Census this denial of Punjabi would be repeated, and even after the movement in the 1971 Census, half of the demography would continue to choose Hindi. After unsuccessful attempts to assimilate the Sikhs, and with the slogan “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan”, Hindu organizations chose to reject the language so that Sikhs would be considered a linguistic minority as well as a religious minority, and thus prevent the formation of a state that would be Sikh-majority. In response, the Akali Dal mobilized the Sikhs of the area. The contest gave rise to several conflicts in Punjab, and heated up electoral campaigns by the Akali Dal and Congress by 1952; The Congress would go on to win the election, but by forming and leading an alliance with other opposition parties called the United Front, The Akali Dal would go on to form India’s first non-Congress government in April 1952.

In August of that year, the Akali Dal would position itself as the leading representative of Sikh rights, broadcasting its victory in subsequent annual elections and as a referendum to the party’s pro-Congress president for the Punjabi diocese. will remove Sikh. The merger of PEPSU, which was referred to as the “Sikh Motherland” by Sardar Patel in July 1948, into the Punjabi-speaking region was also advocated by Tara Singh in December to ensure Sikh regional unity. Proposed province. The Akali Dal criticized the Congress for its handling of the PEPSU with respect to the designated Punjabi-speaking area, although the Congress’s announcement of another State Reorganization Commission on 27 December 1953 downplayed allegations of partition, and the Congress retained control of the PEPSU elections. kept. January 1954.

 

1955 Golden Temple Raid

 

A flashpoint occurred during the movement on 4 July 1955, when a group led by Fateh Singh, who had joined the movement, came from Ganganagar a few days earlier to take part in the protest movement. Government police forces came upon the temple premises and heavyhandedly took into custody the entire group along with the heads of the Granthis of the Akal Takht and Golden Temple, volunteer protesters, and even the cooks of the temple langar. The offices of Guru Ram Das Sarai and Shiromani Akali Dal were also raided, And lathis and tear gas, and shells were used to disperse the protesters gathered on the periphery of the temple, causing damage to the temple periphery and the lake, or pool. , The government stopped volunteers on their way to the Golden Temple, and soldiers were ordered to march through the bazaars and the streets around the site. More than 200 protesters were killed, thousands were arrested, and thousands were injured, including women and children. The reaction to the incident, contrary to the government’s intention, gave further impetus to the movement and proved to be so destabilizing that the Sachar-led government used the pretext of “victorious withdrawal from the peace mission” on 12 July. Appealing for peace, and Sachar himself apologizing at the Akal Takht, it also announced the release of Akali prisoners in installments, which proved slow to implement; Tara Singh was released on 8 September, And the last Akalis were not released till 18 October. In addition, Inderjit Singh, a 10-year-old boy from Moga, who was visiting relatives in Karnal, was beaten to death with sticks, killed, and thrown into an irrigation well by policemen on 21 September 1955 for raising slogans.

 

 

Amritsar Convention

The States Reorganization Committee submitted its report to the Government of India on 10 September 1955, where it was considered and published on 10 October. The commission recommended the integration of PEPSU and Himachal Pradesh with Punjab, which was rejected by the Akali Dal a day after the report was released. Tara Singh took this opportunity to demonstrate Sikh unity and resolve, convening a representative conference of Sikhs from all parties and organizations in Amritsar on 16 October 1955; About 1,300 invitees took part.

The Amritsar Conference strongly rejected the Commission’s proposal, rejecting it for prejudice against Sikh claims, as the Commission’s recommendation was entirely in line with the most extreme elements opposed to the Punjabi Suba, and even The Sachar proposal, which was never implemented. was destroyed by those elements. The resolution of the Amritsar Convention states, “This conference of Sikhs observes with alarm and great displeasure the complete and draconian resolution of the States Reorganization Commission of a just and just demand for a Punjabi speaking state.” The resolution called upon the government to create a Punjabi Suba not only in the interest of the Sikhs but also in the interest of the Hindi-speaking people of East Punjab; Tara Singh received authorization from the Amritsar Convention to “take appropriate steps to convey the thoughts and feelings of the Sikh community to the Government of India and to urge them to perform their duty towards the Sikhs”; His first action was to arrange a conciliation meeting with the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had previously been an ardent supporter of linguistic states, and was cited on 9 January 1930. The version of the Lahore Bulletin during the freedom struggle that “the brave Sikhs of Punjab deserve special consideration. I see nothing wrong in a region established in the north of India, where Sikhs can also experience the radiance of freedom,” However later the British left after the Sikhs saying that “the situation had changed now.” He also strongly rejected the formation of Punjabi-speaking areas in a separate state when Lord Mountbatten had forwarded suggestions from Baldev Singh and Giani Kartar Singh to them just before the partition and population transfer. The meeting was facilitated by former cabinet minister Baldev Singh, who presented Nehru with correspondence between Sikh leaders and the Muslim League, reminding him that the Sikhs had rejected the League’s proposals with India. Baldev Singh acted as a mediator between the Akali leaders and the government in their meetings.

 

 

Government talks

 

The first meeting took place in Delhi on 24 October 1955 between Nehru and his two senior cabinet colleagues, the government represented by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, and the Sikhs represented by Master Tara Singh, who would present the inauguration. Bayan, Bhai Jodh Singh, members of the prominent Khalsa Diwan, who would explore the problem of language, Giani Kartar Singh and Sardar Hukam Singh, who were to meet the political points, and Sardar Gyan Singh Rarewala; The second meeting took place on 23 November of the same year. Further meetings in December were put on hold due to the announcement of a general session of the Congress Party to be held in Amritsar in February 1956; The Shiromani Akali Dal’s announcement of its Parallel Congress, a five-hour-long systematic procession that was dwarfed in size by the Congress convention, provided another display of Sikh solidarity, with Sikhs garnering a large following. The whole of Punjab and beyond, with conservative estimates of more than 100,000 marchers. Nehru’s biographer and contemporary observer Michael Brecher estimated that this figure would more than double, with participants old and young, men and women, many of whom are wearing the traditional Akali symbols of the sabers and blue turbans, and stop the processions. – Intermittent music accompanied by slogans of “Punjabi Suba Zindabad” (“Long live a Punjabi state”) and “Master Tara Singh Zindabad”. The success of the Akali March helped restart talks with the government. Negotiations halted again until 26 February 1956 when the Sikh delegation felt a lack of action during the meetings, but resumed after Joginder Singh, a Sikh MP from Uttar Pradesh, persuaded the Sikhs to re-engage in talks.

 

 

Build

In 1963, the Sikhs and Punjab contributed enormous amounts of money to the 1962 war effort against China, over 20 million rupees to the Defense Fund, including 50,000 from Fateh Singh directly to Nehru and Nehru by weight. Double gold included. Encouraged by the Akalis, who had earlier attempted to portray anti-Punjabi groups in Punjab as anti-national.

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 ended 21 days later with a ceasefire on 22 September, with both sides claiming victory. More displays of patriotism prompted the Indian government, which had a leadership after Nehru’s death in 1964 that was more open to considering regional demands, to revisit the Punjabi Suba issue in light of the contribution of Sikhs to the war effort. To consider, which were previously viewed with distrust and apprehension by the government. The tales of bravery and patriotism of the Sikhs during the war were already circulating, and on 6 September the Union Home Minister, Gulzarilal Nanda, made a statement in the Lok Sabha that “the whole question of the formation of the Punjabi-state should be taken up with an open mind”. Can be tested again.” Later on the 23rd, he announced the formation of a Cabinet Committee to take the matter forward, with the hope that “the efforts of this Cabinet Committee and the Parliamentary Committee would lead to a satisfactory solution. The Punjab Congress Committee also raised the issue.” But a long debate, In which Zail Singh, General Mohan Singh, and Narayan Singh Shahbazpuri gave their full support. In Parliament, the Home Minister sent a list of nominees from the Rajya Sabha to the Speaker and a list of nominees from the Lok Sabha to the Speaker, Sardar Hukam Singh, who announced the final 22-member committee representing all sections. of the House including representatives of the Akali Dal, Congress, Jana Sangh, Swatantra Party, Communists, and Independents.

The period for receiving memoranda from various parties and individuals was fixed from October to November 5, 1965. The initial discussion took place from 26 November to 25 December 1965. On 10 January 1966, the general secretary of the SGPC was Laxman Singh Gill and the executive member was Rawal. Singh met the committee and presented the case for a Punjabi-speaking state. On 27th, Giani Kartar Singh and Harcharan Singh Brar appeared in the Punjab Legislature on behalf of Congress, they also argued in favor of it. Out of the memorandum submitted to the committee, about 2200 supported the Punjabi Suba and 903 opposed it. Hukam Singh was thus able to get stringent support from the assembled committee for its construction. On 9 March 1966, 3 Congressmen, including an old aide of Bhagat Singh, were burnt alive, and strikes, arson, and murders took place in Panipat, in reaction to the committee’s recommendation to the central government of a state with Punjab as the official language. The Jana Sangh is generally believed to have been composed of, Who still opposed the Punjabi Suba.

The report of the Parliamentary Committee was submitted on 15 March 1966; The Congress Working Committee on the 6th accepted a resolution recommending the formation of a Punjabi-speaking state from the then East Punjab State to the Government. The report was made public on 18 March, and the demand was accepted on 23 April, with a commission appointed on 17 April to demarcate the new states of Punjab and Haryana and transfer some areas to Himachal Pradesh. The Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 was passed in the Lok Sabha on 18 September, and on 1 November 1966, a Punjabi-speaking state became a reality.

 

 

Execution

The Akali Dal raised the issue with the imagined form of the state of Punjab as it exists at present. The Akali Dal opposed the implementation of the Punjab Reorganization Act on 1 November 1966 and was opposed by the Akali leaders. Several months before its inauguration, Fateh Singh expressed dissatisfaction over several issues of contention, including the fact that Punjabi-speaking areas were excluded from the new state and Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were given (as a result of the false) 1961 census. linguistic description, Chandigarh was being turned into a union territory, the level of autonomy of the states, and power and irrigation projects were to be taken over by the central government, instead of the state retaining control over them.

Despite the movement’s success in the creation of the state of Punjab, its implementation left behind several unresolved issues, including the allocation of the capital city Chandigarh, which is the only state capital in the country to be shared with another. The state, the adjustment of some of the territorial claims of Punjab, has excluded several large Punjabi-speaking areas from the allotted state, and the distribution of river waters remains unresolved. To address this, the Akali Dal would draft the Anandpur Sahib Resolution in the 1970s, and would relaunch the movement in 1982 as the Dharma Yudh Morcha; By 1983, more than 40,000 Akali protesters had been arrested, with thousands in prison for months and some years in prison. These issues have figured prominently in Punjab politics and remain a point of contention between the state and the central government.