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Punjab politics, 1936-39: The Start of Provincial Politics
Although this book is a mere compilation of fortnightly letters addressed by the Punjab Governor to the Viceroy, and the contribution of editor limited to an introduction and brief chapter notes, it is, nonetheless, fascinating. For the amateur historian for whom access to the archives is difficult, it is particularly invaluable. But even from the casual reader, the mere dilettante, the book is evocative. Names dimly remembered from Grandparents’ tales suddenly acquire life and substance. They rise, phantom-like, shaking off the dust of ages, and we look at them from a hitherto inaccessible viewpoint — that of their imperial masters. The figures of Sir Sikander looms large in this correspondence. He was the premier, and very obviously a British favourite. The governor’s observations about him carry the flavour of a school headmaster’s report on the performance of a favourite prefect or house-captain. One is reminded of Edward Said’s sarcasms in Orientalism. Sir Sikander and his ministers — whether Sir Sunder Singh, Sir Chhotu Ram or Khizar (not yet a Knight, though he soon would be) — were all very much in tutelle, under constant surveillance, with his Excellency occasionally nudging them along the desired course with a helpful suggestion or a pointed observation. The Unionist Party is sometimes recalled today as a hope that failed, as the bulwark that for long kept the Muslim League at bay, and which might, with a little more luck, have averted the Partition of the state and even Pakistan itself. But from the letters it is clear that the British themselves were under no illusion that the "economic interests" which the party professed to represent could, in the long run, be an effective counter to the frankly communal programme of the Muslim League. The party was faction ridden, and notwithstanding Chhotu Ram, "with one or two exceptions... entirely Muslim in its composition". When the chips were down, it faded away. As the Governor observed, "it was unlikely that many Sikhs would formally join the party although some may support a Coalition Ministry even if the Unionist Party is the predominant partner." Surprisingly, the Indian National Congress was nowhere on the scene in 1936-39. After the Unionists came the National Reform Party led by one Raja Narendra Nath and Sir Gokul Chand Narang. Sir Sunder Singh was a leader of the Khalsa Diwan Party while the principal Muslim party was the Ahrar party. But in a few years all would change. In the elections of 1945-46 the Muslim League emerged as the largest single party, the Congress came second while the Unionists were last. Khizar — now Sir Khizar, his father, Sir Umar having died by now — indeed became premier with Congress and Akali support, but such was the Muslim reaction that after the bloodbath of Partition he had to flee to England where he would ultimately die in exile. None of the descendants of any of the other stalwarts of the old Unionist government survived in public life after Partition. The British tried to create a hereditary landed gentry which, they hoped, would be the equivalent of the county families of England, playing a conservative and stabilising role in politics. It was a vain hope. There was more than a whiff of collaboration about them, and puppets are effective only as long as the puppeteer is there. The moment he weakens the puppets fall — a lesson which the Americans have yet to learn in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prithvi Singh Azad may well have been, in the words of Sir Henry Craik, "a stupid and pious humbug", but he like Master Tara Singh, would outlast the others. |
THE
Punjab of the 1930s is, for most of us today, a lost world. Those were
truly olden times; too much has changed since then. Names like those of
Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, Khizar, Gokul Chand Narang and Sunder Singh
Majithia seem infinitely remote today. Most, in spite of their grand
titles and estates, have faded from public memory. Only Sir Chhotu Ram
lives on, an iconic figure, still idolised by the Haryana peasantry.
Unlike the others he was a self-made man; no tailor made him.