Master Tara Singh opposed Punjab’s division

IN the article ‘Kairon gave precedence to region over religion’ (The Tribune, April 11),

M Rajivlochan has built the argument that Master Tara Singh raised a demand for Khalistan before the Partition and that the narrative continues with Amritpal Singh today.

This has created a twisted narrative against Master Tara Singh in particular and Sikhs in general. In pre-Partition Punjab, Sikhs were 13 per cent of the total population, a minority in their homeland. They were a minority even during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

There is no doubt that Master Tara Singh was an unapologetic Sikh who was worried for the Sikhs when Punjab was being viewed through a communal lens. His politics was aimed at ensuring that the Sikh community did not get dominated by Hindus and Muslims. He succeeded in bringing Sikhs to the British negotiating table as the third community in Punjab.

The people responsible for the partition of Punjab, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, were not Punjabis and they did not have the interests of Punjabis at heart. The composite culture of Punjab was communalised by them. Master Tara Singh, a Punjabi, was opposed to the break-up of Punjab, well understanding how it would impact Punjabis.

During the freedom struggle, the Sikh stand was evident from the resolutions passed in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) General House, a body that was constituted at the culmination of a mass Sikh movement against the British Government.

The SGPC General House, in its meeting on February 12, 1940, under the presidentship of Master Tara Singh, “strongly opposed the Pakistan scheme proposed by the Muslim League to divide Hindustan into Hindu and Muslim areas, and expected Muslim members in the Punjab ministry to disassociate themselves from the Muslim League, else the Sikh ministers from the party (Akali Dal) would disassociate themselves from the coalition government.”

In the SGPC House meeting on February 27, 1943, a resolution was passed that “to ensure safety and security in practising Sikh dharam, it is important to constitute a state in which maximum number of Sikhs should reside and in this state, Sikhs, Hindus or Muslims, none of the communities should be in majority. It reiterated its opinion that the creation of Pakistan will be extremely damaging.”

On October 26, 1945, it was noted that the then Governor-General of India, Lord Archibald Wavell, had announced the Constituent Assembly after the state Assembly elections; Sir Stafford Cripps, minister of the Labour Party, had indicated acceptance of the demand for Pakistan; and the Muslim League had announced to contest elections on the Pakistan issue.

On March 9, 1946, the SGPC passed a resolution seeking a Sikh state in the changed political circumstances. As late as March 3, 1947, Master Tara Singh raised the slogan of ‘Pakistan murdabad’ outside the Punjab Assembly in Lahore.

The geopolitics of the post-World War II era was an important trigger for the division of Punjab. The Soviet Union had emerged as a superpower; the British became financially bankrupt and lost power. They had to free many colonies they ruled. They left India in a hurry; in order to block Kremlin’s access to the Karachi port, they gave it to Pakistan. On May 12, 1947, Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, accompanied by senior Generals and diplomats, met the then UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee. They claimed that India was primarily a socialist country; if a religion-based Pakistan was not established, Kremlin’s influence would reach the Indian Ocean, they argued. On June 3, 1947, Viceroy Louis Mountbatten announced the Partition of India on the basis of religion.

A historian should take into account what kind of motivation comes from religion. While referring to the history of the West, one has to understand that Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — advocate their religion as the ‘only way’. However, eastern religions such as Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism accept differences and see religion as a way of life.

After Independence, the states were to be reorganised on a linguistic basis. Master Tara Singh and the Akali Dal had to agitate to get the same rule applied to Punjab, and Punjabi recognised as the official language of the state. But a section of the Arya Samajis gave it a communal colour and called it a veiled demand for a Sikh state.

It was during the agitation against the ban on the slogan ‘Punjabi Suba zindabad’ that Chief Minister Bhim Sen Sachar sent the police into the Golden Temple in July 1955 on the advice of Partap Singh Kairon, who was then a minister in his Cabinet. A week later, the ban on the slogan was withdrawn. Kairon then complained against Sachar, terming him a weak administrator. Sachar apologised to the Sikhs at Akal Takht for sending cops into the Golden Temple and later resigned. Arya Samajis gave a call to Punjabi Hindus to register their mother tongue as Hindi in the 1951 and 1961 Census.

Kairon started his political career as a personal assistant to Master Tara Singh in the 1930s, became an Akali MLA in the Constituent Assembly and let loose repression on the Akalis as the Congress Chief Minister of Punjab in the 1960s.

In the 1980s, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale did not raise a demand for Khalistan; it was attributed to him by a narrative set by the Congress government. He supported the Akali demand on the Anandpur Sahib resolution, which sought to redefine Centre-state relations through the grant of more powers to all states, not just Punjab. Bhindranwale did not oppose Khalistan either. A famous statement attributed to him is “the day Indian Army enters Darbar Sahib it will be the first step to Khalistan.”

Khalistan found a home in Sikh hearts when the Government of India headed by Indira Gandhi attacked the Golden Temple in June 1984. How this narrative was further used by the Congress for political gains is amply revealed by former senior bureaucrats — in service at that time — in their books being published now.

Rajivlochan sees Khalistan as an exclusively Sikh state. However, Sikh philosophy doesn’t endorse such a state because every Sikh prayer ends with ‘Nanak naam chardi kala, tere bhane sarbat da bhala’ (welfare of all beings). Other communities will not be pushed out. Any attempt to push Sikhs to the wall by calling them Khalistanis in a derogatory way will invite a reaction.