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Concept
Punjabi Suba movement
Summary
The Punjabi Suba movement was a long-drawn political agitation, launched by Punjabi speaking people (mostly Sikhs) demanding the creation of autonomous Punjabi Suba, or Punjabi-speaking state, in the post-independence Indian state of East Punjab. The movement is defined as the forerunner of Khalistan movement.
Borrowing from the pre-partition demands for a Sikh country, this movement demanded a fundamental constitutional autonomous state within India. Led by the Akali Dal, it resulted in the formation of the state of Punjab. The state of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh were also created and some Pahari-majority parts of the East Punjab were also merged with Himachal Pradesh following the movement. The result of the movement failed to satisfy its leaders due to regions in Northern Haryana with Punjabi speaking and Sikh populations like Jind, Karnal, Ambala, Fatehabad and Sirsa being left out of Punjab. Many Sikh leaders saw this as falling short of the promise of a fully autonomous Sikh State that they felt was promised to them by Nehru and Gandhi in exchange for joining the Indian Union.
The reformist Sikh movements of the twentieth century had achieved, in large part, significant demarcation from the Hindus, asserting themselves as a distinct religious and political entity. Seeking a prolongment of these efforts, lest the religious apathy of the Sikhs would facilitate reversion to Hinduism, on the basis of shared religious postulates and cultural kinship, the Punjabi Suba movement became an intransigent aim among sections of the Sikh populace. The movement was primarily conceived to secure a distinct Sikh political status as a safeguard for what was to be a small minority after independence; as Sikh leader Master Tara Singh wrote in 1945, "there is not the least doubt that the Sikh religion will live only as long as the Sikh panth exists as an organized entity." Calls for the Punjabi Suba were present as far back as February 1947.
Official source
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