The Punjabi Suba movement was a political movement, launched by the Sikhs, demanding the creation of a Punjabi Suba, or Punjabi-speaking state, in the post-independence Indian state of Punjab. 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 Punjab were also merged with Himachal Pradesh following the movement. Borrowing from the pre-independence demands for a Sikh country, this movement demanded a fundamental constitutional autonomous state within India. The Sikhs also led efforts to preserve and have official status granted to the Punjabi language and Gurmukhi script. The result of the movement left many unresolved issues, including the allocation of the capital city of Chandigarh as a union territory, significant Punjabi-speaking areas left out of the state, and the distribution of river waters. Like the following Khalistan movement, which it foreran, the Punjabi Subah movement also stressed the right of control over territory and water, and grew from demands for a substantive federal political structure.
Partition era (1947-1949)
Conceptualization Calls for the Punjabi Suba had been heard as far back as February 1947, and the demand for a Punjabi Suba as a policy position was first presented in April 1948 by Master Tara Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a Sikh political party active mainly in Punjab. 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 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." The Akali Dal considered the continued existence of the Sikh religion as predicated on the community acting as a consolidated political unit, which could only be effective with its own territorial unit. Regarding Sikh political participation as an integral to Sikh theology itself, as the Khalsa had been established in 1699 to organize religious Sikhs into a political community, one of Guru Gobind Singh's signature contributions to Sikhism, the party received strong support from its base by offering this political organization rooted in religious tradition. The Cabinet Mission Plan had recognized Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs as the three main communities. Both Congress and the Muslim League had offered allurements to woo the Sikhs to their respective nations. On 5 August 1944, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in an attempt to retain all of Punjab, had assured the Sikhs of full rights and addressal of claims; he and Liaqat Ali Khan had offered a Sikh state within Pakistan with its own military establishment. Countering this, Vallabhbhai Patel had reaffirmed on 24 August 1945, the Congress Resolution of 1929 and promised on 5 April 1946: "Sikhistan issue will be considered in the Constituent Assembly after the transfer of power in the hands of the Indians." The Sikh leadership had opposed partition, but would opt for India based on the promises made by Hindu leaders like Nehru, Gandhi, and Patel in 1929, 1946 and 1947. In 1946, the Akali Dal had submitted a memorandum to the British government in which it asserted that Pakistan should not be conceded to the Muslims without at the same time conceding a sovereign Sikh nation as well, a sentiment echoed until independence by Akali leaders, who adopted a resolution in favour of one in March 1946, variously referred to as Sikhistan or Khalistan. When Sikh statehood was rejected by the commission, sections of the Sikh community instead began to advocate for a homeland within the Indian Union.
Independence Though it was commonly recognized at the time of independence that the Indian states were created not on a rational basis, but were the result of the exigencies of the progressive British conquest of the subcontinent, and Congress had been advocating the reorganization of provinces for over a quarter century prior, a commission that had been set up in 1948 by the Government of India, tasked with drawing up clean-cut states corresponding to demographic and linguistic boundaries, was not effective in the northern part of the country, as it reconsidered its position on the north. While states across the country were extensively redrawn on linguistic lines at the behest of linguistic groups, the only languages not considered for statehood were Punjabi, Sindhi and Urdu. Its jurisdiction was limited to the southern states, with northern India kept out of its purview, specifically to avoid problems like those of Punjab, in particular issues raised by the Sikhs.
Ambedkar In January 1948, Akali Dal's three-member delegation of leaders, Harcharan Singh Bajwa, Bhupinder Singh Mann, and Giani Kartar Singh, met the Minister of Law and Justice Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar suggested that the Akali delegation demand a Punjabi-speaking state, or Punjabi Suba, as a Sikh state, since the central government had declared a commitment to a linguistic basis for the reorganization of the states. Ambedkar was one of the earliest and strongest advocates of reorganizing Indian states on linguistic lines. In his 1955 book Thoughts on Linguistic States, he argued that linguistic reorganization would strengthen democracy, give cultural autonomy, and reduce domination by majority groups in composite provinces. This principle indirectly supported the Punjabi Suba demand, which was based on recognition of the Punjabi language and Sikh cultural identity. Ambedkar's suggestion to the Sikh delegation laid the foundation of the linguistically based Punjabi Suba.
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