Barrister Vallabhbhai Patel earned the title of Sardar in April 1928 during the Bardoli Satyagraha and it was merely a coincidence that he was to work in close liaison with the real Sardars i.e. Sikhs in the days to come. When Mahatma Gandhi’s close associate C. Rajgopalachari’s formula saw the light of the day in 1944, the Sikhs were furious. “Considering the position occupied by these two men in Congress circles, the Sikhs assumed that Congress had conceded Pakistan,” records Khushawant Singh in “A History of the Sikhs”, adding, “The Sikhs reacted violently to the Rajgopalachari-Gandhi acquiescence. At a meeting (20 August 1944) at Amritsar attended by leaders of all Sikh parties, speeches were made strongly criticizing Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership ( ‘Let us give up now the practice of looking up to Mr. Gandhi for protection of our interests’-Gyani Kartar Singh). Master Tara Singh stated for the first time that the Sikhs were a separate nation.”
Sardar Patel as a Home Member in the Congress-Muslim League Provisional Government and as the Deputy Prime Minister with the charge of Home, Information and Broadcasting and the States Department after Independence, with active support from his Sikh colleague and the Defence Minister, Sardar Baldev Singh and other Sikh leaders, could evolve the present day Punjab after the Partition. Following the partition, the Eastern Punjab became the part of free India. The princely States in East Punjab were six in number. Four of them, namely Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Faridkot were Sikh States. These four Sikh States were under the suzerainty of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but by the Treaty of Amritsar of 1809, they came under British protection. The remaining two States were Kapurthala and Malerkotla.
“Before partition the Sikhs constituted the majority community in Faridkot; the Muslims in Kapurthala, and the Hindus in Jind. In Patiala, the Sikhs formed, according to the census of 1941, 47.3 per cent of the total population. The partition and the consequent two-way migration materially affected the population ratio in these States. In Patiala, especially, there was a rise in the ratio of Sikhs because of the large influx into the State of refugees belonging to that community,” according to V. P. Menon in his book “Integration of the Indian States”.
Khushwant Singh describes the chronology of the formation of the East Punjab government with a temporary capital at Simla to the present day Punjab having the newly built capital at Chandigarh. Sir Chandu Lal Trivedi was appointed the Governor and Gopi Chand Bhargav was elected as the Chief Minister of the East Punjab. In 1948, Sikh States of Punjab, along with Malerkotla and Nalagarh were merged to form the Patiala and the East Punjab States Union(PEPSU) with Maharaja Yadvendra Singh, the father of the present-day Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh, as Rajpramukh and Gyan Singh Rarewala as the Chief Minister. In PEPSU, the Sikhs formed a majority of the population. Later, in 1966, the three states were carved out from the Punjab areas i.e. Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
The correspondence between the Maharaja of Patiala, who was made the Rajpramukh, and Sardar Patel speaks of the love and loyalty of the Sardar for the Sikh community too. Even when Sardar Tara Singh was running campaign for a separate Punjab Suba, the Maharaja and Sardar Baldev Singh remained loyal to India. Sardar Patel always honoured the sacrifice given by the Sikhs and favoured an honourable place to the Sikhs as a community. The Maharaja of Patiala in a letter dated 5 September 1947 to Sardar Patel stressed on “reassuring them some active steps should be taken and provisions incorporated in the new Constitution which would guarantee that the rightful place, which the Sikh community deserves in the polity of India, will not be denied to them”.
The Sardar replies him on 23 September 1947 to convey: “I need not present to you or for that matter to any Sikh my credentials of friendship and loyalty to their cause…I am happy to say that in the actual day-to-day working of Government in East Punjab both Dr. Gopichand Bhargav (CM) and Sardar Swaran Singh (Defence Minister) are acting as one man and are not taking any decision without consulting each other…for the future wellbeing of both Sikhs and Hindus in their home province of East Punjab…I fully appreciate the reasons for your stressing the fact that the Sikhs should be assured of their rightful place in the body politic, but I am sure you will concede that there is no need for an assurance where a matter is a settled fact.”
Even Sardar Baldev Singh in his letter dated 29 December 1948 to Sardar Patel notes: “There is a deep-laid conviction in the mind of Sikhs that you are their best friend and of this you have given generous proof on several occasions…I have heard it said by some people that Master Tara Singh is supported by me in his present attitude. Nobody knows my views and beliefs better than yourself.” Though Sardar Baldev Singh was a closed confident of Patel right from his operations on J & K , the Sardar does do certain plain talking with him in his communication on 30 December 1948.
The partition of India followed bloodshed, killings and uprooting of millions of people from both the sides. Thousands of refugees from Pakistan were pouring into the streets of Delhi bringing tales of misery, death and rape which incited the local Hindus and Sikhs to take up arms against their Muslim brothers of Delhi. Patel had thundered:“I will not tolerate Delhi becoming another Lahore.” When he went to Amritsar on 30 September 1947, he advised the Sikh leaders: “Break the vicious circle of attacks and retaliation at least for a week. And if Pakistan did not respond in kind, India would take them to task.”
Patel favoured the Constitutional provisions for reservations for the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes, but when the same proposals were put forward for the lower caste Sikhs, he made no hesitation to accept them. He told the Constituent Assembly on 26 May 1949: “I will ask the Sikhs to take control of the country and rule. They may be able to rule because they have got the capacity, they have got the resources and they have got the courage. In any field, either in agriculture, in engineering or in the army, in any walk of life you have proved your mettle. Why do you being to think low of yourself?” Sardar Patel never forgot to present himself as the friend of Sikhs even in the Constituent Assembly.
Next Column: The Size of West Pakistan on 15 August 1947!
(The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail: [email protected] )
Photo-lines
1. Gandhiji with Rajagopalachari
2. Master Tara Singh, Punjab Premier Sir Khizar Hayat Khan and M.A. Jinha
3.The Members of the Interim Government Nehru, Sardar Patel, Sardar Baldev Singh and others with Mountbatten and Jinnah.
4.Capt.Amarinder Singh, the present Chief Minister of Punjab
