Khalistan: How the Dream was shattered in 1947? - Part 1

Introduction: The present paper is based on four different studies carried out by Historians of India, Pakistan and United Kingdom (University of Edinburg, Scotland). It is just a mere coincidence that they belong to different Faiths: Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian. I don't find any bias in their studies based on their religions except in case of Thesis presented by Akhtar Hussain Sandhu, a Pakistani historian, who squarely blames the Sikh leadership for their failure to gain an independent Sikh state because of its lackadaisical attitude towards the Punjab Partition of 1947. They did not bother to prepare a Master Plan for achieving Sikh state which was their birth right as members of the Sikh nation with its moorings in Sikh History and culture over the period of last 500 years since the birth of Guru Nanak. Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa in 1699 to rule and protect the indefensible people on this earth.

The Sikhs were sovereign power and rulers of Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh for half a century (1799-1849). Punjab was the last province to be merged in British India. After the merger, the Sikhs served the British empire as the loyal citizens fighting against the Germans during the World Wars and suffering casualties in millions. However, they failed miserably to get an independent homeland, call it "Sikhistan or more popularly, Khalistan" because of the follies of their leaders. Many Scholars have studied the Partition of Punjab on the eve of British departure from the Indian sub-continent during 1947 and this process continues as there are some gaps to be investigated in view of Partition Documents released in Britain after 50 years of Indian independence.

Professor Puran Singh was the first Sikh intellectual who felt concerned about the future of Sikhs in India. I have come across a long letter of 27 pages written by Prof. Puran Singh to John Simon of Simon Commission on 21st October, 1928. Puran Singh laments about the fate of Sikhs in free India. His predictions about Indian Democracy, Self Government and Sikh issues are proverbial. He writes: "Self Government in India means Government by the very few cunning and aggressive people who, once put in possession of the authority, would twist all letters of law and constitutions to their individual wills and make them work on the communal or the so called religious bias".

His views on Indian Constitution and Democracy are noteworthy: "The truly Democratic Constitution should not allow one community to get into power and work mischief through the democratic institutions to crush the other. In the grant of your New Constitution, the right of all people should be equal in the eye of law. No Democracy can be made to work equitably in India".

Puran Singh knew that if the principle of universal adult suffrage is going to be introduced in Indian Democracy, the Sikhs will be loser because of their lower numbers. So he was worried about the fate of Sikhs in democratic India. He writes: "The Nehru Committee has ignored the Sikh because he is not as many in numbers as the Muslim. But conquerors like Ahmad Shah acknowledged the Sikhs as the only entity in the Punjab. If that principle is granted why should not the Central Punjab be made into a Sikh Province?" He argues succinctly to support his viewpoint: "Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Punjab was never a Muslim province but a Sikh province. The Muslim ministers of the Maharaja remained faithful to the last, while the Hindu and the Brahmin ministers proved traitors".

Akhtar Hussain Sandhu [1] concludes in his paper "Sikh Failure on the Partition of Punjab in 1947": "The All-India Muslim League achieved Pakistan, the Indian National Congress secured India but the Shiromani Akali Dal got nothing on the eve of the British departure in 1947 although the Sikh community had collaborated closely with the colonial power. The demand of the Sikh community for a separate Sikh state and accession of more territories to this state came to naught as a consequence of partition of Indian subcontinent. The decision of joining India by the Akali leadership enslaved this community to a mammoth majority in which they were only one per cent."

Asia Samachar has published my articles (https://asiasamachar.com/tag/hardevsingh-virk/), "Failure of Sikhs to gain an Independent State during Partition of India"; "The Sikhs and the Partition of Punjab - Conclusions from Crowe's MA History Thesis"; "Root Cause of the Sikh Problem: The Partition of India (1947)"; and "The Sikh State: Reasons For Its Failure" during 1920-21. This article is the compendium of all four articles in the series on Punjab Partition in 1947 and the Sikh failure.

I am a Nuclear and Radiation Physicist by training but Sikh History had great fascination for me in School & College days. It has been a passion in my life to explore the Sikh History and its implications for the survival of the Sikh nation in the Indian sub-continent. This spark was ignited by the ballad singers (Dhadis) in Punjab and my earliest motivation came from Dhadi Sohan Singh Seetal's recital of "Sikh Raj kiven gia" (How the Sikh Kingdom was Lost).

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