History of Punjab

The Indian state of Punjab was created in 1947, when the Partition of India split the former Raj province of Punjab between India and Pakistan. The mostly Muslim western part of the province became Pakistan’s Punjab Province; the mostly Sikh and Hindu eastern part became India’s Punjab state.

Many Hindus and Sikhs lived in the west, and many Muslims lived in the east, and so the partition saw many people displaced and much intercommunal violence. Several small Punjabi princely states, including Patiala, also became part of India. In 1950, two Punjab states were created; Punjab included of the former Raj province of Punjab, while the princely states were combined into a new state, the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU). Himachal Pradesh was created as a union territory from several princely states and Kangra District. In 1956, PEPSU was merged into Punjab state, and several northern districts of Punjab in the Himalaya were added to Himachal Pradesh.

The capital of undivided Punjab province, Lahore, ended up in Pakistan after partition, so a new capital for Indian Punjab state was built at Chandigarh. On November 1, 1966, the mostly Hindu southeastern half of Punjab became a separate state, Haryana. Chandigarh was on the border between the two states, and became a separate union territory which serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. Chandigarh was due to transfer to Punjab alone in 1986, but the transfer has been delayed.

During the 1970s, the Green Revolution brought increased economic prosperity for the Sikh community in Punjab. However, a growing polarisation between the Congress led Indian government and the main political part of the Sikhs, the Shiromani Akali Dal, began to widen during the 1970’s.

The hostility and bitterness arose from what was widely seen by the Sikhs as increasing centralization and discriminatory attitudes towards Punjab by the government of India. This prompted the Shiromani Akali Dal to unanimously pass the Anandpur Sahib Resolution which among other things called for granting maximum autonomy for the Punjab and other states and limiting the role and powers of the central government. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was rejected and dubbed as being of a hidden separatist agenda.

The situation in Punjab deteriorated rapidly after the Indian army’s assault on the Golden Temple in June, 1984. The army assault on the Golden Temple sparked off a full-fledged armed struggle against the Indian government by some Sikhs who demanded an independent state to be called Khalistan. The Indian government’s reaction to the movement for Khalistan was to declare Punjab as a disturbed area and to grant the security forces draconian powers in the hopes of crushing the militancy and support for an independent state by force.

By the early 1990s, after many years of violence across Punjab, the militant struggle for Khalistan lost much of the sympathy it had previously had from the Sikh masses and what little armed resistance remained was eliminated and forced underground.