The Master and the Maharajas: The Sikh Princes and the East Punjab Massacres of 1947

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 657-704

  Copland, Ian ^a  

^a MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

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EID: 85008548477     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: 14698099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X02003050     Document Type: Article

References (126)

1. e.g., Swarna Aiyer, ‘ “August Anarchy”: The Partition Massacres in Punjab, 1947’, in D. A. Low and Howard Brasted (eds), Freedom, Trauma, Continuities: Northern India and Independence (New Delhi, 1998), pp. 15-38; Urvashi Butalia, ‘Community, State and Gender: On Women's Agency during Partition’, in Economic and Political Weekly, XXVIII (17), 24 Apr. 1993, pp. 12-24; Suranjan Das, Communal Riots in Bengal, 1905-1947 (Delhi, 1991); Vinita Damodaran, ‘Bihar in the 1940s: Communities, Riots and the State’, in Low and Brasted, pp. 175-98; Mushirul Hasan, ‘Partition: The Human Cost’, in History Today, 47 (9), 1997, pp. 47-53; Mushirul Hasan (ed.), India Partitioned: The Other Face of Freedom, 2 vols (New Delhi, 1995), esp. vol. 1, pp. 15-42; Andrew J. Major, ‘ “The Chief Sufferers”: Abduction of Women during the Partition of the Punjab’, in Low and Brasted, pp. 57-72; Shail Mayaram, ‘Speech, Silence and the Making of Partition Violence in Mewat’, in Shahid Amin and Dipesh Chakrabarty (eds), Subaltern Studies IX: Writings on South Asian History and Society (New Delhi, 1996), pp. 126-64; Rita Menon and Ramla Bhasin, Borders and Boundaries: Women in India's Partition (New Brunswick, N.J., 1998).
2. Gov. of West Punjab to M. A. Jinnah, 5 Sept. 1947, quoted in Harbans Singh, The Heritage of the Sikhs (Bombay, 1964), p. 206.
3. David Gilmartin, ‘Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian History: In Search of a Narrative’, in Journal of Asian Studies, 57 (4), 1998, p. 1086.
4. The latter view underpins the discussion in Harbans Singh, Heritage, p. 196. ‘The Sikhs’ concern was to save for India and for themselves as much of the Punjab as they could from going into the Muslim state of Pakistan’. In other words, the Sikhs’ actions were reactive not pre-emptive. The former view was first expounded in the memoir of another British observer of these events, Bahawalpur Revenue Minister (Sir) Penderel Moon. Moon wrote: the ‘basic objective of Sikh policy could only be realised by the forcible expulsion of Muslims from East Punjab, for only so could accommodation be found on the Indian side for the two million Sikhs who would otherwise be left in Pakistan. So in falling upon the Muslims in East Punjab… in August 1947 the Sikhs were not only gratifying their desire for revenge but also helping to secure a more rational objective-the integral survival of the Sikh community’. Divide and Quit (London, 1961), pp. 279-80. The intentionalist view, not surprisingly, is also popular with Pakistani historians. See, e.g., Syed Nur Ahmed, From Martial Law to Martial Law: Politics in the Punjab, 1919-1958 (ed. Craig Baxter, trans. Mahmud Ali, Boulder, 1985), p. 253.
5. Now and again one finds references in the literature to happenings in the Punjab states, but they are rarely distinguished as such or differentiated from occurrences elsewhere. See, e.g., Major, ‘Chief Sufferers’, p. 59. Bahawalpur, although part of the Punjab States Agency, was geographically linked to Sind rather than the Punjab; consequently I have chosen to exclude it from the present analysis, even though it too was the scene of considerable bloodshed in 1947.
6. See, e.g., Patiala Ijlas-i-Khas order of 6 Aug. 1925, P[unjab] S[tate] A[rchives], Patiala, Dharam Arth, 380/12.
7. Ian Copland, The Princes of India in the End-Game of Empire, 1917-1947 (Cambridge, 1997), p. 278.
8. Barbara N. Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras: Patiala and the Sikh Community’, in Robin Jeffrey (ed.), People, Princes and Paramount Power: Society and Politics in the Indian Princely States (Delhi, 1978), pp. 177-9, 182-3. Collectively the Sikh states had the right to nominate 32 out of the 58 members of the Khalsa College Council. Patiala controlled the lion's share, with eleven places in its gift. When the College was reorganized along university lines in the early 1920s, the Maharaja of Patiala was elected its first chancellor.
9. Census of India 1941, vol. VI, table XIII, pp. 42-5.
10. Khalsa, 6 Oct. 1946, in [Nehru Memorial Museum and Library], A[ll] I[ndia] S[tates] P[eoples] C[onference], 86, part II, of 1945-8.
11. The first two items were bequested by the Guru to the common ancestor of the Nabha, Patiala and Jind families, a Jat landholder named Phul, as a reward for Phul sheltering him, toward the end of the seventeenth century, from searching Mughal troops. The comb was acquired later. The hukunmama contained the blessing, tera ghar so mera ghar, ‘your house is my house’. It may have dated from a later encounter between Gobind Singh and Phul's second son, Rama, in 1696. Note encl. in Administrator, Nabha to Agent-to-the-Governor-General, Punjab States, 8 Sept. 1923, N[ational] A[rchives of] I[ndia], Home (Pol.), 401 of 1924; and Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, p. 178.
12. e.g. note by D. Petrie, C.I.D. Government of India, dated 13 Mar. 1912, cited in Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, p. 180.
13. N. Gerald Barrier, ‘The Singh Sabhas and the Evolution of Modern Sikhism, 1875-1925’, in Robert G. Baird, Religion in Modern India (New Delhi, 1995), p. 193.
14. Major A. E. Barstow, The Sikhs: An Ethnology (New Delhi, 1985, first published 1928), pp. 35-52. J. S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India II.3) (Cambridge, 1990), p. 162, claims that 4,000 Akalis died and 30,000 went to jail in the course of the Gurudwara agitation.
15. Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (Delhi, 1997), p. 296.
16. Note by Sir John Thompson dated 2 July 1926, IOR L/P&S/11/269; Sardar Bhagwan Singh, presdt., Sikh Baradri, Lyallpur City to Master Tara Singh 5 Mar. 1938, IOR R/1/1/3210; ‘Patiala Administration and the Position of the Sikhs’, by Giani Kartar Singh, sec., SGPC, n.d. [1942]; note by H. S. Craik on interview with Tara Singh dated 4 Dec. 1942, IOR R/1/1/3884; and regional commissioner, E. Punjab States, to under-sec., Ministry of States, 7 Apr. 1948, M[inistry] O[f] S[tates], 4(51)-P/48.
17. Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, pp. 185, 190.
18. The Jaito episode is described in Grewal, Sikhs of the Punjab, pp. 161-2.
19. Copland, Princes of India, pp. 81-2; Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, pp. 187-9; ‘Resumé of Events in the Indian States for the Period Ending 30 November 1931’, IOR L/P&S/13/1336; and proceedings of meeting between the Patiala and Jind cabinets at Motibagh Palace, Patiala, 20 Nov. 1931, PSA, Patiala, H-99B.
20. Tara Singh's zeal for his religion is partly explained by the fact that he embraced it by choice, converting from Hinduism at the age of 17. After the passage of the Gurudwara Bill, Tara Singh became associated with the faction in the Akali party opposed to constitutionalism. He acceded to the vice-presidency of the SGPC in 1925 and the secretaryship of the Sikh League in 1928. In 1930, while in jail for leading a banned march during the Civil Disobedience Movement, he was elected president of the SGPC. From then until 1961 he remained the paramount (if not always undisputed) leader of the Sikh Panth. Baldev Raj Nayar, Minority Politics in the Punjab (Princeton, N.J., 1966), pp. 144-6; S. P. Sen (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography (Calcutta, 1972-74), vol. 4, pp. 323-5. Paradoxically some of the strong est support for Tara Singh's faction came from Akalis resident in the states who resented the fact that the Gurudwara Bill made no arrangement for the management of Sikh holy places in the princely territories. Liaquat Hyat Khan, Home Minister Patiala, to Prime Minister Patiala 2 June 1925, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 212.
21. Raghbir Singh to prime minister of Patiala 27 Aug. 1937, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2055.
22. There are only stray references to the deal in the Patiala archives which give no hint as to its terms, although we may suppose that they included a promise by the princes to direct their nominees on the SGPC to support the Tara Singh faction. Nor is it clear exactly why, after holding aloof for several years, they finally agreed to come to the party, though Ramusack offers one possible explanation when she suggests that the death of Sewa Singh Thikriwala ‘removed the principal source of hostility between the Master and the Maharaja’. ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, p. 190. The cause of Tara Singh's re-think about the arrangement was the sacking of his brother, Professor Nirinjan Singh, one of the people who had helped arbitrate the settlement, from his chemistry teaching job at Khalsa College. Patiala as college chancellor could have intervened to prevent the dismissal, but chose not to do so. This in Tara Singh's view constituted ‘a breach of the understanding between the State and the Akali Party… almost a betrayal’. Message from Tara Singh to Raghbir Singh, home minister, Patiala, sent via S. Gurjit Singh on 11 Aug. 1937, PSA, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2055.
23. In 1940 Yadavindra Singh of Patiala was 27, Harindar Singh of Faridkot 25 and Pratap Singh of Nabha 21.
24. Note by Wylie dated 9 Aug. 1944, IOR R/1/1/4152.
25. ‘Patiala Administration and the Position of the Sikhs’, by Giana Kartar Singh, n.d. [1942], IOR R/1/1/3884.
26. Aide-memoir by resdt., Punjab States, encl. with resident's fort. report for the period ending 30 Nov. 1940, IOR L/P&S/13/1358. Getting rid of Liaquat was a long-standing Akali objective. It was anathema to the Dal that ‘the brother of [Unionist leader] Sir Sikander, the implacable enemy of the Akali Party, was installed as the Prime Minister of the leading Sikh State’. According to some sources, the Akali campaign to dislodge Liaquat had inside backing from Home Minister Colonel Raghbir Singh. Notes by C.I.O. Lahore dated 20 Nov. and 22 Dec. 1939, IOR R/1/ 1/3523. Rumour had it that Patiala also did Tara Singh a personal favour, intervening with the Punjab government to have a police case against the Master's family for fraud and misappropriation of funds withdrawn. This was vigorously denied by Tara Singh. Tara Singh to presdt., Indian National Congress, 21 Aug. 1939, Valmiki Choudhary (ed.), Dr Rajendra Prasad: Correspondence and Select Documents, vol. 4 (New Delhi, 1985), p. 60.
27. Satyapal to Rajendra Prasad, quoted in K. L. Tuteja, ‘The Sikhs and the Congress 1930-1940’, in Paul Wallace and Surendra Chopra (eds), Political Dynamics and Crisis in Punjab (Amritsar, 1988), pp. 115-16.
28. Aide-memoir by resdt., p. 120.
29. The Patiala government played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Sikander-Baldev Pact, which was effectively stitched up at a meeting between SGPC deputy president Giani Kartar Singh and Yadavindra Singh at Patiala in May 1942. Note by home minister, Patiala, dated 30 May, Yadavindra Singh to Sikander Hyat Khan 17 June and Baldev Singh to Yadavindra Singh (teleg.) 20 June 1942, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2177.
30. Gurbachan Singh and Lal Singh Gyani, The Idea of the Sikh State (Lahore, c. 1946), p. 17.
31. Quoted in Rajiiv A. Kapur, Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith (London, 1986), p. 207.
32. Sadhu Swarup Singh, The Sikhs Demand Their Homeland (Lahore, c. 1946), p. 82 (my italics).
33. Unnamed Sikh officer to Col. Spencer 19 Sept. 1947, BL, Rees Coll., 50 (my italics).
34. Rajwant Kaur Dhillon, ‘Demand for Pakistan: Role of Master Tara Singh’, in Verinder Grover (ed.), The Story of Punjab, Yesterday and Today, vol. 1 (New Delhi, 1995), p. 538; Fort. report from Punjab for second half of Sept. 1944, in P. N. Chopra (ed.-in-chief), Towards Freedom 1943-44 (New Delhi, 1983), part 3, p. 3270; Singh and Gyani, Idea of the Sikh State, pp. 3, 11.
35. ‘Record of meeting between the Cabinet Delegation, Lord Wavell and representatives of the Sikh community’ on 5 Apr. 1946, in Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel Moon (eds), The Transfer of Power, 1942-7 vol. VII (London, 1977) [hereafter TOP], pp. 139-40.
36. Gupta, for example, believes that ‘The idea of a Sikh state was never seriously entertained’, but this conclusion appears to be based on a misreading of comments made by a Sikh delegation to the viceroy Lord Wavell. Dipankar Gupta, The Context of Ethnicity: Sikh Identity in a Comparative Perspective (Delhi, 1996), p. 49. See also Sen, Dictionary of National Biography, p. 324. Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, p. 193, equivocates.
37. Sir E. Jenkins to Lord Wavell 4 July 1946, TOP, vol. VIII (London, 1979), p. 6.
38. Speech at Pherala, Lyallpur district, 6 Apr. 1940, IOR R/1/1/3554.
39. Nayar, Minority Politics, p. 81. At this time the Akali Dal was broadly divided into three factions, one led by Giani Kartar Singh, one by Tara Singh and one by Jathedar Udham Singh Nagoke. Within this framework the waters of Akali politics were further muddied by geographical rivalries between members from the Manjha region beyond the Sutlej and those from the more easterly Malwa region. An extended lull occurred in 1944 following Tara Singh's resignation as president of the Akali Dal and the SGPC, which the British read as a sign that he had been ‘outmanoeuvred by the ambitious Giani Kartar Singh’. Fort. report from Punjab for first half of Mar. 1944, TF 1943-44, part 3, pp. 3124-5.
40. Memo. prepared by Sir Abdul Hamid for Maharaja of Kapurthala, dated 21 Jan 1943, PSA, Kapurthala, Sadar Office, PO/3-3-43.
41. Record of interview between Tara Singh and Howard Donovan, Chargé d'Affaires, American Embassy, New Delhi on 8 Dec. 1947, encl. in Donovan to Sec. State 8 Dec. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/12-847.
42. Draft statement to be given to the Akali delegation dated [Mar.?] 1943, and statement issued by Akali delegation dated 8 Apr. 1943, PSA, Kapurthala, Sadar Office, P/3-3-43; Lt.-Col. Harbans Singh, Revenue Minister, Patiala, to S. S. Deodhi Mualla, 13 Mar. 1945, PSA, Patiala, Dharam Arth, 286/50; and Akali (Lahore), 3 Jan. 1947, quoted in IOR R/1/1/1336.
43. The communal agenda that lay behind these ‘routine’ changes is laid bare in a letter from Sen to Liaquat's successor at Patiala, Harjot Singh Malik. Sen exclaims at one point: ‘The only natural and reasonable inference that one can draw from these repeated attacks on the prestige and powers of the Foreign Minister is that you wish me to leave the State’. Sen to Malik 1 Aug. 1944, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2194. The sketchy statistical evidence available in the annual administration reports of the Punjab states suggests that the Sikh share of public service jobs in the Sikh-ruled states increased by several percentage points during the 1940s.
44. Note by Jai Narain Vyas, gen. sec. AISPC, dated [Aug. 1945], AISPC, 86 (part II) of 1945-48.
45. Evidenced by their willingness to speak out in favour of Khalistan on the public platform. Yadavindra Singh's appearance at a Khalistan rally at Bhawanigarh, Patiala, in March 1943, is noted by Ramusack, ‘Maharajas and Gurudwaras’, p. 194.
46. Donovan to Sec. of State, Washington, 23 Sept. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/9-2347.
47. Interview with R. G. Verma, Patiala, 1 Feb. 1998; and statement by former S.P., Narnaul, Patiala, quoted in The Sikhs in Action (Lahore, 1948), p. 51. The evidence of this (Muslim) policeman must be viewed with caution, but many of his assertions are supported by other sources. People I have spoken to in Patiala confirm, for example, that the Maharaja had an astrologer named Raj Jotshi, whom the policeman's deposition identifies as the man who brought the San Sakhi prophecy to Yadavindra Singh's attention.
48. Address to the 1st Sikh regiment, Patiala, 3 Apr. 1947, and press statement issued by Tara Singh on 15 Apr. 1947, as recorded in the diary of Ganda Singh, in Mushirul Hasan (ed.), India Partitioned: The Other Face of Freedom (New Delhi, 1995), pp. 31, 34-5.
49. Nayar, Minority Politics, p. 91; and Moon, Divide and Quit, p. 77.
50. Moon to his son, 2 July 1947, BL, Moon Coll., 21; and Moon, Divide and Quit, pp. 43-9, 84-5.
51. Jenkins to Mountbatten 19 May 1947, TOP, vol. X, p. 894.
52. Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs (Delhi, 1977), vol. 2, pp. 272-3 and 273n; and Harbans Singh, Heritage, pp. 183-4. For details of the buildup of RSS strength in the Punjab during the War see fort. reports on Punjab States from C.I.O., Lahore for the second half of March and the first half of August 1944, IOR R/1/1/4199. For information about developments in 1947 see the West Punjab government publication, RSSSb (Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) in the Punjab (Lahore, 1948), pp. 4-15.
53. Sir E. Jenkins to Lord Mountbatten 9 Apr. 1947, TOP, vol. X, p. 173.
54. Statement by former supt. of police, Narnaul, Patiala, The Sikhs in Action, pp. 52-5; Note on the Sikh Plan (Lahore, 1948), pp. 16, 22; statement by Pritam Singh Jodal of Mehna, Ferozepur dist., n.d., Sir E. Jenkins to Lord Mountbatten 9 Apr., appendix B; entry 29 Apr.-1 May in diary of Major-Gen. Shahid Hamid, staff officer, Indian Army, Hamid, Disastrous Twilight: A Personal Record of the Partition of India (London, 1986), p. 169; note on interview with Rajput officer of the Indian Army, 22 Aug. 1947, encl. in Howard Donovan, counselor, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, to Sec. State, Washington, 25 Aug. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/8-2747; note on interview with BBC correspondent Stimson, 1 Sept. 1947, encl. in Henry F. Grady to Sec. State Washington, 1 Sept. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/9-147.
55. ‘Report On the Punjab Boundary Force’ by its commander, Maj.-Gen. T. W. Rees, dated 15 Nov. 1947, BL, Jenkins Coll., 2.
56. Note by M. K. Sinha, Dep. Director (A), I.-B., Home Dept., dated 6 Aug. 1947, BL, Rees Coll., 50.
57. Auchinlek to Sir Geoffrey Soames, 5 Oct. 1947, John Rylands Lib., Manchester, Auchinlek Papers, MUL 1263.
58. Sec. to resdt., Punjab States, to chief minister, Kapurthala, 22 May 1947, PSA, Kapurthala, Sadar Office, M/6-29-47; and Sir John Colville to Lord Listowel, 26 May 1947, TOP, X, p. 994. The viceregal warning was issued after the Punjab residency reported that elements of the Faridkot, Nabha and Patiala state forces had been observed in action in Lahore City and in several villages in Hissar and Jullundur districts. See also gov., East Punjab to Maharaja of Patiala (teleg.), 25 Aug. 1947, and home sec., East Punjab to Maharaja of Patiala (teleg.), 3 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2030.
59. Khushdeva Singh, ‘Love is Stronger than Hate: A Remembrance of 1947’, in Hasan, India Partitioned, vol. 2, pp. 99-102.
60. Interview with Teja Singh Tiwana, Patiala, 30 Jan. 1998; and prime minister, Patiala, to Ghazanfarali, Food Member, govt. of Pakistan (teleg.), 4 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2029.
61. Even before the influx of refugees from surrounding areas, Muslims comprised 91.5% of Jamalpura's population, 74.0% of Samana's, 72.9% of Malerkotla City's, 67.6% of Bassi's and 55.3% of Sanaur's. Punjab State Gazeteers (Lahore, 1937), vol. XXIII, p. xiv and vol. XXXIX, pp. xvi-xvii; and Census of India 1941, vol. 6, pp. 38-9.
62. Note by supt. police in charge C.I.D., Patiala, dated 6 Oct. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
63. Sant Parta Singh Sidhu, dist. nazim Bassi, to prime minister, Patiala, [Aug.] 1947, PSA, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032.
64. Batoo Ram Sood, presdt., Malerkotla Riasti Parja Mandal, to presdt., AISPC, 25 Aug. 1947, AISPC file 108 of 1945-8. See also report from Mohinder Singh, I.-G. Police, Patiala, to Supt. Police, Patiala dated 12 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlasi-Khas, 2028, relating proceedings of a meeting of Muslims in Ghanaur tehsil close to the border with Ambala. According to this report Muslims were urged by their leaders to ‘be alert and to prepare themselves for any… emergency’.
65. See, for example, situation report by Lt.-Col. Gobinder Singh dated 1 Sept. 1947, and note by supt. police in charge C.I.D., Patiala, dated 13 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
66. Boha, Khanpur, Barin, Chotian, Devigarh, Panbhuan-Kapoori, Chhuna, Kallianon, Majri, Darogawala, Kaithal and the New Basti area of Bhatinda were just a few of the places in Patiala raided and burned by Muslim gangs between late August and early October. Allegedly the Muslims who attacked Kaithal boasted that ‘before going to Pakistan they would kill [all the] Hindus [and] destroy all [the] villages’ in the area. Sub-divisional magistrate, Bhatinda, to dist. nazim, Barnala, 28 Aug. 1947, and note by supt. of police in charge C.I.D., Patiala, dated 13 Sept. 1947, PSA, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028; and note by prime minister, Patiala, dated 11 Oct. 1947, and headman village Kaithal to Maharaja of Patiala (teleg.), 14 Oct. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032.
67. Telephone message from Gurbachan Singh, I.-G. Police, Sunam, to I.-G. Police, Patiala, 26 Aug. 1947, and note by supt. police in charge C.I.D., dated 13 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028; chairman, Bharat and Co. to Maharaja of Patiala (teleg.), 30 Aug. 1947, and S. S. Pawa, presdt., Peace Committee, Hindu-Sikh locality from Sirhind Gate to Shafabadi Gate (teleg.) 5 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032.
68. The assailants were armed with ‘country-made bombs and hand-grenades, rifles, 12-bore guns, revolvers [and] other pistols’. M. Mohinder Singh, I.-G. Police, Patiala, to Supt. Police Patiala, 12 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
69. Wireless message from Supt. Police, Barnala, to I.-G. Police, Patiala, 20 Aug. 1947, and teleg. from Bir Davinder Singh to Prime Minister, Patiala 28 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
70. A measure of the scale of violence in Patiala is the fact that it took the authorities four days to clear the city of corpses. Interview with Teja Singh Tiwara, Patiala, 30 Jan. 1998; interview with Mohan Singh, Patiala, 3 Feb. 1998; report from acting supt. police, Barnala, dated 25 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2029; proc's of meeting in prime minister's office, Patiala 11 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032; and note by supt. police, C.I.D., Patiala, dated 13 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
71. American Ambassador, London, to Sec. State, Washington, 1 Oct. 1947, reporting conversation with Patrick on 30 Sept. U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/10-147; dist. magst. Bassi to prime minister, Patiala, [?] Oct. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032; Suhrawardy to Nehru, 6 Nov. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. decimal file 845.00/11-2847.
72. Statement by former senior policeman, Patiala, in The Sikhs in Action, p. 55; notes by Gen. Rees on conversation with Major Short, 18 Sept. 1947, Rees Coll., 50; Nehru to Rajendra Prasad 29 Jan. 1948, Sarvapelli Gopal (ed.), Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, 2nd series (New Delhi, 1988), p. 18; gen. sec., City Cong. Cttee, Kotkapura, Faridkot, to Prasad, 7 Dec. 1948, AICC, file 13 of 1948.
73. Identifying Muslims on the mixed local trains was more difficult than one would suppose, since Muslim refugees often tried to evade the jathas by travelling in disguise. Sikh student Teja Singh Tiwana was travelling home to his village that summer on a train bound for Bahawalpur, when it was stopped and boarded near Nabha. Initially he was not disconcerted by this as all the people travelling in his compartment appeared to be Sikhs or Hindus; but when the jathedars entered they quickly established by dint of a body search that three of the group were in fact Muslims. Without a moment's further reflection they beheaded the three in full view of the horrified youth. Interview with Teja Singh Tiwana, Patiala, 30 Jan. 1998.
74. The Times, 25 Aug. 1947; Suhrawardy to Gandhi, 21 Sept. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State, Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2837; and memoir by Major Derek Harrington Hawes, ‘Four Days of freedom’, in BL, Harrington Hawes Coll., 20.
75. High Commissioner, New Delhi, to Sec. State for Commonwealth Relations, London (teleg.), 6 Sept. 1947, IOR R/P&S/13/1358; and Suhrawardy to Gandhi 21 Sept. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State, Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2847.
76. A number of reliable eye-witness accounts testify to the intensity of the violence in this sector. A British army officer who travelled along the Grand Trunk Road between Rajpura and Khumna on 24 September described it as resembling a graveyard, with bodies ‘littered on both sides of the road’. Suhrawardy to Nehru, 6 Nov. 1947, recounting a conversation at Ambala, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State, Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2847. See also the account given to Sir Francis Tuker by the commanding officer of the 2nd battalion, 1st Gurkas. Tuker, While Memory Serves (London, 1950), p. 437.
77. Nehru to Vallabhbhai Patel 31 Aug. 1947, Gopal, Selected Works, 2nd series, vol. 4 (New Delhi, 1987), p. 43; and Henry F. Grady, U.S. Ambassador, New Delhi, to Sec. State, Washington, 1 Oct. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file, 845.00/ 10-147.
78. Lt.-Col. R. N. P. Reynolds, 21st Gurkha Rifles, to his mother, 3 Sept. 1947, BL, Reynolds Coll.
79. Notes by Supt. Police, C.I.D., Patiala, dated 13 and 27 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028. The Jind and Kapurthala governments both ascribed their failure to suppress the jathas to military weakness. The Jind forces were described as lacking proper ‘weapon training’; while Kapurthala's small army was claimed to be chronically over-stretched. Maharaja of Jind to Patel 27 Nov. 1947, NAI, M[inistry] O[f] S[tates], 118(1)-P.R./47; and chief minister, Kapurthala to Patel, 3 Sept. 1947, requesting a loan of ‘2 companies of troops and a tank for at least one month’, MOS, 2(9)-P.R./47.
80. See, e.g., note by priv. sec. to the Maharaja of Patiala dated 28 Aug. responding to a letter from the City Muslim League, Ludhiana, alleging that 200 Muslims had been butchered at Doraha station, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032. As to passing the blame, the Maharaja's remark to Nehru was typical: such trouble as had occurred was ‘largely due to the blood-curdling news that has been steadily flowing in from the Pakistan area’. Local Muslims had exacerbated the situation by refusing to dissociate themselves ‘from the fanaticism that led to these crimes in west Punjab’. Patiala to Nehru 19 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2029.
81. Note by Supt. Police, C.I.D., Patiala, dated 18 Oct. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
82. Statement by former senior policeman, Patiala, quoted in The Sikhs in Action, pp. 57-8. The ex-policeman escaped to Lahore with this convoy.
83. Note by Capt. Rattan Amol Singh, Jagirdar of Buria, dated 13 Apr. 1948, NAI, Rajendra Prasad Papers, 5-R/48.
84. Many of them derive from the testimony of the refugees themselves, or from Muslim army officers who could be regarded as partisan witnesses. See, e.g., The Sikhs in Action, p. 40. The incidents described in the text have been independently authenticated.
85. Situation report to the Indian cabinet dated 28 Sept. 1947, quoted in Hamid, Disastrous Twilight, p. 261.
86. Sitaramayya to Nehru 4 Mar. 1948, AICC, file 1 of 1948.
87. Kapurthala to Sir Paul Patrick 10 Feb. 1948, IOR L/P&S/13/1342.
88. Yadavindra indeed spent the summer at Chail, his palace in the Himalayan foothills; but since he was in constant telegraphic contact with Patiala, this does not quite let him off the hook.
89. Suhrawardy to Gandhi 21 Sept. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State, Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2847.
90. Patiala to Nehru 10 Nov. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2035. Patiala was later accused by the Union government of shielding one of his courtiers who had abducted a Muslim woman from a noble Punjabi family. Nehru to Patel 28 Nov. 1948, Gopal, Selected Works, 2nd series, vol. 8, pp. 154-5.
91. Maharaja's private sec. to prime minister, 27 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032.
92. Deposition by Muslim refugees, Lahore, n.d., BL, Mudie Coll., 31. The story about Faridkot was related to Hasan Suhrawardy by a Sikh lady who accompanied the maharaja and maharani on their way home from Simla. According to this witness, Faridkot's language to the jathedars was so bloodthirsty that it reduced both her and the maharani to tears. Suhrawardy to Gandhi 19 Nov. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State Washington, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2847.
93. Howard Donovan, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, 12 Dec. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/12-1247.
94. Note by Supt. Police, C.I.D., Patiala, dated 26 Nov. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
95. Commander, Ambala area, to commander, 11 Infantry Brigade (signal message), 28 Aug. 1947, BL, Rees Coll., 49; memo. by Mutaz Ali Khan, chief minister, Maler Kotla, dated 15 Apr. 1948, AISPC, file 108 of 1945-8; interview with R. G. Verma, Patiala, 1 Feb. 1998; interview with Dr S. M. Koreshi, Islamabad, 26 Feb. 1998. One of the places in Maler Kotla that remained peaceful in 1947 was Raikot. According to some Sikhs, Raikot gained immunity from attack by virtue of the local Muslim landlord family's possession of a pitcher, the ‘Guru Sagar’. Gifted to the jagirdar's ancestor by Guru Gobind Singh in 1704, the pitcher was (and is) famous throughout Punjab for its ability, though pierced by 244 holes, to retain water. Interview with Bhajan Grewal, Melbourne, 8 Dec. 1997.
96. Situation report, HQ, east Punjab, to Army HQ, India and Pakistan, 3 Sept. 1947, BL, Rees Coll., 64; telegrams from refugees encl. in Supt. Police, Barnala, to I.-G. Police, Patiala, 30 Aug. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028; Chanan Singh, pleader, et al., Sunam, to Maharaja of Patiala (teleg.) 20 Sept. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032.
97. Interview with R. G. Verma, Patiala, 1 Feb. 1998. Sangrur is recorded in the 1941 census as having a population of 17,132, of whom 5,449 were Muslims. Census of India, 1941, vol. 6, pp. 38-9.
98. Henry F. Grady, U.S. Ambassador, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, Sept. 28 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/9-2847. In just one Patiala district, Sunam, collections from refugees totalled Rs.256,074 in cash, 200 maunds and 33 seers of silver and 3 maunds and 11 seers of gold, and 2,000 cows. Despite the maharaja's order, there is good reason to think that a lot of this property was never returned to its owners. Nazim, Sunam to Prime Minister, Patiala, 12 Dec. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2032; and resolution of the WC of the Kapurthala ML, 25 Oct. 1947, AISPC, file 91 of 1946-8. Reports from the districts show that by mid-October, the vast majority of refugee trains were passing through Patiala safely. See notes by Supt. Police, C.I.D., Patiala, dated 27 Oct. and 11 Nov. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2028.
99. Figures calculated from tables in Census of India 1941, vol. 6, p. 43, and Census of India 1951, vol. 8, pp. 298-300. Before August the Muslim population of Kapurthala was about 250,000; an estimate in October put the number of Muslims living there at no more than 6,000. Proc's of conf. of rulers and officials at Ministry of States, New Delhi, 6 Oct. 1947, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2029.
100. Suhrawardy to Nehru 6 Nov. 1947, encl. in Charles O. Thompson, U.S. Consul-Gen., Calcutta, to Sec. State Washington, 28 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/11-2847.
101. One Pakistani estimate put the number of Muslims killed in Patiala alone at 250,000. An Indian source puts the number at 100,000. The Sikhs in Action, p. 60; and R. J. Moore, Making the New Commonwealth (Oxford, 1987), p. 44. To be sure, the published figures for the recovery of abducted women seem to paint a slightly different picture. As of June 1948, 5,378 Muslim women had been recovered from the 14 districts of east Punjab proper and 1,889 from the states. But the shortfall does not necessarily indicate that many fewer women were abducted in the states. It could just as easily be accounted for by the greater reluctance of Sikhs in the states to give up their stolen ‘property’. Press note, Govt. of India Information Bureau, 14 June 1948, encl. in Howard Donovan, Counsellor, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, 18 June 1948, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/ 6-1848.
102. Sudhir Kakar, Colours of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict (Chicago, 1996), pp. 36, 81, 148.
103. Stanley J. Tambiah, Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts and Collective Violence in South Asia (Berkeley, 1996), p. 277.
104. Letter dated 22 Sept. 1947 quoted in Tuker, While Memory Serves, p. 433.
105. Memo. encl. in Jenkins to Prof. A. A. Michel 27 Nov. 1967, BL, Jenkins Coll., 1.
106. The Master summed up the events of 1947 thus: ‘The Hindus have got Hindustan, the Muslims have got Pakistan, but what have the Sikhs got?’ Quoted in Gopal Singh, Politics of the Sikh Homeland (1940-1990) (Delhi, 1994), p. 77.
107. Note by I.-G. Police, Patiala, dated 1 Mar. 1948, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2242.
108. Note by member of the Punjab Boundary Force, n.d., quoted in Tuker, While Memory Serves, p. 449.
109. V. B. Singh and Shankar Bose (eds), State Elections in India: Data Handbook on Vidhan Sabha Elections 1952-85, Vol. 1 (New Delhi, 1987), pp. 44, 47.
110. Nayar, Minority Politics, p. 113.
111. Singh and Bose, State Elections, pp. 44-6.
112. Patiala to Patel 29 Feb. 1948, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2242.
113. Nehru to Sitaramayya 3 Mar. 1948, Nehru Papers, 1st Instalment, file 7; Sitaramayya to Nehru 4 Mar. 1948, AICC file 1 of 1948; Harbans Lal, gen. sec., East Punjab Union CC to Rajendra Prasad, 15 July 1948, Choudhary, Prasad, vol. 9, p. 214.
114. Nehru to Baldev Singh 17 July 1948, NMML, Nehru Papers, 1st Instalment, file 11.
115. Nehru to Patel 30 Sept. 1947, Gopal, Selected Works, 2nd series, vol. 4, p. 110; and Mehan Singh, sec., Faridkot Riast Praja Mandal, to Jai Narain Vyas, 26 Dec. 1947, AISPC file 53, part 1 of 1946-8. This was particularly the case with local Muslims who had converted to Hinduism during the partition disutrbances. For instance the District Nazim of Sunam received reports that the police were ‘making it impossible for them [the converts] to remain in their homes… [by] harassing their womenfolk and… taking away their household articles by force’. District nazim, Sunam, to prime minister, Patiala, 4 Mar. 1948, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2035.
116. ‘Hindus of Patiala State’ to Vallabhbhai Patel [rec'd] 3 Oct. 1947, NAI M[inistry] O[f] S[tates], 2(11)-P.R./47.
117. Memo. by Zail Singh, presdt., Faridkot Riasti Praja Mandal, dated 30 May 1948, AISPC file 54 of 1948.
118. Goswami Ganesh Datt, gen. sec., All-India Sanatan Dharma Sabha, to maharaja of Patiala, 16 Mar. 1948, PSA, Patiala, Ijlas-i-Khas, 2035.
119. Puran Anand Sharma to Major D. G. Harrington-Hawes, 26 Nov. 1948, BL, Harrington-Hawes Coll., file 35.
120. The defectors included Udham Singh Nagoke, Giani Kartar Singh and Baldev Singh. Paul Wallace, ‘Religious and Secular Politics in The Punjab: the Sikh Dilemma’, in Paul Wallace and Surendra Chopra (eds), Political Dynamics and Crisis in Punjab (Amritsar, 1988), pp. 19-21; and Nayar, Minority Politics, p. 127n.
121. Brish Bhan, presdt. Punjab States Regional Council, et al., to Rajendra Prasad, 1o May 1948, AICC file 13 of 1948-9. On the relations between the Akali Dal and the Left in the early 1950s, see, Mridula Mukherjee, ‘Communists and Peasants in Punjab: A Focus On The Muzara Movement in Patiala, 1937-53’, in Studies In History, vol. III, nos 1-2 (1981), esp. pp. 413-21.
122. Resolution of the Akali Dal WC dated 19 Mar. 1948, quoted in Henry F. Grady, U.S. Ambassador, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, 6 Apr. 1948, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/4-648.
123. The campaign for the Patiala City seat is described in The Statesman (New Delhi), 7 Feb. 1998.
124. Wallace, ‘Religion and Secular Politics’, p. 15. For Yadavindra Singh's explanation of his ‘falling out with Tara Singh’, see Nehru to Patel 11 Feb. 1949, Gopal, Selected Works, 2nd series, vol. 9, p. 421. Yet even after this the two men continued to meet occasionally, and as late as October 1949 Yadavindra Singh had not given up hope of winning back the Master's support. See report on their meeting at Doraha by Regional Comm'r, PEPSU, dated 31 Oct. 1949, R[egional] C[ommissioner's] O[ffice], Rajasthan, 18-P/48-C.
125. Note by Lord Ismay on conversation with Nehru dated 3 Oct. 1947, BL Mountbatten Coll. 90; and resolution of the AICC dated 15 Nov. 1947, encl. in Nehru to Prasad 24 Nov. 1947, Prasad Papers, 14-C/48.
126. Howard Donovan, Counsellor, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, 18 Sept. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/9-1847; and note on conversation with Lord Ismay, encl. in Henry F. Grady, U.S. Ambassador, New Delhi, to Sec. State Washington, 10 Nov. 1947, U.S. State Dept. decimal file 845.00/ 11-1047.