Was the Punjabi Suba demand linguistic or religious?

The claim: The Punjabi Suba demand was a Sikh state in a language costume. The States Reorganisation Commission of 1955 recorded that opponents argued "basically the demand is a communal one and that cultural and linguistic arguments have been pressed into service merely to camouflage the real motives". It found that the state's tension "follows communal and not territorial lines", and spoke of "the precarious or uncertain political majority" the Sikhs sought. A commission that reported on 9 February 1962, which the Akali Dal had refused to appear before, called the demand "a camouflage for the demand for a Sikh state" (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). The Quint says Nehru, Arya Samaj leaders and the Jana Sangh opposed it "fearing it would create a Sikh-majority state". N. N. Vohra writes in The Tribune that the demand "was not exceptional" but "had assumed a somewhat different colour" once tied to Sikh political aspirations.

The sourced facts:

• The Commission said the Akali Dal's memorandum "rests mainly on the arguments generally advanced in favour of linguistic States", though one claimed benefit was that the state "will secure for the country a contented Sikh community" (paras 515, 516).
• Language itself had split on community lines. The Commission records "the repudiation by large sections of the Hindu community of the Punjabi language as their mother-tongue", so that the census could not tabulate Hindi and Punjabi speakers separately; it called the language problem "primarily one of scripts", with Hindus opposed to Gurmukhi (paras 518, 527, 529). The Encyclopaedia: "a purely language question developed into a political controversy dividing the Punjabis on communal lines."
• Sant Fateh Singh said in the 1960 morcha: "We do not seek a Sikh-majority area ... regardless of the fact whether the Sikhs are in a majority or minority." Master Tara Singh said in June 1958: "I have never wanted a Sikh State ... But I do want freedom for the Sikhs."
• Tara Singh wrote in December 1949 that "the Sikhs wanted an area where they were free from the domination of the majority community", "an area within the Indian constitution but having internal autonomy as did Kashmir". The Nalwa Conference of July 1965, its resolution drawn up by Kapur Singh, asked for "a self-determined political status within the Republic of Union of India", which the Encyclopaedia calls "more radical than the demand for a Punjabi Suba".
• On 8 January 1961 Nehru said "Punjab state is broadly speaking a Punjabi Suba with Punjabi as the dominant language". The parliamentary committee under Speaker Hukam Singh, which included Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Jana Sangh, voted unanimously for the Suba and reported in March 1966, after nearly 2,200 memoranda for and 903 against (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).

The Panthic answer: Akali leaders said the demand was linguistic, and the record shows the frame was chosen. The Encyclopaedia says that after the Constituent Assembly refused safeguards the Akali leaders concluded Sikhs needed "an area where they would be numerous enough to protect and develop their language and culture", and "decided to press for the formation of a linguistic state coterminous with Punjabi language". Fateh Singh said in October 1958 that the demand was "only for a state wherein they should be able to develop the Punjabi language and culture and protect their religious faith". In Vihveen Sadi Di Sikh Rajneeti, in the section "Punjabi Suba or a Sikh homeland", Bhai Ajmer Singh argues that the Akali leadership asked for a Punjabi-speaking province, not a Sikh homeland, though the homeland claim was the legitimate one and the leaders never stated it. He adds that Punjabi Hindus walked away from Punjabi in the 1951 census while the Akali side stayed defensive; that the Jana Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha tried to frame Punjab as a Hindu land and pushed Punjabi Hindus to give up Punjabi for Hindi; that the government called the demand separatist and answered with jail and lathis; and that the movement won a state in the Punjabi language but weakened the Sikh character of the claim, pressing Sikh identity into a "Punjabi" frame the Hindus had left.