Communal Award of 1932

Who: The British government, under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, which chose between claims that Indian leaders had failed to settle among themselves at the Round Table Conferences. Sikh interests were argued in London by Ujjal Singh and Sampuran Singh, and at home by the Sikh League and the Akali Dal. Master Tara Singh's Akali agitation became especially sharp at the time of the Award.

What: The Award was published on 16 August 1932 as the Communal Decision (Command Paper 4147). It fixed how provincial legislatures would be elected and how strong each community would be in them, using separate electorates for Muslims, Sikhs and others. For Punjab's 175 seats it was expected to produce:

• Muslims: 90 seats (51.4 per cent), against 56.5 per cent of the population
• Hindus: 48 seats (27.4 per cent), against 23.2 per cent
• Sikhs: 33 seats (18.9 per cent), against 13 per cent
• Indian Christians 2, Anglo-Indians 1, Europeans 1

Sikhs had asked since 1928 for 30 per cent of the seats in the Punjab legislature and had opposed any Muslim statutory majority. Most Sikh leaders would have preferred reserved seats to separate electorates. On 17 August eight prominent Sikh leaders called the Award a repudiation of promises made to their community and urged peaceful, united opposition. A Council of Action, formed at Lahore on 24 July, called a Panthic Day for 17 September. An All-Sikh Conference at the Akal Takht on 25 September set up a Khalsa Darbar, and Sikh members walked out of the Punjab Legislative Council on 7 November. None of it moved the British.

Where: Decided in London and applied to the provincial legislatures of British India, with Punjab and Bengal the hardest cases. Sikh protest centred on Lahore and on Amritsar, where the All-Sikh Conference met.

Why it mattered: The Award gave Sikhs more than their population share but well under the 30 per cent they sought, and in effect gave Muslims a statutory majority in Punjab's legislature. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism draws three results. The era of Sikh collaboration with the government began to wane. The crisis produced new organisations and factions within the Panth. And the strength of Sikh opposition to a Muslim communal majority gave credibility to proposals to partition Punjab to form a Sikh-majority area. The Award was given its final shape in the Government of India Act of 1935, and the first elections held under that Act, in January 1937, were fought on its basis.