Sikander-Baldev Pact brings Baldev Singh into the Punjab ministry

Who: Sir Sikander Hayat Khan, Premier of the Punjab and leader of the Unionist Party, and Sardar Baldev Singh, an Akali member of the Assembly. Since 1937, a footnote in the published Viceroy's papers notes, Sikander's cabinet had had three Muslims, two Hindus and one Sikh.

What: After the Second World War broke out in 1939, talks between the pro-British Premier and the Akalis led to a letter from Sikander Hayat Khan to Baldev Singh conceding several Akali demands, the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records. The terms were explained at a press conference in Lahore on 15 June 1942:

• jhatka meat in government institutions with separate kitchens for each community;
• members of a community to decide, at every stage, any law affecting its religion, with the Premier supporting their decision;
• Punjabi in Gurmukhi script as the second language of the province, which Sikander said was not possible immediately;
• a 20 per cent share of government recruitment for Sikhs;
• his sympathy and support for the Sikh claim if the Central Executive Council was expanded or changed.

In return, the footnote says, Baldev Singh undertook to support the Unionist Government in the interest of communal unity and the defence of the country. He was sworn in as Development Minister on 26 June 1942, replacing Dasaundha Singh of the Khalsa National Party. The Akali Dal publicly disapproved of the pact at a conference in Gujranwala on 18 July 1942, and the Encyclopaedia says Baldev Singh made it in a personal capacity with the moral support of the Akali Dal.

Governor Glancy credited the pact, with Sir Jogendra Singh's appointment to the expanded Executive Council, for better Sikh feeling (26 July 1942), called it a powerful factor for good (13 November), and wrote that the Sikhs had stayed out of the Congress campaign. Strains followed: after Sikander said at Lyallpur in November 1942 that he saw eye to eye with Jinnah, Glancy thought the pact weakened and the Sikhs injured and bewildered. On 6 August 1943 Master Tara Singh and Giani Kartar Singh complained at Simla that it was being disregarded, though Glancy says they realised much had been done. Sikander died at the end of 1942; by the 1945-46 election, Jenkins records, Sikh Unionists had joined the Panthic Party.

Where: Lahore, where Baldev Singh took office.

Why it mattered: It put an Akali nominee into the Punjab Government, and Baldev Singh went on to join Nehru's Cabinet as Defence Minister on 2 September 1946, the Encyclopaedia says. Sandhu and Mahmood write that the failure of the Cripps Mission paved the way for the pact, and argue that by signing it the Akalis lost the moral stand of independence from outside influence.