Nehru's "glow of freedom" pledge to the Sikhs

Who: Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Shiromani Akali Dal under Master Tara Singh, which was deciding whom to trust as India's future was settled.

What: The pledge is dated two ways. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that on 4 April 1946, with the Cabinet Mission in India, Nehru said in a public statement that redistribution of provincial boundaries was essential and inevitable, and that he stood for semi-autonomous units. He said he would like the Sikhs to have a semi-autonomous unit within the province so that they might experience the "glow of freedom". Sikh accounts widely cite a press conference at Calcutta on 6 July 1946, where, as SikhNet quotes him, Nehru said, "The brave Sikhs of the Punjab are entitled to special consideration" and "I see nothing wrong in an area and a set-up in the North" where the Sikhs "may also experience the glow of freedom". Sikh sources attribute the July words to The Statesman of 7 July 1946, an issue we could not open. They may be two statements or one remembered twice.

The Akali Dal had opposed any partition of the country. It had rejected the Cripps proposals of 1942, the Rajagopalachari formula of 1944 and then the Cabinet Mission Plan. Its own Azad Punjab scheme gathered little support. The Akali Dal cast its lot with the Congress, trusting it to protect Sikh minority rights, and later accepted the Mission's proposals on the Congress's appeal.

No Sikh unit was created in 1947. On 17 March 1948 the Akali Dal Working Committee advised its legislators to join the Congress parties in the assemblies; on 30 May a delegate session at Amritsar rejected merging the party into the Congress. Minority grievances kept piling up. On 26 May 1949 the Constituent Assembly rescinded its own August 1947 resolution and declared that statutory reservation of seats for religious minorities should be abolished. Akali leaders concluded that, without constitutional guarantees, the only way out was an area where Sikhs would be numerous enough to protect their language and culture. Master Tara Singh wrote in December 1949 that Sikhs wanted an area within the Indian constitution with internal autonomy, as Kashmir had.

Where: Calcutta, for the July press conference. The sources do not name a venue for the April statement.

Why it mattered: It came when the Akali Dal was choosing between demanding territory of its own and trusting Congress goodwill, and it chose trust. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism traces the line from that choice to the Punjabi Suba campaign: after 1949 Akali leaders decided to press for a Punjabi-speaking state, and one came into being on 1 November 1966.