Punjabi Suba Morcha of 1955

Who: The Shiromani Akali Dal organised the morcha under Master Tara Singh, the first "dictator" named to command it, who courted arrest on 10 May 1955 and was jailed on its first day. Principal Iqbal Singh was named second "dictator" and commanded the morcha for a month, according to the SGPC's history of it. Thousands of Sikh volunteers took part, 417 of them women by the SGPC's count. J. S. Grewal says Sant Fateh Singh joined the morcha for the first time in his life. Khushwant Singh lists Master Tara Singh, Giani Kartar Singh and Hukam Singh among the leaders arrested. The other side was the Punjab Government of Chief Minister Bhim Sen Sachar.

What: It was the first of the two mass Punjabi Suba morchas, the second coming in 1960-61. Sangat Singh says the SGPC elections before the morcha were fought on the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state. Grewal places them in 1954 and says the Akalis won all 110 seats they contested, while the Congress-backed Khalsa Dal won 3 of the 132 it contested.

• 6 April 1955: the Amritsar District Magistrate banned slogans for Punjabi Suba, and Sangat Singh says Sachar imposed the ban through him. Grewal says anti-Sikh and anti-Hindu slogans had become common at meetings and the government decided to ban slogans, which the Akalis took as a ban on slogans for the Punjabi province. The SGPC history counts the attack on the Ludhiana procession of 31 December 1954 as the first step towards the ban.
• 24 April: the Akali Working Committee asked for the ban to be withdrawn by 9 May in the SGPC history (Sangat Singh says 10 May), failing which the morcha would begin.
• 10 May: Master Tara Singh courted arrest at Amritsar, with ten others in Gurmit Singh's account. Each morning after prayer at the Akal Takht, batches of 20 to 50 volunteers offered arrest near the gate of Guru Ram Das Sarai (Sangat Singh).
• Early July: at the peak of the morcha the police entered the Golden Temple complex on the night of 3 and 4 July.
• 12 July: the Punjab Government lifted the ban, 64 days after the morcha began. The Punjab Congress Working Committee backed this by 13 votes to 4, the SGPC history says. Sangat Singh says Sachar gave Nehru's return from abroad as his reason.

The SGPC history counts more than 12,000 men and women arrested in the 64 days, 4,902 of them from Amritsar district and 3,127 from PEPSU. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism and Khushwant Singh also say about 12,000. A Sikh representation of 1960 reprinted in Gurmit Singh's history says nearly 15,000.

Where: Amritsar. Volunteers gathered at Manji Sahib Diwan Hall and poured into the Golden Temple complex, from where the agitation was run (Gurmit Singh); jathas also came from PEPSU and other towns of Punjab.

Why it mattered: The morcha won the right to shout the slogan but not the state. Grewal says the police action in the Golden Temple complex failed to overawe the Akalis, and the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the agitation raised Master Tara Singh's political power to a new peak. He was released on 8 September 1955 (Sangat Singh says 15 September) and re-elected SGPC president on 20 September (Gurmit Singh). The States Reorganisation Commission reported on 30 September 1955 against a Punjabi-speaking state and proposed merging Punjab, PEPSU and Himachal Pradesh (Grewal). A Sikh convention of about 1,300 delegates at Amritsar rejected the report on 16 October, and talks with Nehru from 24 October led to the Regional Formula, which the Akali Dal accepted on 11 March 1956: a bilingual state with regional committees, not a Punjabi Suba (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). Sachar later apologised at the Akal Takht, on 10 November 1955 in the SGPC history, and Partap Singh Kairon replaced him as Chief Minister in January 1956.