Nehru and Sant Fateh Singh talks on Punjabi Suba, 1961

Who: Sant Fateh Singh, with his aides Harbans Singh Gujral and Gurbax Singh, and later Lachhman Singh Gill; Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru; and, as subjects of the talks, Master Tara Singh and Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon.

What: The talks followed Sant Fateh Singh's fast of December 1960 to January 1961, which ended the seven-month morcha. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the three meetings, on 8 February, 1 March and 12 May 1961, were friendly but gave no definite result: Nehru offered to give Punjabi all the protection it needed but would not cut the Punjabi-speaking areas off into a separate state. The full text, published by the Akali Dal, is reprinted in Gurmit Singh's history.

• 8 February: Nehru told the Sant that Master Tara Singh wanted a religious state with a Sikh majority. Gurbax Singh answered with Master Tara Singh's statement of 14 January that he wanted only a unilingual state, and the Sant said percentages did not matter to him. Nehru said Hindus would become a religious minority needing safeguards, that dividing Punjab again would harm its economy, and that he had made every linguistic division against his own wishes. The Sant asked why Sikhs who could live in Kabul, America and Canada could not live in their own country merely because they asked for a Punjabi-speaking state.
• 1 March: the Sant complained of public statements by Kairon and Morarji Desai against the demand. Nehru repeated that Hindus in a Punjabi Suba would oppose it and said Master Tara Singh had told him the state was for the protection of his Panth. Gujral and Gurbax Singh disputed Nehru's account of what Master Tara Singh had said at Bhavnagar. Gurmit Singh adds that Nehru asked how he could hand power to an irresponsible man; Nehru later denied calling the Sikhs enemies of the country.
• 12 May: Nehru said he could not accept the linguistic division of Punjab because the Hindus were bitterly opposed, though the language question could be considered. The Sant pressed for the release of the remaining prisoners, and Nehru said 264 people accused of violence had been released and 120 remained, 37 of them in jail. A sharp exchange followed over Sikhs "always talking in terms of swords", which Gurbax Singh said he had used only as an idiom.

Where: New Delhi, at the Prime Minister's office on 8 February and at his residence on 12 May.

Why it mattered: Khushwant Singh says Nehru refused to accept that denying a Punjabi-speaking state was discrimination against the Sikhs. On 28 May 1961 the Akali Dal's General House at Amritsar said the Sikhs had been confronted again with the refusal of India's ruling elite to alter its attitude and authorised Master Tara Singh's fast unto death, which began on 15 August (Gurmit Singh).