Das Commission on the Sikh grievances, 1961-62

Who: The commission was S. R. Das, a former Chief Justice of India, as chairman, with C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer and M. C. Chagla (Khushwant Singh). Those who dealt with it were Prime Minister Nehru, Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, Master Tara Singh and the Shiromani Akali Dal, which boycotted it; Malik Hardit Singh, the mediator; and the witnesses named below.

What: Nehru told Parliament on 28 August 1961 that the demand for a Punjabi Suba could only be considered a communal one, and that if the Sikhs feared discrimination a high-level inquiry could look into it (Gurmit Singh). A government communique of 1 October 1961, the day Master Tara Singh ended his fast, promised a commission; it was notified on 31 October, with a report due by 31 December.

Master Tara Singh protested that the names were not those the mediators had given him, and Shastri replied on 13 November that the choice lay with the Government. Gurmit Singh objects that Das had been Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court during earlier Sikh agitations and was the father-in-law of the Union Law Minister, and that Chagla was said to be about to join the Union Cabinet, which he later did. The Akali Dal and the other Sikh organisations boycotted the commission. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says it carried on regardless. Khushwant Singh says five men gave evidence in the Government's favour, among them Dr Gopal Singh Dardi for the new "Nationalist Sikhs", who, according to Gurmit Singh, denied that Sikhs were discriminated against and appeared allegedly at Kairon's instance. Dardi later said his memorandum listed eight cases of discrimination. Virendra, speaking for the Hindi Raksha Samiti, called Punjabi a dialect of Hindi, and Balraj Madhok of the Jan Sangh asked for the Regional Formula to be scrapped (Grewal).

The commission gave its report on 9 February 1962 (Gurmit Singh; Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). It found no discrimination against the Sikhs. It traced the Punjabi Suba demand back to a Sikh state demand at the time of partition, a question it called beyond its terms (Gurmit Singh), and the Encyclopaedia says it called the demand a camouflage for a Sikh state. Grewal says it held that the Regional Formula had been delayed but not stopped. The Government accepted the report and published its findings.

Where: New Delhi, where the Home Ministry notified the commission; its subject was the position of the Sikhs in Punjab.

Why it mattered: The finding closed the inquiry that ended Master Tara Singh's fast without a Punjabi Suba. Gurmit Singh says Akali rank and file turned on their leaders and that the Government used the anger to split the Akali Dal. In the event, the Panj Piare found Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh guilty on 29 November 1961 of breaking their vows, and in July 1962 Sant Fateh Singh formed a parallel Akali Dal.