PEPSU

PEPSU, the Patiala and East Punjab States Union, was formed on 5 May 1948 by merging eight princely states of East Punjab: Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Kalsia, Malerkotla and Nalagarh, according to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel inaugurated it on 15 July 1948 and, Gurmit Singh writes, called it a "Homeland of the Sikhs". Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of Patiala became its Rajpramukh for life and the Maharaja of Kapurthala its Uprajpramukh.

Gurmit Singh says Hindus objected to a Sikh heading the interim arrangement, and that a caretaker government was formed under Gian Singh Rarewala, with Sir Jai Lal as adviser and B.R. Patel as chief secretary. The Akali Dal protested on 25 July 1948 that it alone represented the Sikh majority.

Key moments

• 13 and 20 January 1949: a broad-based ministry under Rarewala, with four Sikh and three Hindu ministers, was formed on 13 January and sworn in on 20 January. Gurmit Singh says the Centre dissolved it on 18 November 1949 and took over the administration; the Encyclopaedia says it was short-lived and was replaced by another caretaker government.
• 26 January 1950: the flag of the Patiala ruler, which carried Guru Gobind Singh's words blessing his house, was replaced by the Rajpramukh's flag, and the Akali Dal called for protest, Gurmit Singh says.
• May 1951: Colonel Raghbir Singh became chief minister, the Encyclopaedia says.
• 1952 to 1953: after the first general election a United Front of the Akali Dal and independents under Rarewala took office. Gurmit Singh says it held 27 of the 49 seats in the house and was the first non-Congress government in India; its leader's election was set aside on a petition, the Assembly was dissolved and President's rule imposed. The Encyclopaedia says the ministry fell in March 1953. The Akali Working Committee called this a murder of democracy in the one State where Sikhs formed a majority.
• 27 December 1953: at Fatehgarh Sahib, before the mid-term poll, Sikhs did not let Prime Minister Nehru speak, Gurmit Singh says, as he was using a Sikh religious gathering against the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state.
• 1954 and 1955: the Congress won the mid-term poll of 1954 with Raghbir Singh as chief minister, and Brish Bhan succeeded him after his death in 1955, the Encyclopaedia says.
• 1 November 1956: PEPSU was merged into the enlarged Punjab, the Encyclopaedia says. Khushwant Singh writes that the government, seeing PEPSU as the nucleus of a Sikhistan, decided to merge it so that Hindus would form a permanent majority, and that Akali leaders were persuaded the merger was a step towards a Punjabi Suba. Gurmit Singh adds that in the settlement of 1956 the PEPSU Formula on language continued in the old PEPSU area.

Where it stands: PEPSU ceased to exist on 1 November 1956. The SGPC's 1964 memorandum, as Gurmit Singh prints it, says the Punjabi-speaking province was still not formed even after the merging of PEPSU.