Sir Chandulal Trivedi

Sir Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi was an Indian Civil Service officer who became the first Indian Governor of East Punjab after Independence. In Sikh history his name is tied to a secret circular of October 1947 that calls the Sikhs a lawless people.

Wikipedia gives his birth as 2 July 1893 at Kapadvanj in Gujarat and his death there on 15 March 1980. He passed the Indian Civil Service examinations in 1916 and was Governor of Orissa until 14 August 1947. Wikipedia lists his term as Governor of East Punjab, later Punjab, from 15 August 1947 to 11 March 1953. Khushwant Singh writes that when the East Punjab government was organised with a temporary capital at Simla, Sir Chandu Lal Trivedi was appointed governor and Gopi Chand Bhargava was elected chief minister by the legislators who came over to the Indian side.

Key moments

• 15 August 1947: becomes Governor of East Punjab.
• 10 October 1947: the circular. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that Trivedi issued it to district authorities and that it warned against the "criminal tendencies of the Sikh people". Gurmit Singh's History of Sikh Struggles says it went to all Deputy Commissioners while wounded Sikh refugees were trekking out of West Pakistan, called the Sikhs "a lawless people" and "a menace" to the law-abiding Hindus, and told officials to take special measures against them.
• 1947 to 1949: Gurmit Singh writes that Kapur Singh, a senior Sikh civil servant serving as Deputy Commissioner, protested against the directive and was sacked on flimsy charges. Wikipedia's article on Kapur Singh says he was suspended from the civil service in April 1949 with the governor's consent and believed the governor had personally targeted him after his protest.
• 11 March 1953: his term as Governor of Punjab ends.

What he is remembered for. Sikh writers remember him for the circular. A representation to the President of India by five Sikh citizens, dated 7 June 1960, says the Government of India recognised the Governor by open preferment and favours, and Gurnam Singh, a retired High Court judge, wrote in an open letter of 5 July 1960 that the state loaded him with honours and official preferment. Wikipedia lists his later offices as Governor of Andhra and member of the Planning Commission, and records the Padma Vibhushan in 1956. No original copy of the circular is reproduced in the sources we opened, so the wording above is as Gurmit Singh and the Encyclopaedia give it.