Punjab in the Freedom Struggle (1849–1947)

The British took Punjab on 29 March 1849, after the Second Anglo-Sikh War. For the next 98 years Punjab was a British province. At first it was quiet and loyal — it even became the main recruiting ground of the Indian Army. But from the Kukas in the 1870s to the Ghadar heroes, Jallianwala Bagh, the Akali morchas and Bhagat Singh, Punjab gave some of the biggest sacrifices of the freedom struggle. This page tells the story in order, up to Partition in 1947.

• Delhi was added to Punjab in 1858 and taken away again in 1911, when it became the capital of India.
• In 1901 Lord Curzon cut off five districts beyond the Indus to make the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
• In 1947 undivided Punjab had 29 districts in five divisions: Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Jalandhar and Ambala.
• Land revenue was fixed village by village — the Mahalwari system. The whole village (mahal) was jointly responsible.
• After 1857, Punjab became the main recruiting ground of the Indian Army.
• Punjab's first railway was the Amritsar–Lahore–Multan line. The Amritsar–Lahore part opened in 1862.

• Bhai Maharaj Singh (born Nihal Singh at Rabbon, Ludhiana) fought the British in 1848–49 and kept planning a rising after annexation. He was arrested at Adampur (Jalandhar) on 28 December 1849, sent to Singapore and died in jail there in 1856. He is often called Punjab's first armed freedom fighter after annexation. (Baba Ram Singh is remembered as the first to use non-cooperation.)
• 1857 in Punjab: John Lawrence disarmed the Indian soldiers at Mian Mir (Lahore) and other cantonments. Ahmad Khan Kharal led the Ravi-belt tribes and was killed in September 1857. On the whole, Punjab stayed loyal and helped the British retake Delhi.
• Battle of Saragarhi, 12 September 1897: 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs under Havildar Ishar Singh held a small post in the Samana hills (NWFP) against about 10,000 tribesmen. All 21 died fighting. Saragarhi Day is 12 September.

• Baba Ram Singh was born on 3 February 1816 at Bhaini Araian (now Bhaini Sahib, Ludhiana). He started the Namdhari movement on Baisakhi 1857.
• The name "Kuka" comes from the loud cries (kuk) the followers made in prayer. They wore white clothes, a woollen rosary and a straight turban.
• Their aims: to clean Sikhism of superstition and to bring back Sikh rule. Cow protection was central.
• In January 1872, after an attack on Malerkotla, 66 Kukas were blown from cannon on the orders of Deputy Commissioner L. Cowan (17–18 January). Many other Kuka leaders were exiled (sent away), and their lands and property were taken by the government.
• Baba Ram Singh was sent away to Rangoon and then Mergui (Burma), where he died in 1885.

• Cause: the Punjab Colonization of Land Bill, 1907, which cut the rights of settlers in the Chenab colony, and a sharp rise in water rates (abiana) on the Bari Doab canal.
• Leaders: Sardar Ajit Singh (uncle of Bhagat Singh) and Lala Lajpat Rai; Sufi Amba Prasad also took part.
• The song: Pagri Sambhal Jatta ("Farmer, guard your turban" — that is, your honour) was written by Banke Dayal, editor of Jhang Sial, and sung at Lyallpur in March 1907. It gave the movement its name.
• Result: Ajit Singh and Lajpat Rai were deported to Mandalay (Burma) in May 1907. Lord Minto vetoed (rejected) the Bill.
• Ajit Singh left India in 1909. He came back in 1947 and died at Dalhousie on 15 August 1947 — the day India became free.

• Komagata Maru (1914): a Japanese ship hired by Baba Gurdit Singh of Sarhali (Amritsar district, now Tarn Taran). It carried 376 passengers, mostly Sikhs, from Hong Kong to Vancouver (Canada), where it arrived on 23 May 1914.
• Canada refused to let them land under its "continuous journey" rule — a law meant to keep Indians out. The ship was forced to go back.
• At Budge Budge, near Calcutta, police fired on the returning passengers on 29 September 1914; about 20 were killed.
• The Komagata Maru anger merged with the Ghadar Party's programme. It pushed thousands of Ghadarites to return to India in 1914–15 for a revolt.

Many historic gurdwaras were controlled by hereditary mahants (priests) who were backed by the government. In 1920, at the Central Sikh League session at Lahore under Baba Kharak Singh, the Sikhs decided to join Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement. Soon after, they began a peaceful campaign of morchas (organised protests) to take the gurdwaras back.

• Jaito morcha in short: the British removed Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha (9 July 1923) for supporting the Akalis. An Akhand Path (non-stop reading of the Guru Granth Sahib) at Gurdwara Gangsar, Jaito was stopped. The SGPC observed 9 September 1923 as "Nabha Day", and jathas of 500 marched to Jaito. Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested at Jaito in September 1923.
• Babbar Akalis (1921–25): an armed group in the Doaba (Jalandhar–Hoshiarpur) that did not believe in non-violence. Leaders: Kishan Singh Gargajj, Master Mota Singh, Karam Singh Daulatpur. Paper: Babbar Akali Doaba. Six Babbars were hanged at Lahore on 27 February 1926.
• Baba Kharak Singh became the first SGPC president under the 1925 Act (1926).

• Born on 28 September 1907 into a Sandhu Jat family at Banga (Chak No. 105, Lyallpur district, now in Pakistan). His ancestral village is Khatkar Kalan (Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district), where the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Museum stands.
• Father Kishan Singh; uncle Ajit Singh of Pagri Sambhal Jatta fame.
• Studied at DAV High School, Lahore and the National College, Lahore (started by Lala Lajpat Rai in 1921).
• In March 1926 he helped found the Naujawan Bharat Sabha at Lahore and was its general secretary. It was a left-wing (socialist), secular youth group.
• In September 1928 the Hindustan Republican Association became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. Chandrashekhar Azad was its commander; Bhagat Singh was one of its leaders.
• He wrote "Why I am an Atheist" (1930) in jail.

• Born on 28 January 1865 at Dhudike (Moga). A leading member of the Arya Samaj.
• One of the Lal–Bal–Pal trio, with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal.
• Co-founded Punjab National Bank (1894). Deported to Mandalay with Ajit Singh in 1907.
• Lived in the USA from 1914 to 1919, where he started the Indian Home Rule League of America.
• President of the Congress special session at Calcutta, 1920; founded the Servants of the People Society, Lahore, 1921.
• Led the protest against the Simon Commission at Lahore on 30 October 1928; died of his injuries on 17 November 1928.

• The Punjab Riyasti Praja Mandal was founded on 17 July 1928 at Mansa. President: Sewa Singh Thikriwala.
• It asked for civil rights, responsible government and peasant welfare in Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Malerkotla and Kapurthala.
• Sewa Singh Thikriwala died in Patiala jail in January 1935 after a hunger strike.
• After 1947 the Praja Mandal movement fed into the politics of PEPSU.

• The Unionist Party (1923) of Sir Fazl-i-Husain and Sir Chhotu Ram was a party of farmers of all religions. It ruled Punjab from 1937.
• Kirti Kisan movement: the Ghadarite Santokh Singh started the journal Kirti at Amritsar in 1926. The Kirti Kisan Party was formed on 12 April 1928 by Sohan Singh Josh. Like the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, it was left-wing and anti-British, inspired by socialist and communist ideas.
• Premiers (from 1937 the head of the elected Punjab government was called the Premier — like a Chief Minister today): Sir Sikander Hayat Khan (1937–42) and Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana (1942–2 March 1947), the last Premier of united Punjab.
• Quit India (1942) had limited mass support in Punjab, because the Unionist ministry backed the war effort and the parties were divided.
• The Muslim League's Lahore Resolution, asking for separate Muslim states, was passed at Minto Park, Lahore, on 23 March 1940.
• Many Punjabi soldiers joined the Indian National Army (INA). Its first form was raised in 1942 by Captain Mohan Singh, a Punjabi officer. At the Red Fort trials (1945–46), Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon was tried with Shah Nawaz Khan and Prem Kumar Sahgal.
• On 17 August 1947 the Radcliffe Award gave 13 of the 29 districts to East Punjab (India) and 16 to West Punjab (Pakistan). Lahore went to Pakistan; Shimla became East Punjab's temporary capital.