How the demand for Haryana state evolved

THE roots of the demand for Haryana state may be traced from the distinct socio-cultural identity of the region that it had been able to retain after its separation from the North Western Province (present UP). Its inclusion in Punjab in 1858 was a punishment for the participation of its princes and people in the Revolt of 1857.  The primary role in the growth of this demand, was the relative political and economic deprivation substantiated by the 1965 Report of Haryana Development Committee constituted by the Punjab government.

Pirzada Mohammad Hussain, a Muslim League leader from Delhi, advocated the demand for separation of Ambala division (Haryana region) from Punjab and the expansion of Delhi province in 1925.  It was also supported by Muslim League in 1926. The support might have been motivated by communal and political considerations.  The separation of Hindu-dominated Ambala division from Punjab would have helped to establishing Muslim dominance. The elite of Delhi made a request for an enlarged province of Delhi, uniting the Hindi-speaking region of Punjab with it. The Delhi Provincial Congress Committee too raised this demand the same year.  The desire was to have the same type of partially democratic set-up for Delhi as in other provinces.  The report of the Provincial Redistribution Committee of the Indian National Congress also lent its support and expressed the view that the separation of Ambala division from Punjab would solve a number of political problems of the province.  The Congress party stood for the linguistic re-organisation of the provinces during those days.  The motivation was to weaken the Unionist Party of Punjab by weaning away Hindu Jats of the Haryana region from it.  But the demand failed to gather much support in Haryana region of Punjab.  Chhotu Ram, the leader of Hindu Jats and Desh Bandhu Gupta, a Delhi-based Congress leader from Haryana region were the only two important political leaders from the region who supported this demand. 

So far as Chhotu Ram was concerned, he supported the constitution of an enlarged province of Delhi or Haryana Prant in his Presidential Address to the Jat Maha Sabha at Agra in 1929.  After exclusion from the Punjab ministry in 1926, his claim was consistently ignored and he felt that his political ambitions could be fulfilled only in the enlarged province of Delhi which would have a large number of Hindu Jats.  But later on, he opposed the separation of Ambala division from Punjab and its merger in Delhi before the Indian Statutory Reforms Committee in 1930.  This was due to the realisation that the separation of Ambala division would have converted Punjab into a predominantly Muslim province.  Desh Bandhu Gupta supported it in 1932 on historical, linguistic, cultural, economic and political basis and was influenced by the considerations that motivated political elites from Delhi and the Congress to demand separation of Ambala division from Punjab.

The demand gathered momentum in the post-Independence period. It was raised by the Haryana Prant Front of opposition parties, headed by well-known freedom fighter, Pandit Shri Ram Sharma and 23 Congress MLAs before the State Reorganisation Commission in 1954.  It was mainly backed by the articulate section of peasantry and the educated people who considered it essential for advancing their political and economic interests.  It was opposed by Jan Sangh and those Congressmen whose support base consisted of urban traders and the professional class of Haryana region.  They supported the demand for “Maha Punjab” or an enlarged Punjab state consisting of Punjab, PEPSU and Himachal Pradesh. The creation of Haryana was viewed harmful for political and economic interests.

The demand for a Punjabi Suba was raised in 1949 and the demand for Haryana in the 1920s, it became complementary to the demand for a Punjabi Suba in the post-Independence period.  It gathered momentum as a result of post-Partition political developments in the state of Punjab.  The acceptance of the demand for a Punjabi Suba led to the creation of Haryana.  The demand was raised in the Lok Sabha by leaders, Pandit Thakur Das Bhargav and Chaudhry Ranbir Singh and by Prof Sher Singh and Chaudhary Devi Lal in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1954. There was no mass movement for the demand of the Haryana Prant.  The Haryana Prant Front did organise a largely attended political conferences for this demand at Samalkha, Sonipat and Rohtak in 1955.  The participation was confined to the articulate sections of peasantry and educated persons, affected by the economic, political and educational backwardness of the Haryana region. Due to the neglect by the successive political dispensations of the post-colonial Punjab, the demand for Haryana Prant could not become strong. 

The most-developed region, due to its location in the National Capital Region, Haryana has witnessed social regression due to the persistence of cultural backwardness and a widening social divide. This was clearly visible during the Jat agitation for reservations in February, 2016.

The writer is a former Dean, Social Sciences, Kurukshetra University.