Abstract
This study attempts to understand the struggle of the Sikhs of the Punjab, during the colonial period (1930-1947), for their separate home-land- Khalistan, which to date have been an unfinished agenda. They still feel they have missed the train by joining hands with the Congress Party. There is strong feeling sometime it comes out in shape of upsurge of freedom of moments in the East Punjab. Therefore it is important to understand what was common understanding of the Sikh about the freedom struggle and how they reacted to national movements and why they filed to achieve a separate homeland-Khalistan. The problem is that the Sikh demands have so been ignored by the British government of India and His Majesty’s Government in England. These demands were also were not given proper attention by the Government of Punjab, Muslim leadership and Congress. Although the Sikhs had a voice in the politics and economic spheres their numerical distribution in the Punjab meant that they were concerted in any particular areas. Therefore they remained a minority and could only achieve a small voting strength under separate electorates. The other significant factor working against the Sikh community was that the leadership representing was factionalized and disunited, thus leading to a lack of united representation during the freedom struggle and thus their demand for the creation of a Sikh state could not become a force to reckon. Therefore, it is important to understand the Sikh demands for division of Punjab and the creation of a separate homeland for the Sikhs in Punjab. This paper merely tries to survey the efforts and events that led to the partition of India and the struggle of the Sikhs for the freedom of India and the establishment of ‘Khalistan’. The chronological scope of this study stretches from the Communal Award in 1932 to partition of India, 1947. In the beginning all communities of the Punjab were struggling to get their right of representation from British Government but later on their demand turn into partition. The Communal Award was mark of British Government acceptance of all communities as separate identities. The Communal Award evoked mix reactions in all over India and stirred up Communal consciousness.