The Anandpur Sahib Resolution was a statement with a list of demands made by a Punjabi Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), in 1973. It was first presented by the Akali Dal on 16–17 October 1973 and advocated for political, religious, economic, and social reforms and demands. It would later be publicly revealed and endorsed at a 1978 Akali Dal conference in Ludhiana. The resolution stressed upon geographical concerns and state-autonomy. The document contained propositions that in some areas were semi-autonomous and others where it relied upon the central government (Sikhs in the army and central-government services).
Etymology The name of the resolution was linked to the city of Anandpur Sahib, which had been established by the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh. This name was disadvantageous to opponents of the resolution, as their opposition was viewed as being against Sikhism itself due to the name itself being linked to a city with such a close association with the Sikh religion.
Overview The resolution aimed to propagate the Sikh religion, maintain an independent religious identity, and was against irreligion. It positioned the Shiromani Akali Dal as the supreme body to represent the Sikh community based upon the Sikh concept of three pillars. It also proposed pro-education, anti-drug, anti-poverty and anti-caste aims. The religious goals were to be met through preaching, mass-baptisms, donations, improved gurdwara administration, betterment of Sikh academia, increased research into Sikh history, and improved access to Sikh sites in Pakistan. The resolution proposed an all-India and worldwide gurdwara network and administration, taking into account heterodoxical Sikh sects, such as the Udasis and Nirmalas, to integrate them better into the general Sikh collective.
Politically, the resolution stated to have been based on the ideals of the Khalsa Panth. It wanted equal state representation at the centre, special care in the case of Sikh members of the military, abolition for the need of a firearm licence for the general public if they have not been convicted of a crime, improved relations with neighbouring countries, and decentralization, with the central government only being responsible for defence, foreign affairs, post and telegraphs, currency, and railways, with all other responsibilities lying with the state government (not only for Punjab but decentralization for all Indian states was the aim). It viewed the foreign policies of India as being too aligned with that of the Soviet Union. The resolution endeavoured to recover areas it viewed as Punjabi-speaking and Sikh-populated that were not included in the Punjab state of India in 1966 in a goal to form a single Punjabi administrative unit utilizing all contiguous, Punjabi-speaking, and Sikh-populated areas. A list of such claimed areas is as follows:
Dalhousie (claimed for district Gurdaspur) Chandigarh Kalka and Ambala City in district Ambala Una Tehsil (claimed for Hoshiarpur district) Desh illqa of Nalagarh Shahbad block of district Karnal Sub-tehsil of Gulha and Thona Rattia Block of district Hissar and Sirsa Tehsil Six tehsils of district Ganganagar of Rajasthan
There were also proposals in the public-sector, industry, and agriculture, such as minimum-wages, improved work conditions, tackle unemployment and provide unemployment-allowances, and providing of residences to workers. It proposed that "deserving" workers after retirement be given a pension after they turn 65-years-old. Furthermore, the tax system was requested to be reviewed, to prevent claimed undue penalty on the masses and tax benefits to the rich, such as by cracking down on black-money and tax-evasion. In the social sphere, it promised to provide schooling, work, and food to the downtrodden sections of the society so they could catch-up with the general population. It also advocated for a ban on cigarette smoking in public spaces.
History
Background The Shiromani Akali Dal was defeated by the Indian National Congress in the March 1972 Punjab election. The Akali Dal lost its political relevance during the term of Zail Singh, who had inducted projects that appealed to Sikh religious sensibilities, such as Guru Gobind Singh Marg. There was also little economic discontent in the state as agricultural product sale prices were high, material costs were low, such as for oil and fertilizers.
1970s
After the tenure of Chief Minister Gurnam Singh in the Punjab, which was newly demarcated in 1966, the SAD captured only one seat at the elections to the Indian Parliament in 1971 from Punjab's 13 seats. In the Punjab Assembly, after the March 1972 Punjab election, their tally was reduced to 24 seats out of 117, and the Punjab government passed into the hands of the Congress Party, with Giani Zail Singh as chief minister.
Following its defeat, the SAD appointed a sub-committee on 11 December 1972 to reflect upon the situation and to reiterate and clarify the party platform. The sub-committee consisted of Surjit Singh Barnala, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Jiwan Singh Umranangal, Gurmeet Singh, Dr. Bhagat Singh, Balwant Singh, Gian Singh Rarewala, Amar Singh Ambalavi, Prem Singh Lalpura, Jaswinder Singh Brar, Bhag Singh, and Major General Gurbakhsh Singh of Badhani. The first meeting of the sub-committee took place at Amritsar. The venue then shifted to Chandigarh where the committee completed its task in ten successive meetings. Counsel was available to the sub-committee of Sardar Kapur Singh, whose impress was carried by the draft emerging from its deliberations. The document was adopted unanimously by the working committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal at a meeting held at Anandpur Sahib on 16–17 October 1973 and came to be known as the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. The resolutions were approved by the General House of Akali Dal in a session at Ludhiana on 28 August 1977, later to be passed in the form of twelve resolutions. It was endorsed in the form of a succession of resolutions at the 18th All India Akali Conference of the Shiromani Akali Dal at Ludhiana on 28–29 October 1978.
The resolution included both religious and political issues. It asked for recognising Sikhism as a religion separate from Hinduism. It also demanded that power be generally devoluted from the Central to state governments, and more autonomy to Punjab.
The passing of the resolution went unreported by media in October or November of 1973, with there being no mentions of it until much later. In November of 1973, the Akalis held a conference in Malerkotla but this political event was described as a "flop" by The Tribune. Thus, there is a discrepancy on what the actual, original Anandpur Sahib Resolution document entailed, with Kuldip Nayar claiming the original English draft was prepared by Kapur Singh, with a Punjabi explanation being provided to Sant Fateh Singh. However, Kapur Singh had died a year earlier in 1972. According to Robin Jeffrey, it is more probable that the resolution regarding Punjabi autonomy and Sikh nationhood may have been drafted by the Akali Dal in October of 1973 as a means to improve their declining political fortunes and as a bargaining tool but there were little specific details and it was not publicized. Later in 1974–75, when Prakash Singh Badal tried to form an alliance with the Jana Sangh, any notions of the earlier resolution touching upon Sikh religious identity had to be downplayed. In 1975, Indira Gandhi enacted the emergency and many prominent Akali leaders were arrested and the press was silenced. It was only until August 1977 when the Akalis came back into power in the state that the resolution was brought-up again, chiefly later at a large-scale gathering in Ludhiana at the 18th All India Akali Conference held between 28–29 October 1978, where the twelve resolutions associated with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution was endorsed and adopted by the working committee of the S.A.D., but The Tribune reported the twelve resolutions as separate from one another and not part of any larger grouping that had been conceived earlier in 1973. At the 1978 Ludhiana conference, Bhindranwale supporters tried to disrupt the session due to them believing the Akali government was being soft toward the Sant Nirankari Mission after the recent clash between its members and orthodox Sikhs but they were silenced by the Akalis. The Akalis, itself dealing with factionalism in its own ranks, were downplaying any notions of separatist aims and allied with the Janata party, instead advocating for greater state independence. Around the same time, an organization called the Khalsa Mukti Fauj attacked the Janata-Akali Dal alliance, praised the Nehru-Gandhi family, and called for the formation of a "Sikh State", which may be linked to the Congress party trying to create political disturbance, with there being a possibility of an alliance between Congress (I) and an Akali faction.
1980s In the early 1980s, the Congress party returned to power in Punjab. By the 1980s, there were three different versions of the "Anandpur Sahib Resolution" in circulation, with politicians picking whichever one to promote based upon their own interests they wanted to advance. In April 1981, the minority Akali Dal led by Jagdev Singh Talwandi propagated a more extreme version. In 1982, a certain version was authenticated by the president of the Akali Dal, Harchand Singh Longowal.
The resolution declared its goal to give the state a quasi-independent status and to leave only foreign relations, defence, currency and general communications to be subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian government. Indira Gandhi, the leader of a rival to the SAD, the Indian National Congress (INC), viewed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution as a secessionist document.
The document reached prominence in the 1980s when the SAD and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale joined hands to launch the Dharam Yudh Morcha in 1982 to implement the Resolution. Thousands of people joined the movement, feeling that it represented a real solution to demands such as a larger share of water for irrigation and the return of Chandigarh to Punjab.
The SAD officially stated that the Resolution did not envisage an autonomous Sikh State of Khalistan. Its president, Harchand Singh Longowal, declared:
After Operation Blue Star, Rajiv Gandhi reached a compromise with Longowal, the Rajiv-Longowal Accord, on 24 July 1985. The government accepted the demands of the SAD, which, in turn, agreed to withdraw its agitation. The accord attracted opposition from several orthodox Sikh leaders of Punjab as well as from the politicians of Haryana. Some of the promises could not be fulfilled because of the disagreements. Longowal was assassinated by Sikh militants who opposed the accord.
Purpose The Shiromani Akali Dal shall ever strive to achieve the following aims:
1. Propagation of Sikhism, its ethical values and code of conduct to combat atheism.
2. Preservation and keeping alive the concept of distinct and sovereign identity of the Panth and building up of appropriate condition in which the national sentiments and aspirations of the Sikh Panth will find full expression, satisfaction and facilities for growth.
3. Eradication of poverty and starvation through increased production and more equitable distribution of wealth and also the establishment of a just social order sans exploitation of any kind.
4. Vacation of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or any other ground in keeping with basic principles of Sikhism.