Abstract
The Sikh community and their demands under the premiership of Sir Siknadar Hayat Khan lie at the heart of this research article. Sikandar Hayat Khan struggled to gain a dominion status for India where the major communities of the ‘United Punjab’; the Muslims, the Hindus and the Sikhs could live in a complete communal harmony. Throughout his political career, he kept working indiscriminately for the welfare of all the communities in the Punjab. Further, this research paper analyzes the reconciliatory policy of Sir Skandar Hayat Khan; from the platform of the ‘Unionist Party’ towards the various communities of the Punjab. Sikandar never let the communal conflicts happen in the ‘United Punjab’ and to gain this end, he never preferred the Muslims to any other community i.e., the Sikhs. The ‘Sikandar-Baldev Pact’ of 1942, in which Sikandar tried to create harmony between both the Muslim and the Sikh communities has also been discussed and analyzed in detail. This study also focuses to prove that the fundamental purpose of the Sikandar-Baldev Pact was to meet all the demands of the Sikh community and to bring them into the mainstream politics of India before the partition of the sub-continent. It will also deal with the claims, demands and the resentment of the Sikhs during the Premiership of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. This article portrays a picture of political attitude and accommodative behaviour of Sikandar with the Sikh community and also helps to explore, whether the Sikh community was fully satisfied with the performance of Sikandar Hayat Khan or was it just a temporary compromise or the need of the time; and to what extent both the communities were the supporters of each other.