The Punjabi Suba movement was a long-drawn political agitation, launched by Punjabi speaking people (mostly Sikhs) demanding the creation of a Punjabi Suba, or Punjabi-speaking state, in the post-independence Indian state of East Punjab. Led by the Akali Dal, it resulted in the formation of the state of Punjab. The state of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh were also created and some Pahari-majority parts of the East Punjab were also merged with Himachal Pradesh following the movement. Early years Background The movement was primarily conceived to secure a distinct Sikh political status as a safeguard for what was to be a small minority after independence; as Sikh leader Master Tara Singh wrote in 1945, "there is not the least doubt that the Sikh religion will live only as long as the Sikh panth exists as an organized entity." Calls for the Punjabi Suba were present as far back as February 1947. After the Partition of Punjab in 1947, the Sikh population, especially in today's geographical area of Indian Punjab had become a clear majority (about 60%) in a contiguous, strategic land area for the first time in its history, with a new socio-political position. This enabled the Akali Dal to focus on expressing unencumbered Sikh political needs, free from the politics of the former Muslim majority in Punjab Province (British India) that had needed to be accommodated on its political platform before, and provided the opportunity for Sikhs themselves to express a degree of autonomy from the sway of the Congress party and the central government, through the Akali Dal, a Sikh political party active mainly in Punjab.. In January 1948, Akali Dal's three-member delegation of leaders, Harcharan Singh Bajwa, Bhupinder Singh Mann, and Giani Kartar Singh, met the Minister of Law and Justice Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar suggested that the Akali delegation demand a Punjabi-speaking state or Punjabi Subah (Punjabi Province) as a Sikh state, since the central government had declared a commitment to a linguistic basis for the reorganization of the states. The demand for a Punjabi Suba as a policy position was first presented in April 1948 by Tara Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal The Akali Dal considered the continued existence of the Sikh religion as predicated on the community acting as a consolidated political unit, which could only be effective with its own territorial unit. Regarding Sikh political participation as an integral