Haryana: Modern History, Freedom Struggle and Formation of the State

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-I (Paper III), Main Written Examination:

• Related issues of Haryana.

The same line closes General Studies-II and General Studies-III, where it covers Haryana’s polity, governance, economy, agriculture, environment and security. The Preliminary Examination’s General Studies paper has:

• Haryana-Economy and people. Social, economic and culture institutions and language of Haryana.

In General Studies-I, “related issues of Haryana” means the Haryana side of this paper’s subjects: the state’s history, art and culture, society and geography. This page covers one of them.

Topics in detail

Coming of British rule

• The Second Anglo-Maratha War and the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon (1803): the region passes to the East India Company
• Administration from Delhi; the small chiefships and states (Jhajjar, Ballabhgarh, Farrukhnagar, Dujana, Loharu, Pataudi, Jind, Kaithal)
• Revenue settlements, famines and the restoration of the Western Yamuna Canal

The Revolt of 1857 in Haryana

• Unrest at the Ambala cantonment and the spread of the revolt to Hisar, Hansi, Sirsa, Rohtak and Mewat
• Rao Tula Ram of Rewari and the Battle of Nasibpur (near Narnaul, November 1857)
• Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh and Nawab Abdur Rahman Khan of Jhajjar, executed by the British
• Lala Hukum Chand Jain of Hansi; the Meo peasants of Mewat
• Punishment of the region: confiscation of states and its transfer to the Punjab province (1858)

Social and political awakening

• The Arya Samaj in Haryana: schools, gurukuls, social reform
• Lala Lajpat Rai’s years at Hisar
• The Haryana region as a recruiting ground for the army in the World Wars
• Sir Chhotu Ram: the Unionist Party, the Jat Gazette, laws to relieve peasant debt in Punjab
• Newspapers and leaders of the national movement in the region (Pt. Neki Ram Sharma, Pt. Shri Ram Sharma)

Haryana in the national movement

• The Rowlatt Satyagraha (1919) and hartals in the towns of the region
• Non-Cooperation and Khilafat; Civil Disobedience; the Quit India Movement
• Soldiers from Haryana in the Indian National Army
• Praja mandal movements in the princely states (Jind, Loharu, Pataudi)

From 1947 to statehood

• Partition: migration and the settling of refugees (Panipat, Karnal, Faridabad and other towns)
• The region in the state of Punjab; the merger of PEPSU (1956) brings Jind and Narnaul areas in
• The language question: the Sachar Formula (1949), the Regional Formula (1956), the Punjabi Suba movement
• The Shah Commission (1966) on boundaries and the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966
• Haryana becomes a state on 1 November 1966; Chandigarh as a Union Territory and shared capital

Issues left by reorganisation

• The status of Chandigarh
• Sharing of the Ravi-Beas waters and the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal
• Hindi-speaking areas and boundary claims

Haryana since 1966

• The Green Revolution and rural development
• Growth of industry and of the National Capital Region districts
• Reorganisation of districts and divisions over time

From province to state

Overlaps

• The national story: The Freedom Struggle and Post-Independence Consolidation and Reorganisation.
• Haryana’s government and inter-state relations today: HCS Mains: General Studies II.