ABSTRACT
Many non-Congressmen were then removed from the administration, including very many supporters of Rarewala. Congress funds were placed at the disposal of small owner occupiers inside the Akali Dal in pepsu, and a number of their leaders moved over to the Congress. Provision for the merger of pepsu with Punjab also had an anti-Rarewala aspect in that it was a response to an upsurge of feeling among pepsu’s smallholders, many of whom were still tenants, against the feudal landlords with whom Rarewala was associated. In the Hindi agitation of 1957 Rarewala’s approach was more moderate than that of the cm, and the latter suspected that Rarewala was trying to obtain the support of Hindus in order to challenge his power and replace him. Kairon also had the temporary support at state level of a Hindu associate interested in the factionalism of the Doraha-Payal-Sirhind area—one Brish Bhan.
