Introduction

Pakistan’s creation depended on the Punjab. The region’s large Muslim population, ¹ agricultural wealth and even more importantly its strategic position as the ‘land-gate’ of the Indo-Gangetic Plain ² made it crucial to the viability of a North Indian Muslim homeland. Indeed, Jinnah called Punjab the ‘corner-stone’ of Pakistan. Yet its politics were dominated by the cross-communal Unionist Party. This grouping of predominantly Muslim Rajput and Hindu Jat landowners had been founded in 1923. Malik Khizr Hayat Khan Tiwana was its last leader. He played a key role in limiting the Muslim League’s influence in the Punjab from 1942–7. Khizr countered the Pakistan demand with his own vision of a United Punjab within a decentralised federal India.