Editing Khalistan movement (section)

=== Azad Punjab, 1943 ===
Azad Punjab was a proposal of a redrawing of the boundaries of Punjab to excise the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority northwestern-areas west of the Jhelum river out of, which the Akali Dal claimed were not actually part of Punjab proper but had been added administratively to Punjab earlier by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Yong |first=Tan Tai |date=July-December 1994 |title=Prelude to Partition: Sikh Responses to the Demand for Pakistan, 1940–47 |url=https://giss.org/pdf/1_2_Punjab_F.pdf |journal=International Journal of Punjab Studies |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=174–183}}</ref> The Azad Punjab proposal was a redrawing of borders in-order to demographically balance the religious make-up of the Punjab to around 40% Muslim, 40% Hindu, an 20% Sikh so that no single religious community would demographically dominate overall whilst also ensuring the Sikhs would remain the power-brokers between the equally-numbered Muslims and Hindus.<ref name=":7" /> The Azad Punjab proposal was never intended to be a separate Sikh state.<ref name=":7" /> The areas claimed for Azad Punjab were Ambala, Jullunder, and Lahore divisions, Lyallpur district of the Multan division, and parts of Montgomery and Multan districts.<ref name=":7" /> However, the Azad Punjab proposal was not popular outside of the Akali Dal.<ref name=":7" />