The Dharam Yuddh Morcha ("righteous campaign") was a religious political movement in Punjab, India launched on 4 August 1982, by the Akali Dal in partnership with Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, with its stated aim being the fulfillment of a set of devolutionary objectives based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.
Background
After the Punjabi Suba
The Akali Dal had opposed several effects of the Punjab Reorganisation Act on 1 November 1966, with Akali leaders protesting against it. Several months before its inauguration, movement leader Fateh Singh had expressed his dissatisfaction over several issues of contention. These included genuinely Punjabi-speaking areas being left out of the new state and given to Haryana and Himachal Pradesh which stemmed from the usage of falsified returns by the Arya Samaj in the 1961 census, and resulted in the state of Punjab consisting of far less of the over 35,000 square miles of the Punjabi-speaking state proposed by the Akalis, who had carefully drafted the demand strictly on the basis of language and using pre-1947 census figures. Other concerns included Chandigarh being turned into a Union Territory instead of being the capital solely of Punjab as promised, the level of autonomy of all of the states in the country, riparian concerns, agrarian reforms, and power and irrigation projects being taken over by the central government, instead of the state retaining control of them.
Centralization
The years following the Punjabi Suba movement were characterized by a centralizing tendency in the country. In 1978, several new policy areas were moved from the State List to the Concurrent List, including education, giving the center the power to set guidelines and make decisions regarding textbooks and curricula. The Akalis saw this move as yet another strategy of the central government to intrude on the Sikhs’ hard-won autonomy and limit the expression of Sikh culture, history, and religion.
The struggle that emerged in the 1970s was primarily justified on economic reasons, some of which were a consequence of the 1966 reorganization. The Anandpur Sahib resolution, issued by the Akali Dal's working committee in 1973, called for the Indian constitution to be "recast on real federal principles, with equal representation at the center for all States,” and a "congenial environment and political set-up" for the Sikhs. The resolution was not secessionist in nature but called for greater autonomy for Punjab, and protection of the Sikhs' cultural and religious rights, along with addressing economic concerns of the Punjab.
The Anandpur Sahib Resolution had been a comprehensive party program, not used in its full format in talks with the central government; the policy proposals developed a few years later based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution was the 1978 Ludhiana Resolution, which put socio-economic concerns at the core. The Ludhiana Resolution called for an end to the center's control of Punjab's river waters and the just distribution of it, state control of the headworks, and better procurement prices and subsidies for the state's farmers. These issues were of particular concern to the state's rural Sikh population, as the Sikhs dominated the agricultural sector. Other demands included the maintenance of the ratio of Sikhs in the army, protections of Sikhs outside Punjab, Punjabi as a second language for states with significant Punjabi-speaking populations, amendments to tax and property policies for rural populations, a broadcasting station and a dry port at Amritsar, and a stock exchange at Ludhiana.