Punjab (British India)

Infobox Former Subdivision
native_name =
conventional_long_name = Punjab
common_name = Punjab
nation = British India
status_text = British colony
era = New Imperialism
year_start = 1849
date_start =
event_start=
year_end = 1947
date_end =
event_end= Partition of India
event1 =
date_event1 =
p1 =
s1 =
flag_p1 =
flag_s1 =

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image_map_caption = Map of British Punjab 1909
stat_area1 =
stat_year1 =
stat_pop1 =
footnotes =

Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between India and Pakistan. It comprised the present day areas of:

*Punjab, Pakistan
*Punjab, India
*Haryana, India
*Himachal Pradesh, India
*Delhi, India
*Chandigarh, India
*Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan

Etymology

The word Punjab is named from the "five rivers" by which it is watered: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all tributaries of the Indus.

Geography

Geographically the Punjab province of British India was a triangular tract of country of which the Indus and the Sutlej to their confluence formed the two sides, the base being the lower Himalaya hills between those two rivers; but the British province also included a large tract outside those boundaries. Along the northern border Himalayan ranges divided it from Kashmir and Tibet. On the west it was separated from the North-West Frontier Province by the Indus, until that river reaches the border of Dera Ghazi Khan District, which was divided from Baluchistan by the Sulaiman Range. To the south lay Sindh and Rajputana, while on the east the rivers Jumna and Tons separated it from the United Provinces. []

History

On 21 February 1849 the Sikhs were defeated at the battle of Gujrat by the British, the victory of the British allowed them to take over the Punjab. Punjab was annexed on the 2nd of April 1849 and became part of British India.

In 1901 the frontier districts beyond the Indus were separated from Punjab and made into a new province - the North-West Frontier Province.

References