Colonial Punjab and Its Partition

Download or read book Colonial Punjab and Its Partition written by Gurprit Singh and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-23 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Punjab was generally called 'the Lahore Province' or 'the Lahore Kingdom', after the name of the capital city during the Sikh Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Lahore Kingdom stretched from Sutlej in the east to the Khyber Pass in the west.The British had arrived in India in the second half of the 18th century but it was only in 1849 that they could annex Punjab, a full 92 years after the fall of Plassey to them.After the Mutiny of 1857, Delhi and Hissar of present Haryana was added to the Punjab Province. From the Punjab, the areas to the west beyond the Indus were separated in 1901 and a separate province NWFP (presently KPK) was formed.Great development of Punjab took place under the British, particularly the building of canals and extension of Irrigation facilities. A lot of Punjabi youth especially from North Punjab benefitted as they were recruited for the Army.Under the viceroy Lord Curzon and in 1912, the capital Delhi was separated from the Punjab. Under the British rule, it came to be called 'the Province of the Punjab'.When the call for Swadeshi was made, Punjabi youth abroad got involved in the Ghadar movement and the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre further distanced the Punjabis from the British. During the second world War, Muslim League found it opportune moment to create Pakistan. The Sikh-Muslim relations had deteriorated already after the Shaheedgunj Mosque/gurdwara controversy. The March riots of Rawalpindi and Northern Punjab saw an exodus of 500,000 Non-Muslims towards East before 15th August. The Post-partition months saw savage killings of minorities on both sides of the Punjab and by 1948, the ethnic cleansing of Punjab was over.