1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Punjab

​PUNJAB, a province of British India, so named from the “five rivers” by which it is watered: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all tributaries of the Indus. Geographically the Punjab is the triangular tract of country of which the Indus and the Sutlej to their confluence form the two sides, the base being the lower Himalaya hills between those two rivers; but the British province now includes a large tract outside those boundaries. Along the northern border Himalayan ranges divide it from Kashmir and Tibet. On the west it isseparated from the North-West Frontier province by the Indus, until that river reaches the border of Dera Ghazi Khan district,which is divided from Baluchistan by the Suliman range. Tothe south lie Sind and Rajputana, While on the east the riversJumna and Tons separate it from the United Provinces.The Punjab includes two classes of territory, that belongingto the British Crown, and that in possession of 34 feudatorychiefs, almost all of Whom pay tribute. The total areaPolitical of the province is 133,741 sq. m., of which 97,209 sq. m. Political Divisions.are British territory, and the remainder belongs to native states. The British territory is divided into 29 districts, grouped under the five divisions of Delhi, Lahore, Jullundur, Ravvalpindi and Multan; while the native states Vary in size from Bahawalpur, with an area of 15,000 sq. m., to the tinystate of Darkoti, with an area of 8 sq. m. and a total population of 518 souls. They may be grouped under three main heads: the Phulkian states of Patiala, Jind and Nabha and the Sikhstate of Kapurthala, occupying the centre of the eastern plains;the Mahommedan state of Bahawalpur between the Sutlej andthe Rajputana desert; and the hill states, among the PunjabHimalayas held by ancient Rajput families, including Chamba,Mandi, Suket, Sirmur and the Simla states.

Physical Features.—The mountain regions of the Punjabfall under four separate groups. To the north-east of the provincelies the Himalayan system, with the fringing range ofthe Siwaliks at its foot. In the south-eastern corner the Aravallisystem sends out insignificant outliers, which run across Gurgaonand Delhi districts and strike the Jumna at Delhi. The lowerportion of the Western frontier is constituted by the greatSuliman chain; while the north-western districts of the provinceare traversed by the hill system known as the Salt range. Themountain system of the Himalayas, so far as it concerns thePunjab, consists primarily of three great ranges running in agenerally north-westerly direction from the head-waters of theSutlej to the Indus: the Western Himalayas or Zanskar or BaraLacha range, the mid-Himalayas or Pir Panjal range, and theouter or sub-Himalayas. From these three great ranges springnumerous minor ranges, as ribs from a backbone, the wholeforming a confused system of mountain chains and valleys,the breadth of which is some 90 m. at its eastern extremity fromLahul to the Siwaliks of Hoshiarpur, and some 150 m. measuredat its western extremity across Kashmir.

The “five rivers” of the Punjab are each of large volume; but, on account of the great width of sandy channel in their passage through the plains, their changing courses, and The Five Rivers.shifting shoals, they are of no value for steam navigation, though they all support a considerable boat-traffic. Of recent years most of them have been utilized for purposes of irrigation, and have turned the sandy desert of ​the Punjab into one of the great wheat fields of the BritishEmpire.

While the general name Punjab is applied to the wholecountry of the “five rivers,” there are distinct names for eachof the doabs (do, two; ab, water) or tracts between two adjoiningrivers. The country between the Sutlej and the Beas is calledthe Jullundur Doab; it includes the districts of Jullundurand Hoshiarpur. The long strip between the Beas and theRavi, containing the greater part of Gurdaspur, Amritsar,Lahore, Montgomery, and Multan districts, is called the BariDoab. Rechna Doab is the tract between the Ravi and theChenab, embracing Sialkot and Gujranwala districts, with thetrans-Ravi portions of the districts of the Bari Doab. Chajor Jech is the doab between the Chenab and the Jhelum (Gujratand Shahpur districts and part of Jhang), and Sind Sagaris the name of the large doab between the Jhelum and theIndus, including Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Muzaffargarhdistricts, with parts of Shahpur, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.The higher and dryer parts of the doabs are called bar. Theyare waste, but not barren, scantily covered with low shrubs,and capable, when watered, of being well cultivated. The baris the great camel-grazing land. Large areas of Muzaffargarhand Multan districts are thal, barren tracts of shifting sand.The middle part of the Bari Doab, in Amritsar district, bearsthe distinctive name of Manjha (middle) as the centre andheadquarters of the Sikh nation, containing their two sacredtanks of Amritsar and Taran Taran. The Maiwa Sikhs,again, are those of the cis-Sutlej country.

South of the Himalayas stretch the great plains, whichconstitute by far the larger proportion of the province. WithThe Punjab Plains.the exception of the Himalayan and Salt rangetracts the Punjab presents, from the Jumna on theeast to the Sulimans in the west, one vast level,unbroken save by the wide eroded channels within which thegreat rivers ever shift their beds, by the insignificant spurs ofthe Aravalli range in the south-eastern corner, and the lowhills of Chiniot and Kirana in Jhang. The whole of these vastplains is of alluvial formation. Stones are unknown save atthe immediate foot of the hills; micaceous river sand is to befound everywhere at varying depths; and the only mineral isnodular accretions of limestone, called kankar, which is usedfor the construction of roads. The soil is a singularly uniformloam, the quality being determined by the greater or smallerproportion of sand present. In the local hollows and drainagelines the constant deposit of argillaceous particles has producedstiff tenacious soil, especially adapted to rice cultivation,while in the beds of the great rivers, and on the wind-frettedwater-sheds pure sand is commonly found. Where neithersand nor the saline efflorescence called reh is present, the soilis uniformly fertile, if only the rainfall be sufficient or meansof irrigation be available. Throughout the greater part of thewestern plains, however, the insufficiency of rainfall is apermanent condition; and until recently the uniform aspectof the country was that of wide steppes of intrinsically fertilesoil, useful, however, only as grazing grounds for herds ofcamels or cattle.

Population.—The total population of the Punjab (includingnative states) according to the census of 1901 was 24,754,737,showing an increase of 6.4% in the decade. The Jats, whonumber some five millions, form the backbone of the cultivatingcommunity. Large numbers of them have become Sikhsor Mahommedans in the tracts where those religions predominate.The Rajputs, with a total of over a million andthree-quarters, comprise tribes of different religions, races and socialsystems. By religion they are mostly Mahommedan, onlyabout one-fourth being Hindus, while a very few are Sikhs.By race they include the ancient ruling tribes of the Jumnavalley, the Tomar and Chauhan, which gave Delhi its mostfamous Hindu dynasties; the Bhattis of the south andcentre, which have migrated from Bikanir and Jeysulmere intotheir present seats; the Sials of Jhang; and the Punwars ofthe south-west. In the northern or submontane districts theRajputs also represent the old ruling tribes, such as the Chibbsof Gujrat, the Janjuas of the Salt range and others, while inKangra district they preserve a very old type of Hindu aristocracy.The Gujars are an important agricultural and pastoraltribe. They are most numerous in the eastern half of theprovince and in the districts of the extreme north-west, especiallyin Gujrat, to which they have given their name. Baluchisand Pathans are strongly represented in the south-west. Thedistinctive religion of the Punjab is Sikhism (q.v.), though Sikhsform only 8.5% of the total population. Of the rest,Mahommedans are more numerous than Hindus.

Language.—Of the 24,754,737 people in the Punjab about18,000,000 speak the provincial language, Punjabi, which variesin character in different parts of the province. About 4,000,000speak Hindustani (see Hindostani), this number including thosewhose ordinary vernacular is Hindi, but who understand and aregradually adopting the more comprehensive Hindustani. Thesetwo languages are the most generally used throughout theprovince, but not equally in all parts. The other languages inuse are more or less local. The hill dialects, known as Pahari, areakin to the language spoken in Rajputana; and so also is thespeech of the Gujars. Hindustani is the language of the lawcourts and of all ordinary officials and other communicationswith chiefs and people.

Administration.—The administration is conducted by alieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the governor-general,subject to the approval of the Crown. Two commissionerstake the place of the board of revenue in most other provinces.A survival of the “non-regulation” system is to be found in thetitle of deputy-commissioner for the district officer elsewherecalled collector. The highest judicial authority is styled thechief court, consisting of five judges, which corresponds to thehigh court elsewhere. A legislative council, first created in1897, was enlarged in 1909 to 26 members, of whom ten areofficials and five are elected. The province is distributed intofive divisions or commissionerships. Most of the commissionersalso exercise political functions over the native states withintheir jurisdiction.

Education.—The Punjab University, which was founded in1882, differs from other Indian universities in being more than amerely examining body. It is responsible for the managementof the Oriental College at Lahore, and takes a part in the improvementof vernacular literature. It also conducts Orientalexaminations side by side with those in English, and has been the firstto introduce a series of examinations in science from matriculationto the degree, as well as a final school examination in clericaland commercial subjects. The higher and special educationalinstitutions are the Lahore Government College, the Cambridge ​University Mission College at Delhi, the Medical School and theMayo School of Art at Lahore; and the Punjab Chiefs' College,also at Lahore.

History.—For the early history of the Punjab from the Aryanimmigration to the fall of the Mogul dynasty see India: History.It deserves, however, to be noted here that from the time ofAlexander onwards Greek settlers remained in the Punjab, andthat Greek artists gave their services for Buddhist work andintroduced features of their own into Indian architecture.Besides the bases and capitals of large Greek columns at Shahderi(Taxila) and elsewhere, numerous sculptures of Greekworkmanship have been found at various places. These are singlestatues (probably portraits), also figures of Buddha, andrepresentations of scenes in his legendary history, and other subjects.They are obtained from ruins of monasteries and other buildings,from mounds and the remains of villages or monumental topes.Of Buddhist buildings now remaining the most conspicuous aswell as distinctive in character are the topes (stupa), in shapea plain hemisphere, raised on a platform of two or more stages.One of the largest of these is at Manikiala, 14 m. east ofRawalpindi. These Buddhist buildings and sculptures are allprobably the work of the two centuries before and the three orfour after the beginning of the Christian era. The character ofthe sculptures is now well known from the specimens in theIndia Museum, South Kensington, and both originals and castsof others in the Lahore Museum. Unfortunately they have nonames or inscriptions, which give so much value to the sculpturesof the Bharhut tope.

The several bodies of settlers in the Punjab from the earliesttimes have formed groups of families or clans (not identical withIndian castes, but in many cases joining them), which havegenerally preserved distinct characteristics and followed certainclasses of occupation in particular parts of the country. Someof the existing tribes in the Punjab are believed to be traceableto the early Aryan settlers, as the Bhatti tribe, whose specialregion is Bhattiana south of the Sutlej, and who have also in thevillage of Pindi Bhattian a record of their early occupation of atract of country on the left bank of the Chenab, west of Lahore.The Dogras, another Aryan clan, belong to a tract of the lowerhills between the Chenab and the Ravi. Others similarly havetheir special ancient localities. To the earlier settlers—thedark race (Dasyu) whom the Aryans found, in the country, andwho are commonly spoken of as aborigines—belonged, as issupposed, the old tribe called Takka, whose name is found inTaksha-sila or Taxila. And from the later foreigners again,the Indo-Scythians, are probably descended the great Jat tribeof cultivators, also the Gujars and others.

It was during the events which brought Baber, the first of theMogul dynasty, to the throne, that the sect of the Sikhs wasfounded by Nanak; and it was under the persecution of Aurangzebthat they were raised into a nation of warriors by Govind Singh,the tenth and last of the gurus. For their tenets and history seeSikhism.

The break-up of the Mogul Empire in the 18th century allowedthe Sikhs to establish themselves, as a loosely organized communityof marauders, in the eastern plains of the Punjab, on bothbanks of the Sutlej. Here, after long internecine warfare, one oftheir chieftains succeeded in enforcing his authority over therest. This was Ranjit Singh, the “Lion of the Punjab,” bornin 1780, who acquired possession of Lahore as his capital in 1799.Ranjit was a man of strong will and immense energy, of no educationbut of great acuteness in obtaining the knowledge thatwould be of use to him. When he endeavoured to include theSikh states south of the Sutlej within his jurisdiction, the headsof these states—chiefs of Sirhind and Malwa, as they werecalled—sought and obtained in 1808 the protection of the British,whose territories had now extended to their neighbourhood.The British were at this time desirous of alliance with Lahoreas well as with Kabul, for protection against supposed Frenchdesigns on India. A British envoy, Charles Metcalfe, wasreceived by Ranjit at Kasur in 1809 and the alliance was formed.Ranjit steadily strengthened himself and extended his dominions.In 1809 he got possession of Kangra, which the Nepalese werebesieging. In 1813 he acquired the fort of Attock on the otherside of the Punjab; and in the same year he obtained from ShahShuja, now a refugee in Lahore, what he coveted as much asterritory, the celebrated Koh-i-nor diamond, which had beencarried off by Nadir Shah from Delhi. In 1818, after somefailures in previous years, he captured Multan. Kashmir,which had successfully opposed him several times, was annexedthe following year, and likewise the southern part of the countrybetween the Indus and the hills. The Peshawar valley hesucceeded in adding four years later, but he found it best to leavean Afghan governor in charge of that troublesome district.These trans-Indus and other outlying tracts were left very muchto themselves, and only received a military visit when revenuewas wanted. Peshawar was never really ruled till Avitabilewas sent there in later years. When he was gradually raisinghis large and powerful army Ranjit received into his servicecertain French and other officers, who drilled his troops andgreatly improved his artillery. Whilst he relied on theseforeigners for military and sometimes also for administrativeservices, he drew around him a body of native ministers of greatability, of whom the brothers Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh ofJammu were the most influential.

Ranjit always maintained friendly relations with the Britishgovernment, and just before his death gave tacit approval tothe scheme for placing Shah Shuja on the throne of Kabul.His death in 1839 was followed by six years of internal anarchy,princes and ministers being murdered in quick succession, whileall real power passed to the army of 90,000 trained troops. Atlast this army, unpaid and unmanageable, demanded to be ledinto British territory, and had their way. They crossed theSutlej in December 1845. The battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshahand Aliwal were followed by the rout of the Sikh army atSobraon on the 10th of February 1846, when they were drivenback into the Sutlej with heavy loss, and the British armyadvanced to Lahore. Of the Sikh guns 256 fell into the handsof the British in these actions on the Sutlej. A treaty was madeat Lahore on the 9th of March with the chiefs and ministry whowere to hold the government on behalf of the young maharaja,Duleep Singh. By this treaty the Jullundur Doab and the hilldistrict of Kangra were ceded to the British, also the possessionsof the maharaja on the left bank of the Sutlej. In addition theBritish demanded a money payment of £1,500,000. The servicesof Gulab Singh, raja of Jammu, to the Lahore state, in procuringthe restoration of friendly relations with the British, werespecially recognized. His independent sovereignty in suchlands as might be made over to him was granted. The Sikhgovernment, unable to pay the whole of the money demand,further ceded, as equivalent for £1,000,000, the hill countrybetween the Beas and the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara.Gulab Singh was prepared to give the amount in place of whichKashmir was to have become British, and by a separate treatywith him, on the 16th of March 1846, this was arranged. At theurgent request of the durbar a British force was left at Lahorefor the protection of the maharaja and the preservation of peace.To restore order and introduce a settled administration a Britishresident was appointed, who was to guide and control the councilof regency, and assistants to the resident were stationed indifferent parts of the country.

Peace was not long preserved. The governor of Multan,Diwan Mulraj, desired to resign. Two British officers sent bythe resident to take over charge of the fort were murdered, onthe 19th of April 1848, and their escort went over to the diwan.Another of the assistants to the resident, Lieutenant HerbertEdwardes, then in the Derajat, west of the Indus, on hearing oftheir fate, collected a force with which to attack the Multan armywhile the insurrection was yet local. This he did with signalsuccess. But Multan could not fall before such means as hepossessed. The movement spread, the operations widened,and the Sikh and British forces were in the field again. Multanwas taken. The severe battle of Chillianwalla on the 13th ofJanuary 1849 left the Sikhs as persistent as after the two terrible ​days of Ferozeshah in the previous campaign. And it neededthe crushing defeat of Gujrat, on the 21st of February 1849, tobring the war to a conclusion, and this time to give the Punjabto England. It was annexed on the 2nd of April 1849.

For the government of the new province, including theJullundur Doab, previously annexed, and the cis-Sutlej states,a board of administration was appointed consisting of threemembers. In place of this board a chief commissioner wasappointed in 1853, aided by a judicial commissioner and afinancial commissioner. British troops, European and native,of the regular army were stationed at the chief cities and otherplaces east of the Indus and at Peshawar. For the rest of thetrans-Indus territory a special body of native troops, called thePunjab frontier force, was raised and placed under the orders ofthe chief commissioner. During the Mutiny of 1857 the Punjab,under Sir John Lawrence as chief commissioner, was able to sendimportant aid to the force engaged in the siege of Delhi, whilesuppressing the disturbances which arose, and meeting thedangers which threatened, within the Punjab itself. In 1858the Delhi territory, as it was called, west of the Jumna, wastransferred from the North-Western Provinces to the Punjab.The enlarged province was raised in rank, and on the 1st ofJanuary 1859 the chief commissioner became lieutenant-governor.In 1901 the frontier districts beyond the Indus weresevered from the Punjab and made into a separate provincecalled the North-West Frontier province.