# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Punjab

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​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 is separated 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. To the south lie Sind and Rajputana, While on the east the rivers Jumna and Tons separate it from the United Provinces. The Punjab includes two classes of territory, that belonging to the British Crown, and that in possession of 34 feudatory chiefs, almost all of Whom pay tribute. The total area Political 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 tiny state 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 Sikh state of Kapurthala, occupying the centre of the eastern plains; the Mahommedan state of Bahawalpur between the Sutlej and the Rajputana desert; and the hill states, among the Punjab Himalayas held by ancient Rajput families, including Chamba, Mandi, Suket, Sirmur and the Simla states.
Physical Features.—The mountain regions of the Punjab fall under four separate groups. To the north-east of the province lies the Himalayan system, with the fringing range of the Siwaliks at its foot. In the south-eastern corner the Aravalli system sends out insignificant outliers, which run across Gurgaon and Delhi districts and strike the Jumna at Delhi. The lower portion of the Western frontier is constituted by the great Suliman chain; while the north-western districts of the province are traversed by the hill system known as the Salt range. The mountain system of the Himalayas, so far as it concerns the Punjab, consists primarily of three great ranges running in a generally north-westerly direction from the head-waters of the Sutlej to the Indus: the Western Himalayas or Zanskar or Bara Lacha range, the mid-Himalayas or Pir Panjal range, and the outer or sub-Himalayas. From these three great ranges spring numerous minor ranges, as ribs from a backbone, the whole forming a confused system of mountain chains and valleys, the breadth of which is some 90 m. at its eastern extremity from Lahul to the Siwaliks of Hoshiarpur, and some 150 m. measured at 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 British Empire.
While the general name Punjab is applied to the whole country of the “five rivers,” there are distinct names for each of the doabs (do, two; ab, water) or tracts between two adjoining rivers. The country between the Sutlej and the Beas is called the Jullundur Doab; it includes the districts of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur. The long strip between the Beas and the Ravi, containing the greater part of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, Montgomery, and Multan districts, is called the Bari Doab. Rechna Doab is the tract between the Ravi and the Chenab, embracing Sialkot and Gujranwala districts, with the trans-Ravi portions of the districts of the Bari Doab. Chaj or Jech is the doab between the Chenab and the Jhelum (Gujrat and Shahpur districts and part of Jhang), and Sind Sagar is the name of the large doab between the Jhelum and the Indus, including Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Muzaffargarh districts, with parts of Shahpur, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan. The higher and dryer parts of the doabs are called bar. They are waste, but not barren, scantily covered with low shrubs, and capable, when watered, of being well cultivated. The bar is the great camel-grazing land. Large areas of Muzaffargarh and Multan districts are thal, barren tracts of shifting sand. The middle part of the Bari Doab, in Amritsar district, bears the distinctive name of Manjha (middle) as the centre and headquarters of the Sikh nation, containing their two sacred tanks of Amritsar and Taran Taran. The Maiwa Sikhs, again, are those of the cis-Sutlej country.
South of the Himalayas stretch the great plains, which constitute by far the larger proportion of the province. With The Punjab Plains. the exception of the Himalayan and Salt range tracts the Punjab presents, from the Jumna on the east to the Sulimans in the west, one vast level, unbroken save by the wide eroded channels within which the great rivers ever shift their beds, by the insignificant spurs of the Aravalli range in the south-eastern corner, and the low hills of Chiniot and Kirana in Jhang. The whole of these vast plains is of alluvial formation. Stones are unknown save at the immediate foot of the hills; micaceous river sand is to be found everywhere at varying depths; and the only mineral is nodular accretions of limestone, called kankar, which is used for the construction of roads. The soil is a singularly uniform loam, the quality being determined by the greater or smaller proportion of sand present. In the local hollows and drainage lines the constant deposit of argillaceous particles has produced stiff tenacious soil, especially adapted to rice cultivation, while in the beds of the great rivers, and on the wind-fretted water-sheds pure sand is commonly found. Where neither sand nor the saline efflorescence called reh is present, the soil is uniformly fertile, if only the rainfall be sufficient or means of irrigation be available. Throughout the greater part of the western plains, however, the insufficiency of rainfall is a permanent condition; and until recently the uniform aspect of the country was that of wide steppes of intrinsically fertile soil, useful, however, only as grazing grounds for herds of camels or cattle.
The Punjab may be divided into four great natural divisions: the Himalayan tract, the submontane tract, the eastern and Natural Divisions. western plains and the Salt range tract, which have characteristics widely different from each other. The Himalayan tract, which includes the Punjab hill states, consists of 20,000 sq. m. of sparsely inhabited mountain, with tiny hamlets perched on the hill-sides or nestling in the valleys. The people consist chiefly of Rajputs, Kanets, Ghiraths, Brahmans and Dagis or menials. The eastern and western plains, which are divided from each other by a line passing through Lahore, are dissimilar in character. The eastern are arable plains of moderate rainfall and almost without rivers, except along their northern and eastern edges. They are inhabited by the Hindu races of India, and contain the great cities of Delhi, Amritsar and Lahore. They formed, until the recent spread of irrigation, the most fertile, wealthy and populous portion of the province. The western plains, except where canal irrigation has been introduced, consist of arid pastures with scanty rainfall, traversed by the five great rivers, of which the broad valleys alone are cultivable. They are inhabited largely by Mahommedan tribes, and it is in this tract that irrigation has worked such great changes. The Chenab and Jhelum Canal colonies are already pronounced successes, and it is hoped that in process of time the Lower Bari Doab and the Sind-Sagar Doab will be similarly fertilized. The submontane tract, skirting the foot of the hills, has an area of 10,000 sq. m., consisting of some of the most fertile and thickly populated portions of the province. Its population comes midway between the peoples of the hills and of the plains in race, religion and language, Mahommedanism being less prevalent, Hindi more generally spoken, and Rajputs and hill menials more common than in the plains. The Gujars form a special feature of this zone. Its only large town is Sialkot. The Salt range tract includes the districts of Rawalpindi and Jhelum and a small portion of Shahpur district, and consists of some 9000 sq. m. of broken and confused country.
Geology.—By far the greater part of the Punjab is covered by alluvial and wind-blown deposits of the plain of the Indus. The Salt range hills form a plateau with a steeply scarped face to the south, along which there is an axis of abrupt folding, accompanied by faulting. The rocks found in the Salt range belong to the Cambrian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic and Jurassic systems, while Tertiary beds cover the plateau behind. The extensive and valuable deposits of salt, from which the range takes its name, occur near the base of the Cambrian beds. Gypsum, kieserite and other salts are also found. Between the Cambrian and the Carboniferous beds there is an unconformity, which, however, is not very strongly marked, in spite of the lapse of time which it indicates. At the bottom of the Carboniferous series there is usually a boulder bed, the boulders in which have been brought from a distance and are scratched and striated as if by ice. It is generally admitted that this deposit, together with contemporaneous boulder beds in the peninsula of India, in Australia and in South Africa, indicate a southern glacial period in late Carboniferous times. Above the sandstone series at the base of which the boulder bed lies, come the Productus and Ceratite limestones. The former is believed to belong to the Upper Carboniferous and Permian, the latter to the Trias. Jurassic beds are found only in the western portion of the range.
Climate.—Owing to its sub-tropical position, scanty rainfall and cloudless skies, and the wide expanse of untilled plains, the climate of the Punjab presents greater extremes of both heat and cold than any other part of India. From the middle of April to the middle of September it is extremely hot, while from the beginning of October to the end of March there is a magnificent cool season, resembling that of the Riviera, with warm bright days and cool nights. Frosts are frequent in January. In the first three months of the hot season, from April till the end of June, a dry heat is experienced, with a temperature rising to 120° F. in the shade. At the end of June the monsoon arrives, the rains break, and though the heat is less intense the air is moist, and from the middle of August the temperature gradually falls. This is the most unhealthy period of the year, being exceedingly malarious. The Punjab enjoys two well-marked seasons of rainfall; the monsoon period, lasting from the middle of June till the end of September, on which the autumn crops and spring sowings depend; and the winter rains, which fall early in January, and though often insignificant in amount materially affect the prosperity of the spring harvest. Excepting in the Himalayas the rainfall is greatest in the east of the province, as the Bombay monsoon is exhausted in its passage over the great plains of Sind and Rajputana, while the west winds from Baluchistan pass over an arid tract and leave such moisture as they may have collected on the western slopes of the Suliman range; so that the Punjab depends for its rain very largely on the south-east winds from the Bay of Bengal. The submontane tract has an annual average of 36 to 32 in., the eastern plains vary from 20 to 14 in., and the western plains from 10 to 5 in.
Minerals.—Besides rock-salt, the mineral products of the Punjab are not many. Limestone, good for building, is obtained at Chiniot on the Chenab and at a few other places. There are extensive alum-beds at Kalabagh on the Indus. A small quantity of coal is found in the Salt range in disconnected beds, the Dandot colliery in the Jhelum district being worked by the North-Western railway. Petroleum is found in small quantities at a number of places in Rawalpindi, being gathered from the surface of pools or collected in shallow pits. In almost all parts of the Punjab there is kankar, rough nodular limestone, commonly found in thick beds, a few feet below the surface of the ground, used for road metal and burned for lime.
Agriculture.—As in other parts of India, there are commonly two harvests in the year. The spring crops are wheat, barley, gram, various vegetables, oil-seeds, tobacco and a little poppy; the autumn crops are rice, millets, maize, pulses, cotton, indigo and sugar-cane. Wheat has become the most important export of the province. In the spring of 1906 an area of 8½ million acres was harvested, producing 3½ million tons. Tea is cultivated in Kangra district. Flax has been produced successfully, but the cultivation has not been extended. Hops have been grown experimentally, for the Murree brewery, on neighbouring hills; the ​cultivation in Kashmir has been more encouraging. Potatoes are grown extensively on cleared areas on the hills. The Punjab produces freely many of the Indian fruits. Grapes are grown in many of the Himalayan valleys where the rain is not excessive; but they are inferior to those brought from Kabul.
Forests.—The forest area of the Punjab consists of 9278 sq. m., of which 1916 sq. m. are reserved and 4909 sq. m. protected. The wasteful destruction of trees is checked in the hill forests rented from native states by the British government. The principal reserved forests are the deodar (Cedrus Deodara) and chil (Pinus longifolia) tracts in the hills, the plantations of shisham (Dalbergia Sissu) and sal (Shorea robusta) in the plains, and the fuel rakhs or preserves (Acacia, Prosopis, &c.).
Manufactures.—Most of the native manufactures of the Punjab are those common to other parts of India, such as the ordinary cotton fabrics, plain woollen blankets, unglazed pottery, ropes and cord, grass matting, paper, leather-work, brass vessels, simple agricultural implements and the tools used in trades. Other manufactures, not so general, yet not peculiar to the Punjab, are woollen fabrics, carpets and shawls, silk cloths and embroidery, jewelry and ornamental metal-work, wood and ivory carving, turned and lacquered woodwork, glazed pottery, arms and armour and musical instruments. But some of these classes of manufacture are represented by work of special kinds or special excellence in particular parts of the Punjab, notably the silk fabrics of Multan and Bahawalpur; the carpets of Lahore and Amritsar; the kashi or glazed tile-work (an ancient art still practised in a few places); koft-kari, inlaid metal-work (gold wire on steel), chiefly made at Gujrat and Sialkot; shawls and other fine woollen fabrics, made by Kashmiri work-people at Ludhiana and Nurpur, as well as in Kashmir; silk embroidery for shawls, scarfs and turbans, at Delhi, Lahore and Multan; embroidery on cloth for elephant-trappings, bed and table covers, &c., at Lahore and Multan; enamelled ornaments, in Kangra and Multan; quill embroidery on leather, in Kangra and Simla; lacquered woodwork, at Pak Pattan. Cotton-weaving gives employment to about a million persons, but the most flourishing industry is the woollen factories of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and elsewhere. Injury has been done to some of the native arts of the Punjab, as of other parts of India, by unwise copying of European patterns. The Lahore School of Art attempts to correct this and promote the study and execution of native forms and designs. The Lahore Museum contains illustrations of the arts and manufactures, as well as raw products, of the Punjab; and also a large collection of the sculptures, mostly Buddhist, and many of Greek workmanship, found in the north-west of the province.
Trade.—The trade of the Punjab is almost wholly dependent upon agriculture. In a normal year the principal feature of the trade is the movement of wheat to Karachi, which is the chief port for the province. But in a bad season, when the rains fail, this movement is at once checked, the wheat is held up in reserve and an eastward movement in cheaper grains begins. In 1904 32½ million maunds of wheat were exported, but 1905 was a bad season and the amount fell to 21 million maunds. The other chief articles of export are pulse and raw cotton. The chief imports are European cotton and woollen piece-goods and yarn, Indian piece-goods, sugar, metals and jute goods. The through trade in the main staples of grain and piece-goods is in the hands of large European and native firms. In addition to the foreign trade there is a considerable provincial trade with the United Provinces, and a trans-frontier trade with Kashmir, Ladakh, Yarkand and Tibet on the north, and with Afghanistan on the west.
Irrigation.—Irrigation for large areas is from canals and from reservoirs, and for smaller areas from wells. The canals are of two kinds: those carrying a permanent stream throughout the year, and those which fill only on the periodical rising of the rivers, the latter being known as “inundation canals.” There are only a few parts of the country presenting facilities for forming reservoirs, by closing the narrow outlets of small valleys and storing the accumulated rainfall. The old canals made by the Mahommedan rulers, of which the principal are Feroz's Canal from the Jumna and the Hasli Canal from the Ravi, have been improved or reconstructed by the British government. The principal new canals are the Sirhind, drawn from the Sutlej near Rupar, which irrigates parts of the native states of Patiala, Nabha and Jhind, as well as British territory; the Bari Doab Canal from the Ravi; the Chenab Canal from the Chenab, irrigating the prosperous Chenab colony; and the Jhelum Canal irrigating the Jhelum colony. The total area irrigated by the canals of the province in 1905-1906 was 6,914,500 acres, the eight major works, the Western Jumna, Bari Doab, Sirhind, Lower Chenab, Lower Jhelum, Upper Sutlej, Sidhnai and Indus accounting for all but 751,000 acres. The ravages of the boll-worm in the cotton crop made 1906 an unfavourable year; but in spite of that the Lower Chenab Canal paid nearly 21% on the capital invested, the Bari Doab 11% and the Western Jumna nearly 10%.
Railways.—The Punjab is well supplied with railways, which have their central terminus at Delhi. One main line of the North-Western runs from Umballa through Lahore and Rawalpindi towards Peshawar; another main line runs from Lahore to Multan, and thence to the sea at Karachi; while a third runs along the left bank of the Indus, from Attock southwards. From Delhi to Umballa there are two lines, one of the North-Western through Meerut and Saharanpur in the United Provinces, and a more direct one, which is continued to Kalka, at the foot of the hills, whence a further continuation to Simla has been opened. The south-east of the province is served by two branches of the Rajputana system, which have their termini at Delhi and Ferozepore; and also by the Southern Punjab, which runs from Delhi to Bahawalpur.
Population.—The total population of the Punjab (including native states) according to the census of 1901 was 24,754,737, showing an increase of 6.4% in the decade. The Jats, who number some five millions, form the backbone of the cultivating community. Large numbers of them have become Sikhs or Mahommedans in the tracts where those religions predominate. The Rajputs, with a total of over a million and three-quarters, comprise tribes of different religions, races and social systems. By religion they are mostly Mahommedan, only about one-fourth being Hindus, while a very few are Sikhs. By race they include the ancient ruling tribes of the Jumna valley, the Tomar and Chauhan, which gave Delhi its most famous Hindu dynasties; the Bhattis of the south and centre, which have migrated from Bikanir and Jeysulmere into their present seats; the Sials of Jhang; and the Punwars of the south-west. In the northern or submontane districts the Rajputs also represent the old ruling tribes, such as the Chibbs of Gujrat, the Janjuas of the Salt range and others, while in Kangra district they preserve a very old type of Hindu aristocracy. The Gujars are an important agricultural and pastoral tribe. They are most numerous in the eastern half of the province and in the districts of the extreme north-west, especially in Gujrat, to which they have given their name. Baluchis and Pathans are strongly represented in the south-west. The distinctive religion of the Punjab is Sikhism (q.v.), though Sikhs form 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 about 18,000,000 speak the provincial language, Punjabi, which varies in character in different parts of the province. About 4,000,000 speak Hindustani (see Hindostani), this number including those whose ordinary vernacular is Hindi, but who understand and are gradually adopting the more comprehensive Hindustani. These two languages are the most generally used throughout the province, but not equally in all parts. The other languages in use are more or less local. The hill dialects, known as Pahari, are akin to the language spoken in Rajputana; and so also is the speech of the Gujars. Hindustani is the language of the law courts and of all ordinary officials and other communications with chiefs and people.
Administration.—The administration is conducted by a lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the governor-general, subject to the approval of the Crown. Two commissioners take the place of the board of revenue in most other provinces. A survival of the “non-regulation” system is to be found in the title of deputy-commissioner for the district officer elsewhere called collector. The highest judicial authority is styled the chief court, consisting of five judges, which corresponds to the high court elsewhere. A legislative council, first created in 1897, was enlarged in 1909 to 26 members, of whom ten are officials and five are elected. The province is distributed into five divisions or commissionerships. Most of the commissioners also exercise political functions over the native states within their jurisdiction.
Education.—The Punjab University, which was founded in 1882, differs from other Indian universities in being more than a merely examining body. It is responsible for the management of the Oriental College at Lahore, and takes a part in the improvement of vernacular literature. It also conducts Oriental examinations side by side with those in English, and has been the first to introduce a series of examinations in science from matriculation to the degree, as well as a final school examination in clerical and commercial subjects. The higher and special educational institutions are the Lahore Government College, the Cambridge ​University Mission College at Delhi, the Medical School and the Mayo School of Art at Lahore; and the Punjab Chiefs' College, also at Lahore.
History.—For the early history of the Punjab from the Aryan immigration to the fall of the Mogul dynasty see India: History. It deserves, however, to be noted here that from the time of Alexander onwards Greek settlers remained in the Punjab, and that Greek artists gave their services for Buddhist work and introduced features of their own into Indian architecture. Besides the bases and capitals of large Greek columns at Shahderi (Taxila) and elsewhere, numerous sculptures of Greek workmanship have been found at various places. These are single statues (probably portraits), also figures of Buddha, and representations 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 as well as distinctive in character are the topes (stupa), in shape a plain hemisphere, raised on a platform of two or more stages. One of the largest of these is at Manikiala, 14 m. east of Rawalpindi. These Buddhist buildings and sculptures are all probably the work of the two centuries before and the three or four after the beginning of the Christian era. The character of the sculptures is now well known from the specimens in the India Museum, South Kensington, and both originals and casts of others in the Lahore Museum. Unfortunately they have no names or inscriptions, which give so much value to the sculptures of the Bharhut tope.
The several bodies of settlers in the Punjab from the earliest times have formed groups of families or clans (not identical with Indian castes, but in many cases joining them), which have generally preserved distinct characteristics and followed certain classes of occupation in particular parts of the country. Some of the existing tribes in the Punjab are believed to be traceable to the early Aryan settlers, as the Bhatti tribe, whose special region is Bhattiana south of the Sutlej, and who have also in the village of Pindi Bhattian a record of their early occupation of a tract of country on the left bank of the Chenab, west of Lahore. The Dogras, another Aryan clan, belong to a tract of the lower hills between the Chenab and the Ravi. Others similarly have their special ancient localities. To the earlier settlers—the dark race (Dasyu) whom the Aryans found, in the country, and who are commonly spoken of as aborigines—belonged, as is supposed, the old tribe called Takka, whose name is found in Taksha-sila or Taxila. And from the later foreigners again, the Indo-Scythians, are probably descended the great Jat tribe of cultivators, also the Gujars and others.
It was during the events which brought Baber, the first of the Mogul dynasty, to the throne, that the sect of the Sikhs was founded by Nanak; and it was under the persecution of Aurangzeb that they were raised into a nation of warriors by Govind Singh, the tenth and last of the gurus. For their tenets and history see Sikhism.
The break-up of the Mogul Empire in the 18th century allowed the Sikhs to establish themselves, as a loosely organized community of marauders, in the eastern plains of the Punjab, on both banks of the Sutlej. Here, after long internecine warfare, one of their chieftains succeeded in enforcing his authority over the rest. This was Ranjit Singh, the “Lion of the Punjab,” born in 1780, who acquired possession of Lahore as his capital in 1799. Ranjit was a man of strong will and immense energy, of no education but of great acuteness in obtaining the knowledge that would be of use to him. When he endeavoured to include the Sikh states south of the Sutlej within his jurisdiction, the heads of these states—chiefs of Sirhind and Malwa, as they were called—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 Lahore as well as with Kabul, for protection against supposed French designs on India. A British envoy, Charles Metcalfe, was received 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 were besieging. In 1813 he acquired the fort of Attock on the other side of the Punjab; and in the same year he obtained from Shah Shuja, now a refugee in Lahore, what he coveted as much as territory, the celebrated Koh-i-nor diamond, which had been carried off by Nadir Shah from Delhi. In 1818, after some failures in previous years, he captured Multan. Kashmir, which had successfully opposed him several times, was annexed the following year, and likewise the southern part of the country between the Indus and the hills. The Peshawar valley he succeeded in adding four years later, but he found it best to leave an Afghan governor in charge of that troublesome district. These trans-Indus and other outlying tracts were left very much to themselves, and only received a military visit when revenue was wanted. Peshawar was never really ruled till Avitabile was sent there in later years. When he was gradually raising his large and powerful army Ranjit received into his service certain French and other officers, who drilled his troops and greatly improved his artillery. Whilst he relied on these foreigners for military and sometimes also for administrative services, he drew around him a body of native ministers of great ability, of whom the brothers Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh of Jammu were the most influential.
Ranjit always maintained friendly relations with the British government, and just before his death gave tacit approval to the 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, while all real power passed to the army of 90,000 trained troops. At last this army, unpaid and unmanageable, demanded to be led into British territory, and had their way. They crossed the Sutlej in December 1845. The battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah and Aliwal were followed by the rout of the Sikh army at Sobraon on the 10th of February 1846, when they were driven back into the Sutlej with heavy loss, and the British army advanced to Lahore. Of the Sikh guns 256 fell into the hands of the British in these actions on the Sutlej. A treaty was made at Lahore on the 9th of March with the chiefs and ministry who were to hold the government on behalf of the young maharaja, Duleep Singh. By this treaty the Jullundur Doab and the hill district of Kangra were ceded to the British, also the possessions of the maharaja on the left bank of the Sutlej. In addition the British demanded a money payment of £1,500,000. The services of Gulab Singh, raja of Jammu, to the Lahore state, in procuring the restoration of friendly relations with the British, were specially recognized. His independent sovereignty in such lands as might be made over to him was granted. The Sikh government, unable to pay the whole of the money demand, further ceded, as equivalent for £1,000,000, the hill country between the Beas and the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara. Gulab Singh was prepared to give the amount in place of which Kashmir was to have become British, and by a separate treaty with him, on the 16th of March 1846, this was arranged. At the urgent request of the durbar a British force was left at Lahore for the protection of the maharaja and the preservation of peace. To restore order and introduce a settled administration a British resident was appointed, who was to guide and control the council of regency, and assistants to the resident were stationed in different parts of the country.
Peace was not long preserved. The governor of Multan, Diwan Mulraj, desired to resign. Two British officers sent by the resident to take over charge of the fort were murdered, on the 19th of April 1848, and their escort went over to the diwan. Another of the assistants to the resident, Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes, then in the Derajat, west of the Indus, on hearing of their fate, collected a force with which to attack the Multan army while the insurrection was yet local. This he did with signal success. But Multan could not fall before such means as he possessed. The movement spread, the operations widened, and the Sikh and British forces were in the field again. Multan was taken. The severe battle of Chillianwalla on the 13th of January 1849 left the Sikhs as persistent as after the two terrible ​days of Ferozeshah in the previous campaign. And it needed the crushing defeat of Gujrat, on the 21st of February 1849, to bring the war to a conclusion, and this time to give the Punjab to England. It was annexed on the 2nd of April 1849.
For the government of the new province, including the Jullundur Doab, previously annexed, and the cis-Sutlej states, a board of administration was appointed consisting of three members. In place of this board a chief commissioner was appointed in 1853, aided by a judicial commissioner and a financial commissioner. British troops, European and native, of the regular army were stationed at the chief cities and other places east of the Indus and at Peshawar. For the rest of the trans-Indus territory a special body of native troops, called the Punjab frontier force, was raised and placed under the orders of the chief commissioner. During the Mutiny of 1857 the Punjab, under Sir John Lawrence as chief commissioner, was able to send important aid to the force engaged in the siege of Delhi, while suppressing the disturbances which arose, and meeting the dangers which threatened, within the Punjab itself. In 1858 the Delhi territory, as it was called, west of the Jumna, was transferred from the North-Western Provinces to the Punjab. The enlarged province was raised in rank, and on the 1st of January 1859 the chief commissioner became lieutenant-governor. In 1901 the frontier districts beyond the Indus were severed from the Punjab and made into a separate province called the North-West Frontier province.
See J. D. Cunningham, History of the Sikhs (1849); S. S. Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War (1904); Sir Lepel Griffin, Ranjit Singh (“Rulers of India” series, 1892); P. Gough and A. Innes, The Sikhs and our Sikh Wars (1897); Professor Rait, Life of Lord Gough (1903); Mahomet Latif, History of the Punjab (Calcutta, 1891); and Punjab Gazetteer (2 vols., Calcutta, 1908).