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:
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.
The province included the important city of
Lahore.
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.
