Punjab Province (British India): Difference between revisions

'''Punjab''' was a province of [[British India]]. Most of the [[Punjab region]] was annexed by the [[East India Company]] in 1849, and was one of the last areas of the [[Indian subcontinent]] to fall under British control. In 1858, the Punjab, along with the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British crown. It had an area of 358,354.5 km2. The province comprised five administrative divisions, [[Delhi]], [[Jullundur]], [[Lahore]], [[Multan]] and [[Rawalpindi]] and a number of [[princely states]].<ref name="Chisholm 1911, p. 653">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Punjab | Volume 22 |page=653}}</ref> In 1947, the [[partition of India]] led to the province being divided into [[East Punjab]] and [[West Punjab]], in the newly independent [[Dominions of the British Empire|dominions]] of [[Dominion of India|India]] and [[Dominion of Pakistan|Pakistan]] respectively.

During the [[First World War]], Punjabi manpower contributed heavily to the [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]]. Out of a total of 683,149 combat troops, 349,688 hailed from the province.<ref>Tan Tai Yong, "An Imperial Home Front: Punjab and the First World War", The Journal of Military History (2000), p.64</ref> In 1918, an influenza epidemic broke out in the province, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 962,937 people or 4.77 percent of the total estimated population.<ref>"Influenza in India, 1918." Public Health Reports (1896-1970), vol. 34, no. 42, 1919, pp. 2300–2302</ref> In March 1919 the [[Rowlatt Act]] was passed extending emergency measures of detention and incarceration in response to the perceived threat of terrorism from revolutionary nationalist organisations.<ref name=Sarkar1921>{{Harvnb|Sarkar|1921|p=137}}</ref> This led to the infamous [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]] in April 1919 where the British colonel [[Reginald Edward Harry Dyer|Reginald Dyer]] ordered his troops to fire on a group of some 10,000 unarmed protesters and [[Baisakhi]] pilgrims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/483563/Punjab/46046/History|title=Punjab|work=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

The [[Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms]] enacted through the [[Government of India Act 1919]] expanded the Punjab Legislative Council and introduced the principle of [[dyarchy]], whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. The first Punjab Legislative Council under the 1919 Act was constituted in 1921, comprising 93 members, seventy per cent to be elected and rest to be nominated.<ref>http://www.pap.gov.pk/uploads/previous_members/S-1921-1923.htm [[Provincial Assembly of the Punjab]]</ref> Some of the British Indian ministers under the dyarchy scheme were [[Abdul Qadir (Muslim leader)|Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir]], [[Shahab-ud-Din Virk|Sir Shahab-ud-Din Virk]] and Lala Hari Kishen Lal.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Working Of Dyarchy In India 1919 1928|publisher=D.B.Taraporevala Sons And Company.|url=https://archive.org/details/workingofdyarchy029425mbp}}</ref><ref>http://www.pap.gov.pk/uploads/previous_members/S-1924-1926.htm Provincial Assembly of the Punjab</ref>

The [[Government of India Act 1935]] introduced provincial autonomy to Punjab replacing the system of dyarchy. It provided for the constitution of Punjab Legislative Assembly of 175 members presided by a Speaker and an executive government responsible to the Assembly. The [[Unionist Party (Punjab)|Unionist Party]] under [[Sikandar Hayat Khan (Punjabi politician)|Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan]] formed the government in 1937. Sir Sikandar was succeeded by [[Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana]] in 1942 who remained the Premier till partition in 1947. Although the term of the Assembly was five years, the Assembly continued for about eight years and its last sitting was held on 19 March 1945.<ref>http://www.pap.gov.pk/uploads/previous_members/S-1937-1945.htm Provincial Assembly of the Punjab</ref>

The first British census of the Punjab was carried out in 1855. This covered only British territory to the exclusion of local princely states, and placed the population at 17.6 million The first regular census of British India carried out in 1881 recorded a population of 20.8 million people. The final British census in 1941 recorded 34.3 million people in the Punjab, which comprised 29 districts within British territory, 43 princely states, 52,047 villages and 283 towns.<ref name="krishan2004">{{cite journal |url=http://www.global.ucsb.edu/punjab/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.gisp.d7_sp/files/sitefiles/journals/volume11/no1/6_krishan.pdf |title=Demography of the Punjab (1849–1947) |first=Gopal |last=Krishan |journal=Journal of Punjab Studies |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=77–89}}</ref>

The Punjab was a religiously eclectic province, comprising three major groups: [[Islam|Muslims]], [[Hinduism|Hindus]] and [[Sikhism|Sikhs]].  By 1941, the religious Muslims constituting an absolute majority at 53.2%, whilst the Hindu population was at 29.1%. The period between 1881 and 1941 saw a significant increase in the Sikh and [[Christianity|Christian]] populations, growing from 8.2% and 0.1% to 14.9% and 1.9% respectively.<ref name="krishan2004"/>  The decrease in the Hindu population has been attributed to the conversion of a number of lower caste Hindus mainly to Sikhism and Islam, and also to Christianity.<ref name="krishan2004"/>

The [[University of Agriculture Faisalabad|Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute]] became the first higher educational agricultural institution in the Punjab when established in 1906. Rapid agricultural growth, combined with access to easy credit for landowners, led to a growing crisis of indebtedness.<ref name="autogenerated1">Islam, M. Mufakharul. "The Punjab Land Alienation Act and the Professional Moneylenders." Modern Asian Studies 29, no. 2</ref>  When landowners were unable to pay down their loans, urban based moneylenders took advantage of the law to foreclose debts of mortgaged land.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>  This led to a situation where land increasingly passed to absentee moneylenders who had little connection to the villages were the land was located. The colonial government recognised this as a potential threat to the stability of the province, and a split emerged in the government between paternalists who favoured intervention to ensure order, and those who opposed state intervention in private property relations.<ref name="talbot2007"/> The paternalists emerged victorious and the [[Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900]] prevented urban commercial castes, who were overwhelmingly Hindu, from permanently acquiring land from statutory agriculturalist tribes, who were mainly Muslim and Sikh.<ref>Robert W. Stern, Democracy and Dictatorship in South Asia, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p.53</ref>  

In 1853, the Viceroy Lord Dalhousie issued a minute stressing the military importance of railways across India.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref> In the Punjab however, initially it was strategic commercial interests which drove investment in railways and communications from 1860.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref>  

Independent railway companies emerged such as the [[Scinde Railway|Scinde]], [[Punjab Railway|Punjab]] and [[Delhi Railway|Delhi]] railways to build and operate new lines. In 1862 the first section of railway in the Punjab was constructed between Lahore and Amritsar, and [[Lahore Junction railway station]] opened. Lines were opened between Lahore and Multan in 1864, and Amritsar and Delhi in 1870.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref>  The Scinde, Punjab and Delhi railways merged to form the [[Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway]] in 1870, creating a link between Karachi and Lahore via Multan. The [[Punjab Northern State Railway]] linked Lahore and Peshawar in 1883. By 1886, the independent railways had amalgamated into [[North Western State Railway]].<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref>

The construction of railway lines and the network of railway workshops generated employment opportunities, which in turn led to increased immigration into cantonment towns.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref> As connectivity increased across the province, it facilitated the movement of goods, and increased human interaction. It has been observed that the Ferozpur, Lahore and Amritsar began to develop into one composite cultural triangle due to the ease of connectivity between them.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref> Similarly barriers of spoken dialects eroded over time, and cultural affinities were increasingly fostered.<ref name="Railway Development in Colonial Punjab">{{cite book |last1=Bhupinder Singh, Amandeep Kaur |title=Railway Development in Colonial Punjab: Social and Cultural Assimilation, Vol. 3, Issue 1 |date=2015 |publisher=International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research |pages=(80-84)}}</ref>

In 1854 the Punjab education department was instituted with a policy to provide secular education in all government managed institutions.<ref name="autogenerated96">Robert Ivermee, Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910, Routledge, 28 Jul 2015, p.96</ref> Privately run institutions would only receive grants-in-aid in return for providing secular instruction.<ref name="autogenerated96"/> By 1864 this had resulted in a situation whereby all grants-in-aid to higher education schools and colleges were received by institutions under European management, and no indigenous owned schools received government help.<ref name="autogenerated96"/>

In the early 1860s a number of educational colleges were established, including [[Lawrence College, Murree]], [[King Edward Medical University]], [[Government College University (Lahore)|Government College, Lahore]],

[[Government Medical College, Amritsar|Glancy Medical College]] and [[Forman Christian College]]. In 1882, [[Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner]] published a damning report on the state of education in the Punjab. He lamented the failure to reconcile government run schools with traditional indigenous schools, and noted a steady decline in the number of schools across the province since annexation.<ref>Gottlieb William Leitner, History of indigenous education in the Punjab since annexation and in 1882, Republican Books, 1882</ref> He noted in particular how Punjabi Muslim's avoided government run schools due to the lack of religious subjects taught in them, observing how at least 120,000 Punjabis attended schools unsupported by the state and describing it as 'a protest by the people against our system of education.'<ref>Robert Ivermee, Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910, Routledge, 28 Jul 2015, p.97</ref> Leitner had long advocated the benefits of oriental scholarship, and the fusion of government education with religious instruction. In January 1865 he had established the Anjuman-i-Punjab, a subscription based association aimed at using a European style of learning to promote useful knowledge, whilst also reviving traditional scholarship in [[Arabic]], [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Sanskrit]].<ref>Robert Ivermee, Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910, Routledge, 28 Jul 2015, p.91</ref> In 1884 a reorganisation of the Punjab education system occurred, introducing measures tending towards decentralisation of control over education and the promotion of an indigenous education agency. As a consequence several new institutions were encouraged in the province. The [[Arya Samaj]] opened a college in Lahore in 1886, the Sikhs opened the [[Khalsa College, Amritsar|Khalsa College]] whilst the [[Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam]] stepped in to organise Muslim education.<ref>Robert Ivermee, Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910, Routledge, 28 Jul 2015, p.105</ref> In 1886 the Punjab Chiefs' College, later renamed [[Aitchison College]], was opened to further the education of the elite classes.

In 1837, [[Persian language|Persian]] had been abolished as the official language of Company administration and replaced by local Indian vernacular languages. In the Sikh Empire, Persian continued to be the official state language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goud and Mookherjee |first1=R. Sidda and Manisha |title=India and Iran in Contemporary Relations |date=20 Apr 2014 |publisher=Allied Publishers |isbn=8184249098 |page=64}}</ref> Shortly after annexing the Punjab in 1849, the Board of Administration canvassed local officials in each of the provinces's six divisions to decide which language was "best suited for the Courts and Public Business".<ref name="Mir (2010)">{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=35-50 |ref=Mir (2010)}}</ref> Officials in the western divisions recommended Persian whilst eastern officials suggested a shift to Urdu.<ref name="Mir (2010)">{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=35-50 |ref=Mir (2010)}}</ref> In September 1849 a two language policy was instituted throughout the province. The language policy in the Punjab differed from other Indian provinces in that Urdu was not a widespread local vernacular. In 1849 John Lawrence noted "that Urdu is not the language of these districts and neither is Persian".<ref name="Mir (2010)">{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=35-50 |ref=Mir (2010)}}</ref>  

In 1854, the Board of Administration abruptly ended the two language policy and Urdu was designated as the official language of government across the province. The decision was motivated by new civil service rules requiring all officials pass a test in the official language of their local court. In fear of potentially losing their jobs, officials in Persian districts petitioned the Board to replace Persian with Urdu, believing Urdu the easier language to master.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=37-50}}</ref> Urdu remained the official administrative language until 1947.

Officials, although aware that Punjabi was the colloquial language of the majority, instead favoured the use of Urdu for a number of reasons. Criticism of Punjabi included the belief that it was simply a form of patois, lacking any form of standardisation, and that "would be inflexible and barren, and incapable of expressing nice shades of meaning and exact logical ideas with the precision so essential in local proceedings."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=37-50}}</ref> Similar arguments had earlier been made about [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Odia language|Oriya]] and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], however those languages were later adopted for local administration. Instead it is believed the advantages of Urdu served the administration greater. Urdu, and initially Persian, allowed the Company to recruit experienced administrators from elsewhere in India who did not speak Punjabi, to facilitate greater integration with other Indian territories which were administered with Urdu, and to helped foster ties with local elites who spoke Persian and Urdu and could act as intermediaries with the wider populace.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mir |first1=Farina |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0520262697 |pages=37-50}}</ref>