Punjab History
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History of Punjab and its contemporary aspects Salman Khan Gaad Basharat Wakhani Innayat Khan
Punjab History
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Punjab, in Greek Pentapotamia, an inland delta of 5 converging rivers, has always been one of the most important historical regions of South Asia. Part of the Indus River Civilization, crossed by most invaders who tried to conquer the Indian subcontinent.(2002,Indian history) his It has Connection through the Khyber Pass with Afghanistan and, in the east, through Delhi with the Jumna-Ganges Valley historically had greater importance than connection downriver with Sindh. (2006, historyindopak) It was the important province of the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century the Punjab slipped out of Mughal control, and Sikh polities emerged, unified into one state under Ranjit Singh.
Maharaja Ranjeet Singh
Shrine of Ranjeet Singh
In 1937 Punjab received its own assembly and prime minister. Upon the release of British India into independence in 1947, the Punjab split into Western Punjab, which joined Pakistan, and Eastern Punjab (at that time including Haryana and Himachal Pradesh), which joined India. In 1947-1948 population exchange on a major scale took place, Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs moving out of Western Punjab into India, Indian Muslims moving in the other direction.
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Punjab has very ambitious history of prominent civilizations of the world that includes
the “Indus valley “Civilization and “Harappa” civilization.
Indus valley and Harappa Civilization Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Flourishing around the Indus River basin, the civilization primarily centered along the Indus and the Punjab region. The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. At its peak, the Indus Civilization may have had a population of well over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley, developed new techniques in metallurgy and handicraft, and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The civilization is noted for its cities built of brick, their roadside drainage system, and multistoried houses. The extreme phase of this civilization is known as the Harappan Civilization, as the first of its cities to be unearthed was the one at Harappan civilization and the signs of old civilization found after excavation in respective areas.(harappa.co)
Priest found from Moen-jo-Daro Sindh, Larkana
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Harappan signs found in Punjab, Sahiwal (Civilization.pk)
Punjab History
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Harappa, excavated in the 1920s in what was at the time the Punjab province of British India (now in Pakistan). “Excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important found, mainly in the general region of the Ghaggar-Hakra River”. (2009,Indus valley) The major part of history was connected with these ancient civilizations that reflected the presence of migrants and colonies within the region of Punjab. The other phase of Punjab in history is the phase of independence and aftermath changes occurred in the region that resulted the shift of governments the collaboration of princely states etc.
Punjab during the phase of 1947- 1990 The Pakistan and India were released after independence in 1947 and it was the time when East and west Punjab got the separate identity and separate boundary. The east Punjab is linked with west Punjab through the east of the Sutlej and Amritsar and Lahore are the conjunctions between the two provinces. •
Punjab and Partition in 1948
The 1948 migration of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims and the brutal massacre had an atrocious impact on the province, this not only infused the cultural variations but the lingual variations were also observed; initially Punjabi was the official language of Punjab but then Urdu language also grasped the strong position. After partition the Punjab was given the position of a province with Lahore as its capital and few princely states that includes; Bahawalpur etc.
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Massacre of Muslims and Sikhs 1948(Indian history biography)
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Punjab and administrative reforms 1955-1970
In 1958 Pakistan shifted the gears to the administrative reforms and the major positions were hold by the Punjabis in all areas of the administrative bodies. In 1958 the capital of Pakistan was shifted from Karachi (Sindh) to Rawalpindi (Punjab) and this somehow provided opportunity to
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uphold all the available chances to grab the top most positions in army, bureaucracy and civil bodies. Punjab due to its fertile land the cultivation of crops was enormous and sufficient enough for exports and Punjab became capable for contributing to the economy of Pakistan. •
Punjab and confinement of power within the province 1970- 1977
It was the sole and dominant part of Pakistan and this gave an edge to Punjab for further commercialization in all areas of development. During the period of dictators 1955-1970, Punjab received heavy share of countries development and through this the major institutions of the province were improved like; Education, Health and infrastructure. In the Bhutto regime that share of investments was shifted to Sindh and huge Sindhi recruitments were made in governmental institutions. •
Punjab and destabilization 1977-1988
In 1977 General Ziaul Haq came into power and all democratic institutions were suspended and this was the severe shift of the power in the history of Pakistan. In this era a major incident took place that was the death of the legend “Zulifqar Ali Bhutto” after the death the PPP government was cleansed and from them the majority was the Sindhi leaders. In 1988 the civil administration was restored after the death of Ziaul Haq in the plane crash. •
Punjab and Urbanization 1990-2000
The prolonged investments in the area of infrastructure during the phase of foreign investments and the amplification of the educational resources generated the point of consideration for the people to get into the rapidly modernizing areas. Business domain The businessmen in the Punjab raised the opportunity for the youngsters to struggle for the markets and foreign penetration to get into the competition of recognition in the world market.
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Sharif brothers were the main functionaries in the Punjab and they got the strong hold in all areas of the region. They not only possessed the political support but also they had the edge on huge mansions and empires. Conclusion: The Punjab has very rich assets in the nooks of history, it has very diverse rule of Mughal and the perpetual contemporary form of living style in the areas of its interior vicinities. It had the fluctuative position in various regimes, the economic and the social scales changes with the time and this somehow gave a distant image to the region named Punjab and this region has the enormous importance in the development of Pakistan.
References
Work cited from http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/2010/india/xwpunjab.html Work cited from http://www.timemaps.com/civilization/2000/Indus-Valley-civilization Work cited from A book: Pakistan A modern History by Ian Talbot Work cited from Wikipedia Work cited from World map Atlas Work cited from pro-partition history of indo Pak
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Punjab History