Bedian (), also spelled Badian, is a village in the Kasur District of

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

, close to the India-Pakistan border. The village was founded by the Sikh preacher Baba Sahib Singh Bedi during the region of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After the partition of India, Pakistan built the

Bambawali-Ravi-Bedian Canal __NOTOC__ Bambanwala-Ravi-Bedian Canal (BRB Canal), also called Ichogil Canal, is a manmade waterway in Pakistan that takes off from the Upper Chenab Canal near the Bambanwala village (to the west of Daska), runs southeast until reaching close ...

(BRB Canal), bringing waters from the

Chenab River The Chenab River () is a major river that flows in India and Pakistan, and is one of the 5 major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul regi ...

to the Upper Bari Doab Canal, as a replacement for the canal waters lost to the

Indian Punjab Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...

Etymology

The name ''Bedian'' derives from the

Bedi clan Khatri is a caste system in India, caste of the South Asia, Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as ...

Khatri Khatri is a caste of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade, they were the d ...

s. The clan which founded and populated this village before Partition of India.

History

The village was first settled by the descendants of Baba Deva Singh Bedi, a descendant of

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also referred to as ('father Nānak'), was the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated w ...

. Bedi was a contemporary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and put ''tilak'' on the Maharaja's forehead during his coronation. The Maharaja is said to have allotted the land of the village to Bedi and his descendantsHaroon Khalid
To escape Partition violence in Lahore, these Hindus and Sikhs converted to Christianity
Scroll.in, 16 September 2016. After the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

conquered Punjab, it created the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) system, bringing waters from the

Ravi River The Ravi River () is a transboundary river crossing northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of five rivers associated with the Punjab region. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two other rivers were ...

to irrigate lands in the Bari doab (the interfluvial regions between the Ravi and Beas-Sutlej rivers). The main branch of the UBDC ran through the village of Bedian. During the partition of India, the

Radcliffe Line The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab Province and Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after Cyril Radcliffe, who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissi ...

, which divided the Punjab province into West Punjab (Pakistan) and East Punjab (India), fell close to Bedian. Radcliffe added a portion of the Kasur tehsil to the East Punjab in order to connect the Amritsar District with the rest of East Punjab. But Bedian fell just outside of the portion and remained in Pakistan. The population of Village was entirely replaced by

Arain Arain (also known as Raeen) are a large Punjabi agricultural tribe with strong political identity and organisation, found mainly in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh with a small population in parts of Indian Punjab, Uttar Pradesh ...

and Meo Muslims from Amritsar. At the time of Partition when the Bedi Sikhs were fleeing to India, they asked their servants who were

Mazhabi Sikh Mazhabi Sikh (also known as Mazbhabi, Mazbhi, Majhabhi or Majabhi) is a community from Northern India, especially Punjab region, who follow Sikhism. The word ''Mazhabi'' is derived from the Arabic term ''mazhab'' (Mazhab means religion or sect ...

s to stay back and look after their property since they believed that these riots and the division was a temporary phenomenon and sooner or later they would return to their village. However when the riots spread, Mazhabi Sikhs felt that their life was threatened. They converted to Christianity which was a neutral religion, thus creating a Christian population in the village. After partition, the Indian Punjab claimed proprietary rights to the waters of the UBDC. To avoid dependence on Indian Punjab, Pakistan created the

, bringing waters from the

to replace those of the Indian UBDC. The old channels of the UBDC in Pakistan continue to be used with water from the BRB canal and other link canals.

Transportation

Bedian has a direct road to

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

, which is called the Bedian Road. The distance to the Lahore city centre about . The distance to the outskirts of Lahore, along the Hudiara drain, is . The Bedian Road is home to much active development of residential areas around Lahore.Bedian Road Lahore
zameen.com, retrieved 8 May 2020.

References

{{reflist, 30em Populated places in Kasur District Kasur District