West Punjab ( pnb, ; ur, ) was a province in the

Dominion of Pakistan Between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, Pakistan was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created the Dominion of I ...

from 1947 to 1955. The province covered an area of 159,344 km2 (61523 sq mi), including much of the current Punjab province and the

Islamabad Capital Territory The Islamabad Capital Territory ( ur, , translit=Vafāqī Dār-alhakūmat) is the only federal territory of Pakistan. Located between the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it includes the country's capital city of Islamabad. The terr ...

, but excluding the former

Princely state of Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu, skr, ) was a princely state of British India, and later Dominion of Pakistan, that was a part of the Punjab States Agency. It existed as an autonomous state, within Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, when it was dissolved and mer ...

. The capital was the city of

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. ...

and the province was composed of four divisions (

Sargodha Sargodha ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city and capital of Sargodha Division, located in Punjab province, Pakistan. It is Pakistan's 12th largest city by population and one of the fastest-growing cities of the country. Sargodha is also known as ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

and

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

). The province was bordered by the

princely state of Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu, skr, ) was a princely state of British India, and later Dominion of Pakistan, that was a part of the Punjab States Agency. It existed as an autonomous state, within Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, when it was dissolved and mer ...

to the south, the province of

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

to the south-west and

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

to the south,

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

to the northwest, and

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

to the north. It shared

International border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with Indian state of

East Punjab East Punjab (known simply as Punjab from 1950) was a province and later a state of India from 1947 until 1966, consisting of the parts of the Punjab Province of British India that went to India following the partition of the province between ...

and Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir to the east. It acceeded to

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was d ...

upon creation of

One Unit Scheme The One Unit Scheme ( ur, ; bn, এক ইউনিট ব্যবস্থা) was a geopolitical programme launched by the Government of Pakistan led by Prime Minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra on 22 November 1954 and ...

History

The creation of Pakistan in 1947 led to the division of the Punjab Province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

into two new provinces. The largely

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

and

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

became part of the new nation of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

while the largely

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

West Punjab became part of the new nation of the

. The name of the province was shortened to

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

in 1950. West Punjab was merged into the province of

in 1955 under the One Unit policy announced by Prime Minister Chaudhary Muhammad Ali. When that province was dissolved, the area of the former province of West Punjab was combined with the former state of

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

to form a new Punjab Province.

Demographics

At Independence there was a Muslim majority in West Punjab with a significant Hindu and Sikh minority. Nearly all of these minorities left West Punjab for India, to be replaced by large numbers of Muslims fleeing from the opposite direction. The official language of West Punjab was

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Punjabi. The linguist

George Abraham Grierson Sir George Abraham Grierson (7 January 1851 – 9 March 1941) was an Irish administrator and linguist in British India. He worked in the Indian Civil Service but an interest in philology and linguistics led him to pursue studies in the languag ...

in his multi volume

Linguistic Survey of India The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) is a comprehensive survey of the languages of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. The Survey was first proposed by George Abraham Grierson, a member of the Indian Civil Service and a linguist w ...

(1904–1928) considered the various dialects up to then called "Western Punjabi", spoken in North, West, and South of Lahore in what is now Pakistani Punjab, as constituting instead a distinct language from Punjabi. (The local dialect of Lahore is the Majhi dialect of Punjabi, which has long been the basis of standard literary Punjabi.) Grierson proposed to name this putative language "

Lahnda Lahnda () () also known as Lahndi or Western Punjabi, is a group of north-western Indo-Aryan language varieties spoken in parts of Pakistan and India. Its validity as a genetic grouping is not certain. Terms like ''Lahnda'' or ''Western Punja ...

", and he dubbed as "Southern Lahnda" the coherent dialect cluster now known as Saraiki spoken in

Dera Ghazi Khan Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...

and

division and "North Lahnda" now known as Potwari spoken in

division and "Western Lahnda" now known as

Hindko Hindko (, romanized: , ) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pun ...

spoken in the regions bordering Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Government

The offices of Governor of West Punjab and Chief Minister of West Punjab lasted from 15 August 1947, until 14 October 1955. The first Governor was Sir Francis Mudie with

Iftikhar Hussain Khan Nawab Iftikhar Hussain Khan of Mamdot (31 December 1906 – 16 October 1969) was a Pakistani politician and a key supporter of the Pakistan Movement in British India. After Pakistan's Independence, He served as the 1st Chief Minister of West Pu ...

as the first Chief Minister. Both offices were abolished in 1955, when the province of West Pakistan was created. The last Governor of West Punjab, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, became the first

Governor of West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial Enclave and exclave, exclaves created during the One Unit, One Unit Schem ...

Contemporary usage

The term is often used to refer to the

Pakistani Punjab 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 ...

References

External links