Punjab, << PUHN jahb or puhn JAHB, >> is a region that lies in eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The region consists of the Pakistani province of Punjab, the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, the Indian territory of Chandigarh, and part of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In the early 2010’s, about 150 million people lived in the region. Most people in the Pakistani province of Punjab are Muslims. In the Indian state of Punjab, about 60 percent of the people are Sikhs, and most of the rest are Hindus. In Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh, most people are Hindus.
The land.
The Punjab region covers about 130,000 square miles (340,000 square kilometers). It is a gently sloping alluvial plain (land formed from soil deposited by rivers). The Indus River flows along the western side of the Punjab. Five tributaries of the Indus—the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum—drain the region. The name Punjab comes from two Persian words that mean five waters. Farming is a major economic activity in the region. The Punjab is one of the most important wheat-producing areas in South Asia.
History.
One of the world’s first great civilizations flourished in the Indus Valley from about 2600 to about 1900 B.C. (See Indus Valley civilization). Around 1500 B.C., herders called Aryans began migrating from central Asia to the Punjab. At times over the centuries, the region fell under the control of various foreign invaders, including the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, and Kushans. The Punjab was also part of the Mauryan Empire, which ruled northern India from about 324 to 185 B.C.
Muslims began to enter the Punjab in the early A.D. 700’s. Powerful Muslim leaders from what is now Afghanistan invaded the Punjab in the 1000’s and 1100’s. In 1526, Babur, a Muslim prince from central Asia, established the Mughal Empire. It grew to include most of the Indian subcontinent. The Mughals oversaw a long period of stability, wealth, and cultural achievement. In the 1700’s, the empire began to weaken.
In the early 1800’s, the Sikhs established a powerful kingdom in the Punjab under Ranjit Singh. In 1849, the British, who had been taking control of most Mughal areas, defeated the Sikhs and took over the Punjab. British, Sikh, and Punjabi leaders later worked together to bring large areas of the Punjab under irrigation. When the Indian subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the Punjab was divided between the two new countries of India and Pakistan. Much violence occurred among religious groups as Muslims in India migrated to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan migrated to India. In 1966, the Punjab region in India was further divided into the Punjabi-speaking Sikh-majority state of Punjabi Suba (also called simply Punjab) and the Hindi-speaking Hindu-majority state of Haryana.
