The annexation of Punjab in 1849
Trace Punjab’s annexation in 1849 through the earlier Lahore settlement, the dated transfer of power and a later critic’s challenge to its justification.
Lahore kingdom and British colonial Punjab
History · A guide to the archive
Colonial Punjab
Follow annexation, canal colonies, migration and anticolonial organising through dated local and institutional evidence.
How to approach this subject
Read these entries together to connect changes in government with land, work and political organisation. Their evidence comes from different settings and should not be treated as a single official voice. Keep a record’s purpose visible, especially when moving from an administrative description to a migrant account or an account of state violence.
An intentional selection
Begin with these entries
Canal colonies in colonial Punjab
Canal construction and planned settlement transformed parts of western Punjab under British rule. Their history concerns the distribution of land and power as much as the movement of water.
Western districts of colonial Punjab
Faisalabad and Lyallpur: one city, changing names
Trace Faisalabad’s history as Lyallpur through irrigation, markets and industry, and distinguish its town and district histories.
Pakistan Punjab
The Ghadar movement
Migrant workers, students and organisers built Ghadar across the Pacific world. Its newspapers and attempted wartime uprising connected experiences of exclusion abroad with opposition to British rule in India.
Pacific Coast of North America, Punjab and wider migrant networks
Jallianwala Bagh massacre
Read about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, where troops under Reginald Dyer fired on an unarmed gathering.
Amritsar, Punjab
Punjab district gazetteers: how to read an official description critically
Identify a district, date, volume and part before using a gazetteer, then test its administrative categories rather than carrying them into the present.
Historical Punjab districts and changing administrative units