Company rule {{multiple image After the conclusion of the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–46, the areas of the following districts were annexed by the British: Ambala, Firozpur, Hoshiyarpur, Jalandhar, Kangra, Ludhiana districts. The deposed child-monarch
Duleep Singh was given a pension and forced to live outside Punjab. Sikh aristocrats were given patronage and pensions and groups in control of historical places of worship were allowed to remain in control. In May, John Lawrence took swift action to disarm potentially mutinous sepoys and redeploy most European troops to the Delhi ridge. Finally he recruited new regiments of Punjabis to replace the depleted force, and was provided with manpower and support from surrounding princely states such as Jind, Patiala, Nabha and Kapurthala and tribal chiefs on the borderlands with Afghanistan. By 1858, an estimated 70,000 extra men had been recruited for the army and militarised police from within the Punjab. The East India Company was abolished, along with its court of directors, replacing that administrative set-up with the
council of India. In 1859, Punjab became a lieutenant-governor's province. The territory under the Lieutenant consisted of 29 Districts, grouped under 5 Divisions, and 43
Princely States. Each District was under a Deputy-Commissioner, who reported to the Commissioner of the Division. Each District was subdivided into between three and seven
tehsils, each under a
tahsildar, assisted by a
naib (deputy)
tahsildar. In 1885 the Punjab administration began an ambitious plan to transform over six million acres of barren waste land in central and western Punjab into irrigable agricultural land. The
creation of canal colonies was designed to relieve demographic pressures in the central parts of the province, increase productivity and revenues, and create a loyal support amongst peasant landholders. The colonisation resulted in an agricultural revolution in the province, rapid industrial growth, and the resettlement of over one million Punjabis in the new areas. A number of towns were created or saw significant development in the colonies, such as
Lyallpur,
Sargodha and
Montgomery. Colonisation led to the canal irrigated area of the Punjab increasing from three to fourteen million acres in the period from 1885 to 1947. The beginning of the twentieth century saw increasing unrest in the Punjab. Conditions in the Chenab colony, together with land reforms such as the
Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900 and the Colonisation Bill, 1906 contributed to the
1907 Punjab unrest. The unrest was unlike any previous agitation in the province as the government had for the first time aggrieved a large portion of the rural population. Mass demonstrations were organised, headed by
Lala Lajpat Rai, a leader of the Hindu revivalist sect
Arya Samaj. In 1918, an influenza epidemic broke out in the province, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 962,937 people or 4.77 percent of the total estimated population. In March 1919 the
Rowlatt Act was passed extending emergency measures of detention and incarceration in response to the perceived threat of terrorism from revolutionary nationalist organisations. This led to the infamous
Jallianwala Bagh massacre in April 1919, where Colonel
Reginald Edward Harry Dyer ordered detachments of the
9th Gorkha Rifles and the
59th Scinde Rifles under his command to fire into a group of some 10,000 unarmed protesters and
Baisakhi pilgrims, killing 379.
Administrative reforms The
Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms enacted through the
Government of India Act 1919 expanded the Punjab Legislative Council and introduced the principle of
dyarchy, whereby certain responsibilities such as agriculture, health, education, and local government, were transferred to elected ministers. The first Punjab Legislative Council under the 1919 Act was constituted in 1921, comprising 93 members, seventy per cent to be elected and rest to be nominated. Some of the British Indian ministers under the dyarchy scheme were
Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Sir
Shahab-ud-Din Virk and Lala Hari Kishen Lal. The
Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy to Punjab replacing the system of dyarchy. It provided for the constitution of Punjab Legislative Assembly of 175 members presided by a Speaker and an executive government responsible to the Assembly. The
Unionist Party under Sir
Sikandar Hayat Khan formed the government in 1937. Sir Sikandar was succeeded by
Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana in 1942 who remained the Premier till partition in 1947. Although the term of the Assembly was five years, the Assembly continued for about eight years and its last sitting was held on 19 March 1945.
Partition The struggle for Indian independence witnessed competing and conflicting interests in the Punjab. The landed elites of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had loyally collaborated with the British since annexation, supported the Unionist Party and were hostile to the Congress party led independence movement. Amongst the peasantry and urban middle classes, the Hindus were the most active
National Congress supporters, the Sikhs flocked to the
Akali movement whilst the Muslims eventually supported the
All-India Muslim League. == Population ==