Punjab is regarded as as the agricultural bread basket of India. It is a prosperous state, despite the great trauma it and its people have suffered since 1947. This is when partition of this great state began to occur, with two thirds of the population being Muslim, moving to the Punjab state of Pakistan, and the remainder, 60% Sikh, 40% Hindu moving to the Indian state of Punjab.

Punjab has been the cradle of many civilizations - the oldest being one of humanity's original cradles - the Indus Valley Civilization, and later Harappan Civilizations.

It is also the place that most of India's ruling invaders came and changed the face (literally) of the nation (and it's gene pool) - the Aryans many thousands of years ago (vastly changing culture, genetics, language and sciences and religions - the South Indian states remain mostly Dravidian in ethnic origin), Turks and Arabs, Mongolians (and the later descended Mughals) and the Armies of Alexander the Great, from Greece.

It remains a vibrant and buzzing state, with colorfully dressed men and women and children. Bhangra music is popular and captures the essence of the energetic, powerful and hard working peoples.

The British in Punjab
By 1845 the British had moved 32,000 troops to the Sutlej frontier, to secure their northernmost possessions against the succession struggles in the Punjab. In late 1845, British and Sikh troops engaged near Ferozepur, beginning the First Anglo-Sikh War. The war ended the following year, and the territory between the Sutlej and the Beas was ceded to Great Britain, along with Kashmir, which was sold to Gulab Singh of Jammu, who ruled Kashmir as a British vassal.

As a condition of the peace treaty, some British troops, along with a resident political agent and other officials, were left in the Punjab to oversee the regency of Maharaja Dhalip Singh, a minor. The Sikh army was reduced greatly in size. In 1848, out-of-work Sikh troops in Multan revolted, and a British official was killed. Within a few months, the unrest had spread throughout the Punjab, and British troops once again invaded. The British prevailed in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, and under the Treaty of Lahore in 1849, the Punjab was annexed by the British East India Company, and Dhalip Singh was pensioned off. The Punjab became a province of British India, although a number of small states, most notably Patiala, retained local rulers who recognized British sovereignty.

In every way, the Punjab was one of Great Britain's most important assets in colonial India. Its political and geographic predominance gave Britain a base from which to project its power over more than 500 princely states that made up India. Lahore was a center of learning and culture under British rule, and Rawalpindi became an important Army installation.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 occurred in Amritsar. In 1930, the Indian National Congress proclaimed independence from Lahore. The 1940 Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League to work for Pakistan, made Punjab the centerstage of a different, bloodier and dirtier struggle.

In 1946, massive communal tensions and violence erupted between the majority Muslims of Punjab, and the Hindu and Sikh minorities. The Muslim League attacked the government of Unionist Punjabi Muslims, Sikh Akalis and the Congress, and led to its downfall. Unwilling to be cowed down, Sikhs and Hindus counter-attacked and the resulting bloodshed left the province in great disorder. Both Congress and League leaders agreed to partition Punjab upon religious lines, a precursor to the wider partition of the country.

The British Punjab province, which includes present-day Punjab province of Pakistan, and the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, was partitioned in 1947 between the newly-independent states of India and Pakistan.

The Punjab of India and Pakistan

Eastern parts of Gurdaspur district in the northern point of the province adjoining Kashmir were given to India, with a small Muslim majority of 60% partitioned along the Ravi river leaving only Shakargarh sub-division on the Pakistani side, thus making the eastern half majority Muslims part of India.Gurdaspur and Firozpur,both Muslim regions, were handed over to India. The state of Jammu and Kashmir had a land link with these parts, which according to some, might have influenced the taking over of Kashmir by India. During the partition, over 1 million people were killed indiscriminately and with medieval brutality. Women were raped and murdered, children massacred and the elderly brutalized.

Sikhs demanded a Punjabi speaking East Punjab with autonomous control. Led by Master Tara Singh, Sikhs wanted to obtain a political voice in their state. In 1965, a fierce war broke out between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. To deflect Pakistani pressure on Kashmir, India opened a new front in Punjab directly threatening Lahore, however their advance was stopped and they took heavy losses. Owing to the extreme proximity of Pakistan's most important city to the border, the Pakistani army concentrated its forces and strengths to the maximum in this thin stretch of land.

In 1966, the Government of India divided Punjab into two parts, Sikh-majority state Punjab, and Hindu-majority Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Today Sikhs form about 60% of the population in Punjab.

In the 1960s, the Green Revolution swept India. Punjab's agricultural production trebled, and so did the prosperity of its people. For such a small state to be called the bread-basket for a country of more than a billion people, is like a goldfish being classified a leviathan. Industrialization swept the state and the state remains the ones of the economic leaders of the entire country. Punjabi culture also predominates the national art, media, music and film industries. Punjabis, especially Sikhs, form a major part of the Indian Armed Forces.