The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir Part 17

Rs. 37,55,139 = 237,009.]

The ~Lyallpur district~ occupies most of the Sandal Bar, which a quarter of a century ago was a desert producing scrub jungle and, if rains were favourable, excellent gra.s.s. It was the home of a few nomad graziers.

The area of the district, which was formed in 1904 and added to from time to time, has been taken out of the Crown Waste of the Jhang and Montgomery districts on its colonization after the opening of the Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l. Some old villages near the present borders of these two districts have been included. The colonization of the Sandal Bar has been noticed on pages 139-140. The figures for area and population given in the margin are for the district as it was before the addition of the trans-Ravi area of Montgomery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 111.]

Lyallpur is divided into the four _tahsils_ of Lyallpur, Jaranwala, Samundri, and Toba Tek Singh. It consists almost entirely of a flat plain of fertile loam with fringes of poor land on the eastern, western, and southern edges. The cultivated area is practically all ca.n.a.l irrigated. The rainfall of 10 inches does not encourage dry cultivation.

The chief crops are wheat, the oil seed called _toria_, cotton, and gram. The area of the first much exceeds that of the other three put together. There is an enormous export of wheat and oil seeds to Karachi.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 112.]

[Sidenote: Area, 3363 sq. m.

Cultd area, 1214 sq. m.

Pop. 515,526; 82 p.c. M.

Land Rev.

Rs. 11,67,965 = 77,864.]

~Jhang~ now consists of a wedge of country lying between Lyallpur on the east and Shahpur, Mianwali, and Muzaffargarh on the west. It contains the valleys of the Chenab and Jhelam rivers, which unite to the south-west of the district headquarters and flow as a single stream to the southern boundary. The valley of the Jhelam is pretty and fertile, that of the Chenab exactly the reverse. In the west of the district part of the Thal is included in the boundary. The high land between the river valleys is much of it poor. Irrigation from the Lower Jhelam Ca.n.a.l is now available. There is a fringe of high land on the east of the Chenab valley, partly commanded by the Lower Chenab Ca.n.a.l. Jhang is divided into the three large _tahsils_ of Jhang, Chiniot, and Shorkot. The rainfall is about ten inches and the summer long and very hot. The chief crops are wheat, _jowar_, and _chari_. The Sials are few in number, but are the tribe that stands highest in rank as representing the former rulers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 113.]

[Sidenote: Area, 6107 sq. m.

Cultd area, 1756 sq. m.

Pop. 814,871; 82 p.c. M.

Land Rev.

Rs. 13,74,472 = 91,631.]

~Multan~ occupies the south of the Bari Doab. The Ravi flows from east to west across the north of the district and falls into the Chenab within its boundary. The Sutlej meets the combined stream of the Jhelam, Chenab, and Ravi at the south-west corner of the district.

A part of the Kabirwala _tahsil_ lies beyond the Ravi. The other four _tahsils_ are Multan, Shujabad, Lodhran, and Mailsi. In a very hot district with an average rainfall of six inches cultivation must depend on irrigation or river floods. The present sources of irrigation are inundation ca.n.a.ls from the Chenab and Sutlej supplemented by well irrigation, and the Sidhnai Ca.n.a.l from the Ravi. The district consists of the river valleys, older alluvial tracts slightly higher than these valleys, but which can be reached by inundation ca.n.a.ls[14], and the high central Bar, which is a continuation of the Ganji Bar in Montgomery.

Part of this will be served by the new Lower Bari Doab Ca.n.a.l. The population consists mainly of miscellaneous tribes grouped together under the name of Jats, the ethnological significance of which in the Western Panjab is very slight. They are Muhammadans. The district is well served by railways.

[Sidenote: Area, 6052 sq. m.

Cultd area, 1163 sq. m.

Pop. 569,461; 87 p.c. M.

Land Rev.

Rs. 873,491 = 58,233.]

~Muzaffargarh~ is with the exception of Kangra the biggest Panjab district. It forms a large triangle with its apex in the south at the junction of the Indus and Panjnad. On the west the Indus forms the boundary for 180 miles. On the east Muzaffargarh has a river boundary with Bahawalpur and Multan, but, where it marches with Jhang, is separated from it by the area which that district possesses in the Sind Sagar Doab. There are four _tahsils_, Leia, Sinanwan, Muzaffargarh, and Alipur, the first being equal in area to a moderately sized district.

The greater part of Leia and Sinanwan is occupied by the Thal. The southern tongue of the Thal extends into the Muzaffargarh _tahsil_. The rest of that district is a heavily inundated or irrigated tract, the part above flood level being easily reached by inundation ca.n.a.ls. Dry cultivation is impossible with a yearly rainfall of about six inches.

The chief crop is wheat. In the south of the district the people live in frail gra.s.s huts, and when the floods are out transfer themselves and their scanty belongings to wooden platforms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114.]

[Sidenote: Area, 5325 sq. m.

Cultd area, 1723 sq. m.

Pop. 499,860; 88 p.c. M.

Land Rev.

Rs. 542,473 = 36,165.]

~Dera Ghazi Khan district.~--When the N. W. Frontier Province was separated from the Panjab, the older province retained all the trans-Indus country in which Biluches were the predominant tribe. The Panjab therefore kept Dera Ghazi Khan. It has a river frontage on the Indus about 230 miles in length and on the west is bounded by the Suliman Range, part of which is included within the district. The Deputy Commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan and the Commissioner of Multan spend part of the hot weather at Fort Munro. The wide Indus valley is known as the Sindh. The tract between it and the Hills is the Pachadh. It is seamed by hill torrents, three of which, the Vehoa, the Sangarh, and the Kaha, have a thread of water even in the cold season. The heat in summer is extreme, and the _luh_, a moving current of hot air, claims its human victims from time to time. The cultivation in the Sindh depends on the river floods and inundation ca.n.a.ls, helped by wells. In the Pachadh dams are built to divert the water of the torrents into embanked fields. The cultivated area is recorded as 1723 square miles, but this is enormously in excess of the cropped areas, for a very large part of the embanked area is often unsown. The encroachments of the Indus have enforced the transfer of the district headquarters from Dera Ghazi Khan to a new town at Choratta. Biluches are the dominant tribe both in numbers and political importance. They with few exceptions belong to one or other of the eight organized clans or tumans, Kasranis, Sori Lunds, Khosas, Lagharis, Tibbi Lunds, Gurchanis, Drishaks, and Mazaris. The most important clans are Mazaris, Lagharis, and Gurchanis. Care has been taken to uphold the authority of the chiefs. The Deputy Commissioner is political officer for such of the independent Biluch tribes across the administrative frontier as are not included in the Biluchistan Agency.

Regular troops have all been removed from the district. The peace of the borderland is maintained by a tribal militia under the command of a British officer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 8: Some estates lying to the east of the Jamna and belonging to the United Provinces have recently been added to the enclave.]

[Footnote 9: H. = Hindu, M. = Muhammadan, S. = Sikh.]

[Footnote 10: Not shown in map.]

[Footnote 11: See page 169.]

[Footnote 12: This leading tribe in the Panjab is known as Jat in the Hindi-speaking Eastern districts and as Jat elsewhere.]

[Footnote 13: Ch.=Christian.]

[Footnote 14: There is a project for improving the water-supply of inundation ca.n.a.ls in the west of the district by building a weir across the Chenab below its junction with the Jhelam.]

CHAPTER XXVI

THE PANJaB NATIVE STATES

1. _The Phulkian States_

[Sidenote: Area, 7599 sq. m.

Pop. 1,928,724.

Rev.

Rs. 118,00,000 = 786,666.]

~Phulkian States.~--The three Phulkian States of Patiala, Jind, and Nabha form a political agency under the Panjab Government. They occupy, with Bahawalpur and Hissar, the bulk of that great wedge of light loam and sand which Rajputana, physically considered, pushes northwards almost to the Sutlej. In the Phulkian States this consists of two tracts, the Powadh and the Jangal Des. The former, which occupies the north and north-east of their territory, possesses a light fertile loam soil and a very moderate natural water level, so that well irrigation is easy. The Jangal Des is a great tract of sandy loam and sand in the south-west. Water lies too deep for the profitable working of wells, but the harvests are far less insecure than one would suppose looking to the scantiness of the rainfall. The soil is wonderfully cool and drought-resisting. The dry cultivation consists of millets in the Autumn, and of gram and mixed crops of wheat or barley and gram in the Spring, harvest. The three states have rather more than a one-third share in the Sirhind Ca.n.a.l, their shares _inter se_ being Patiala 836, Nabha 88, and Jind 76. Portions of the Powadh and Jangal Des are irrigated. In the case of the Powadh there has been in some places over irrigation considering how near the surface the water table is. The Nirwana _tahsil_ in Patiala and the part of Jind which lies between Karnal and Rohtak is a bit of the Bangar tract of the south-eastern Panjab, with a strong loam soil and a naturally deep water level. The former receives irrigation from the Sirsa, and the latter from the Hansi, branch of the Western Jamna Ca.n.a.l. The outlying tracts to the south of Rohtak and Gurgaon, acquired after the Mutiny, are part of the dry sandy Rajputana desert, in which the _Kharif_ is the chief harvest, and the millets and gram the princ.i.p.al crops. In addition Patiala has an area of 294 square miles of territory immediately below and in the Simla Hills. The territory of the Phulkian States is scattered and intermixed, and they have islands in British districts and _vice versa_, a natural result of their historic origin and development.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 116. Maharaja of Patiala.]

Phul was the sixth in descent from Baryam, a Sidhu Jat, to whom Babar gave the _Chaudhrayat_ of the wild territory to the south-west of Delhi, making him in effect a Lord of the Marches.

_Tree showing relationship of the three Houses_.

Phul | +-------+-------------+ Tiloka Rama +------+------+ | Gurditta Sukhchen Raja ala Singh | | of Patiala | | Suratya Raja Gajpat Singh | of Jind | Raja Hamir Singh of Nabha

The century and more which elapsed between the grant and Phul's death in 1652 were filled with continual fighting with the Bhattis. Phul's second son Rama obtained from the Governor of Sirhind the _Chaudhrayat_ of the Jangal Des. When Ahmad Shah defeated the Sikhs near Barnala in 1762, Rama's son, ala Singh, was one of his prisoners. He was a chief of such importance that his conqueror gave him the t.i.tle of Raja and the right to coin money. But ala Singh found it prudent to join next year in the capture of Sirhind. From the division of territory which followed the separate existence of the Phulkian States begins. The manner in which they came in 1809 under British protection has already been related. The Raja of Patiala was our ally in the Gurkha War in 1814, and received the Pinjaur _tahsil_. The active loyalty displayed in 1857 was suitably rewarded by accessions of territory. The right of adoption was conferred, and special arrangements made to prevent lapse, if nevertheless the line in any state failed.

[Sidenote: Area, 5412 sq. m.