Lahore Division

History

Lahore Division was originally an administrative division of the Punjab Province of British India. It extended along the right bank of the Sutlej River from the Himalaya to Multan division, and comprised the six districts of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Lahore, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Gujrat. The total area of the division was 44,430 km² (17,154 sq mi) and the population according to the 1901 census of India was 5,598,463. The commissioner for the division also exercised political control over the hill state of Chamba.

The Commissioner's headquarters were at Lahore and Dalhousie.The total population of the Division increased from 4,696,636 in 1881 to 5,321,535 in 1891, and 5,598,463 in 1901. The total area was 44,430 square kilometres (17,154 sq mi), and the density of population was 326 persons per square mile, compared with 208 for British territory in the Province as a whole. In 1901 Muslims numbered 3,332,175, or 60 percent of the total; while other religions included Hindus, 1,567,402; Sikhs, 661,320; Jains, 5,5,07; Buddhists, 6; Parsis, 228; and Christians, 31,815, of whom 25,248 were natives.

The division contained six districts:

Gurdaspur included a few square miles of mountainous country, enclosing the hill station of Dalhousie (highest, point, 7,687 feet); but otherwise the Division was flat. It contained 9,869 villages and 41 towns, of which the largest are Lahore (population, 202,964, including cantonment), Amristar(162,429), Sialkot (57,956), Gujranwala (29,224), Batala (27,365), and Gujrat (22,022). In commercial importance Lahore and Amritsar dwarfed all other towns in the Division, but Sialkot and Batala were considerably more than local centres. Besides the administrative charge of six British Districts, the Commissioner of Lahore had political control over the Native State of Chamba, which had an area of 8,330 square kilometres (3,216 sq mi) and a population (1901) of 127,834.