Colonial & Modern Punjab — PPSC previous year questions

PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union) was formed on 15 July 1948 from eight princely states, with Patiala as capital. It merged into Punjab on 1 November 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Its first Rajpramukh was Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of Patiala. Later the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 carved the Haryana and Himachal areas out of this Punjab.

The British applied the Mahalwari settlement to Punjab after annexing it in 1849. Revenue was assessed on the village (mahal) as one unit. It was collected through the village community. This followed the system Holt Mackenzie and R.M. Bird built for the North-Western Provinces. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 was confined to Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Ryotwari covered Madras and Bombay.

Master Tara Singh was president of the Shiromani Akali Dal. He pioneered and led the Punjabi Suba movement from the early 1950s. He demanded a Punjabi-speaking state after the States Reorganisation Commission (1955) rejected the linguistic claim. Sant Fateh Singh later carried the agitation forward. It ended in the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. That Act carved Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh out of the old state on 1 November 1966. Giani Kartar Singh and Darshan Singh Pheruman were Akali leaders of the same era. Pheruman died on a fast in 1969 over Chandigarh. Kapur Singh was the ICS officer who drafted the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. But none of them launched the movement.

PEPSU means the Patiala and East Punjab States Union. It was formed on 15 July 1948 by merging eight princely states: Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Malerkotla, Kalsia and Nalagarh. Patiala was its capital. The Maharaja of Patiala, Yadavindra Singh, was the Rajpramukh. PEPSU was merged into Punjab on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act.

The Tribune was founded on 2 February 1881 at Lahore by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, philanthropist and a leading light of the Brahmo Samaj in Punjab. He also endowed Dyal Singh College and Dyal Singh Public Library, Lahore. After Partition the paper moved to India, first to Shimla and then Ambala, and has been published from Chandigarh by the Tribune Trust since 1969. Lala Hans Raj was an Arya Samaj educationist associated with the DAV movement.

Punjab was divided on a linguistic basis on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966: the Punjabi-speaking areas remained Punjab, the Hindi-speaking areas became Haryana, the hill areas went to Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh became a Union Territory. The day is observed as Punjab Day. PEPSU was merged into Punjab on 1 November 1956, and the Partition of 15 August 1947 was on religious lines.

The Guru Ka Bagh Morcha was in 1922, Punjab was trifurcated into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal areas in 1966, the Rajiv-Longowal Accord was signed in 1985, and Ropar became Punjab's fifth division much later. The order is 4, 3, 1, 2.

The order is Maclagan (1919–24), Hailey (1924–28), de Montmorency (1928–33) and Emerson (1933–38), so I, II, III, IV. Maclagan took over from Sir Michael O'Dwyer in May 1919, about six weeks after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, so it was O'Dwyer, not Maclagan, who was Lieutenant-Governor when the firing happened. The office was restyled Governor of Punjab under the 1919 reforms in 1921.

Punjab National Bank was founded at Lahore in 1894 by Dyal Singh Majithia and Lala Lajpat Rai. It opened for business on 12 April 1895. It was the first bank managed purely with Indian capital.

The Khanki Headworks (1892) stands on the Chenab near Gujranwala. It feeds the Lower Chenab Canal, the largest British canal-colony project. That canal made the Rechna Doab (the tract between the Ravi and the Chenab, with Lyallpur, now Faisalabad) the granary of west Punjab. Other colonial headworks: Rasul on the Jhelum, Madhopur and Balloki on the Ravi, Ferozepur (Husainiwala) on the Sutlej.