The 19th century has crucial importance in the history of Punjab. In the very beginning of it Sikh rule was established in most of the Punjab with military might. What it replaced –Mughal edifice- exited because of its military might.

In the mid-century the East India Company’s military might demolished Ranjit Singh’s Empire. All three represented minority rule. The Mughal elite was of foreign extraction. So was the bureaucratic top of the Company. The Sikh ruling elite had indigenous roots but again they represented a minority in terms of faith as the vast majority of Punjabis comprised Hindus and Muslims.

The Company/the British Raj that ruled Punjab for 98 years was fundamentally different from other foreign rulers; it had no intention of making Punjab/India its home. Secondly, it was far more powerful than any other force that landed on our soil as it epitomised the new era of scientific knowledge and the technology.

Modern economic and social institutions built in the process further boosted this unstoppable development. On the down side, it unleashed economic and political forces that had insatiable hunger for resources resulting in aggression that eventually led to the colonisation of traditional societies which being inherently weak because of underdevelopment were unable to ward off foreign intrusion. Punjab was no exception. Despite having an enlightened ruler it was a sort of feudal state.

After the occupation of Punjab in 1849, the Company did in Punjab what it had done in the rest of India; setting up moderns institutions and bringing in machine based mode of production. But it did something more that was stunningly intricate and spectacularly productive. They laid a huge canal network that brought millions and millions of hectares of virgin land under cultivation in the areas called Bar (Baraan) which stretched from across the both sides of the river Sutlej in Bahawalnagar including erstwhile princely state of Bahawalpur to the banks of the river Vehit (Jhelum).

The Nawab of Bahawalpur himself invited farmers from Central Punjab to cultivate the lands in his region. The colonised stretch encompassed huge area: 1, Neeli Bar (Kasur, Bahawalnagar, Qabula, Arifwala and Vehari). 2, Ganji Bar (Pattoki, Renala Khurd, Okara, Sahiwal, Mian Channu and Khanewal) - canal net-work also touched Multan beyond the proper Bar. 3, Sandal Bar (Lyallpur, present day Faisalabad, Jhang, Nankana Sahib, Toba Tek Singh, Kot Kamalia, Shekhupura except Muridke and Shorkot). 4, Kirana Bar (Chinot, Lalian and Sargodha). 5, Gondal Bar (Mandi Bahuddin and adjoining area).

Work on the canal network started in 1885 and was almost completed in the second decade of the 20th century. Most of the land between the Sutlej and the Jhelum, arid and mostly uncultivated, was declared Crown Land which implied that the administration of British Raj could use it as it deemed fit.

Before the establishment of canal colonies the area had subsistence agriculture due to scarcity of water and modest annual rainfall. Bar which means a threshold, region beyond settled area and jungle was a large pastureland for the local people whose main source of livelihood depended on livestock. Out in these wilds Baba Guru Nanak saw bumblebees flying, poet Hafiz Barkhurdar heard peacocks screaming and Waris Shah watched bucks and does jumping in the air. All three were the sons of the Bar.

The Raj administration achieved two main objectives with colonising the Bar; 1, it achieved its target of massively increased agricultural produce. The more the produce more the revenue. Along with this it also provided cheap raw material urgently needed back home. 2, it greatly helped to relieve the East and Central Punjab of unbearable population pressure which sooner than later was going to assume a political dimension. So a massive population shift was facilitated from East and Central Punjab in the newly set-up canal colonies which were meticulously planned. It was no less than an engineering wonder. Another consideration that factored in was the advanced agricultural knowhow and techniques of the East Punjabi farmers which was a historical result of increased population and dwindling land parcels in the proximity of the Raj’s capital, Delhi. So economic and political factors played the main role. Farmers in millions were moved into Bar region. Land was granted, not for free, keeping in view the able-bodied men of each family. Families from East Punjab were mainly settled in Sandal Bar, Ganji Bar and Neeli Bar that changed the demographics of the areas for all times to come. The Bar region was thinly populated and its trees, shrubs and bushes looked like a jungle to the newly-arrived farmers who had migrated from well-settled and densely populated regions. So these people started calling locals ‘Jangli’ (the people/residents of the jungle). The word couldn’t hide its derogatory connotations which were too obvious to miss. It expressed settlers’ sense of superiority as they stereotyped and demeaned the Bar people. Such a cultural epithet was a result of two things; one, it smacked of settlers’ (called Abadkars) social and cultural pride based on their relatively advanced knowledge of agriculture and better social organisation expressed in their way of living which was innovation friendly. They were also comfortably familiar with workings of the new institutions built by the colonialists. While sharing the main features of Punjab’s society, they were not sufficiently acquainted with the Bar people. That initially created a sort of distance between the two communities. Two, the condescending attitude of Abadkars also reflected their poor knowledge of the history of the Bars, their culture, their dialect, their social norms and rituals.

Let no one forget that our first highly developed city universally known as Harappa lies buried on the banks of the river Ravi in district Sahiwal in the Ganji Bar whose discovery by the European archaeologists in the late 19th century (It was already known to our scholars) led the historians to change their view of the history of the subcontinent and provided a fresh perspective on the march of human civilisation.

When Alexander, the Greek, retreated with its fatigued army along the banks of the river Ravi, it were the Bar tribes which relentlessly used guerrilla tactics to pursue and attack them till he reached Punjab’s ancient city of Multan where an arrow shot by the defenders of the city hit Alexander severely injuring him. That Punjab without Bar would have been much less than what it is would be an understatement. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024