Day 21 of the cycle · North

Punjab

Ancient Punjab formed part of the vast Indo-Iranian region. Sikhism began as a socio-religious movement, which was more interested in fighting evils in religion and society

The fight against the British rule had begun long before Mahatma Gandhi’s arrival on the scene. The revolt found expression through the movement of a revivalist or reformist character. Punjab was in the vanguard of India’s freedom struggle on all fronts in India and abroad. Punjab’s hardships did not end with Independence. It had to face the misery of Partition with large-scale bloodshed and migration. Besides their rehabilitation, there was the task of reorganization of the State.

Eight princely states of East Punjab were grouped together to form a single State called PEPSU (Patiala and the East Punjab States Union) with Patiala as its capital. PEPSU state was merged with Punjab in 1956. Later in 1966, Haryana was carved out of Punjab and during the same year, the erstwhile capital of Punjab was shifted from Shimla to Chandigarh.

Situated in the north-western corner of the country, Punjab is bound on the west by Pakistan, on the north by Jammu and Kashmir, on the north-east by Himachal Pradesh and on the south by Haryana and Rajasthan. There are 13 Members of Parliament from Punjab and 117 Members of Legislature are elected to form the State Government.

Punjab has accorded top priority to the development of Agriculture sector and has achieved about 3 per cent growth in the first for years of the 11th year plan.