This article is about the former province of British India (1849-1947). For other uses, see Punjab Province (disambiguation).
Punjab was a province of British India. Most of the Punjab region was annexed by the British East India Company on 29 March 1849, and declared a province of British rule; it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British control. In 1858, the Punjab, along with the rest of British Raj, came under the direct rule of the British Crown. It had an area of 358,354.5 km2.
The province comprised four natural geographic regions – Indo-Gangetic Plain West, Himalayan, Sub-Himalayan, and the North-West Dry Area – along with five administrative divisions – Delhi, Jullundur, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi – and a number of princely states.
In 1947, the Partition of India led to the province’s division into East Punjab and West Punjab, in the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan respectively.
