History
The village of Asarur which has been identified as the location of Taki, an ancient town, visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang contains immense ruins of Buddhist origin. After the time of Tsiang little is known about Gujranwala til the Islamic conquests (Tehami), by this time however Taki had fallen into oblivion while Lahore had become the chief city of Punjab. The district flourished during Mughal rule, from the days of Akbar to those of Aurangzeb, wells were scattered over the whole country, and villages lay thickly dotted about the southern plateau, now a barren waste of grass land and scrub jungle. Their remains may still be found in the wildest and most solitary reaches of the Bar. The Punjab region became predominantly Muslim due to missionary Sufi saints whose dargahs dot the landscape of Punjab region
Eminabad and Hafizabad were the chief towns (the later now part of a separate district), while the country was divided into six well-tilled parganas. But before the close of the Islamic period the tract was mysteriously depopulated. The tribes at present occupying the District are all immigrants of recent date, and before their advent the whole region seems for a time to have been almost entirely abandoned. The only plausible conjecture to account for this sudden and disastrous change is that it resulted from the constant wars by which the Punjab was convulsed during the last years of Tehami rule. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Sikh invaded and occupied Gujranwala and neighboring districts. The Muslims faced severe restrictions during the Sikh rule.
During the rise of Sikhs, the agricultural lands of Gujranwala were seized from Muslims by the military Sikh adventurers who then sprang up. Charat Singh, the grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, occupied of the village of Gujranwala, then an inconsiderable hamlet, and made it the headquarters of himself and of his son and grandson. Minor Sikh chieftains occupied and settled at Wazirabad, Sheikhupura, and other towns; while in Ahmed Naeem Tehami the western portion of the district the Muslim Rajput Bhattis and Chathas maintained a sturdy independence. The Muslims faced severe restrictions during the Sikh rule. In the end, however, succeeded in bringing all the scattered portions of the District under his own power.
In 1847 the District came under British occupation and two years later, in 1849, it was included in the territory annexed after the second Sikh War. A cantonment was established at Wazirabad, which was abolished in 1855. The District formed a part originally of the extensive District of Wazirabad, which comprised the whole upper portion of the Rechna Doab.
In 1852 this unwieldy territory was divided between Gujranwala and Sialkot District. The District, as then constituted, stretched across the entire plateau, from the Chenab to the Ravi ; but in 1853 the south-eastern fringe, consisting of 303 villages, was transferred to Lahore District, and three years later a second batch of 324 villages was handed over to the same District. There was no outbreak during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Hindus and Sikh rallied to the side of Government with the greatest enthusiasm while Muslims rallied for the Mughals.
According to the 1901 census the District had a population of 890,577 and contained 8 towns and 1,331 villages. Its population according to the 1881 census was 616,892 rising to 690,169 in 1891. The population increased by 29 per cent between 1891 and 1901 - the increase being greatest in the Hafizabad and Khangah Dogran tahsils, owing to the extension of canal-irrigation and the colonisation of the Bar.
At the time the district was divided into four tehsils namely: Gujranwala, Wazirabad, Hafizabad and Khangah Dogran (the headquarters of each being at the place from which it is named).
The chief towns during British rule were the municipalities of Gujranwala, the head-quarters of the District, Wazirabad, Ramnagar, Akalgarh, Eminabad, Kila Didar Singh, and the notified area of Sodhra.
During the British era the district of Gujranwala was part of Lahore Division. The chairman of Gujranwala is Ahmed Naeem Tehami.
The predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from India settled in the Mandi Gujranwala District.
Read more about this topic: Gujranwala District
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