The Kingdom of Bahawalpur was established by Bahawal Khan, who belonged to the Daudpotra tribe and had migrated from Shikarpur, Sindh in 1748.^[2] By the 18th century, Nawabs of Bahawalpur had consolidated power by settling his Daudpotra kinsmen on new canal lands along Sutlej.^[2]

As part of the 1809 Treaty of Amritsar, Ranjit Singh was confined to the right bank of the Sutlej. The first treaty with Bahawalpur was negotiated in 1833, the year after the treaty with Ranjit Singh for regulating traffic on the Indus. It secured the independence of the Nawab within his own territories and opened up the traffic on the Indus and Sutlej. The political relations of Bahawalpur with the British Raj were regulated by a treaty made in October 1838, when arrangements were in progress for the restoration of Shah Shuja to the Kabul throne.^[3]

During the First Anglo-Afghan War, the Nawab assisted the British with supplies and allowing passage and in 1847-8 he co-operated actively with Sir Herbert Edwardes in the expedition against Multan. For these services, he was rewarded by the grant of the districts of Sabzalkot and Bhung, together with a life-pension of a lakh. On his death, a dispute arose regarding succession. He was succeeded by his third son, whom he had nominated in place of his eldest son. The new ruler was, however, deposed by his elder brother, and obtained asylum in British territory, with a pension from the Bahawalpur revenues; he broke his promise to abandon his claims and was confined in the Lahore Fort, where he died in 1862.

In 1863 and 1866 insurrections broke out against the Nawab who successfully crushed the rebellions; but in March 1866, the Nawab died suddenly, not without suspicion of having been poisoned, and was succeeded by his son, Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan IV, a boy of four. After several endeavors to arrange for the administration of the country without active interference on the part of the Government, it was found necessary, on account of disorganization and disaffection, to place the principality in British hands. In 1879, the Nawab was invested with full powers, with the advice and assistance of a council of six members. During the Afghan campaigns (1878–80) the Nawab placed the entire resources of his State at the disposal of the British Indian Government, and a contingent of his troops was employed in keeping open communications, and in guarding the Dera Ghazi Khan frontier. On his death in 1899 he was succeeded by Muhammad Bahawal Khan V, who attained his majority in 1900, and was invested with full powers in 1903. The Nawab of Bahawalpur was entitled to a salute of 17 guns.^[4]

Independence of Pakistan edit

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 Bahawalpur state. After the independence of Pakistan, the Nawab of Bahawalpur Sadeq Mohammad Khan V proved to be very helpful and generous to the government of Pakistan. He gave seventy million rupees to the government and the salaries of all the government departments for a couple of months were also drawn from the treasury of Bahawalpur state. He donated his private property to the University of the Punjab, King Edward Medical College and the Mosque of Aitchison College, Lahore. At the time of independence, all the princely states of the British India were given a choice to join either Pakistan or India or to remain independent, outside both.^[5] On 5 October 1947 the Nawab signed an agreement with the government of Pakistan according to which Bahawalpur State acceded to Pakistan, and the accession was accepted on 9 October. Thus the State of Bahawalpur was the first state to accede to Pakistan.^[6]

In 1941, Bahawalpur had a population of 1,341,209 of whom 737,474 (54.98%) were men and 603,735 (45.02%) were women. Bahawalpur had a literacy rate of 2.8% (5.1% for males and 0.1% for females) in 1901. The bulk of the population (two-thirds) lived on the fertile Indus River banks with the eastern desert tract being sparsely populated.

Between 1916 and 1941, the population had almost doubled due to the Sutlej Valley Project when vast amounts of Bahawalpur territory were opened to irrigation. There was a migration of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs to Bahawalpur from other parts of Punjab. These colonists were labelled non-Riyasatis as opposed to locals or "Riyasatis" and were systematically discriminated against in government appointments.

Religion edit

The state was predominantly Muslim. According to the 1941 census, Muslims made up 81.9% (1,098,814) of the state's population while Hindus numbered 174,408 (13%) and Sikhs numbered 46,945 (1.84%). While a majority of Muslims and Hindus had their origins in Bahawalpur, a considerable proportion of settlers were migrants from other parts of the Punjab. The Sikhs, on the other hand, were predominantly colonists who had migrated after the opening of canal colonies. The largest Muslim castes were Khokhar, Gujjar, Jat and Baloch. The Syeds were also prominent. Most Hindus were Aroras and Khatris with a minority of Jats and Bishnois in Minchinabad and Haroonabad. Half of the Sikhs were Jatt Sikhs and half were Labanas and Rai Sikhs.

The Nawabs gifted portions of their land in Lahore to Punjab University, while the mosque at Aitchison College was also gifted by the Nawab. The Bahawalpur Block of the King Edward Medical College was also donated by the Nawab.^{[13][need quotation to verify]}

The rulers of Bahawalpur took the title of Amir until 1740, when the title changed to Nawab Amir. Although the title was abolished in 1955 by the Government of Pakistan, the current head of the House of Bahawalpur (Salah ud-Din Muhammad Khan) is referred to as the Amir. From 1942, the Nawabs were assisted by Prime Ministers.

20th century onwards, Sadeq Muhammad Khan V was the Nawab and later Emir of Bahawalpur State from 1907 to 1966. He became the Nawab on the death of his father, when he was only three years old. In 1955 he signed an agreement with the Governor-General of Pakistan, Malik Ghulam Muhammad, under which Bahawalpur became part of the province of West Pakistan, with effect from 14 October 1955, and the Ameer received a yearly privy purse of 32 lakhs of rupees, keeping his titles.^[14] Other members of the present day form of the royal family include: HH Nawab Brig. Muhammad Abbas Khan Abbasi (Last Nawab of Bahawalpur, former Governor of Punjab); Nawab Salahuddin Ahmed Abbasi (Urdu: نواب صلاح الدین عباسی) who is a member of parliament in Pakistan.^[15] He is also the grandson of Sadeq Mohammad Khan V, who was the last ruling Nawab of the Princely State Bahawalpur.^[16][17] Prince Muhammad Bahawal (who studied at Aitchison College in Lahore, and graduated from King's College London with a degree in International Political Economy and joined PTI), Prince Falahuddin Abbasi (who died in London in April 2016 from cancer), Begum of Bahawalpur, Princess Aiysha Yasmien Abbasi and Princess Safia Nausheen Abbasi.^[18][19][20]

• History of Punjab

• Nazeer 'Ali Shah, The History of the Bahawalpur State. Lahore: Maktaba Jadeed, 1959.

•   Media related to Bahawalpur (princely state) at Wikimedia Commons
• Nawabs of Bahawalpur
• Bahawalpur Information
• TMA Bahawalpur City website

28°50′N 71°43′E / 28.833°N 71.717°E / 28.833; 71.717