Lahore Division was an administrative division of the Punjab Province

Punjab (Pakistan)

Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

 of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, until the reforms of 2000 abolished the third tier of government.

History

Lahore Division was originally an administrative division of the Punjab Province

Punjab (British India)

Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...

 of British India. It extended along the right bank of the Sutlej River from the Himalaya to Multan

Multan

Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

, and comprised the six districts of Sialkot

Sialkot District

Sialkot District or the District of Sialkot , is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the province...

, Gujranwala

Gujranwala District

Gujranwala District is a district in Punjab, Pakistan.- 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...

, Montgomery

Montgomery District

Montgomery District was an administrative district of the former Punjab Province of British India, in what is now Pakistan. Named after Sir Robert Montgomery, it lay in the Bari Doab, or the tract between the Sutlej and the Ravi rivers, extending also across the Ravi into the Rechna Doab, which...

, Lahore

Lahore District

Lahore District is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan that contains the city of Lahore, the district and provincial capital. The total area is...

, Amritsar

Amritsar District

Amritsar district is one of 22 districts in the state of Punjab in West India. It has a population of 3,074,207 and covers an area of 5075 km²...

, and Gurdaspur

Gurdaspur District

Gurdaspur district is a district in the state of Punjab, situated in the northwest part of the Republic of India. Gurdaspur is the district headquarters. It internationally borders Narowal District of the Pakistani Punjab, Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, the Punjab districts of Amritsar and...

. The total area of the division was 17154 sq mi (44,428.7 km²) and the population according to the 1901 census of India was 5,598,463. The commissioner for the division also exercised political control over the hill state of Chamba

Chamba district

Chamba is the northwestern district of Himachal Pradesh, in India, with its headquarters in Chamba town. The towns of Dalhousie and Khajjhiar are popular hill stations and vacation spots for the people from the plains of northern India....

.

The Commissioner's headquarters were at Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 and Dalhousie

Dalhousie, India

Dalhousie is a hill station and popular tourist spot in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, India.- Weather :Dalhousie experiences winter-like cold climate throughout the year. Heavy rain with thunder showers are experienced during the period from June to September...

. The total population of the Division increased from 4,696,636 in 1881 to 5,321,535 in 1891, and
5,598,463 in 1901. The total area was 17154 square miles (44,428.7 km²), and the density of population was 326 persons per square mile, compared with 208 for British territory in the Province as a whole. In 1901 Muslims numbered 3,332,175, or 60 percent of the total; while other religions included Hindus, 1,567,402; Sikhs, 661,320; Jains, 5,5,07; Buddhists, 6; Parsis, 228; and Christians, 31,815, of whom 25,248 were natives.

The division contained six districts:

District	Area (square miles)	Population (1901 census figures)	Land revenue and cess Cess The term cess generally means a tax. It is a term formerly more particularly applied to local taxation, and was the official term used in Ireland when it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; otherwise, it has been superseded by "rate"... es (thousands of rupees).
Montgomery Montgomery District Montgomery District was an administrative district of the former Punjab Province of British India, in what is now Pakistan. Named after Sir Robert Montgomery, it lay in the Bari Doab, or the tract between the Sutlej and the Ravi rivers, extending also across the Ravi into the Rechna Doab, which...	4,771	497,706	6,90
Lahore Lahore District Lahore District is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan that contains the city of Lahore, the district and provincial capital. The total area is...  (including Rawalpindi Rawalpindi Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad... )	3,704	1,162,109	12,55
Amritsar Amritsar District Amritsar district is one of 22 districts in the state of Punjab in West India. It has a population of 3,074,207 and covers an area of 5075 km²...	1,601	1,023,828	14,54
Gurdaspur Gurdaspur District Gurdaspur district is a district in the state of Punjab, situated in the northwest part of the Republic of India. Gurdaspur is the district headquarters. It internationally borders Narowal District of the Pakistani Punjab, Kathua District of Jammu and Kashmir, the Punjab districts of Amritsar and...	1,889	940,334	17,72
Sialkot Sialkot District Sialkot District or the District of Sialkot , is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the province...	1,991	1,083,909	17,27
Gujranwala Gujranwala District Gujranwala District is a district in Punjab, Pakistan.- 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...	3,198	890,557	12,89
Total	17,154	5,598,463	81,87

Gurdaspur included a few square miles of mountainous country, enclosing the hill station of Dalhousie (highest, point, 7,687 feet) ; but otherwise the Division was flat. It contained 9,869 villages and 41 towns, of which the largest are Lahore (population, 202,964, including cantonment), Amristar(162,429), Sialkot (57,956), Gujranwala (29,224), Batala

Batala

Batala is a municipal council in Gurdaspur district in the state of Punjab, India. It is located about 30 km from Gurdaspur, the headquarters of the district....

 (27,365), and Kasur (22,022). In commercial importance Lahore and Amritsar dwarfed all other towns in the Division, but Sialkot and Batala were considerably more than local centres. Besides the administrative charge of six British Districts, the Commissioner of Lahore had political control over the Native State of Chamba, which had an area of 3216 square miles (8,329.4 km²) and a population (1901) of 127,834.

Partition

With the Partition of British India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 into the independent states of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Pakistan in 1947, Lahore Division itself was divided among the two countries. with the eastern half becominng Amrtisar Division.