Demographic Changes in Punjab: A study of Jalandhar in Historical Context

Present Punjab came in to being on November 01, 1966, at the culmination of Punjabi Suba Morcha with the Punjab Reorganization Act passed by the Indian Parliament. It became a unilingual state but became the smallest ever size in its history. Its Southern parts became Haryana whereas the North-Eastern hilly areas were merged with Himachal Pradesh. Thus, present Punjab is predominantly a plain region state with the Sikh as the major inhabiting group and Punjabi as the main and the official language of the state. Punjab is located 29o 30’ N to 32o 32’ N latitude 73o 55’ E to 76o 50’ E longitude in North-West of India. It shares its North-South distance is about 335 Km and it extends for 300 Km in East-West direction. Punjab shares its international border with Pakistan in the western region. It also shares its boundary with Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu Kashmir as neighbouring states. It is triangular in shape. The base lies in the south along the Haryana border. The western side is formed by the Pakistan border and the Himachal Pradesh border forms its Eastern side. The apex lies in the North in the Dharkalan block of district Gurdaspur.