State of Bahawalpur^[a] was astate in thePunjab region ofSouth Asia that existed as asovereign polity from 1748 to 1833 and as aprincely state, under subsidiary alliance withBritish India and laterDominion of Pakistan, from 1833 to 1955. It was a part of thePunjab States Agency; and covered an area of 45,911 km² (17,726 sq mi) with a population of 1,341,209 in 1941. The capital of the state was the town ofBahawalpur.^[1]

State of Bahawalpur بہاولپور دی ریاست
1748–1955
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  Dōst Sādiq دوست صادق "Faithful Friend"
Bahawalpur State in theImperial Gazetteer of India
Status	Sovereign state (1748–1833) Princely state insubsidiary alliance withEast India Company (1833–1858) Princely state insubsidiary alliance with theBritish government underBritish Raj (1858–1947) Princely state of Pakistan (1947–1955)
Capital	Bahawalpur
Common languages	Punjabi Persian (court, administration) English (diplomacy, administration)
Ethnic groups	Majority Punjabis Minority Sindhis Baloch Rajasthanis
Religion	Islam (majority, dynastic) Hinduism (minority) Sikhism (minority)
Government	Hereditary monarchy
Nawab
• 1748–1749	Bahawal Khan I (first)
• 1907–1955	Sadeq Mohammad Khan V (last)
Prime Minister
• 1942–1947	Richard Marsh Crofton (first)
• 1952–1955	A. R. Khan (last)
Historical era	Early Modern Late Modern
• Established	1748
• Treaty of Amritsar	25 April 1809
• Princely state	22 February 1833
• Treaty of Ahmudpore	5 October 1838
• Accession to Pakistan	9 October 1947
• Merged into West Pakistan	14 October 1955
Area
• After Treaty of Amritsar	45,911 km2 (17,726 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Mughal Empire West Pakistan
Today part of	Punjab, Pakistan

The state was founded in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal Khan Abbasi. On 22 February 1833, Abbasi III entered into asubsidiary alliance with the British, by which Bahawalpur was admitted as a princely state. When British rule ended in 1947 and British Raj was partitioned intoIndia andPakistan, Bahawalpur joined theDominion of Pakistan. Bahawalpur remained an autonomous entity until 14 October 1955, when it was merged with the province ofWest Pakistan.^[1]

The Kingdom of Bahawalpur was established by Bahawal Khan, who belonged to theDaudpotra tribe and had migrated fromShikarpur,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 1809Treaty 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 theBritish Raj were regulated by a treaty made in October 1838, when arrangements were in progress for the restoration ofShah Shuja to the Kabul throne.^[3]

During theFirst Anglo-Afghan War, the Nawab assisted the British with supplies and allowing passage and in 1847-8 he co-operated actively with SirHerbert Edwardes in the expedition againstMultan. 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, NawabSadiq 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]

The predominantly Muslim population supportedthe Muslim League and thePakistan Movement. After theindependence ofPakistan in 1947, the minorityHindus andSikhs migrated toIndia while theMuslim refugees fromIndia settled in Bahawalpur state. After the independence of Pakistan, the Nawab of BahawalpurSadeq 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 ofBritish 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 Stateacceded 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.

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 ofcanal colonies. The largest Muslim castes wereKhokhar,Gujjar,Jat andBaloch. The Syeds were also prominent. Most Hindus wereAroras andKhatris with a minority ofJats andBishnois inMinchinabad andHaroonabad. Half of the Sikhs wereJatt Sikhs and half wereLabanas andRai Sikhs.

The Nawabs donated portions of their land inLahore toPunjab University, while the mosque atAitchison College was also donated by the Nawab. The Bahawalpur Block of theKing Edward Medical College was also donated by the Nawab.^{[17][need quotation to verify]}

The rulers of Bahawalpur took the title ofAmir until 1740, when the title changed toNawab Amir. Although the title was abolished in 1955 by theGovernment of Pakistan, the current head of the House of Bahawalpur (Salah ud-Din Muhammad Khan) is referred to as theAmir. 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 theGovernor-General of Pakistan,Malik Ghulam Muhammad, under which Bahawalpur became part of the province ofWest Pakistan, with effect from 14 October 1955, and the Ameer received a yearlyprivy purse of 32 lakhs of rupees, keeping his titles.^[18] 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 amember of parliament inPakistan.^[19] He is also the grandson ofSadeq Mohammad Khan V, who was the last rulingNawab of the Princely State Bahawalpur.^[20][21] 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.^[22][23][24]

• History of Punjab
• Kala Dhari Mandir

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

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

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