The Bar Region, or the Bars (Bāṛ),[1] is an area in Punjab, now part of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. The area consists of agricultural land that was cleared in the nineteenth century for the then 'new' canal irrigation system that the British were developing at the time.[2] The soil of the Bar Region is fertile.[2] The plains of fertile land have been created by the stream deposits driven by the many rivers flowing from the Himalayas.

The area stretches from the river Sutlej to the river Chenab and down to the junction of two rivers Jehlum and Chenab. The word bar in Punjabi language refers to a threshold, an outer space, an area away from the human settlement, a barrier between populated area and wild forest, a natural jungle. So the area between two rivers that formed a natural barrier between two different settlements was called bar. All the 'Bar Regions' had and still have almost the same or similar culture and language or dialect with slight variations.[2]

The 'Bar' is further divided into six regions:

  • The Gondal Bar (The area of kirana bar between jehlum and chenab rivers which includes some area of the district gujrat and all district Mandibahaudin and some parts of sargodha district (bhalwal tehsil)
  • Dhan bar ( The area of dhan bar between jhelum and sindh river which includes khushab, chakwal, pind dad khan, pindi gheb, attock and some part of tehsil jehlum).

Most of the Bar now forms part of the modern Faisalabad, Jhang, Tob Tek Singh, Hafizabad District, Okara, Vehari, Khanewal, Pakpattan, Sargodha, Chiniot, Hafizabad, Nankana Sahib, Bahawalnagar, Mandi Bahauddin Sahiwal districts , khushab,chakwal ,jhelum and attock district of Pakistan|Punjab]] and fazilka and sri ganga nagar district of Indian punjab . The Indigenous people of these districts have similar culture and speak barvi punjabi language Jatki/Jhangli dialect of Punjabi.[3]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Grierson, George A. (1916). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. IX Indo-Aryan family. Central group, Part 1, Specimens of western Hindi and Pañjābī. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 607.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Punjab Notes: Bar: forgotten glory of Punjab Dawn (newspaper), Published 13 June 2014, Retrieved 3 September 2020
  3. ^ Geo-political history of Punjab region The Nation (newspaper), Published 29 September 2015, Retrieved 3 September 2020