ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>M&#256LV&#256</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="MLV"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279M&#256LV&#256, not to be mixed with a tract of this name in Central India, is one of the three main divisions of the present Punjab state of India, the other two being M&#257jh&#257 and Do&#257b&#257. It is in the shape of a rough parallelogram lying between 290-30' and 310-10' North latitudes and 730-50' and 760-50' East longitudes, bounded by the River Sutlej in the north, Hary&#257&#7751&#257 in the east and the south, R&#257jasth&#257n in the southwest corner, and by Bah&#257walpur state of Pakistan in the west. M&#257lv&#257 comprises eleven of the seventeen administrative districts of the Punjab, viz., F&#299rozpur, Far&#299dko&#7789, Mog&#257, Muktsar, Ba&#7789hi&#7751&#7693&#257, Sa&#7749gr&#363r, M&#257ns&#257, Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257, Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, Fatehga&#7771h S&#257hib and Ropa&#7771 excluding its N&#363rpur Bed&#299 <i>tahs&#299l</i> or sub-division which falls across the Sutlej and geographically lies in the Do&#257b&#257 region. G.A. Grierson, <i>Linguistic Survey of India</i>, Vol. IX, Part I, who based his demarcation on the spoken dialect Malva&#299, would exclude the present Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, Fatehga&#7771h S&#257hib and Ropa&#7771 districts and part of Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district from M&#257lv&#257 because of a different dialect, <i>Pov&#257dh&#299</i>, spoken there. But because of demographical changes consequent upon partition of the country (1947) and subsequent allocation of a major part of Pov&#257dh&#299-speaking area to the newly created state of Hary&#257&#7751&#257 (1966), it is not inappropriate to call the entire cis Sutlej tract of the present Punjab as M&#257lv&#257.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; M&#257lv&#257 is a dialectical variation of the Sanskrit word <i>Mallava</i> which was the name of an ancient tribe (Malloi of the Greek accounts) who challenged, though unsuccessfully, the might of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC and might have later migrated to the south of the Sutlej, giving the name M&#257lv&#257, the land of the Mallavas, to their new homeland.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; With an area of 32,808 square km and a population of 11,817,142 (1991 census), M&#257lv&#257 is the largest region of the present Punjab. It has 65.1 per cent of the total area and 58.5 per cent of the total population &#8212 360.1 per square km against 401 per square km for the entire state. The density of population district-wise varies vastly between Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 (629) and F&#299rozpur (272). Till the latter part of the nineteenth century, M&#257lv&#257, leaving aside a narrow strip along the Sutlej, was an arid semi-desert covered with slow growing trees such as <i>va&#7751</i> (<i>Quercus incana</i>) and <i>ja&#7751&#7693</i> (<i>Prosopis spicigera</i>) and thorny bushes like <i>kar&#299r</i> (<i>Capparis aphylla</i>)and <i>malh&#257 ber&#299</i>, a kind of jujube. Although by and large a plain country, the region, especially its southern and southwestern parts, had become undulated with mounds of sand blown in from R&#257jasth&#257n by south-westerly winds. Cultivation was almost entirely dependent upon rain which was erratic and usually scanty. Introduction of canal irrigation with the renovation of Sirhind canal initiated a change which, strengthened by later developments, especially the harnessing of water resources and the availability of cheap hydro-electricity, culminated in intensive agriculture of the 1960's and the following decades, and transformed the face of M&#257lv&#257 and helped make Punjab the granary of India. The hardy farmers of the region including those brought here in the aftermath of the partition of the country in 1947 have converted the former forest and sandy mounds into neatly marked lush green farmlands. Major crops grown are wheat, paddy, cotton and oil seeds, sugarcane, cultivation picking up rapidly since the beginning of the 1980's. This coupled with the growth of small and medium-scale industry, though at a slower pace, has brought in prosperity which in turn is resulting in a perceptible change for the better in education and cultural fields, although literacy rate (45.6 per cent) still lags behind the state average (49.2 per cent). As in the case of density of population, there is vast variation also in district-wise literacy rate which ranges between 57.2 per cent for Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 (highest in the state) and 32.8 per cent for Sa&#7749gr&#363r. Yet, of the three universities in the state, two are located in M&#257lv&#257 &#8212 Punjab Agricultural University at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 and Punjabi University at Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, besides an autonomous college of engineering and technology at Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257. Similarly, of the four medical colleges in the whole of Punjab three are located in the M&#257lv&#257 region. In the industrial field, M&#257lv&#257, with its two huge thermal plants, one each at Ba&#7789hi&#7751&#7693&#257 and Ropa&#7771, and industrial complexes at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257, R&#257jpur&#257, S&#257hibz&#257d&#257 Aj&#299t Si&#7749gh Nagar (Moh&#257l&#299) and Ma&#7751&#7693&#299 Gobindga&#7771h, is far ahead of the other two regions. According to 1991 census figures, of the ten Punjab towns having a population of over 100,000 each, five lie in M&#257lv&#257. Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 (1, 012, 062, persons) is the most populous city in the state.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; M&#257lv&#257's part in the history of the Sikhs dates back to the time of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, whose peregrinations also covered this ancient land. Gur&#363 A&#7749gad's birthplace, Sar&#257i N&#257&#7749g&#257, lies in the M&#257lv&#257. Gur&#363 Hargobind, Gur&#363 Har R&#257i, Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur and Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh travelled extensively through this area. Many eminent Sikhs such as Bh&#257&#299 Bhagat&#363, Bh&#257&#299 Bahilo and Bh&#257&#299 Man&#299 Si&#7749gh came from M&#257lv&#257. The years following the death in 1708 of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh were the most turbulent period of the history of the Sikhs when the Mu<u>gh</u>al governors of the Punjab and later the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n invaders had let loose a reign of terror and religious persecution against the Sikhs. The jungles of M&#257lv&#257, with their comparative inaccessibility an account of shortage of water and other scarcities impeding large-scale operations, provided the warring Sikh bands from across the Sutlej with a natural sanctuary. Some local Sikh <i>sard&#257rs</i>, descendants of Bh&#257&#299 Ph&#363l blessed by Gur&#363 Hargobind and Gur&#363 Har R&#257i and collectively known as Ph&#363lk&#299&#257&#7749 <i>misl</i> carved out territories over which they ruled as independent or semi-independent chiefs. This is how the former Sikh states of Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, N&#257bh&#257, J&#299nd, Far&#299dko&#7789, Kals&#299&#257, Kaithal and L&#257&#7693v&#257 came into existence. When Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh rose to power north of the Sutlej and started amalgamating other <i>misl</i> territories to his own dominions, the states south of the Sutlej known as cis-Sutlej states, sought protection under the British, whose suzerainty they accepted. They became tributaries of the British empire while the districts of Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 and F&#299rozpur came under the latter's direct rule. Of these Sikh states, Kaithal lapsed to the British dominions on the death, without a male heir, of its last ruler, Bh&#257&#299 Udai Si&#7749gh, in 1845, and L&#257&#7693v&#257 was annexed as a punishment to its ruler, Sard&#257r Aj&#299t Si&#7749gh, for his open support to Sikh government of Lahore during the first Anglo-Sikh war (1845-46). The remaining five Punjab Sikh states and the Muslim state of M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257 continued to exist till after the independence of India, 1947. In May 1948, they in combination with Kap&#363rthal&#257 in the Do&#257b&#257 region and the submountainous Hindu state of N&#257l&#257ga&#7771h formed themselves into what was called the Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 and East Punjab States Union, PEPSU for short. In 1956 PEPSU was amalgamated with the Punjab, which was further split into Hary&#257&#7751&#257 and the Punjabi-speaking state of the Punjab on I November 1966.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Vis&#257kh&#257 Si&#7749gh, Sant, <i>M&#257lv&#257 Itih&#257s</i>, 3 vols. Kishanpura, 1954.<BR> <li class="C1"><i>M&#257lv&#257 Des Ra&#7789an d&#299 S&#257kh&#299 Poth&#299</i>, Amritsar, 1968<BR> <li class="C1"> Latif, Syad Muhammad, <i>History of the Panjab</i>. Delhi, 1977<BR> <li class="C1"> Cunningham, Joseph Davey, <i>A History of the Sikhs</i>. London, 1849.<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Ethne K. Marenco<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>