Okara

Okara is a city and district in Pakistan's Punjab, in Sahiwal Division. It became a separate district in 1982; before that it was part of Sahiwal district, which was Montgomery district under the British (Wikipedia). The Lower Bari Doab Canal, opened in 1913, watered land that Wikipedia says had been barren. The Lower Bari Doab colony, settled between 1914 and 1924 across Montgomery and Multan districts and covering about 1.19 million acres, was one of the largest of the Punjab canal colonies.

Sikhs of the colony. Wikipedia gives the 1941 census for the Okara and Depalpur tehsils of Montgomery district as 73.02 per cent Muslim, 13.87 per cent Hindu, including Ad-Dharmis, and 11.58 per cent Sikh, or 65,749 people. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that after the Radcliffe Award Sikhs in the canal colonies of Montgomery, Multan, Lyallpur and Shahpur "suddenly found themselves cut off from their ancestral homes", and that, a small minority in Pakistan and helpless in mass violence, they were forced to migrate. It records the Sikh lament for the loss of their lands in the canal colonies, which they had made fertile.

Gurdwara Bhuman Shah, Depalpur. The Udasi saint Bhumman Shah was born in 1687 at Behlolpur and died in 1762. His complex at Bhuman Shah village near Depalpur holds a haveli, a gurdwara, a dharamshala and samadhis. The Express Tribune (December 2015) says the prayer hall was reportedly inaugurated in 1910, that his descendants moved to Haryana after 1947 and the site was left largely abandoned, and that although it was declared a heritage site the only visible sign of state control was a large lock on the main gate. The Walled City of Lahore Authority says the complex still stands.

Key moments

• 1913: the Lower Bari Doab Canal opens; the same year the British lease the land of the Okara Military Farms to the defence ministry (The Friday Times).
• 1941: Sikhs are 11.58 per cent of the Okara and Depalpur tehsils.
• 1947: the Radcliffe Award leaves the canal colonies in Pakistan and Sikh settlers leave.
• 1982: Okara becomes a district.

What it means today. Okara belongs to the story of the colony land Sikhs lost in 1947. It is also known for the dispute over the Okara Military Farms, about 17,000 acres in 20 villages, where tenants have long claimed ownership; in 2019 the National Commission for Human Rights brokered a settlement that left ownership unresolved (The Friday Times).