Upper Chenab Colony

The Upper Chenab Colony was one of the canal colonies of British Punjab. Wikipedia's table of the colonies dates it to 1915 to 1919, in the Rechna Doab districts of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura, and gives its area as 78,800 acres. It was watered by the Upper Chenab Canal, which runs from the Marala Headworks on the Chenab to the Ravi near Balloki.

The canal. The Upper Chenab Canal was one of three canals of the Triple Canal Project, with the Upper Jhelum and Lower Bari Doab canals. The scheme was sanctioned in 1905 and was fully in service by 1917 (FIBIS wiki). Wikipedia says the Marala weir and the canal were built in 1906 to 1912 and that the canal was meant to irrigate 648,000 acres in Gujranwala district, passing the rest of its water to the Ravi at Balloki for the Lower Bari Doab Canal.

Who was settled. Wikipedia says grants in this colony went to those who had missed Jhelum Colony land because of the horse-breeding policy, with special grants for people who resisted criminals or helped prevent crime. It names no Sikh settlers for this colony, and the sources opened give no count of Sikhs settled here.

Key moments

• 1905: the Triple Canal Project is sanctioned.
• 1906 to 1912: the Marala weir and the Upper Chenab Canal are built; the canal opens in 1912.
• 1915 to 1919: the colony is settled.
• 1947: the Radcliffe Award leaves the western canal colonies in Pakistan. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records the Sikh lament for the loss of their lands in the canal colonies, and Wikipedia says all the colonies passed to the Punjab Irrigation Department of Pakistan.

What it means today. The colony belongs to the wider story of the canal colonies that drew Sikh farmers west and that were lost at Partition. This one was small, and the sources opened do not tie it to a particular Sikh community or shrine.