Toba Tek Singh

History

In the memory of a Sikh saint is enlivened by a city. Before Tek Singh came and lodged here, it was a deserted place by the pond (Toba in the local language). He made it a point to service thirsty passers-by from this pond. Years later, his act of charity founded the city, which is now named after him, Toba Tek Singh.

British Raj

Toba Tek Singh was developed by the British toward the end of the 18th Century when a canal system was built. People from all over the Punjab (currently Indian and Pakistani Punjab) moved there as farmlands were allotted to them. Most of the people who migrated there belonged to Lahore, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur district. The Imperial Gazetteer of India described the tehsil of Toba Tek Singh as follows:

Tahsil of the new Lyallpur District, Punjab, lying between 30°50' and 31°23' N. and 72° 20' and 72°54' E., with an area of 865 square miles (2,240 km2). The population in 1906 was 148,984. It contains 342 villages, including Toba Tek Singh (population,1,874), the headquarters, and GOJRA (2,589), an important grain market on the Wazirabad -Khanewal branch of the North-Western Railway. The land revenue and cesses in 1905-6 amounted to 4.7 lakhs. The tahsil consists of a level plain, wholly irrigated by the Chenab Canal. The soil, which is very fertile in the east of the tahsil, becomes sandy towards the west. The boundaries of the tahsil were somewhat modified at the time of the formation of the new District of Lyallpur"

After independence

During the 1970s, when many Pakistani cities were renamed to change names given after British Rulers to their original or native names or more acceptable names to local population like Montgomery was renamed to its old original name Sahiwal, Toba Tek Singh remained one of the very few cities to maintain its original name mainly because of reputation of Tek Singh. In 1982 Toba Tek Singh, formerly a subdivision, was separated from Faisalabad District and became a separate district.

Demography

Toba Tek Singh is located in central Punjab and occupies 3252 square kilometres and is made up of large areas of lowlands that flood frequently during the rainy season; the floods originate from the Ravi River that runs along the southern and southeastern borders. The Pre-partition T.T.Singh had a sizeable Sikh population which migrated to Indian Punjab in 1947.

Agriculture productions

Toba Tek Singh is one of the best producers of oranges "locally known as kenno". It contributes towards export standard quality of oranges produced in all Pakistan. The majority of people living in this district work in agriculture and the region produces several kind of agricultural and dairy products, including meat, eggs, cotton, maize, several pulses, peaches, guava, tomato, melon, water melon, mangoes, tobacco, onion.

Famous people

Education

Movie

A movie was made in 2006 by Afia Nathaniel on this story.

In popular culture

Sadat Hasan Manto, an Urdu Novelist wrote a short story entitled "Toba Tek Singh" which is a satire on Partition; in the story, an inmate in an asylum frets over the question of whether his home town Toba Tek Singh is now in India or Pakistan. It was adapted into a short movie of the same name directed by Afia Nathaniel in 2005.