Five Thousand Years of Urbanization : The Punjab Region

Published in association with Institute of Punjab Studies, Chandigarh. Urbanization in the Punjab region dates back to the third millennium BC. Contributions to this volume trace its long history up to the present. Collectively, they cover all the broad phases of Indian history - proto-historic, ancient, medieval, colonial and contemporary, with some of the contributions cutting across the conventional periods. Specifically, they relate to the Harappan, Mauryan, Rajput, Turkish, Mughal, Sikh, British and post-Independence periods. Some papers study the north-western region while others focus on its well-recognized sub-regions like the Sutlej-Yamuna Divide (Haryana), upper Bari Doab and Himachal Pradesh. The individual urban centres studied are Harappa, Taxila, Lahore, Sirhind, and Amritsar. Authors write from the diverse but related perspectives of archaeology, history, geography, economics, development studies, town-planning, and literature, and base their findings on excavations, fieldwork, quantitative data, literary evidence and creative literature. While reconstruction of the past is their common concern, a third of the contributors dwell at length on the contemporary problems and prospects as well. This volume breaks fresh ground in the history of the Punjab on both sides of the international border, and provides insights into the processes of urbanisation as well as the specificities of the Punjab region. Its insights and inputs are valuable alike for scholars and planners.