Sutlej River
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sutlej River
(Satlaj ; the Zaradros of Ptolemy and Arrian ; the Sutudri or Satadru of the Vedas, ‘ flowing in a thousand channels ')
One of the ' five rivers ' of the Punjab from which the Province derives its name. Rising near the more westerly of the Manasarowar Lakes in Tibet in 30° 20' N. and 81° 25' E., at a height of 15,200 feet, the Sutlej flows in a north-westerly direction along the southern slopes of the Kailas mountains to the Chinese frontier outpost at Shipki. Here its elevation is 10,000 feet above the sea. Thence turning south-west- by-south it enters the Kanawar valley in Bashahr State, receiving the waters of the Li or river of Spiti near Dahlang. Its course in Kanawar is 80 miles. After leaving that valley it flows west-south-west through deep gorges in the hills, separating the Saraj tahsil of Kulu and Mandi State on the north from the Simla Hill States on the south. In this reach lie Rampur, the capital of Bashahr, and Bilaspur town. Then winding through Bilaspur State the Sutlej enters the Jaswan Dun in Hoshiarpur, and turning suddenly south-east, past the town of Anand- pur-Makhowal in that District, pierces the Siwaliks at Rupar, after a course of 160 miles from the western extremity of Kanawar. In the hills, the Sutlej is crossed by bridges at Wangtu, Rampur, Lohri, and Seoni. At Rupar it takes a sudden bend to the west, and debouching upon the plains divides the Jullundur Doab from the Sirhind plateau. At the south-west corner of Kapurthala State (31° 11' N. and 75° 4' E.) the sluggish waters of the Bein and the broad stream of the Beas flow into the Sutlej. From this point the united stream preserves an almost uniform south-westerly course, dividing the Bari Doab to the north from the sandy plains of Ferozepore and Bahawalpur to the south, until after receiving the Chenab at Madwala it joins the Indus at Mithankot in Muzaffargarh District. The total length of the river is 900 miles. In the plains it is fringed by a fertile lowland valley, confined on either side by high banks leading to the naturally barren table-lands that form the watersheds of the Ravi to the north and the Jumna to the south. The lower valley of the Sutlej is less fertile, and closely resembles the deserts of Rajputana. As soon as it enters the plains the river is robbed of half its waters by the Sirhind Canal, which takes off at Rupar from the southern bank of the river, and irrigates large tracts in Ludhiana and Ferozepore Districts and the adjacent Native States. Soon after the Beas joins the Sutlej, the Upper Sutlej system of inundation canals takes off from its northern bank to irrigate parts of Lahore and Montgomery Districts. Finally, the Lower Sutlej Canals draw off most of the remaining water to irrigate the rainless tracts of south-west Multan, The river is open to small craft all the year round, but there is little traffic above Feroze- pore. It is bridged by the North-Western Railway at Phillaur, Kasur, and Adamwahan in Bahawalpur.
After it leaves the hills the river is never called Sutlej by the people, and it has changed its course more than once in historical times. The history of those changes can be traced with considerable probability and detail. In the time of Arrian, the Sutlej found an independent outlet into the Rann of Cutch. In the year a.d. tooo it was a tributary of the Hakra, and flowed in the Eastern Nara. Thence the former bed can be traced back through Bahawalpur and Bikaner into the Sirsa tahsll of Hissar, until it is lost near Tohana. From Tohana to Rupar this old bed cannot be traced ; but it is known that the Sutlej took a southerly course at Rupar, instead of turning west, as now, to join the Beas. Thus the Sutlej or the Hakra — for both streams flowed in the same bed — is probably the lost river of the Indian desert, whose waters made the sands of Bikaner and Sind a smiling garden. By 1245 the Sutlej had taken a more northerly course, the Hakra had dried up, and a great migration took place of the people of the desert — as it thus became — to the Indus valley. The course then taken by the Sutlej was apparently a continuation of the present course of the Ghaggar. About 1593 the Sutlej left the Ghaggar and went north once more. The Beas came south to meet it, and the two flowed in the same channel under various names — Macchuwah, Hariani, Dand, Nurni, Nili, and Gharah. Then the Sutlej once more returned to its old course and rejoined the Ghaggar. It was only in 1796 that the Sutlej again left the Ghaggar and finally joined the Beas.
Ferozepur headwork
How India retained them
Rajeev Deshpande, February 28, 2021: The Times of India
How India retained Ferozepur headworks
New Delhi
The alertness and diligence of Indian civil engineers, such as erstwhile Bikaner state chief engineer Kanwar Sain, in realising the strategic importance of Ferozepur headworks of the Sutlej remaining in Indian hands led to an urgent intervention that moved the Radcliffe line a few crucial kilometre west.
A last hour plea by Jawaharlal Nehru to Lord Louis Mountbatten, India’s last viceroy, on Ferozepur, among other issues, might have held back the Radclifffe award by a few days. When the award was announced on August 17, 1947, the entire area on the left bank with the Gang(a) canal was Indian territory, reveals a new book — ‘Indus Basin Interrupted’ by Uttam Sinha, currently with the IDSA.
Using original correspondence and memoirs of key persons, Sinha, who holds a Phd from JNU, says the situation was not so sanguine just a week earlier. The chief engineer of Punjab, Sarup Singh, discovered on August 8 that the DC of Ferozepur had been asked to select tehsil headquarters outside the area also excluding Zira and Fazilka — a strong hint the area was going to west Punjab.
Singh sent a secret sealed letter to Sain explaining the gravity of the situation. Disturbed by the prospects of the headworks being lost to Pakistan, Sain lobbied a key official, Sardar Pannikar, who had the ear of the Bikaner royal Sadul Singh. The maharaja was urged to use his excellent contacts with Mountbatten as disruption of the canals would be catastrophic for the state. The royal wrote to Mountbatten that he greatly feared an adverse award will “gravely prejudice the interest of Bikaner as its economic life is greatly dependent on water supply from the Gang canal.” He further threatened that he would join Pakistan if his concerns were not heeded. The Viceroy was cold to Pannikar, who was deputed to meet him, but the official along with Sain spoke urgently with Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The consultations on the fateful day of August 11 saw Nehru vigorously informing Mountbatten that from the strategic and irrigation point of view, it will be “most dangerous” to let Ferozepur go to Pakistan. No area east of the Sutlej should be part of Pakistan and there should be no joint control of electricity.
The same evening it was made public that the award will be delayed by a few days. Matters were aided by Radcliffe’s initial draft being shown to Lala Adjudhia, chairman of the central waterways commission, who tipped off Patel. Radcliffe was summoned by Mountbatten and the map changed.
