Faisalabad: History
=== Early settlements ===
The region encompassing modern-day Faisalabad district was originally inhabited by a number of forest-dwelling tribes. It is believed these early settlements belonged to the ancient districts of Jhang and Sandalbar, and included the area between Shahdara to Shorkot and Sangla Hill to Toba Tek Singh.
The city was settled or established in 1880 during the colonisation of the lower Chenab Valley. The city was settled down by Rai Bahadur Bhavanidas Sikka, after which the British Government granted jagirs to him. After the Partition, his descendants settled in India and now live in Mumbai. The city was named in honor of Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir James Broadwood Lyall, for his role in establishing the canal colonisation project. The main architecture of the city was designed by architect Ganga Ram.
At the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the entire Punjab region became administered as Punjab province, firstly by the East India Company and after 1858 as part of the British Raj.
In the 1880s, the Punjab government began an irrigation scheme to cultivate large tracts of western Punjab through the creation of canal colonies. The Chenab colony was the largest of these colonisation projects, and covered the entirety of the Lyallpur District. Popham Young, the colonisation officer, managing the project, identified the site of the current city to establish headquarters for the colony.
The centre of the city was built in a way to replicate the design in the Union Jack with eight roads extending from a large clock tower at its epicentre; a design geometrically symbolic of the Cross of Saint Andrew counter changed with the Cross of Saint Patrick, and Saint George's Cross over all. The eight roads developed into eight separate bazaars (markets) leading to different regions of the Punjab. In 1896, the newly constructed town with its growing agricultural surplus was added to the British rail network. Construction of the rail link between Wazirabad and Lyallpur was completed in 1895. In 1896, Gujranwala, Jhang and Montgomery comprising the tehsils of Lyallpur were under the administrative control of the Jhang District in Multan Division. The town became one of the first planned settlements within British India.
In 1904, the new district of Lyallpur was created in Multan Division to include the three tehsils; Lyallpur, Samundri and Toba Tek Singh. A sub-tehsil at Jaranwala later became a full tehsil in itself. The University of Agriculture, originally the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur, was established in 1906. The Town Committee was upgraded to a Municipal Committee in 1909. Lyallpur grew into an established agricultural tool and grain center. By 1911, the city had a population of 19,578. A member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS), Malcolm Lyall Darling, who was the-then appointed as the assistant commissioner of the Punjab, travelled through the Lyallpur Colony area in 1920s considering it being a rich tract of land in the British India.
The 1930s brought industrial growth and market expansion to the textile industry as well as to food processing, grain crushing, and chemicals. …