Bar Region

The Bar Region, or the Bars (Bāṛ),[1] is an area in central Punjab, now part of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. The area consists of agricultural land that was cleared in the nineteenth century for the then 'new' canal irrigation system that the British were developing at the time. The soil of the Bar Region is fertile.[2] The plains have been made by the stream deposits driven by the rivers flowing from the Himalayas.

The area stretches from the river Sutlej to the river Chenab and down to the junction of two rivers Jehlum and Chenab. The word bar in Punjabi language refers to a threshold, an outer space, an area away from the human settlement, a barrier between populated area and wild forest, a natural jungle. So the area between two rivers that formed a natural barrier between two different settlements was called bar. All the 'Bar Regions' had and still have almost the same or similar culture and language or dialect with slight variations.[2]

The 'Bar' is further divided into four regions: the Sandal Bar (the area between the Ravi and Chenab rivers), Kirana Bar (the area between the Chenab and Jehlum rivers), Neeli Bar (the area between the Ravi and Sutlej rivers) and Ganji Bar (the area between the Sutlej and dry river bed of the Hakra).[2]

Most of the Bar now forms part of the modern Faisalabad, Jhang, Tob Tek Singh, Hafizabad District, Okara, Vehari, Khanewal, Pakpattan, Sargodha, Chiniot, Hafizabad, Nankana Sahib, Bahawalnagar, Mandi Bahauddin and Sahiwal districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan. The Indigenous people of these districts have similar culture and speak Jatki/Jangli dialect of Punjabi.

See also
  • Baar di boli
  • Geo-political history of Punjab[3]

References
  1. Grierson, George A. (1916). Linguistic Survey of India. Volume IX: Indo-Aryan family. Central group, Part 1, Specimens of western Hindi and Pañjābī. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 608.
  2. PunjabNotes:Bar:forgotten glory of Punjab, Dawn newspaper, Karachi, Published 13 June 2014, Retrieved 3 May 2016
  3. http://nation.com.pk/columns/29-Sep-2015/geopolitical-importance-a-different-perspective, Geo-political history of Punjab region, The Nation newspaper, Published 29 Sep 2015, Retrieved 3 May 2016

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