Bahawalpur State

Bahawalpur was a state in the Punjab that existed as a sovereign polity from 1748 and as a princely state under British suzerainty from 1833 until 1947, then joined Pakistan and survived until 1955. The state was founded by Nawab Bahawal Khan Abbasi, a chief of the Daudpotra tribe who migrated from Shikarpur in Sindh. The Nawabs settled their kinsmen on new canal lands along the Sutlej and turned the dry tract between the river and the Cholistan desert into a productive agricultural region. Bahawalpur covered about 45,911 square kilometres and had a population of 1,341,209 in 1941. Its rulers built a capital at the town of Bahawalpur, with a palace, gardens and a library that became noted in the subcontinent. A subsidiary alliance with British India in 1833 secured the Nawab's internal authority while opening the Indus and Sutlej to traffic. After partition the state acceded to Pakistan, but its autonomy ended on 14 October 1955 when it was merged into the province of West Pakistan. In 1966 the Nawab died in London after a reign of fifty-nine years; the title passed to his son without political power.