Ludhiana

Ludhiana, today Punjab’s largest city, began as a small Lodhi outpost on the banks of the Sutlej. In the late 15th–early 16th century, during the rule of Sikander Lodhi of the Delhi Sultanate, Afghan officers were sent to control the region and suppress local rebellions. They founded a new settlement near an existing village (often identified as Mir Hota), built a small fort, and the area came to be known as Lodhi-ana – “the place of the Lodhis” – which gradually evolved into Ludhiana.

Under the Mughals, Ludhiana remained a modest but important town on caravan routes linking Delhi, Lahore and the Himalayan foothills. In the 18th century, as Mughal authority weakened, the countryside fell under various Sikh misls, while across the Sutlej, Maharaja Ranjit Singh expanded his Sikh kingdom. After the early 19th-century Anglo–Sikh treaties, Ludhiana, on the British side of the Sutlej, grew into a cantonment and administrative centre of the Ludhiana district.

The arrival of railways and later the Grand Trunk Road turned it into a major trade and industrial hub, especially for textiles, hosiery, cycles and machine tools. After Partition in 1947, large numbers of refugees from West Punjab settled here, bringing skills and capital that boosted industry further. Today Ludhiana is known as the industrial heart of Punjab, built on these layers of frontier, colonial and post-Partition history.