East Punjab

With the partition of the Presidencies and provinces of British India, the Punjab province was to be divided in two as per the Indian Independence Act 1947, passed by the parliament of the United Kingdom. The province as constituted under the Government of India Act 1935 was to cease to exist, and two new provinces were to be constituted, to be known respectively as West Punjab & East Punjab.[2] The princely states of the Punjab region (which had not been British possessions, so could not be partitioned by the British) all (except Bahawalpur, which acceded to the Dominion of Pakistan) acceded to the new Dominion of India and were combined into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU). The northeast Hill States of the Punjab Province banded together and were declared a union territory in 1950 as Himachal Pradesh.

Administrative divisions of India in 1951

The Constitution of India, which came into effect in 1950, renamed the province of "East Punjab" as the state of "Punjab".

In 1956, the PEPSU was merged into an expanded Punjab state.

A map of the distribution of native Punjabi speakers in India and Pakistan

With effect from 1 November 1966, there was yet another reorganisation, this time on linguistic lines, when the state of Punjab as constituted in 1956 was divided into three: the mostly Hindi-speaking part became the present-day Indian state of Haryana and the mostly Punjabi-speaking part became the present-day Punjab,[3][4] while a new union territory (Chandigarh) was also created, to serve as a capital to both states. At the same time, some parts of the former territory of Patiala and East Punjab States Union, including Solan and Nalagarh, were transferred to Himachal Pradesh.

Prior to partition, the eastern portion of Punjab that was ultimately awarded to India following the demarcation of the Radcliffe Line was made into a new province – East Punjab. The area includes the contemporary states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Below is the religious demographics of this region broken down by district and princely state with an overall total as per the 1941 Indian census.

Religion in the Districts & Princely States of East Punjab, India region (1941)[5]^: 42[lower-alpha 1]

District/ Princely State	Hinduism [lower-alpha 2]		Islam		Sikhism		Christianity		Jainism		Others[lower-alpha 3]		Total
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Patiala State	597,488	30.86%	436,539	22.55%	896,021	46.28%	1,592	0.08%	3,101	0.16%	1,518	0.08%	1,936,259	100%
Firozpur District	287,733	20.22%	641,448	45.07%	479,486	33.69%	12,607	0.89%	1,674	0.12%	128	0.01%	1,423,076	100%
Amritsar District	217,431	15.38%	657,695	46.52%	510,845	36.13%	25,973	1.84%	1,911	0.14%	21	0%	1,413,876	100%
Hoshiarpur District	584,080	49.91%	380,759	32.53%	198,194	16.93%	6,165	0.53%	1,125	0.1%	0	0%	1,170,323	100%
Jalandhar District	311,010	27.59%	509,804	45.23%	298,741	26.5%	6,233	0.55%	1,395	0.12%	7	0%	1,127,190	100%
Hisar District	652,842	64.85%	285,208	28.33%	60,731	6.03%	1,292	0.13%	6,126	0.61%	510	0.05%	1,006,709	100%
Karnal District	666,301	66.99%	304,346	30.6%	19,887	2%	1,249	0.13%	2,789	0.28%	3	0%	994,575	100%
Rohtak District	780,474	81.61%	166,569	17.42%	1,466	0.15%	1,043	0.11%	6,847	0.72%	0	0%	956,399	100%
Kangra District	846,531	94.12%	43,249	4.81%	4,809	0.53%	788	0.09%	101	0.01%	3,899	0.43%	899,377	100%
Gurdaspur District[lower-alpha 4]	174,221	20.21%	440,323	51.08%	200,688	23.28%	46,743	5.42%	25	0%	6	0%	862,006	100%
Gurgaon District	560,537	65.83%	285,992	33.59%	637	0.07%	1,673	0.2%	2,613	0.31%	6	0%	851,458	100%
Ambala District	412,658	48.68%	268,999	31.73%	156,543	18.47%	6,065	0.72%	3,065	0.36%	415	0.05%	847,745	100%
Ludhiana District	171,715	20.98%	302,482	36.95%	341,175	41.68%	1,913	0.23%	1,279	0.16%	51	0.01%	818,615	100%
Kapurthala State	61,546	16.27%	213,754	56.49%	88,350	23.35%	1,667	0.44%	380	0.1%	12,683	3.35%	378,380	100%
Jind State	268,355	74.17%	50,972	14.09%	40,981	11.33%	161	0.04%	1,294	1294%	49	0.01%	361,812	100%
Simla Hill States	345,716	96.16%	10,812	3.01%	2,693	0.75%	161	0.04%	126	0.04%	12	0%	359,520	100%
Nabha State	146,518	42.59%	70,373	20.45%	122,451	35.59%	221	0.06%	480	0.14%	1	0%	344,044	100%
Mandi State	227,463	97.79%	4,328	1.86%	583	0.25%	11	0%	0	0%	208	0.09%	232,593	100%
Faridkot State	21,814	10.95%	61,352	30.79%	115,070	57.74%	247	0.12%	800	800%	0	0%	199,283	100%
Chamba State	155,910	92.3%	12,318	7.29%	107	0.06%	190	0.11%	0	0%	383	0.23%	168,908	100%
Sirmoor State	146,199	93.7%	7,374	4.73%	2,334	1.5%	38	0.02%	81	0.05%	0	0%	156,026	100%
Bilaspur State	108,375	98.22%	1,498	1.36%	453	0.41%	7	0.01%	3	0%	0	0%	110,336	100%
Malerkotla State	23,482	26.65%	33,881	38.45%	30,320	34.41%	116	0.13%	310	0.35%	0	0%	88,109	100%
Suket State	69,974	98.43%	884	1.24%	234	0.33%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	71,092	100%
Kalsia State	29,866	44.32%	25,049	37.17%	12,235	18.15%	55	0.08%	188	0.28%	0	0%	67,393	100%
Simla District	29,466	76.38%	7,022	18.2%	1,032	2.68%	934	2.42%	114	0.3%	8	0.02%	38,576	100%
Dujana State	23,727	77.37%	6,939	22.63%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	0	0%	30,666	100%
Loharu State	23,923	85.77%	3,960	14.2%	7	0.03%	2	0.01%	0	0%	0	0%	27,892	100%
Pataudi State	17,728	82.38%	3,655	16.98%	0	0%	9	0.04%	128	0.59%	0	0%	21,520	100%
Total	7,963,083	46.95%	5,237,584	30.88%	3,586,073	21.14%	117,155	0.69%	35,955	0.21%	19,908	0.12%	16,959,758	100%
Note: Territory comprises the contemporary subdivisions of Punjab, India, Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.

East Punjab comprising the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh had a population of 61,014,852 people as of 2011 census report of India. The Hindus form a majority in East Punjab region with 40,234,605 adherents comprising (65.94%), Sikhs are 17,466,731 comprising (28.62%) of the region, Muslims are 2,518,159 comprising (4.12%) of the region and others are 795,357 including Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and atheists together comprising remaining (1.3%) of the region. Sikhs are the majority in Punjab, while Hindus form the majority in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chandigarh.