Toba Tek Singh District

British Raj

Toba Tek Singh was developed by the British toward the end of the 19th Century when a canal system was built. People from all over the Punjab (from the current Pakistani and Indian Punjab) moved there as farmlands were allotted to them. Most of the people who migrated there belonged to Lahore, Jalandhar ,Hoshiarpur and Sialkot districts.

The Imperial Gazetteer of India described the tehsil of Toba Tek Singh as follows:

Tehsil of the new Lyallpur District, Punjab, lying between 30°50' and 31°23' N. and 72° 20' and 72°54' E., with an area of 865 square miles (2,240 km²). The population in 1906 was 148,984. It contains 342 villages, including Toba Tek Singh (population, 1,874), the headquarters, and Gojra (2,589), an important grain market on the Wazirabad-Khanewal branch of the North-Western Railway. The land revenue in 1905-6 amounted to Rupees 470,000. The tehsil consists of a level plain, wholly irrigated by the Chenab Canal. The soil, which is very fertile in the east of the tehsil, becomes sandy towards the west. The boundaries of the tehsil were somewhat modified at the time of the formation of the new District of Faisalabad (formerly called Lyallpur).^[6]

The predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from eastern Punjab settled in the Toba Tek Singh District.

After independence

The present Toba Tek Singh district was a Tehsil of Lyallpur District which was given the status of a district by the Punjab government in 1982 and Gojra and Kamalia became new Tehsils. In 2013 Pir Mahal was also given the status of Tehsil.

After the creation of Pakistan, when many Pakistani cities were renamed to names more acceptable to the local population, Toba Tek Singh was one of the few cities that retained its original name.

Population

As of the 2023 census, Toba Tek Singh district has 393,896 households and a population of 2,524,044. The district has a sex ratio of 105.49 males to 100 females and a literacy rate of 71.38%: 76.37% for males and 66.13% for females.^[1][9] 621,491 (24.62% of the surveyed population) are under 10 years of age.^[10] 563,525 (22.33%) live in urban areas.^[1]

Religion

More information Religious group, Pop. ...

Religion in contemporary Toba Tek Singh District

Religious group	1941[12]		2017[13]		2023[11]
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
Islam	271,144	68.40%	2,122,084	96.83%	2,440,350	96.68%
Hinduism	55,575	14.02%	123	0.01%	279	0.01%
Sikhism	53,233	13.43%	—N/a	—N/a	19	~0%
Christianity	16,353	4.13%	66,839	3.05%	81,259	3.22%
Ahmadi	—N/a	—N/a	2,419	0.11%	1,980	0.08%
Others	100	0.02%	30	~0%	157	0.01%
Total Population	396,405	100%	2,191,495	100%	2,524,044	100%
Note: 1941 census data is for Toba Tek Singh tehsil of erstwhile Lyallpur district, which roughly corresponds to contemporary Toba Tek Singh District. District and tehsil borders have changed since 1941.

Close

Language

At the time of the 2023 census, 96.20% of the population spoke Punjabi and 2.48% Urdu as their first language.^[14]

Agriculture

Toba Tek Singh District is one of the best producers of oranges, locally known as Kinnow. It contributes towards export standard quality of oranges and have a major role in the export of oranges from Pakistan.^[15][16] The majority of people living in this district work in agriculture and the region produces several kinds of agricultural and dairy products, including meat, eggs, cotton, maize, several pulses, peaches, guava, tomato, melon, water melon, mangoes, tobacco, onion.^[17]