Rawal Pindi Street, 1883

Rawal Pindi, surrounded by ancient sites-Taxila, the Gandharan capital of India, is a few miles away-the city barracks had been set up by the British to garrison troops in 1849. Out of this barracks, in a few decades, grew the largest military station in the Punjab. In the 1880s the town of Rawalpindi had a population of around 75,000 and was said to be the cleanest town in northern British India. This made it a favourite first stop for new troops from England. Rawalpindi District as a whole had nearly 250,000 persons and was a prime recruiting ground for Indian soldiers as well. About 5,000 troops were quartered in the cantonment and the town of Rawalpindi was built to suit the needs of the military, although its growth was also spurred by the construction of the railway and the occurrence of famines in Kashmir, which attracted migrant labour in search of jobs. Next to the cantonment, the vibrant sadar, main bazaar, shown here, flourished with numerous good Parsi and other shops.