The history of Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir(PoJK) is not merely the story of a region that became a major source of overseas migration to Britain. It is also the story of a once-prominent Hindu and Sikh population whose commercial life, religious institutions, homes and ancestral connections were profoundly disrupted during the violence surrounding Partition in 1947.

Decades later, the construction of Mangla Dam submerged much of the old town, including historic Hindu religious structures, leaving an important chapter of the region’s plural heritage beneath the reservoir.
Before Partition, Mirpur was an important commercial centre in the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hindu trading families, particularly the Mahajans, occupied a significant place in the town’s business life. They were associated with commerce, shops and the movement of goods between the region and neighbouring parts of Punjab. Hindu and Sikh residents also served in the armed forces, reflecting a broader tradition of military recruitment among communities across the former state.
The description of Mirpur’s Hindu population as uniformly wealthy would, however, be an oversimplification. The community included prosperous merchants as well as ordinary households, professionals and people engaged in other occupations. Its commercial influence was particularly visible in the town’s trading establishments and market networks. Historical accounts describe Mirpur as a centre where Hindu Mahajans formed an important part of the trading class.
The Jammu and Kashmir Census of 1941 provides a useful demographic baseline. It recorded *63,576 Hindus and 12,691 Sikhs in Mirpur district, a combined population of 76,267. The district’s total population was approximately 386,655. Hindus constituted around 16.4 per cent and Sikhs approximately 3.3 per cent of the population, although the precise percentages vary slightly between published summaries.
These figures are important because they establish that Hindus and Sikhs were not insignificant or incidental communities in the region. They were established residents with homes, businesses, places of worship and social institutions.
The district included three principal tehsils: Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber. The 1941 Census recorded a particularly substantial Hindu and Sikh presence in Bhimber, where Hindus accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the population and Sikhs just over five per cent. Mirpur and Kotli had Muslim majorities, but both also had established non-Muslim communities.
Mirpur town was one of the principal centres of Hindu commercial life. Historical accounts describe its Hindu Mahajans as a major trading group. Kotli also had a sizeable Hindu population, with some accounts describing Hindu families as dominant in the town’s social and commercial life before the 1947 conflict. Bhimber, meanwhile, had a comparatively large Hindu and Sikh population according to the pre-Partition census.
Dadyal is also significant in the region’s history. Accounts of the area describe it as having a prominent Sikh presence before Partition. Ali Beg, in the Bhimber area, is remembered for its historic gurdwara, an important marker of the Sikh community’s religious heritage.
These towns and localities provide documented examples of the region’s former religious diversity. However, a comprehensive list of every Hindu-populated village would require village-level figures from the 1941 Census and corroborating local records. It would be misleading to label individual villages as Hindu-majority without checking those records.
The wider historical picture is nevertheless clear: Hindu and Sikh families lived across the Mirpur region, maintaining commercial networks, religious institutions and connections with neighbouring districts of Jammu and Punjab.
Partition brought extraordinary upheaval to Jammu and Kashmir. The tribal invasion and the ensuing conflict spread violence, fear and displacement across the region. Mirpur became one of the major sites of the tragedy.
Historical accounts record that thousands of Hindu and Sikh residents fled or were displaced. The capture of Mirpur in November 1947 became a defining event in the collective memory of the displaced community. Families were separated, property was abandoned and many residents sought safety in Jammu and other areas in India . The fate of numerous people remained uncertain.
A contemporary document in the Nehru Archive is particularly revealing. In a cable to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan dated December 2, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru referred to reports concerning the destruction of Mirpur and the plight of its non-Muslim residents. The cable stated that, of an estimated 26,000 non-Muslims in Mirpur town, only about 2,000 had reportedly reached a point within 15 miles of Jhelum; the fate of refugees from the wider area remained uncertain. The document also raised grave concerns about the safety of refugees and the abduction of women.
The figures in this contemporary communication should be read as reported estimates during a rapidly unfolding crisis, not as a final census of survivors. They nevertheless demonstrate the scale of the emergency and the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Mirpur’s non-Muslim population.
An exact, independently established figure for the number of Hindus who successfully migrated from Mirpur during Partition is difficult to establish from the available sources.
The 1941 Census recorded 63,576 Hindus and 12,691 Sikhs across the entire district. These are pre-Partition population figures; they must not be presented as the number of people who migrated. The December 1947 cable, meanwhile, refers to the situation in Mirpur town and reports that only a fraction of the non-Muslim population had reached the vicinity of Jhelum at that point. It does not provide a final total for those who eventually reached India.
The historical record includes deaths, people who fled, those who were abducted or went missing, and survivors who reached safety at different times. A definitive migration total would therefore require careful reconciliation of refugee records, contemporary correspondence, census material and survivor accounts.
The distinction matters. Remembering the scale of the tragedy does not require presenting an uncertain number as an established fact.
Another profound transformation came in the 1960s, when Pakistan constructed Mangla Dam on the Jhelum River. The project submerged extensive areas of land and settlements, forcing residents to relocate and permanently changing the landscape of old Mirpur.
Among the structures lost beneath the reservoir were historic Hindu temples and houses associated with the former town. The Department of Archaeology and Museums of Pakistan documents a historic Hindu temple at Purana Mirpur, dated tentatively to the Dogra period between 1799 and 1849. According to the department’s description, the temple now lies within Mangla reservoir and remains submerged for much of the year, becoming visible when the water level falls during the late winter months. Other accounts refer to the remains of Shivala and Raghunath temples in the submerged area. These surviving structures and archaeological references offer physical evidence of the religious heritage that existed in old Mirpur before the reservoir transformed it.
The dam was built for major water-management and power-generation purposes, but its consequences for the people who lived in the affected areas were considerable. The loss extended beyond houses and farmland to include neighbourhoods, places of worship, ancestral properties and familiar landmarks.
For displaced Hindu families, the submergence of old Mirpur carried a particular historical significance. Many had already lost their homes and property during the upheaval of 1947. The disappearance of parts of the old town beneath the reservoir further obscured the physical traces of their earlier presence.
It is important, however, to distinguish the two events. The displacement and violence of 1947 and the later relocation associated with Mangla Dam were separate historical processes. The dam did not cause the original Partition-era exodus of Mirpur’s Hindu and Sikh population.
The history of Mirpur’s pre-Partition population was not confined to commerce. The 1941 Census noted that Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in the district belonged to communities from which men were recruited into both the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces and the British Indian Army. It also recorded that residents of Mirpur and Kotli frequently sought employment outside the district, including in the army and the mercantile marine.
This evidence places the region within the wider military and economic history of the former princely state. Hindu and Sikh residents participated in this broader environment alongside members of other communities. The historical record therefore supports recognition of their contributions to business and military service, without suggesting that every member of the community shared the same economic position or occupation.
Today, Mirpur is widely associated with the Pakistani diaspora in Britain, particularly the migration that expanded after the construction of Mangla Dam. Yet its history extends much further back—to a period when Hindu and Sikh families participated in its markets, maintained temples and gurdwaras, and shared the region’s social and economic life with their Muslim neighbours.
The pre-Partition census, contemporary correspondence from 1947 and archaeological documentation of submerged temples provide different but complementary pieces of evidence. Together, they help reconstruct a past that cannot be understood through migration statistics alone.
The history of Mirpur deserves to be documented through village-level census records, property registers, temple and gurdwara records, family histories, refugee documents and archaeological surveys. Such work would help establish the names of settlements, the extent of the community’s commercial influence, the number of people displaced in 1947 and the religious structures subsequently lost beneath Mangla reservoir.
Remembering Mirpur’s Hindu and Sikh heritage is not about diminishing the suffering of any other community during Partition. It is about acknowledging the lives, contributions and losses of people whose history remains an essential part of Jammu and Kashmir’s past.
Beneath the waters of Mangla Dam lie not only the remains of old buildings but also traces of a town’s layered social history. Recording that history accurately is an obligation to future generations—and a reminder that the heritage of a region belongs in the historical record, even when the physical landmarks that once embodied it have disappeared.