There are very few studies which examine the impact of partition on the Punjab's urban and industrial development. Apart from a few key works such as Ian Talbot's work on Lahore and Amritsar, and Tan Tai Yong and Gyanesh Kudaisya's work on urban capital centres in South Asia, a crossborder dimension is almost totally absent. But we can learn a great deal from these comparative approaches. Ludhiana and Lyallpur's growth post-1947 is a story of two towns, separated by an international border but sharing many common features. They provide the background and environment in which refugees emerged as new contributors and citizens to cities’ growth. Refugees, contrary to state efforts, migrated to localities that presented them with the most opportunities or where they could utilise their kinship networks. The large volumes of refugees flooding into these two localities fundamentally changed the cities and it is this process that needs to be examined. How did the state, industry and displaced persons respond to this challenge?

These cities, as we have noted earlier, form important case studies because of their economic transformation since 1947. Their growth in recent decades has owed much to the prosperity of the Punjab arising from the Green Revolution, the influx of labour from other parts of the region and the flow of overseas remittances. The foundation of this growth, however, was based on the formative years following partition. This saw a huge influx of refugee labour and capital and also, especially in the case of Lyallpur, witnessed considerable government assistance. Ludhiana was also able to benefit from the decline of its industrial rival Amritsar because of its close proximity to the new international border with Pakistan. So how did these two minor towns, of colonial Punjab, emerge to become the industrial and financial capitals of a divided Punjab?