Traditional Lahore is the capital of Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan.

It has a rich cosmopolitan history and was the principal city of the vast plain of the entire Punjab region for many centuries, and was the capital of the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh until the mid-1850s when it was conquered by the British.

Before the partition of British India in 1947, Lahore had a large Hindu, Sikh and Jain population.

The overwhelming majority of Lahore and West Punjab's non-Christian minority population fled to India at Partition, while East Punjab was similarly depopulated of almost its entire Muslim population.

[5] As a result of religious demographic changes and political tensions, almost all Hindu and Jain temples have been abandoned in Lahore, although several important Sikh shrines continue to operate.