The city and district is named after a Sikh religious figure Tek Singh. Mr. Singh was a kind-hearted man who served water and provided shelter to the worn out and thirsty travelers passing by a small pond (‘Toba’ in Punjabi). The area and the surrounding settlement acquired the name Toba Tek Singh. There is also a park here named after the Sardar Tek Singh. There was a pond of water of ‘Sikh’.
British Raj
Toba Tek Singh was developed by the British Raj in the end of the 19th Century when a canal system was built. People from all over Punjab (currently Indian and Pakistani Punjab) moved there as farmlands were allotted to them. Most of the people who migrated there belonged to Lahore, Jalandhar, and Hoshiarpur districts.
The Imperial Gazetteer of India described the tehsil of Toba Tek Singh as Tehsil of the new Faisalabad District, Punjab, lying between 30°50' and 31°23' north and 72° 20' and 72°54' east, 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 and cesses in 1905-06 amounted to 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. The predominantly Muslim population supported Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from India settled in the Toba Tek Singh.
Modern Era
During the 1970s, when many Pakistani cities were renamed to their original or native names or more acceptable names to local population from those given after British Rulers like Montgomery was renamed to its old original name Sahiwal, Toba Tek Singh remained one of the very few cities to maintain its original name mainly because of reputation of Tek Singh. In 1982, Toba Tek Singh, formerly a sub-division, was separated from Faisalabad district and became a separate district.
In 1970 Historical Kissan Conference, 200,000 Kissans (peasants) and progressive people from whole country gathered in Toba Tek Singh. The conference left a great impact on political history of Pakistan and led to Land Reforms taken place in Bhutto Era.
According to the 1998 Census of Pakistan, the population was 905,580. Of this, 720,601 were Muslim and 184,979 were non-Muslim, mainly Christian. As per 2008 record, estimated population had risen to 1.39 million.
According to the 1998 Census, Punjabi was the predominant first language, accounting for 98.9% of the district's population.
Toba Tek Singh District is ranked fifth highest with respect to Human Development Index among 94 districts in Pakistan.
The area now comprising the new district of Toba Tek Singh was originally a part of Jhang district. As a result of reclamation proceeds fresh administrative problems naturally presented themselves and the boundaries of the old district had to undergo extensive modifications and new administrative units were set up. Lyallpur (Faisalabad) Tehsil in Jhang district was set up in 1896. Two new Tehsils also in Jhang district were set up in 1900 with headquarters at Toba Tek Singh and Samundari. The district of Lyallpur (now called Faisalabad) was constituted during 1904 comprising Tehsil Lyallpur, Samundri and Toba Tek Singh with a Sub-Tehsil at Jaranwala. Toba Tek Singh Tehsil was raised to the status of a sub-division in 1930.
Toba Tek Singh was notified as district with effect from 1st July, 1982 after slicing the area comprising this district from Faisalabad as TTS was its sub-division. It derives its name from the headquarters town named Toba Tek Singh. It is situated in the centre of the Punjab. It is surrounded on the north by district Jhang and Faisalabad, on the west by district Jhang and on the east by Faisalabad district. On the south, River Ravi makes a natural boundary and separates it from the districts Sahiwal and Khanewal.
The population of District Toba Tek Singh is more than 23 lacs as per census of 2017. It has four tehsils TTS, Gojra, Kamalia and Pir Mahal. Toba Tek Singh is a city of beautiful mosques, parks, and ancient town like Rajana, Aroti, Kamalia etc. It is also enriched with good moral values as well as city of highly educated people. Its tehsil Gojra has produced a number of Hockey legends for the country for international level.
Demography
Toba Tek Singh is located in Central Punjab and occupies 3,252 square kilometers and is made up of large areas of lowlands that flood frequently during the rainy season. The floods originate from the Ravi River that runs along the southern and southeastern borders. The pre-partition TTS had a sizable Sikh population, much of which migrated to Punjab in modern India in 1947.