Bariwalaਬਾਰੀਵਾਲਾ

Where is Bariwala?

Bariwala is a town and nagar panchayat in Muktsar tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It is one of only two towns in the whole tehsil, the other being Sri Muktsar Sahib town itself, and it is the smallest town in the district. The town stands in the cotton country north-west of the district headquarters, on the roads that link Muktsar with Kot Kapura and Firozpur.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 8,668 people in Bariwala, up from 7,546 in 2001: 4,604 men and 4,064 women, a sex ratio of 883 women for every 1,000 men. Of the 7,728 residents aged seven and above, 5,563 were literate, about 72 per cent. The town covers 5.0 square kilometres, giving it a density of about 1,734 people per square kilometre, closely built for a place of its size. Its PIN code is 152025 and it stands at an elevation of about 208 metres.

A town among villages

Bariwala's position is unusual. Muktsar tehsil is a countryside of big villages with only two towns in it, and Bariwala, the smaller of the two, is outnumbered by its own villages. That shapes the town's life: it is not a place people pass through on the way somewhere else, but a service point for the farms around it, the place with the senior school, the bazaar, the bus stop and the panchayat office. The district has four towns in all, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Malout, Gidderbaha and Bariwala, and Bariwala is the smallest and quietest of them, the town that belongs most completely to its villages.

Town life

As a nagar panchayat, Bariwala runs its own local affairs for a town that is really a large village with a bazaar. Its Government Senior Secondary School, whose gate is a landmark on the town's main road, takes children from Bariwala and the villages round it. The town's market serves a ring of farming villages, and the tehsil's largest villages are in this part of the district: Rupana, with 9,079 people in 2011, is bigger than the town itself, and Bari Hari Urf Harike Kalan, at 8,024, is close behind it. Cotton, paddy and wheat move through the town's shops and commission agents in season, and its people work the same mix of farming, trade, teaching and government service as the rest of the Muktsar countryside.

In the Muktsar country

Bariwala belongs to the Muktsar country, the tract whose name comes from the Battle of Muktsar of 1705 and the forty martyrs remembered at Sri Muktsar Sahib town. The great Maghi fair at the headquarters town every January draws the whole district, Bariwala's families among them, and the town's own calendar follows the same rhythm of gurpurbs, fairs and harvests as the villages around it. For anything above its own level, courts, hospitals, colleges and the railway, Bariwala looks to Sri Muktsar Sahib town, and that dependence on the headquarters town is the basic fact of its geography.

Getting there

Bariwala is reached by road from Sri Muktsar Sahib town, the tehsil and district headquarters, which is also its nearest railway station. Buses link the town with Muktsar, Kot Kapura and the villages of the tehsil, and the district's other towns, Gidderbaha and Malout, are reached through the headquarters town.

What is the population of Bariwala?

The population of Bariwala was 8,668 at the 2011 census, 4,604 men and 4,064 women. It had grown from 7,546 in 2001, and Bariwala remains the smallest town in Sri Muktsar Sahib district.

Which is the smallest town in Sri Muktsar Sahib district?

Bariwala, with 8,668 people in 2011, is the smallest town in Sri Muktsar Sahib district. It is a nagar panchayat in Muktsar tehsil, one of only two towns in the tehsil.

Is Bariwala a town or a village?

Bariwala is a statutory town, governed by a nagar panchayat, not a village panchayat. In size and in daily life it sits close to the district's large villages, and one of them, Rupana, has more people, but in law and in the census Bariwala is a town, the smallest of the four towns of Sri Muktsar Sahib district and its only nagar panchayat town.