Bhagta Bhai Kaਭਗਤਾ ਭਾਈ ਕਾ

Where is Bhagta Bhai Ka?

Bhagta Bhai Ka is a town and nagar panchayat in Bathinda district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, about 38 kilometres from Bathinda city. It is a sub-tehsil headquarters under Rampura Phul tehsil, whose town entry lists Bhagta Bhai Ka as its sub-tehsil, and it is also the headquarters of the Bhagta Bhai Ka development block, one of the nine blocks of Bathinda district. The town serves the villages of the district's north-eastern corner, close to the borders of Moga and Ludhiana.

The name and Bhai Bhagtu

The name means Bhai Bhagta's place, and the Bhagta of the name is remembered in Sikh tradition as Bhai Bhagtu, a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind Ji. Tradition tells of his son Jiwan, who offered his own life in the well-known sakhi in which a Brahmin's dead son was restored, asking that his years be given instead. A published account of Guru Hargobind Ji's battles names Bhagtu among the thirteen Sikhs killed defending Amritsar in 1634. The town keeps his name in daily use every time it is spoken, and it is fitting that Bhagta Bhai Ka stands in the same Bhatinda countryside as Bhai Rupa, another town of this district named for a Sikh of the Gurus' time.

Faith and landmarks

The town's best known shrine is Gurdwara Mehal Sahib, its principal gurdwara. Its other landmark is older still: the Bhuttan Wala Khooh, the Bhutanwala well, recorded in the 1961 District Census Handbook's list of places of interest as some 400 years old and the site of an annual fair. The same handbook lists a Gurdwara Sahib and a Gurdwara Mahil Sahib at Bhagta among the notable places of the old Bhatinda district, so the town's sacred geography has been on the record for generations.

The annual fair at the Bhuttan Wala well is the town's oldest gathering. Wells were once the social centre of every Punjab settlement, and a well already counted 400 years old when the census officers recorded it in 1961 had served the town since long before the railway or the mandi. The fair keeps that memory alive: for its day, the town's streets fill with the villages of the block, and the old well, not the market, is the centre of Bhagta Bhai Ka.

The block town

What lifts Bhagta Bhai Ka above a large village is the work it does for its countryside. As a sub-tehsil headquarters it holds the revenue and registration business of its villages, and as the headquarters of one of Bathinda district's nine development blocks it runs the block offices through which government schemes, school and health programmes and rural works reach them. The nagar panchayat runs the town itself. On market days the town fills with the farmers, students and traders of the block, and its shops and services are pitched to that countryside trade rather than to passing traffic, for Bhagta Bhai Ka stands off the district's main highways, a centre for its own villages first.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 14,467 people in Bhagta Bhai Ka, up from 11,809 in 2001: 7,682 men and 6,785 women. Scheduled Castes numbered 4,613. The town covers 21.63 square kilometres, a wide, low-density municipal area of about 669 people per square kilometre that takes in fields and open ground along with the built streets. Its PIN code is 151206.

Getting there

Bhagta Bhai Ka is reached by road, with buses to Rampura Phul, Bathinda and the neighbouring market towns, including Bucho Mandi. The nearest railway stations are at Rampura Phul and Bathinda, and the town's own traffic is the farm produce, students and traders of its block.

What is the population of Bhagta Bhai Ka?

The population of Bhagta Bhai Ka was 14,467 at the 2011 census, 7,682 men and 6,785 women. It had grown from 11,809 in 2001.

Who was Bhai Bhagtu, after whom Bhagta Bhai Ka is named?

Bhai Bhagtu was a devoted Sikh of Guru Hargobind Ji's time. Sikh tradition remembers his son Jiwan's sacrifice in the sakhi of the Brahmin's son, and a published account of the Guru's battles names Bhagtu among the thirteen Sikhs killed defending Amritsar in 1634. The town's name means Bhai Bhagta's place.