Bargariਬਰਗਾੜੀ

Where is Bargari?

Bargari is a large village in Jaito tehsil of Faridkot district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, standing between Kot Kapura and the Bathinda stretch of National Highway 54. The 2011 directory recorded Jaito, about 10 kilometres away, as its nearest town, and the district headquarters at Faridkot is about 25 kilometres away. In the census record Bargari carries village code 035593, covers 2,039 hectares and has PIN code 151208. It falls in the Kot Kapura community development block. The census recorded a single gram panchayat, Bargari, while current panchayat listings divide the village among three: Bargari, Dashmesh Nagar and Rulia Singh Nagar. For political representation it sits in the Jaitu assembly constituency and the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Ran Singh Wala, Burj Harika, Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Behbal Kalan and Behbal Khurd.

A halt of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and the 1924 jatha

Bargari's recorded history reaches back to the travels of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, who stopped in the village on his way from Dina toward Kot Kapura. Gurdwara Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib Bargari was built later at the northern edge of the village, on the spot where the Guru halted. Inside its walled compound, entered through a gateway, the gurdwara preserves its old sanctum, a room about 5 metres square, with a hall of about 10 metres square added in recent years, and it has a sarovar. The shrine is endowed with about 20 acres of land and is managed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee through a local committee. Special diwans are held on the first day of every Bikrami month, and the festival marked with the greatest fervour is Vaisakhi, the birth of the Khalsa. Bargari came into prominence again in 1924, during the Jaito campaign, when the first Shaheedi Jatha of Sikh volunteers marching from Amritsar toward Gurdwara Gangsar Sahib at Jaito made its last overnight stop in this village, and the villagers served the jatha and the large crowd travelling with it.

The events of 2015

Bargari is known across Punjab for a series of events in 2015, which are recorded here briefly, as the news reports of the time and later reports describe them. On 1 June 2015, a saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was reported taken from the gurdwara at neighbouring Burj Jawahar Singh Wala. In the months that followed, posters relating to the theft were reported at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and at Bargari, and on 12 October 2015 torn angs (pages) of the saroop were found scattered in Bargari. Protests followed in the area. On 14 October 2015, according to the reports, police firing on protesters at Behbal Kalan killed two men, Gurjeet Singh of Sarawan and Krishan Bhagwan Singh of Niamiwala, and other protesters were injured at Kotkapura the same day. The cases were investigated by Punjab Police teams and by the CBI at different stages and remain before the courts; reports in 2025 recorded the Behbal Kalan firing trial as having been transferred to a court in Chandigarh. In 2018 a sit-in known as the Bargari Morcha was held in the village for about six months, pressing for action in the cases, and it ended on 9 December 2018 after assurances from two Punjab cabinet ministers, PTI reported. In May 2019 the then Chief Minister announced a memorial in the Bargari area for those who lost their lives or were injured in the 2015 firing incidents, with a committee of local residents to decide its form.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,408 people in Bargari: 4,453 men and 3,955 women living in 1,665 households, about 5.0 people to a household. Spread over 2,039 hectares, the density works out to about 412 people per square kilometre. The village had grown from 7,575 people in 2001, a rise of about 11 per cent over the decade. The sex ratio was 888 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 888, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,708 people, about 44 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 63.91 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 68.96 per cent and women at 58.29 per cent. The census recorded 2,883 workers, about 34 per cent of the village. Of the 2,588 main workers, the largest group, 1,096 people, were other workers in trade, transport and services, ahead of 771 cultivators working their own land and 693 agricultural labourers. A further 295 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 790 cultivators against 874 agricultural labourers, so paid farm work supports more families here than landholding alone.

Land and farming

Farming covers most of Bargari's land, and it is canal farming. Of the village's 2,039 hectares, 1,838 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 1,835 hectares from canals and just 3 hectares from wells and tube-wells. About 201 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds. Farm power supply was recorded at 12 hours a day. Few villages in this programme lean on canal water as completely as Bargari does.

Schools

Education in Bargari runs at treble scale at the base: three government primary schools, three government middle schools, three government secondary schools and one government senior secondary school were recorded in 2011, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The senior secondary school is the Government Senior Secondary School Bargari, which school listings date to 1945 and which teaches classes 6 to 12; the village is also a school cluster centre in its own name. The listings add private schools, among them Dashmesh Adarsh School, Dasmesh Public School, Dasmesh Global School, Baba Farid Public School, Guru Nanak Mission School and Vivek Public Senior Secondary School. For higher study, the listings place the nearest colleges at Jaito and Kot Kapura, about 11 kilometres away, including a Punjabi University neighbourhood campus at Jaito.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a primary health centre, a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, with no community health centre or health sub-centre recorded that year; present day health listings also name a sub centre at Bargari alongside the PHC. Drinking water came from untreated tap water supplies, with total sanitation campaign coverage but no community toilet complex. Bargari has both a post office and a sub post office of its own, and the post office carries the village's own name. Banking was available in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch, though no ATM was recorded in 2011. The village also had a PDS ration shop, mobile phone coverage, an internet common service centre and an anganwadi centre, while an ASHA worker was recorded more than 10 kilometres away: 23 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day, and the supply for all users at 20 hours.

Getting there

Bargari is one of the better served villages of its tehsil. Both public and private bus services run in the village itself. The directory records a pucca road in the village; it also records the all-weather road as more than 10 kilometres away, an oddity in the written record that is reported here as it stands. The nearest railway stations, at Ajit Gill Matta and Romana Albel Singh, are on the line through Jaito, and the railway was recorded more than 10 kilometres away. Jaito, the tehsil headquarters, is about 10 kilometres away, Kot Kapura about 10 kilometres, and Faridkot about 25 kilometres.

What is the population of Bargari?

The population of Bargari was 8,408 at the 2011 census, living in 1,665 households in Jaito tehsil of Faridkot district. It had risen from 7,575 in 2001.

Which tehsil is Bargari in?

Bargari is in Jaito tehsil of Faridkot district, Punjab, in the Kot Kapura block. Its census village code is 035593 and its PIN code is 151208.

What happened at Bargari in 2015?

According to news reports, torn pages of a saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, taken earlier from the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, were found at Bargari on 12 October 2015. In the protests that followed, two protesters were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan on 14 October 2015. The cases remain before the courts.