Kot Kapura Ruralਕੋਟ ਕਪੂਰਾ ਰੂਰਲ

The village wrapped around a famous town

Kot Kapura Rural is a village in Kot Kapura tehsil of Faridkot district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It is the countryside that wraps around Kot Kapura town. The town, a separate municipal unit and one of the largest in the district with 91,979 people in 2011, stands about 3 kilometres away, while the village is a revenue unit of its own, administered by a gram panchayat also named Kot Kapura. The two share a name and a history, but they are not the same place, and this page is about the village. With 9,729 residents in 2011 spread over 8,246 hectares, Kot Kapura Rural is one of the largest villages of the district by area: a working farming settlement whose fields run up to the edge of the town. Its census village code is 035582 and its PIN code is 151204. The villages recorded around it include Sandhwan, Deviwala, Bir Sikhanwala and Aulakh.

How Kot Kapura got its name

The name means Kapura's fort, and it comes from Kapura Singh Brar. Historical accounts record that Kapura, a nephew of Bhallan Brar, the founder of the Faridkot ruling family, founded the settlement in 1661 and held the chaudhry-ship of 84 villages around it. In 1706 Guru Gobind Singh Ji, travelling through Malwa from Dina after the battles of Anandpur and Chamkaur, reached Kot Kapura and asked Kapura for the use of his fort, to make a stand against the Mughal force pursuing him. Kapura, fearing the emperor's anger, refused. The Guru moved on to Dhilwan Kalan, where Sodhi Kaul received and helped him, and a few days later the pursuing army was faced at the battle of Muktsar. Gurdwara Patshahi Dasvin in the town marks the halt, and the story is still told the same way: had Kapura agreed, the battle of Muktsar would have been fought at Kot Kapura instead.

Land and farming

Of the village's 8,246 hectares, 6,755 hectares were net sown area in 2011, and every sown hectare was irrigated, all of it by canal. Forest covered just 14 hectares, and 1,474 hectares were under non-agricultural use: houses, roads and the built-up ground of a settlement living in a town's shadow. This is Malwa's cotton belt. Kot Kapura town's mandi became famous as one of the largest cotton markets in Asia, earning the town the name City of White Gold, and it is the produce of villages like this one that such a market was built to sell.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 9,729 people in Kot Kapura Rural, up from 8,167 in 2001: 5,100 men and 4,629 women in 1,898 households, a little over five people to a household. The sex ratio was 908 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,081, about 11 percent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,981 people, 31 percent of the population. Literacy stood at 68.78 percent among residents aged seven and above, with 6,173 literate residents in all.

Farming still leads the work here. The census recorded 3,217 workers, about a third of the village. Of the 2,559 main workers, 1,313 were cultivators working the land and 644 were agricultural labourers, against only 554 other workers. Counting the marginal workers too, the village held 1,503 cultivators and 983 agricultural labourers: close to three workers in four were on the land.

Schools, health and daily services

Schooling runs deep. The 2011 Village Directory recorded one government primary school, five government middle schools, one secondary school and one senior secondary school in the village, so children can study up to Class 12 without leaving home. Health is the village's gap. No government health facility of any kind was recorded inside the village in 2011: no community health centre, no primary health centre, no health sub-centre, no allopathic hospital, no dispensary and no veterinary hospital. An anganwadi centre serves the village, and treatment is close at hand in Kot Kapura town, about 3 kilometres away.

Drinking water came from untreated tap water supply. Neither the post office nor the sub post office stood inside the village; both were 5 to 10 kilometres away, and the banks were the same distance, with no ATM in the village at all. The village does have a public distribution system shop and mobile phone coverage. Public and private bus services both run through it on pucca roads, and the directory placed the nearest railway station 5 to 10 kilometres away, the town's own junction. Power supply in 2011 ran to 18 hours a day for domestic use and 8 hours for agriculture.

The shrine in the town next door

For its historic shrine, the village looks to the town. Gurdwara Patshahi Dasvin in Kot Kapura town marks the place where Guru Gobind Singh Ji halted in 1706 and asked Chaudhry Kapura for his fort. It stands a few kilometres from the village's fields and is the nearest historic gurdwara for Kot Kapura Rural's sangat, the first stop on the road the Guru took onward to Dhilwan Kalan and Muktsar.

What is the population of Kot Kapura Rural?

The population of Kot Kapura Rural was 9,729 at the 2011 census, in 1,898 households. It had grown from 8,167 in 2001.

Is Kot Kapura Rural the same as Kot Kapura town?

No. Kot Kapura town is a separate municipal unit of 91,979 people. Kot Kapura Rural is the revenue village around it, with its own gram panchayat, its own census code (035582) and 8,246 hectares of mostly farmland.

Why is the name Kot Kapura famous?

Kot Kapura is remembered for Guru Gobind Singh Ji's halt here in 1706, when Chaudhry Kapura refused him the fort, and for the town's cotton market, once counted among the largest in Asia.

Does Kot Kapura Rural have a hospital?

No government health facility was recorded inside the village in 2011. The nearest hospitals and clinics are in Kot Kapura town, about 3 kilometres away.