Fatehgarh Churianਫਤਿਹਗੜ੍ਹ ਚੂੜੀਆਂ

Where is Fatehgarh Churian?

Fatehgarh Churian is a town and Municipal Council in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, India. It stands in the Majha region close to the boundary with Amritsar district, on the road and railway line that run from Amritsar to Dera Baba Nanak. Amritsar is about 26 kilometres away, Batala about 25 kilometres, Ajnala about 21 kilometres and Dera Baba Nanak about 19 kilometres, so the town looks as much towards Amritsar as towards its own district headquarters. It gives its name to Fatehgarh Churian tehsil. The town should not be confused with Fatehgarh Churian Rural, the separate revenue village of the same name nearby, which has its own gram panchayat and counted 4,387 people in 2011.

People and languages

At the Census of India 2011 the Municipal Council counted 13,070 people, 6,881 of them male and 6,189 female, in about 2,550 houses across 13 wards. Children below the age of seven numbered 1,351, or 10.34 percent of the population. The sex ratio was 899 females for every 1,000 males, a little above the Punjab average of 895, while the child sex ratio of 826 was below the state average of 846. Scheduled Castes made up 12.41 percent of the town. Literacy stood at 85.46 percent, well above the Punjab average of 75.84 percent, with male literacy at 89.09 percent and female literacy at 81.46 percent. In all, 4,422 people were recorded as workers, and 83.49 percent of them were in main work. Punjabi is the language of daily life. The town is notably mixed in faith: the 2011 census recorded 42.10 percent Hindus, 41.10 percent Sikhs, 16.06 percent Christians, a Christian share far higher than in most Punjab towns, and 0.58 percent Muslims.

A misl-era stronghold

Before the eighteenth century this tract was dominated by the Bandesha, also written Bandechha, Jats, who ruled the area in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century the Kanhaiya Misl, founded by Jai Singh, established itself at Sangatpura, a village about 7 kilometres from the town, and Fatehgarh Churian became one of the misl strongholds: its name joins fateh, victory, with garh, a fort. The town's ruling family was soon tied by marriage to the house of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and that connection made this small border town a witness to the highest politics of the Sikh Empire.

Maharani Chand Kaur

Chand Kaur was born in Fatehgarh Churian in 1802, the daughter of Sardar Jaimal Singh, chief of the Kanhaiya Misl. In February 1812, aged ten, she was married to Kharak Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his heir. Their only son, Nau Nihal Singh, was born in 1821. When Ranjit Singh died in 1839, Kharak Singh succeeded him. After both Kharak Singh and Nau Nihal Singh died in November 1840, Chand Kaur was proclaimed regent of the Sikh Empire on 2 December 1840, ruling in the name of Nau Nihal Singh's unborn child. Her regency lasted only weeks: facing the larger army of Sher Singh, she gave up her claim in January 1841 and retired on a pension. She was killed by her servants in Lahore on 11 June 1842. Few towns in Punjab can claim a ruler of the Sikh Empire as a daughter.

The Panj Mandir

The town's best known monument is the Panj Mandir, a group of five temples with a pucca tank, built by Rani Chand Kaur. Described as a jewel of the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the roughly 180-year-old temple carries frescoes that preserve a rich record of the Punjab of that age. The paintings have suffered from long neglect. A two-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India visited in 2011, and 3 crore rupees were sanctioned for the temple's restoration, but the work was still awaited years later. The Panj Mandir remains the town's most precious, and most fragile, inheritance.

Faith, schools and colleges

Worship in Fatehgarh Churian reflects its mixed population. Alongside the Panj Mandir stand the Gagranwala Mandir, the Githi Das Mandir and the Talab Wala Mandir, as well as the Tahli Sahib Gurudwara and Gurudwara Takhia Wala, and a Catholic church near St. Francis Convent School serves the town's Christians. The town is known locally for its schools, among them St. Francis Convent School, Saraswati Vidya Mandir and Sarvhitkari Vidya Mandir. For higher studies, the Pt. Mohan Lal S. D. College for Girls, established in 2005, offers graduate courses in the science and arts streams. After the Partition of 1947, many Hindu and Sikh families who had migrated from the newly created Pakistan settled in the town, adding another layer to its people.

Sunanda Sharma

Fatehgarh Churian's best known living name is the singer Sunanda Sharma, who was born here on 30 January 1992. She first drew attention with cover songs posted online while she was a student, and her singles Patake and Jaani Tera Naa, both from 2017, made her one of the biggest stars in Punjabi pop. She has since sung in Bollywood films and acted on screen, carrying her home town's name to stages around the world.

Getting there

The town has its own railway station on the Amritsar to Dera Baba Nanak line. By road it lies on the Amritsar to Dera Baba Nanak road, with Batala about 25 kilometres away and Amritsar about 26 kilometres. Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport at Amritsar is about 27.6 kilometres from the town.