Jagraonਜਗਰਾਉਂ

History

Jagraon is more than three centuries old. Its original name was Jagar aon — 'a place of great flooding' — for the region's low lands flooded regularly, and the suffix graon comes from the Sanskrit grama, village. Guru Hargobind passed through this part of Malwa in 1631–32, and Gurdwara Guru Sar at Kaunke, seven kilometres southwest of the city, commemorates his visit.

The town itself was established in 1688 by Rai Kamaluddin of Raikot, of the Chandravanshi Rajput chiefs who ruled this belt. The Rai chiefs of Jagraon figure colourfully in eighteenth-century history: in 1790 Rai Ahmad was arrested by the Maratha general Ranee Khan after Patiala's diwan Nanu Mal defaulted on a promised payment, and escaped by scheming at Panipat. The last chief, Rai Inayat Khan, was the custodian of Guru Gobind Singh's Ganga Sagar relic at Partition in 1947. A century later Jagraon was drawn into the freedom struggle: Lala Lajpat Rai was born here in 1865, and in 1928 his death from police lathi blows at Lahore fired the spark that led Bhagat Singh's HSRA to assassinate J.P. Saunders.

Geography & people

Jagraon sits near the geographical centre of Punjab, 37 kilometres from Ludhiana, 16 from the Sutlej, and within easy reach of Moga, Nakodar and Barnala — the District Gazetteer notes it is 'very advantageously situated' for trade with the villages around it. The 2011 census counted 65,240 residents — a near-even mix of Sikhs and Hindus. It is a sub-division and rural police district headquarters, with grain markets, small industry and the famous cattle-feed trade driving the economy. Punjabi is the everyday language, and the town's educational institutions draw students from across the tehsil.

Places of interest

Gurdwara Nanaksar, built as a memorial to the saint Nand Singh, is the town's best-known shrine. The mazar of Peer Baba Mohkumdeen hosts the famous Roshni Mela — the festival of lights — which draws thousands from across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The old Jagraon railway bridge and the Lala Lajpat Rai memorial library, housed in the freedom fighter's own home, are the town's civic landmarks. A Jain temple on Tehsil Road serves the town's Jain community.

Notable people

Lala Lajpat Rai, the 'Lion of Punjab' whose leadership shaped Bhagat Singh's generation, was a native of Jagraon; his house is now the municipal library. Havildar Ishar Singh, who led twenty-one Sikhs against ten thousand Afghans at the Battle of Saragarhi in 1897, was also born here. Sant Nand Singh of Nanaksar, one of the twentieth century's most revered Sikh saints, is memorialised at Gurdwara Nanaksar.