Jalandharਜਲੰਧਰ

An ancient city

Jalandhar is among the oldest cities of the subcontinent, its name reaching back to ancient texts and its soil layered with the remains of successive kingdoms. It was a centre of Buddhism in the early centuries, a prize fought over by Ghaznavids and Lodhis, and under the Sikhs it became one of the great cities of the Punjab plain.

After 1947, Jalandhar became the first capital of Indian Punjab before the capital moved to Chandigarh, and the city absorbed Partition refugees and rebuilt itself as an industrial centre. The cantonment, one of the oldest in the country, still anchors a large military presence.

Sports goods and the diaspora

Jalandhar's name travels the world on footballs, cricket bats and hockey sticks. Its sports goods cluster, centred on Basti Guzan and the old industrial estates, supplies teams across the globe, alongside a leather and hand-tool industry. Few Indian cities of its size have so deep a manufacturing tradition.

The district is also the heart of Punjab's diaspora. Villages across Jalandhar have families in Canada, England and America going back generations, and remittances have rebuilt the countryside in brick and marble. About 2.19 million people were counted in the district in 2011.

Temples and towns

The Devi Talab Mandir, with its old tank and gold-plated shrine, is the district's great Hindu pilgrimage centre. The old city's bazaars, the Company Bagh and the Pushpa Gujral Science City on the Kapurthala road mark the city's layers. Its towns include Nakodar, Phillaur, Shahkot and Kartarpur, each with its own mandis and shrines. Village-level pages for Jalandhar district are being added to the Kosh.