Khararਖਰੜ

History

Kharar is one of the oldest towns of the Chandigarh periphery. The Ambala District Gazetteer of 1904 records it as a chhat — an estate centre — of the Taoni Rajputs, with 116 villages under the Kharar chhat; the Taonis, who also held Banur and neighbouring towns, were among the chief landholding clans of this tract. The town's educational history is older than its modern fame: Christian Boys High School was founded here in 1891, and the Khalsa Senior Secondary School in 1920, making Kharar a school town for the surrounding countryside for over a century.

After Chandigarh's founding, Kharar sat just outside the new capital's boundary, absorbing its spillover — migrants, traders and then developers. With the creation of SAS Nagar district and the Greater Mohali plan, the old Rajput town became a municipal council of the new urban region — its highway bazaars now flanked by colleges, coaching centres and housing colonies. The Chandigarh–Ludhiana highway (NH-205) runs through it, keeping the old town commercially alive even as the new sectors grow around it.

Geography & people

Kharar lies on the Chandigarh–Ludhiana highway, about 10 kilometres from Mohali city and 20 from Chandigarh. The 2011 census counted 74,460 residents in the municipal council. It is a Sikh-majority town with a large Hindu population. Punjabi is the everyday language. The economy mixes the old grain market and bazaar trade with the new education economy — private colleges, schools and coaching institutes that serve Greater Mohali.

Places of interest

Kharar's heritage interest lies in its old town core — the streets around the historic chhat — and in its schools: the 1891 Christian Boys High School and the 1920 Khalsa Senior Secondary School are among the oldest in the region. The town's gurdwaras and temples serve its mixed population, and the highway frontage is lined with the dhabas and showrooms of a corridor town. It is a convenient base for the Chandigarh–Rupnagar–Anandpur Sahib circuit.

Notable people

Kharar's documented notable figures are institutional rather than individual: the missionaries and Sikh educators who founded its schools in 1891 and 1920 shaped generations of the region's youth. The Taoni Rajput chiefs of its chhat days belong to its older history. In the modern era the town's name is carried by its educational institutions rather than by famous natives — the schools of 1891 and 1920 still anchor its identity, and the town's alumni are spread across Punjab's professions, from its classrooms to its courts.