Bassian (Raikot)ਬੱਸਿਆਂ ਰਾਏਕੋਟ

Where is Bassian?

Bassian is a large village in Raikot tehsil of Ludhiana district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, standing on the Raikot to Jagraon side of the district. This is the Raikot Bassian, census village code 033744, and it must be kept distinct from the other Bassian in Ludhiana district, in Jagraon tehsil, and from Bassian Bet in Sidhwan Bet. The census recorded Raikot, about 5 kilometres away, as its nearest town; the tehsil headquarters at Raikot is about 8 kilometres by road and Ludhiana city about 53 kilometres. Bassian covers 1,735 hectares. Its census PIN code is 142037, while postal and LGD listings, the memorial and the schools all use 142032 for the same village, a variance recorded here as it stands. It falls in the Raikot community development block and has its own gram panchayat. For political representation it sits in the Raikot assembly constituency and the Fatehgarh Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Siloani to the north east, Shahjahanpur and Ramgarh Sibian to the south, Lamma to the north west and Burj Naklian.

Bassian Kothi: the Maharaja's last night in Punjab

Bassian holds one of the most poignant sites in Punjab's history. Bassian Kothi, a mansion on the Bassian Canal Rest House road said to have been built around 1800, served as an ammunition supply depot for the British military division based at Ferozepur. After the annexation of Punjab in 1849, the British held the eleven year old Maharaja Duleep Singh, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, at the Kothi for one night, 31 December 1849, on his way from Lahore into exile. On 1 January 1850 he was taken to Fatehgarh in present day Uttar Pradesh, and from there sent to England, never to rule Punjab again: the night at Bassian is remembered as the last Maharaja's last night in his own land. The Kothi stayed in history's path: five Namdhari prisoners of the Kuka movement were held here by the British and hanged at a tree near the Kothi on 5 August 1871.

The building later fell into ruin. The Punjab government engaged INTACH, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, in 2011, and conservation ran to 2015 at a reported cost of about Rs 5 crore, restoring the Kothi and developing its grounds of about 8 acres with a museum, gardens, an open air theatre and a statue of the Maharaja. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal inaugurated the Maharaja Duleep Singh Memorial on 24 May 2015. The museum tells the Maharaja's life with replicas of his belongings, prints and visual media. In April 2023, at a World Heritage Day event at the Kothi, the state tourism minister said the government would develop the 200 year old building and its campus as a centre of attraction for tourists. Duleep Singh has no entry in the Jugti people collection, so he is recorded here as this village's great historical connection, and as a candidate for the people lane.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,165 people in Bassian: 4,304 men and 3,861 women living in 1,581 households, about 5.2 people to a household. Spread over 1,735 hectares, the density works out to about 471 people per square kilometre. The village had grown only from 7,849 people in 2001, a rise of about 4 per cent over the decade, the mark of a settled farming village. The sex ratio was 897 women for every 1,000 men, the best in this batch. Children up to the age of six numbered 803, about 10 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,774 people, about 34 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 77.15 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 80.62 per cent and women at 73.29 per cent, the highest literacy in this batch. The census recorded 2,684 workers, about 33 per cent of the village. Of the 2,287 main workers, the largest group, 1,099 people, were other workers in trade, transport and services, ahead of 763 cultivators and 275 agricultural labourers, with household industry workers making up the rest. A further 397 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 812 cultivators against 371 agricultural labourers, so most farm work here is done by landholding families themselves.

Land and farming

Farming covers most of Bassian's land, and it runs mainly on tube-well water. Of the village's 1,735 hectares, 1,570 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 1,130 hectares from wells and tube-wells and 440 hectares from canals. About 155 hectares were under non-agricultural uses, with small areas of culturable waste and current fallow. Farm power supply was recorded at 10 hours a day, the same as domestic supply.

Religious life

Bassian's worship centres on its gurdwara and its temples. Directory listings for the village name a Shiv Mandir and a Sheetla Mai Mandir among its temples, while no individual gurdwara of the village could be verified by name from the sources opened for this page, so none is named here. The village's sacred geography is dominated in any case by a building of history rather than worship: Bassian Kothi, where Punjab's last Maharaja spent his final night in his homeland.

Schools

Education in Bassian runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, recorded in 2011, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The senior secondary school is the Government Senior Secondary School Bassian, which school listings date to 1975, teaching classes 6 to 12 under the Punjab School Education Board. Private schools recorded in the village include Guru Nanak Public School, dated 1987, and Guru Gobind Singh Public School, dated 1999, both teaching to Class 12. For higher study, the colleges of Raikot, Jagraon and Ludhiana serve the village.

Health and daily services

The 2011 Village Directory recorded no health facility inside Bassian at all: no community health centre, primary health centre, sub-centre, allopathic hospital, dispensary or veterinary hospital, so the plain statement that no health facility was recorded in the village in 2011 is genuinely correct for this record. Care has come since: current listings describe a primary health centre and a health sub-centre in the village today. Treated tap water was available in the village in 2011, though neither total sanitation campaign coverage nor a community toilet complex was recorded. Bassian has a sub post office of its own, while the post office and the internet common service centre were both recorded within 5 kilometres. Banking was strong in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch, a cooperative bank branch and an ATM, and the village also had a PDS ration shop, mobile phone coverage, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker: 19 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive.

Getting there

Bassian corrects its earlier description on buses: both public and private bus services ran in the village itself in the 2011 record, on pucca roads along the Raikot to Jagraon road. The all-weather road was recorded more than 10 kilometres away, as the written record stands, and the nearest railway station was also more than 10 kilometres away, at Jagraon. Raikot, the tehsil headquarters, is about 8 kilometres by road, and Ludhiana city about 53 kilometres.

What is the population of Bassian, Raikot?

The population of Bassian was 8,165 at the 2011 census, living in 1,581 households in Raikot tehsil of Ludhiana district. It had risen from 7,849 in 2001. This is the Raikot village, code 033744, not the Bassian of Jagraon tehsil.

Which tehsil is Bassian in?

Bassian is in Raikot tehsil of Ludhiana district, Punjab, in the Raikot block. Its census village code is 033744 and its census PIN code is 142037, with 142032 used in postal listings.

What is Bassian known for?

Bassian is known for Bassian Kothi, the mansion where Maharaja Duleep Singh was held on the night of 31 December 1849, his last night in Punjab, now restored as the Maharaja Duleep Singh Memorial museum.