Kaunke (Jagraon)ਕੌਂਕੇ ਜਗਰਾਉਂ

Kaunke Kalan, on Jagraon's edge

Kaunke, also spelt Kaonke and recorded in full as Kaunke Kalan, is a village in Jagraon tehsil of Ludhiana district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It stands about 3 kilometres from Jagraon town, its nearest town and tehsil headquarters, and covers 2,627 hectares. The census record, village code 033887, counts 11,081 people here, making it one of the largest villages of the tehsil, and the village has its own gram panchayat. Kalan, meaning the larger, distinguishes it from Kaunke Khurd.

Gurdwara Gurusar and the Jaito Morcha

The village's historic heart is Gurdwara Gurusar, at the north-west of the village boundary, which commemorates the stay of Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru, who visited Kaunke in 1631 to 1632 before travelling on to Mahron village. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, on which the village's recorded history rests, notes that the shrine was renovated in 1912 and again in 1955, and that Mai Kishan Kaur (1860 to 1952) assisted the 1912 renovation. The gurdwara's finest hour in the record came during the Jaito agitation of 1923 to 1924, when police interrupted an akhand path being held at Gurusar and prevented the Sikhs inside from leaving. A jatha sent from the nearby village of Rode, led by Dulla Singh and Sucha Singh and remembered as the Durli Jatha, got supplies through to those shut inside. In recent years the shrine has been renewed again: a new Darbar Hall at Gurdwara Gurusar Sahib Kaunke was built through kar seva, and Sri Guru Granth Sahib was enshrined in it at a ceremony attended by the SGPC president, Harjinder Singh Dhami, according to Janshakti News.

Gurdev Singh Kaunke

Kaunke's best-known son is Gurdev Singh Kaunke (1949 to 1993). Born in this village to Gurdial Singh and Chand Kaur, he was the grandson of Jathedar Totha Singh, a companion of Baba Nand Singh of Nanaksar, and he studied at the Damdami Taksal. When the Sarbat Khalsa of 26 January 1986 appointed Jasbir Singh Rode as Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Rode was in prison, and Gurdev Singh Kaunke was assigned to serve as acting Jathedar, a post he held until 1993. On 25 December 1992 police arrested him from his home here in Kaunke Kalan. He died on 1 January 1993. A later investigation by the Committee for Coordination of Disappearances in Punjab concluded that he had been tortured and killed in custody; the police account said he had escaped. His death remains part of the village's modern memory. An older name in the same record of service: the Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemorates Naik Indar Singh of Kaonke, who died in March 1916 and is named on the Basra Memorial.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 5,847 men and 5,234 women in Kaunke, a sex ratio of 895 women for every 1,000 men, in 2,160 households spread over 2,627 hectares, a density of about 422 people per square kilometre. Children up to six numbered 1,166, about 11 percent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 5,380 people, about 49 percent of the population, a notably high share, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 69.57 percent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 73.13 percent and women at 65.62 percent.

Of 3,971 workers, 3,530 held main work: 1,365 other workers in trade, transport and services, 1,077 cultivators and 1,067 agricultural labourers, the three groups almost evenly balanced, with only a handful of workers in household industry. A further 441 people were marginal workers. In all, 1,098 people cultivated land and 1,354 worked as agricultural labourers, so labouring families outnumber landholding ones.

Land and farming

Of the village's 2,627 hectares, 2,367 hectares were net sown in 2011, every hectare of it irrigated: 998 hectares by canal and 1,369 hectares by wells and tube wells. About 260 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement and roads. Farm power supply was recorded at 10 hours a day. With Jagraon town and its grain market three kilometres away, the village farms the wheat and paddy rotation of the Malwa plain at the edge of a market town.

Schools, health and everyday services

Education runs through 3 government primary schools, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, up to Class 12, with an anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker in the village. On health, the 2011 Village Directory recorded both a primary health centre and a dispensary inside Kaunke, along with a veterinary hospital for its livestock, so the older summary that no health facility was recorded in the village was wrong. What the village did not have was a community health centre or a hospital. Treated tap water was available. The village had a sub post office, while the main post office was five to ten kilometres away. It had a PDS ration shop and mobile phone coverage, but no ATM and no internet common service centre were recorded in 2011. A commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch operated in the village. Domestic power was recorded at 10 hours a day.

Getting there

Kaunke stands on pucca, all-weather roads three kilometres from Jagraon, and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village. The nearest railway station, at Jagraon, was five to ten kilometres away by the directory's measure. Ludhiana city, the district headquarters, is the onward hub. Neighbouring villages include Agwar Lopon Kalan, Patti Sham Singh, Agwar Lopon Khurd and Khosa.

What is Kaunke Kalan known for?

Kaunke Kalan is known for Gurdwara Gurusar, which marks Guru Hargobind's stay in 1631 to 1632 and a stand-off of the Jaito Morcha in 1923 to 1924, and as the birthplace of Gurdev Singh Kaunke, acting Jathedar of the Akal Takht from 1986 to 1993.

What is the population of Kaunke?

The population of Kaunke was 11,081 at the 2011 census, in 2,160 households in Jagraon tehsil of Ludhiana district, Punjab.