Jogaਜੋਗਾ

A village founded at a Guru's word

Joga is a large village in Mansa tehsil of Mansa district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, standing on the Mansa to Barnala road about 18 kilometres north of Mansa town, at roughly 29 degrees 59 minutes north and 75 degrees 23 minutes east. It falls in the Bhikhi block, has its own gram panchayat, and the census record carries it as village code 036144 across 3,559 hectares. Few Punjab villages can tell their founding as precisely as Joga can. According to the account preserved in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, there was no village here when Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji travelled through these parts: the Guru encamped at a spot about half a kilometre east of the present village, and nobody noticed his presence until he was preparing to leave. Only then did Jugraj, the local chief, come to offer his respects and beg the Guru to stay a little longer. The Guru instead directed him to raise a village on the mound, calling the site invulnerable. Jugraj founded the settlement as directed and named it Joga, after his own son, and a memorial platform was raised where the Guru had sat.

Gurdwara Patshahi Nauvin

That platform grew into Joga's historic shrine, Gurdwara Patshahi Nauvin, the gurdwara of the Ninth Master, standing at the Guru's camping ground east of the village. The present building stands in the middle of a walled compound of about one acre, entered through a high gateway flanked by rows of rooms. Inside, a square domed sanctum sits at one end of a spacious hall, the sanctum carried on four grooved octagonal columns and the rest of the hall on four cylindrical pillars. The gurdwara owns about 20 acres of land and is administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee through a local committee. Around this shrine turns the village's religious year, alongside the everyday worship of Joga's own gurdwaras and temples.

The Palara fair

Joga also keeps an older spring gathering. The district's tourism listing records a fair called the Palara Fair, held for three days around Chet Sudi 14, in March or April, and linked in local tradition to the Pandavas, who are said to have stayed here. Large numbers of people, Hindus and Sikhs alike, attend the fair and bathe in the holy tank. Between the Guru's shrine and the spring fair, Joga draws visitors well beyond its own fields.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 10,180 people in Joga: 5,393 men and 4,787 women, in 2,028 households at about 5 people to a household, a density of about 286 people per square kilometre over the village's farmland. The sex ratio was 888 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,010, about 10 percent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,699 people, about 27 percent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 61.92 percent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 66.58 percent and women at 56.76 percent.

Work in Joga is still farm work first. The census recorded 4,151 workers, about 41 percent of the village. Of the 3,151 main workers, the largest group, 1,401, were cultivators working their own land, ahead of 875 other workers in trade, transport and services and 823 main agricultural labourers. Counting marginal workers too, the village had 1,670 cultivators and 1,211 agricultural labourers, the landholding families and those who work for them standing in a fairly even balance. A further 1,000 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year, so a quarter of the workforce depends on seasonal hiring.

Land and farming

Farming covers most of Joga's land. Of its 3,559 hectares, 3,257 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and 3,181 hectares of that were irrigated, leaving only 76 hectares unirrigated. Canals did most of the watering, 2,146 hectares against 1,035 hectares from wells and tube-wells, a canal-led pattern shared with its neighbours along the Mansa side of Malwa. About 285 hectares lay under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds. Farm power supply was recorded at 4 hours a day, the tightest farm supply of the villages in this group.

Schools, health and daily facilities

Joga is deep in schools. The 2011 directory recorded 2 government primary schools, a government middle school, a government secondary school and 2 government senior secondary schools, so a child can study in the village from the first class to Class 12 without leaving it. An anganwadi centre was also recorded.

Health care rests on a primary health centre and a primary health sub-centre inside the village, the freshly read 2011 Village Directory confirms, with a veterinary hospital for livestock; there was no community health centre, allopathic hospital or dispensary, so serious cases travel to Bhikhi or Mansa. Treated tap water was available. The village had both a post office and a sub post office, mobile phone coverage, and banking in the village itself through a commercial bank branch, a cooperative bank branch and an ATM. The gaps are specific ones: the PDS ration shop and the ASHA worker were 5 to 10 kilometres away, and the nearest internet common service centre was more than 10 kilometres away. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 10 hours a day.

Getting there

Joga is reached by pucca roads on the Mansa to Barnala road, and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village itself. The nearest railway station was more than 10 kilometres away, so the road carries almost all of Joga's traffic. Mansa, about 18 kilometres south, is both tehsil and district headquarters and the practical hub for administration, hospitals and onward travel. Neighbouring villages include Anupgarh, Makha Chehlan, Maujo Khurd and Ali Sher Khurd.

What is the population of Joga?

The population of Joga was 10,180 at the 2011 census, living in 2,028 households in Mansa tehsil of Mansa district.

Why is Joga important in Sikh tradition?

Sikh tradition holds that Joga was founded at the direction of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, who encamped where Gurdwara Patshahi Nauvin now stands and told the local chief Jugraj to raise a village on the mound; Jugraj named the new village after his son.