Dhudikeਧੂਦਿਕੇ

Where is Dhudike?

Dhudike is a village in Moga tehsil of Moga district, Punjab — about 17 kilometres east of Moga city — and it is famous across India as the birthplace of Lala Lajpat Rai, the ‘Punjab Kesari’ (Lion of Punjab), born here on 28 January 1865. The village’s Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial, founded in the 1950s by his followers, still hosts the annual Khel Mela and official birth-anniversary functions.

History

On 28 January 1865, in this village — then in the Punjab Province of British India — Lala Lajpat Rai was born to Munshi Radha Krishna, an Urdu and Persian government schoolteacher, and his wife Gulab Devi. Dhudike was Lalaji’s maternal village: it was the family’s kacha house here where Mata Gulab Devi gave birth to the boy who would become the Lion of Punjab. In 1955, Lala Mohan Lal of the Servants of the People Society found that house in poor condition; the sons of Lalaji’s maternal uncles then donated their own house so a memorial could be built on the site.

The boy from Dhudike became a third of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio of militant nationalists, founded the Servants of the People Society in 1921, and died on 17 November 1928 of injuries received in the Lahore lathi charge against the Simon Commission — a death that electrified the nation and inspired Bhagat Singh’s vengeance. Lalaji’s mother Gulab Devi had died of tuberculosis in Lahore; in 1927 he set up a trust in her memory, which became the Gulab Devi Chest Hospital, opened in 1934.

The Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial

The memorial is the village’s heart. It began with a cultural sabha at Dhudike in 1955–56, organised by the village’s own writer Jaswant Singh Kanwal, after which a memorial committee was formed in 1956. Villagers donated and sold neighbouring plots until the site grew from 100 square yards to 4,200 square yards.

In 2007 the memorial got its landmark: a larger-than-life statue of Lalaji sculpted by Vivek Kolhatkar of Vadodara, set in grounds landscaped by Delhi architect Neeti Sahni, and dedicated on 28 January 2007 by Anil Shastri, son of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Nine biographical plaques on free-standing concrete pillars honour the Gadri Babes of Dhudike, linking the village’s story to the Ghadar movement and the Guru-ka-Bagh agitation.

The memorial’s affairs are managed by a Local Advisory Committee, which also runs the Lajpat Rai Public School and a library and reading room. Every year the village marks Lalaji’s birth anniversary on 28 January, his martyrdom day on 17 November, Independence Day and Republic Day — and from 26 to 28 January it hosts the Khel Mela, with kabaddi, hockey, volleyball, tug of war, dog races, bull cart races, athletics and cultural programmes, alongside charity drives, blood donation camps and free medical check-ups. For the 150th birth anniversary in January 2016, Punjab held a state-level function at Dhudike; the Government of India marked the year with commemorative coins and sanctioned funds for an auditorium and an astroturf hockey stadium at his birthplace.

Geography & people

Dhudike stands in the heart of Malwa’s wheat–paddy belt. The 2011 census counted 6,200 residents — 3,239 men and 2,961 women — in 1,234 families, with 633 children under six. Literacy stood at 75.48% (79.38% for men, 71.21% for women), a touch below Punjab’s 75.84%. Scheduled Castes made up 35.98% of the population (2,231 people), and the sex ratio was 914.

The village is in Moga tehsil, its PIN is 142053, and Punjabi is the everyday language. In October 2015 Dhudike became Punjab’s first wifi village under the Digital India programme: the Moga district administration switched the village on at a cost of about one crore rupees, with Punjab National Bank — which had adopted the village — executing the project.

Places of interest

The Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial is the essential stop, especially during the January Khel Mela. The village’s gurdwaras include Gurdwara Uchha Dera; Beri Sahib, built in memory of Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji; Kutia Sahib on the west side of the village; and Chhauni Sahib, the oldest, on the village phirani in Baja Patti. There is also a Hindu temple, a Muslim dargah and Dera Bohran wala. A short drive away in Jagraon stands the Rai family house, where Lalaji spent much of his youth and which now houses a library and museum.

Notable people

Dhudike’s most famous son is Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 – 17 November 1928) — lawyer, journalist, educationist, founder of the Servants of the People Society, and one of the architects of militant nationalism. The village also produced the Punjabi writer Jaswant Singh Kanwal (27 June 1919 – 1 February 2020), born and died at Dhudike: novelist, short-story writer and essayist, best known for the novel Lahoo Di Lo, recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and Fellowship and the Punjabi Sahit Shiromani Award (2007). The village honours its Ghadar martyrs too — nine Gadri Babe plaques stand at the memorial, and village accounts name Baba Isher Singh, Baba Pala Singh Jathedar and Baba Pakhar Singh among the Ghadarites Dhudike gave (reported in the village’s Wikipedia article; no second source found).

Getting there & today

Dhudike sits on the pucca road between Moga and Jagraon, about 16–19 km from either town depending on the route, and 4 km south of Ajitwal, which lies on the NH95 Moga–Ludhiana highway. The nearest railway station is Ajitwal, some 3 km away on the Ludhiana–Firozpur line. Today Dhudike is a prosperous farming village with institutions named for its famous son — the Lala Lajpat Rai Government College (1967) on Maddoke Road, the Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial College of Education (2003), and schools carrying the names of the village’s Ghadar martyrs — and every January the Khel Mela brings the village’s past and present together in its fields.