Loponਲੋਪੋਨ

Where is Lopon?

Lopon is a large village in Nihal Singh Wala tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. The 2011 directory recorded Badhni Kalan, about 5 kilometres away, as its nearest town; the tehsil headquarters at Nihal Singh Wala is about 15 kilometres away and Moga city about 27 kilometres. In the census record Lopon carries village code 033895, covers 2,388 hectares and has PIN code 142037. It falls in the Nihal Singhwala community development block and has its own gram panchayat. Villages recorded around it include Bir Badhni and Minian. The census code matters here: a much smaller village also called Lopon, with 1,769 people, stands in Samrala tehsil of Ludhiana district, and it is a different place from this one.

Gurdwara Sri Gurusar Sahib and the visit of 1631

Lopon's history is kept by its gurdwara. Gurdwara Sri Gurusar Sahib stands on the Lopon to Minian link road, and its story begins in 1631, when Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji arrived at the village during his travels through Malwa. The sangat received and served the Guru with devotion, and when he asked after their welfare, the villagers told him that some among them were struggling with an illness. The Guru answered with Gurbani, teaching that with sewa the illness would stay away. The gurdwara that marks the visit has a sarovar, and the present building is said to have been constructed by Giani Indar Singh of Bhindran in 1960: a spacious rectangular hall with the domed sanctum at its far end. It is managed by a granthi appointed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, assisted by a local committee. Every year an annual fair is held from 1 to 3 August, corresponding to 17 to 19 Savan, to celebrate the anniversary of Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji's visit, and it is the village's biggest gathering.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,843 people in Lopon: 4,738 men and 4,105 women living in 1,680 households, about 5.3 people to a household. Spread over 2,388 hectares, the density works out to about 370 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 866 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 884, about 10 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,994 people, about 34 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Unlike the town-shadow villages of this programme, Lopon barely grew between the censuses: 8,641 people in 2001 and 8,843 in 2011, a rise of only about 2 per cent in a decade. This is a settled farming village holding its size, not a suburb in the making. Literacy in 2011 stood at 69.76 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 72.45 per cent and women at 66.69 per cent, one of the narrower gender gaps of its tehsil. The census recorded 3,023 workers, about 34 per cent of the village. Of the 2,861 main workers, the largest group, 1,320 people, were cultivators on their own land, ahead of 765 agricultural labourers and 673 other workers in trade, transport and services; a further 162 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 1,362 cultivators against 822 agricultural labourers, so most of its farm work is done by the families who hold the land.

Land and farming

Farming covers almost all of Lopon's land. Of the village's 2,388 hectares, 2,203 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, split between canals (1,245 hectares) and wells and tube-wells (958 hectares). Only about 185 hectares were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds, a small share that matches the village's slow growth. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. This is the wheat, paddy and cotton country of southern Moga, farmed from a village that the canal and the tube-well serve almost equally.

Schools

Education in the village runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, so children can study in Lopon up to Class 12, and the census directory listings add government and private pre-primary schools and private primary, middle and secondary schools. A primary health centre listing for Lopon in the government health directories confirms the village is a service point for its neighbours as well. For college, the directory names Nihal Singh Wala, about 15 kilometres away, as the nearest private MBA college and polytechnic.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a primary health centre, a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, with no community health centre, sub-centre or allopathic hospital. Treated tap water was available in the village, and there was a community toilet complex. Lopon has both a post office and a sub post office of its own. Banking is partly in the village: a commercial bank branch stands here, while the nearest cooperative bank was recorded 5 to 10 kilometres away and there was no ATM in the village in 2011. The village also had a PDS ration shop, an internet common service centre, mobile phone coverage, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA health worker: 24 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day.

Faith in Lopon

The village's sacred centre is Gurdwara Sri Gurusar Sahib, described above, whose August fair draws the sangat from the villages around. Day-to-day worship is served by the gurdwara and the village's own temples, and the shrine's link road to Minian carries much of the village's religious traffic through the year.

Getting there

Both public and private bus services run in the village itself, on pucca, all-weather roads. The nearest railway station was recorded more than ten kilometres away, so Lopon travels by road: Badhni Kalan town is about 5 kilometres away, Nihal Singh Wala about 15 kilometres and Moga city about 27 kilometres.

What is the population of Lopon?

The population of Lopon was 8,843 at the 2011 census, living in 1,680 households in Nihal Singh Wala tehsil of Moga district. It had grown only slightly from 8,641 in 2001.

Why is Lopon known?

Lopon is known for Gurdwara Sri Gurusar Sahib, which marks the 1631 visit of Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji to the village. An annual fair from 1 to 3 August celebrates the anniversary of the visit.

Which tehsil is Lopon in?

Lopon is in Nihal Singh Wala tehsil of Moga district, Punjab. Its census village code is 033895. It is not the smaller Lopon of Samrala tehsil in Ludhiana district.