Chhajliਛੱਜਲੀ

Where is Chhajli?

Chhajli is the largest village of Sunam tehsil by population, in Sangrur district of Punjab, India, in the Malwa region of the state. It stands about 11 kilometres from Sunam and about 25 kilometres by road from Sangrur, and in the census record it carries village code 039850. The village is governed through two gram panchayats, Chhajli and Rampur Kothe Chajjli, and it falls in the Sunam assembly constituency and the Sangrur parliamentary constituency. Unlike most of Punjab's big villages, Chhajli packs its 13,170 people onto just 1,704 hectares, so it is a compact, densely settled place rather than a sprawling one.

Gurusar Sahib: the Ninth Guru's halt

Chhajli's historic shrine is Gurdwara Gurusar Sahib Patshahi Nauvin, the gurdwara of the Ninth Guru. The gurdwara's own information board recounts that Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji reached this spot in 1671, while travelling through Malwa on the preaching journeys that took him across the Beas and the Sutlej, tied his horse to a jand tree here, and held kirtan and discourses for the sangat that gathered. The halt by the village pond became the gurdwara, and the old jand tree spot is still kept as a sheltered thara within the grounds.

Today a white marble gurdwara with a tall central dome and gold capped turrets faces its rectangular sarovar, lit and reflected in the water at dawn, as photographs of the shrine taken for Wikimedia Commons in 2024 show. The board at the shrine records that its kar seva, the voluntary rebuilding service, is carried on by the Tarn Taran kar seva jatha associated with Baba Jagtar Singh and Baba Kirpal Singh. For the village, Gurusar Sahib is the centre of religious life and the reason travellers stop in Chhajli at all.

A village with its own railway station

Few villages of this size have a station of their own, but trains stop at Chhajli. Chajli station, code CJL, is a single platform halt on the line that links Jakhal with Ludhiana through Sunam and Dhuri, worked by Northern Railway's Ambala division on a single electrified track. The India Rail Info record lists nine halting trains, with Sunam Udham Singh Wala station about 9 kilometres one way and Govindgarh Khokhar about 6 kilometres the other. The halt ties the village directly to the grain markets, colleges and offices of Sunam, Sangrur and Dhuri, and it was already recorded in the village in the 2011 directory.

Population and work

The 2011 census counted 13,170 people in Chhajli: 7,106 men and 6,064 women, living in 2,559 households, an average of about 5.1 people per household. On 1,704 hectares that gives a density of about 773 people per square kilometre, the most crowded of the three villages on this page's scale and well above the rural norm. The sex ratio was 853 women for every 1,000 men, below the Punjab average. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,439, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,541 people, about 27 per cent of the population. Literacy stood at 60.84 per cent, with men at 65.96 per cent and women at 54.97 per cent. The census recorded 4,475 workers, about 34 per cent of the village: of the 3,904 main workers, 1,656 were cultivators on their own land, 1,164 were agricultural labourers and 982 were other workers in trade, transport and services. Farming still covers most of the land: 1,504 of the 1,704 hectares were sown, and every sown hectare was irrigated, 922 hectares by canals and 582 by tube-wells, while a full 200 hectares were under non-agricultural uses, a large built-up share that matches the village's density. The census record names wheat and rice as the farm commodities, atta (flour) as a manufactured product and darian (durries) among the handicrafts.

Schools, health and services

Education in the village runs through two government primary schools, two government middle schools, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The village also had an anganwadi centre and an ASHA health worker. Health care in the 2011 Village Directory was recorded at a level few villages reach: a community health centre, a primary health centre and a health sub-centre in the village, besides a veterinary hospital. Treated tap water was available. The village had its own post office and a sub post office, a PDS ration shop and mobile phone coverage. Banking was available in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch, though no ATM was recorded in 2011. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day.

Getting there

Chhajli is served by its own railway station, Chajli (CJL), and by public and private bus services on pucca, all-weather roads. Sunam, the tehsil headquarters, is about 11 kilometres away, and Sangrur, the district headquarters, is about 25 kilometres by road. The nearest airport, at Patiala, is about 50 kilometres away by air. Neighbouring villages include Chhajla, about 4 kilometres west, Ramgarh Jawanda, Nilowal and Chatha Nanhera.

What is Chhajli known for?

Chhajli is known for Gurdwara Gurusar Sahib Patshahi Nauvin, which marks a halt of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, for its own railway station, Chajli (CJL), and for being the largest village of Sunam tehsil by population.

What is the population of Chhajli?

The population of Chhajli was 13,170 at the 2011 census, living in 2,559 households in Sunam tehsil of Sangrur district.