Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagarਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਨਗਰ

Where is Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar?

Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar is a district in the Doaba region of Punjab, India, with its headquarters at Nawanshahr. It counted 612,310 people at the 2011 census, which makes it one of the smallest districts in Punjab by population. The Sutlej river runs along its south and the Shivalik foothills rise to its north-east: Hoshiarpur district borders it to the north, Rupnagar to the east and Jalandhar to the west, while Ludhiana lies across the Sutlej to the south. The district forms part of the Ropar division.

How the district got its name

The district is young. It was created on 7 November 1995 as Nawanshahr district, the sixteenth district of Punjab, carved out of the Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts. Its headquarters town explains the original name: Nawanshahr means 'new city', and the town was founded by families who moved out of nearby Rahon, an old settlement on the Sutlej that faced repeated flooding.

On 27 September 2008, at Khatkar Kalan, the Punjab government announced that the district would carry the name of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh, whose ancestral village this is. The announcement came on the eve of his 101st birth anniversary, and Nawanshahr district was renamed Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, written in English as Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar.

Khatkar Kalan: the village at the district's heart

About eight kilometres from Nawanshahr, just off the Banga road, Khatkar Kalan is the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh's family. His ancestral house here is a protected monument, and the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Museum beside it keeps photographs, documents and personal effects from the freedom struggle. Every year on 23 March, the anniversary of his martyrdom, the village hosts a large Shaheedi gathering that draws visitors from across Punjab. A state heritage complex announced for the village is set to expand the museum and ancestral house and add a recreated heritage street.

Land, people and villages

Most of the district is a fertile Doaba plain watered by canals and tube-wells, where wheat, paddy, maize and sugarcane are the main crops. Towards Balachaur, in the north-east, the land climbs into the dry Shivalik foothill belt known as the Kandi area, where farming leans more on seasonal streams and rainfall.

The 2011 census recorded 468 villages and eight towns here, administered through three tehsils: Nawanshahr, Banga and Balachaur. Scheduled Castes form 42.51 per cent of the population, one of the highest shares in any district of India. Literacy stood at 80.3 per cent, and the sex ratio at 954 women for every 1,000 men. Punjabi is the first language of about 95 per cent of residents; Hindus form roughly two-thirds of the population and Sikhs about a third.

Work and the world beyond

Farming remains the base of the district economy, but migration has shaped its character. Like the rest of Doaba, SBS Nagar has sent generations of workers and students abroad, above all to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Remittances from these families stand behind the large houses, schools and hospitals of its villages, and they keep land prices here among the highest in Punjab after Ludhiana and Chandigarh. The towns of Nawanshahr, Banga and Balachaur anchor the district's trade, education and health services.

Getting there

Nawanshahr stands about 92 kilometres from Chandigarh on National Highway 344A, the Ropar to Phagwara road that crosses the district, and state highways link it with Rahon and Ludhiana. Nawanshahr Doaba railway station is on the Jalandhar to Jaijon line, with trains towards Jalandhar, Rahon and Jaijon. The nearest airports are at Chandigarh and Ludhiana.

Why is the district named after Bhagat Singh?

Because Khatkar Kalan, Bhagat Singh's ancestral village, lies in this district. When Punjab marked his 101st birth anniversary in September 2008, the state government renamed Nawanshahr district in his honour, and the announcement was made at Khatkar Kalan itself.

What is SBS Nagar known for?

The district is known above all for Khatkar Kalan and its Bhagat Singh museum, for its prosperous emigrant villages, and for having one of the highest Scheduled Caste population shares in India. Nawanshahr town was also named the cleanest city in North India in the Swachh Survekshan 2020 awards.