Kot Bhaiਕੋਟ ਭਾਈ

Where is Kot Bhai?

Kot Bhai is a large village in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district in Punjab, India, in the Malwa region of the state. It stands about 8 kilometres northeast of Gidderbaha town and about 31 kilometres from Sri Muktsar Sahib, the district headquarters. The village is big enough to give its name to the Kot Bhai community development block, and it has its own gram panchayat. In the census record it carries village code 035335, and its lands cover 4,798 hectares of the flat, canal-watered plain of south-western Malwa. For elections it falls in the Gidderbaha assembly constituency and the Faridkot parliamentary constituency.

A village named for Bhai Bhagatu

The name Kot Bhai means the fort, or walled enclosure, of the Bhai. Sikh tradition, recorded in the Encyclopaedia of the Sikhs, traces the name to Bhai Bhagatu, a devout Sikh who served three Gurus in turn: Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai, the fifth, sixth and seventh masters of the Sikh faith. A follower of that standing gave the settlement its identity, and the village has carried his title, Bhai, in its name ever since.

Guru Gobind Singh's visit of 1706

The village's place in Sikh history was sealed in 1706, when Guru Gobind Singh visited Kot Bhai during his travels through Malwa. The Encyclopaedia of the Sikhs records that two local banias, shopkeepers and moneylenders named Rangi and Ghummi, served the Guru with devotion during the visit and begged to be initiated into the order of the Khalsa, which he granted. Two gurdwaras in the village commemorate the visit to this day: one inside the village, where those two Sikhs resided, and a second at the eastern end of the village, marking the ground where the Guru had camped. Both shrines are managed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee through a local committee. Hindu worship in the village centres on Shri Kali Mata Mandir, listed among the temples of the Gidderbaha area.

Population and people

The 2011 census counted 13,135 people in Kot Bhai: 6,947 men and 6,188 women, living in 2,456 households, an average of about 5.3 people per household. The village had grown from 11,637 people in 2001, a rise of about 13 per cent in the decade. Spread over 4,798 hectares, the density works out to about 274 people per square kilometre, a roomy figure for so large a village. The sex ratio was 891 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,494, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 4,868 people, about 37 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 65.76 per cent, with men at 72.54 per cent and women at 58.24 per cent, clearly above the Muktsar district average of the time.

Land, water and work

Farming covers most of Kot Bhai's land, but not all of it: of the village's 4,798 hectares, 3,450 hectares were net sown area in 2011, while 999 hectares, more than a fifth of the village, lay barren and uncultivable, land the plough cannot use. Every sown hectare was irrigated, and all of it by canals, so Kot Bhai is a canal village in the old mould. The directory records wheat, paddy and cotton as its farm commodities. The census recorded 5,510 workers, about 42 per cent of the village. Of the 4,304 main workers, the largest group, 1,624, were cultivators working their own land, ahead of 1,399 other workers in trade, transport and services and 1,222 agricultural labourers. A further 1,206 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year. Farm power supply was recorded at 6 hours a day.

Schools, health and services

Education in Kot Bhai runs deep: the 2011 record lists two government primary, two government middle, two government secondary and two government senior secondary schools, so children can study in the village up to Class 12, and private schools work alongside them at every level, among them three private primary schools and four private middle schools. Health care is stronger than a bare census summary suggests: the village has a primary health centre with a doctor in position, a primary health sub-centre, a maternity and child welfare centre, a family welfare centre and a veterinary hospital, besides medicine shops. Treated tap water was available, along with hand pumps and tube-wells. The village has a sub post office (the Kot Bhai branch office, PIN 152101), a post and telegraph office, an internet common service centre, a commercial bank branch, a PDS ration shop, a regular market, an anganwadi centre and a birth and death registration office, a set of services that makes Kot Bhai a working centre for the smaller villages of its block. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at about 10 hours a day.

Getting there

Kot Bhai is reached by black-topped pucca roads, and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village itself. Gidderbaha, about 8 kilometres away, is the nearest town and the tehsil headquarters, with the nearest railway station five to ten kilometres away; Sri Muktsar Sahib, the district headquarters, is about 31 kilometres away. Neighbouring villages include Buttar Bakhuha, Chotian, Madhir and Sahib Chand.

What is Kot Bhai known for?

Kot Bhai is known for its place in Sikh history: named after Bhai Bhagatu, it was visited by Guru Gobind Singh in 1706, and two gurdwaras in the village, managed by the SGPC, mark that visit. It is also the namesake and working centre of the Kot Bhai development block.

What is the population of Kot Bhai?

The population of Kot Bhai was 13,135 at the 2011 census, living in 2,456 households in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district.