Gurdwara Bagh Sardaran, Rawalpindiਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਬਾਗ਼ ਸਰਦਾਰਾਂ, ਰਾਵਲਪਿੰਡੀ

The gurdwaras of Bagh Sardaran stand inside the Haveli Bagh-e-Sardaran Complex in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a shared Hindu and Sikh heritage site built in 1895 whose spires and domes still rise over the old city. The complex holds three Hindu temples and two Sikh gurdwaras, none of them in regular worship today, and most of it serves as offices and residences for the Special Branch of the police. It is one of the stops in our guide to Gurdwaras in Pakistan.

What are the Bagh Sardaran gurdwaras, Rawalpindi?

They are the two Sikh shrines inside a larger walled complex in the Bagh Sardaran area of Rawalpindi, built alongside three Hindu temples as a place of worship and community welfare. Heritage reporting describes the complex, also called the Raghunath Temple Complex, as the second oldest temple site in the city. The individual names of the two gurdwaras have not been established in published sources, so this entry treats the complex as a whole and says so plainly, rather than inventing names for its shrines.

History: a shared complex built in 1895

Local accounts say the foundation was laid by Sardar Band Singh, described as a descendant of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, and that Sardar Milkha Singh Thehpuria helped with the construction arrangements. The complex was completed in 1895. It was raised, accounts say, to encourage harmony among the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities living around it, and it worked as more than a prayer site: it also served as a welfare centre for local people. At its largest, locals recall, it covered about six acres and included a garden and a swimming pool.

Rawalpindi before Partition was a city with large Hindu and Sikh populations, and neighbourhood names such as Bagh Sardaran, Kartarpura and Akaal Garh still carry that past. After Partition in 1947, most Hindu and Sikh families of the area left for India. The complex was then used for a time as a recreational spot by the remaining residents, and allotments and encroachments steadily shrank it from six acres to only a few marlas, a small fraction of its original ground.

Architecture: spires, domes and a walled garden

From the street and from rooftops nearby, the complex reads as a cluster of tall shikhara spires and ribbed domes rising above the dense old city, built in the Mughal influenced style recorded for the site. Photographs show temple towers with carved tiers, domed pavilions and older brick and plaster work behind a high boundary wall. Dawn's heritage writing on old Rawalpindi notes how these structures stand higher than their surroundings yet blend into the colours of the adjoining streets, a visible reminder of the city's mixed religious past. The garden that gave Bagh Sardaran, the garden of the Sardars, its name has largely been lost to allotments and parking.

Why is Bagh Sardaran not open for worship?

The temples and gurdwaras here are recorded as non-functional, and most of the complex now acts as an office and residence for the Special Branch of the police. A 2012 heritage survey of old Rawalpindi likewise found the beautiful Bagh Sardaran gurdwara in use as a Punjab Police main office, among about ten temples and gurdwaras in the old city that were no longer functional and in poor shape. Reporting in The Express Tribune in 2021 described the Raghunath temple complex as being in a shambles, and Sikh visitors still come to the complex each year on the occasion of Vaisakhi. There is no regular congregation here, and local Sikhs have long asked for a gurdwara in Rawalpindi to be opened for worship.

Significance: a record of a shared city

Bagh Sardaran matters because it preserves, in one walled site, the shared religious life of pre-Partition Rawalpindi: Sikh gurdwaras and Hindu temples built together by Sikh patrons for a mixed neighbourhood. It also shows what happened to that heritage after 1947, as worship ended, official use took over and encroachment cut the site down. For Sikh pilgrims and heritage travellers following the shrines of West Punjab, it pairs with the city's other Sikh landmarks and with Gurdwara Panja Sahib at nearby Hasan Abdal, the closest major living shrine.

How do you reach Bagh Sardaran, Rawalpindi?

The complex stands in the Bagh Sardaran area of old Rawalpindi, in Rawalpindi district, Punjab, Pakistan, close to the old city's bazaars. It is not an open place of worship and much of it is a police office, so visitors should expect to view the spires and domes from outside and should check locally before planning a visit. Pilgrims travelling in organised groups with the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and the Evacuee Trust Property Board can ask whether a Vaisakhi visit is included in their programme.