ਬਰਨਾਲਾ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾਬਰਨਾਲਾ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾ

Where is Barnala district?

Barnala district is a district of Punjab, India, lying in the centre of the Malwa region, with its headquarters at Barnala city. Ludhiana district borders it to the north, Moga to the north west, Bathinda to the west, Sangrur to the east and Mansa to the south. Patiala district does not border it. The district sits on the flat Malwa plain, in country given over to wheat, paddy and cotton, and it is administered as part of the Patiala division. Its parliamentary seat is Sangrur, while its own assembly constituencies are Barnala, Bhadaur and Mehal Kalan.

For its size, the district carries an unusual history. It was a district headquarters under Patiala State, kept that rank in the early years after independence, lost it in 1953, and then won it back more than half a century later. In the 2011 census it was the least populous district in Punjab. That combination, a small population, a farming economy and a past as a princely capital, gives Barnala a character quite different from the larger industrial and border districts around it.

Baba Ala Singh and the making of Barnala

The modern story of Barnala begins with Baba Ala Singh (1691 to 1765), a Sikh misl leader of the Phulkian family who became the first ruling chief of Patiala. Born at Phul, in present day Bathinda district, he gathered a band of followers after 1716 and, in 1722, established his headquarters at Barnala, about 32 kilometres east of Phul. His territory at that stage covered some thirty villages. From Barnala he defeated Rai Kalha of Raikot in 1731 and, helped by bands of the Dal Khalsa, took more villages from the Bhattis and founded new settlements of his own.

Barnala was therefore his seat before Patiala existed, in effect his first capital. The older settlement on the site is remembered as Anahatgarh, and local accounts preserved on Jugti describe Barnala as the capital from which Ala Singh ruled until he built a fort in 1763 at one of the villages of the Sanaur area. That fortified seat became his permanent home and grew famous as Patiala. Barnala kept an honoured place in the state he founded: his daughter Bibi Pardhan Kaur is linked with the town, and Gurdwara Tap Asthan Bibi Pardhan Kaur remains one of its best known historic gurdwaras.

A district lost and regained

Under Patiala State, Barnala worked as a nizamat, the princely term for a district, made up at one time of the tehsils of Mansa, Bathinda and Barnala, and also remembered as Anahatgarh district. Some outlying parts belonged to Nabha State or to Ludhiana district. After the princely states joined India, Barnala became a district of the newly formed Patiala and East Punjab States Union, usually shortened to PEPSU. In 1953 that district was abolished. Its four tehsils, Phul, Dhuri, Malerkotla and Barnala, were divided up, with most of the area passing to Sangrur district and part of Phul tehsil going to Bathinda district.

For the next fifty three years Barnala was a subdivision of Sangrur. A separate police district had already been created on 16 December 1991, covering Barnala, Tapa and Mehal Kalan. Full revenue district status returned on 19 November 2006, when Barnala was carved out of Sangrur district. Surjit Singh Dhillon was appointed its first Deputy Commissioner in the new era. Jugti's Barnala entry rightly calls this a restoration, because 2006 did not invent a district: it revived one that Patiala State and PEPSU had both known.

People, villages and towns

The 2011 census counted 595,527 people in the district: 317,522 men and 278,005 women, living in 115,798 households. About two thirds, 404,842 people, lived in villages, and 190,685 lived in towns. The sex ratio was 876 women for every 1,000 men. Literacy stood at 67.82 percent, at 71.57 percent for men and 63.57 percent for women. Sikhs formed 78.54 percent of the population and Hindus 18.95 percent, with Muslims at 2.20 percent. Scheduled Castes made up 32.24 percent. Punjabi, in its Malwai form, was the first language of 95.14 percent of residents, with Hindi spoken by 4.30 percent.

Administration is arranged around Barnala and Tapa. The district police history lists two tehsils, Barnala and Tapa, and three sub tehsils, Bhadaur, Dhanaula and Mehal Kalan, while the government online directory lists Barnala, Mehal Kalan and Tapa as subdistricts. There are three development blocks: Barnala, Sehna and Mehal Kalan. Barnala city is the one large urban centre. The other notable towns are Tapa, usually called Tapa Mandi, Dhanaula, Bhadaur and Handiaya, with Mehal Kalan and Sehna serving wide village circles. Sehna is among the largest villages, and Dhaula, Pakho and Thikriwala are also large settlements.

Cotton, grain markets and industry

Farming still sets the rhythm of the district. This is Malwa cotton country, and the rotation of cotton, wheat and paddy fills the mandis through the year. Barnala city works as the market place for its villages, while Tapa Mandi, on the Barnala to Bathinda road, is known across the district for its grain market, where harvest traffic, commission agents, labourers and transporters keep the town busy in season. Dhanaula and Bhadaur also serve as local market and administrative centres for the villages around them, so the district's trade is spread across several small towns rather than held in the headquarters alone.

Industry gives Barnala a weight beyond its population. The Trident Group runs manufacturing sites at Sanghera and Dhaula in the district, producing yarn and terry towels and making paper, and its Barnala plants have drawn fresh investment for towel production and paper modernisation. Standard Combines, also based here, builds harvester combines and other farm machinery, a natural industry in a district where almost every family is close to farming. Together, textiles, paper and farm machinery explain why this small district is known in Punjab business circles far beyond Malwa.

Getting there and the district today

Barnala city is the transport hub. Its railway station lies on the Ludhiana to Jakhal line, linking the district with Dhuri, Sangrur and Ludhiana in one direction and with Jakhal in the other, while Tapa station sits on the Bathinda to Rajpura line. By road, National Highway 7 runs through Tapa toward Bathinda, and roads from Barnala city connect the district with Ludhiana, Sangrur, Bathinda, Moga and Patiala. Ludhiana is the nearest large city for major services, shopping and onward travel. Today Barnala remains a compact, mostly rural district: a historic headquarters town, busy mandis, textile and machinery plants, and villages whose writers and soldiers, among them Ram Sarup Ankhi of Dhaula and Karam Singh of Sehna, are part of Punjab's wider story.