ਸਹਿਣਾਸਹਿਣਾ

Where is Sehna?

Sehna is a large village in Tapa tehsil of Barnala district, Punjab, in the Malwa region of the state. It stands on the Barnala to Bajakhana road, about 18 kilometres west of Barnala town and about 4 kilometres north of Tapa, its tehsil headquarters. Bhadaur, a well-known town of the area, is about 7 kilometres to the west, and the village fields run close to the Bathinda district border. What gives Sehna its character is the canal: the Bathinda branch of the Sirhind Canal flows right past the village, and Sehna sits almost exactly at the canal's midpoint. In the census record the village carries code 040070 and PIN code 148103, and it covers 4,488 hectares, one of the largest village areas in the district.

A sardar's fort and a canal colony

Local tradition, recorded in the village's Punjabi reference accounts, gives Sehna an older name: Chak Bakhtu. Around 1762 a sardar named Saina Singh built a fort here and settled people around it, giving them work in his fields and land for houses by the fort walls. Locals went on calling the area Saina Sardar's country long after his death, and in time the name wore down into Sehna. The fort stood in the middle of the village for nearly two and a half centuries, but around 2009 his heirs sold the site, the land was cut into residential plots, and today no trace of the fort survives.

The oldest building left in Sehna is the haveli of the Mahants, built in 1885, attached to a dera said to be some 400 years old with 21 smaller deras under it. The canal brought a second layer of settlement: in British times the irrigation department kept a rest house, a treasury, offices and staff quarters by the canal, the Canal House colony whose name, Nahri Kothi, still labels a neighbourhood of the village.

Balwant Gargi: the playwright born by the canal

Sehna's most famous son was born in that canal colony. Balwant Gargi (4 December 1916 to 21 April 2003), one of the founders of modern Punjabi theatre, was born at Canal House in Sehna, where his father Shiv Chand was a head clerk in the irrigation department, in a house near the spot where, tradition holds, Razia Sultana was once imprisoned. Gargi went on to write plays such as Loha Kutt, Kesro, Kanak Di Balli and Sohni Mahiwal, which were translated into a dozen languages and staged from Moscow to New York. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1962 for Rang Manch, the Padma Shri in 1972 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998, and he founded the Department of Indian Theatre at Panjab University, Chandigarh, where the open-air theatre still carries his name. The celebrated kavishar Babu Rajab Ali also worked in the irrigation department at Sehna for about twelve years.

The Thathiar craftsmen and their famous bells

Long before it was known for writers, Sehna was famous for metalwork. Its Thathiar coppersmiths, among them Radhu and Haria Ram, made jhanjhars, the strings of small bells hung on camels and horses, that were prized by animal keepers across India and passed into folk song: a well-known boli names Sehna for its bells and Muktsar for its saddles. The craft brought national honours too: in 1976 the President of India awarded Mansa Ram Thathiar a gold medal at Bhopal for his brass vessels. Bullock carts, sickles and gandasa axes from Sehna's workshops were the first choice of farmers in the surrounding villages.

Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin and the village's religious life

The village's chief historic shrine is Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi Chhevin, named for the Sixth Guru. Baba Hira Singh laid its foundation in 1913 beside a small well and himself became its first granthi; he later moved to Nanded, where he served at Takht Sri Hazur Sahib for thirty years and rose to be a jathedar of the Takht. Under its management committee the gurdwara has gained a new darbar hall, a langar hall and a main gate, and a dharamshala for simple, low-cost weddings is being built behind it.

Sehna counts some eighteen places of worship in all. They include Gurdwara Tavaini Sahib, Gurdwara Baba Jiwan Singh, the Nihang Chhauni, Gurdwara Daswin Wala on the Nainewal road, the Vishwakarma Mandir, Geeta Bhavan, the Dera Baba Phalgu Das, a Satsang Beas hall, a peerkhana, the samadh of Baba Nand Singh and a mosque, serving the village's mixed population side by side. Every six months the village hosts the Bibrian Maian da Mela, a fair that draws devotees from far around.

Population and households

The 2011 census counted 14,762 people in Sehna: 7,905 men and 6,857 women, in 2,765 households, an average of about 5.3 people per household. Children up to six numbered 1,653, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,920 people, about 27 per cent. Literacy stood at 61.45 per cent for residents aged seven and above, men at 63.55 per cent and women at 59.07 per cent. The census recorded 5,064 workers: of the main workers, the largest group, 1,723 people, worked in trade, transport and services, ahead of 1,652 cultivators and 971 agricultural labourers, a sign that this farming village also runs a working town's economy.

Land and farming

Of Sehna's 4,488 hectares, 3,924 hectares were net sown area in 2011, and every sown hectare was irrigated: about 2,060 hectares by canal and 1,864 hectares by wells and tube-wells, the canal's gift to the village. About 564 hectares were under non-agricultural use: the settlement, roads and ponds. Wheat and paddy dominate the fields, and farm power supply was recorded at six hours a day.

A block headquarters and a busy bazaar

Sehna is more than a village: it gives its name to the Sehna community development block, and the block offices sit here, along with some nineteen government offices in all, including the block development and panchayat office, the child development office, agriculture and canal department offices, a telephone exchange, a Verka milk plant, a police station, a post office and a power grid station. Its old bazaar serves shoppers from fifteen to twenty surrounding villages. Government schools run from primary to senior secondary, for boys and girls separately, alongside private academies. Three banks, a government hospital by the canal with two health sub-centres, a veterinary hospital and a grain market complete the picture of a village that does a small town's work.

Getting there

Sehna is reached by pucca roads from Barnala, Tapa and Bhadaur, and a private bus service runs from the village. The nearest railway station is Ghunas. Barnala, about 18 kilometres away, is the district headquarters and the hub for onward travel. Neighbouring villages include Badhata, Burj Fatehgarh, Deepgarh and Patti Draka.

What is the population of Sehna?

Sehna had 14,762 people at the 2011 census, living in 2,765 households in Tapa tehsil of Barnala district. Local counts since then put the figure considerably higher, but 2011 remains the last full census.

Who is the most famous person from Sehna?

The playwright Balwant Gargi (1916-2003), a pioneer of modern Punjabi theatre and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri, was born at Canal House in Sehna, where his father worked in the irrigation department.