ਧਰਮਕੋਟਧਰਮਕੋਟ

Where is Dharamkot?

Dharamkot stands about 16 km north of Moga city on the Moga-Jalandhar road, which is now National Highway 703. It is the headquarters of Dharamkot tehsil, one of Moga district's tehsils, and its development block covers roughly 150 villages. The town sits at 30.94 N, 75.23 E, about 216 metres above sea level, and carries the PIN code 142042. Jalandhar lies around 65 km to the north and Ludhiana about 60 km to the east, while the smaller towns of Kot Ise Khan (12 km) and Zira (24 km) are close by.

ਇਤਿਹਾਸ

Dharamkot is an old settlement; the "dharam" in its name points to religious significance. Historical accounts of the eighteenth century place Dharamkot among the territories that came under Sikh chiefs as Sikh power expanded across Punjab in the era of the Sikh misls. In the early nineteenth century, a list prepared in 1828 of territories claimed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh records Dharamkot among the places connected with the Lahore government. The town is old enough to appear on the Survey of India geographical block-map of 1921 for the Ferozepore area, where it was shown in Kot Ise Khan tehsil.

After the British annexation of Punjab, Dharamkot eventually formed part of Firozpur district and was administered with the Zira area. Moga district was carved out of Faridkot on 24 November 1995, and Dharamkot stayed out of the new district at first. On 5 November 1999 the Punjab government transferred the Dharamkot block, about 150 villages, into Moga district, reorienting the town's administrative life from Zira and Firozpur toward Moga. Since then Dharamkot has grown into a tehsil and sub-division of Moga district, and its population has nearly doubled since the 1990s.

Geography and people

Dharamkot lies in wheat and paddy country in the Malwa region of Punjab. The 2011 census counted 19,057 residents, up from 15,399 in 2001 and 11,981 in 1991, spread across a municipal area of 19.5 square kilometres, a density of about 977 people per square kilometre, in roughly 3,694 households. Of the 2011 population, 10,015 were men and 9,042 women, giving a sex ratio of 903 women per 1,000 men; the Scheduled Caste population was 5,281. The 2001 census put the town's literacy rate at 62 percent, with male literacy at 70 percent and female literacy at 59 percent.

Punjabi is the language of daily life, as across Malwa. The town gets roughly 700 mm of rain a year, and temperatures swing from about 41 degrees Celsius in the summer to around 5 degrees in winter.

The grain market and the local economy

Dharamkot developed as the mandi and trading centre for its surrounding villages, and the grain market remains the heart of its economy. Farmers from the block bring wheat and paddy to the town's market, and rice milling is an important local industry; a town profile lists cattle feed factories, cement works and rice mills among its main commodities. The commercial year follows the two great harvests of the Malwa calendar, wheat in April and paddy in October, when the mandi is at its busiest.

The old bazaar still serves the everyday shopping needs of the surrounding villages, while the town's traders and commission agents link its trade to the bigger mandis of Moga and Ludhiana. The municipal council looks after civic administration.

Places of interest

The town's landmarks are working ones rather than monuments: the gurdwaras where the local sangat gathers, the grain market in the harvest season, and the old town bazaar. Dharamkot's interest for the visitor lies in its everyday Malwa town life and in its position as a base for the villages of the block.

Getting there

Dharamkot is an easy road trip from the region's cities: Moga is 16 km away, Jagraon about 32 km, Nakodar around 42 km, Jalandhar about 65 km, Ferozpur around 60 km and Chandigarh about 185 km. Buses run through Dharamkot on the Moga-Jalandhar route, and the nearest major railway station is at Moga, 16 km from the town.

Today

Today Dharamkot is a tehsil and sub-division headquarters town run by a municipal council, with a 2011 population of 19,057. It remains what it has long been: the market and service centre for the villages between Moga and the Jalandhar road, tying the northern end of Moga district to the wider Malwa region. Its neighbours on the Kosh include Moga to the south, Dhudike, and the fellow tehsil towns Bagha Purana and Nihal Singh Wala.