ਛਪਰਛਪਰ

Chhapar is a large farming village in Ludhiana West tehsil of Ludhiana district, in the Malwa region of Punjab, India, known across the state for the Chhapar Mela, its September fair in honour of Gugga Pir. The 2011 census counted 7,974 people in 1,591 households on 803 hectares of mostly irrigated farmland.

Where is Chhapar?

Chhapar is a village in Ludhiana West tehsil of Ludhiana district, Punjab, India, in the Malwa region of the state. It lies about 35 kilometres from Ludhiana city and falls in the Pakhowal community development block, with its own gram panchayat recorded in the census as Chhapar and Mini Chhapar. The village falls in the Dakha assembly constituency and the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency, and it has its own polling station. Its PIN code is 141204 and its Census 2011 village code is 033547. The census directory recorded Mullanpur Dakha, about 15 kilometres away, as its nearest town, though Ahmedgarh, a few kilometres to the east, is its closest market town and railhead. Nearby villages include Dhurkot to the north west, Latala to the west and Dehliz Kalan to the south.

The Chhapar Mela: Gugga Pir's fair

For most of the year Chhapar is a quiet farming village. Each September it becomes the stage for one of the most popular fairs of the Malwa belt, the Chhapar Mela, held in memory of Gugga, the folk deity also called Gugga Pir or Gugga Veer. Gugga is remembered as a Chauhan Rajput hero with power over snakes, and farming families across Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh honour him as a protector against snake bite. The fair runs for three days around Anant Chaturdashi, the fourteenth day of the bright half of the month of Bhadon, which falls in mid August to mid September. Its centre is Gugge di Marhi, the shrine built in his memory, which has a longstanding reputation as a place where snake bites are cured. The fair is believed to have begun around 150 years ago as a small gathering of devotees at the shrine. Festival guides report that attendance has grown over recent decades into the millions, making it one of the largest village fairs in Punjab. A smaller fair, the Minor Chhapar Mela, is held at the same place.

The legend of the boy and the snake

Local tradition explains the fair through the story of a boy and a snake born at the same time into a farming family of Chhapar. The two were inseparable, and when the child lay on a cot in the sun the snake spread its hood over him to give him shade. A passerby, thinking the snake was about to bite, killed it with a stick, and the child died at once. The grieving family was advised by elders to worship Gugga and Siddha, and a he-goat was set free to mark the place of worship. The spot where it stopped was recognised as Mari Gugga, and devotees have gathered there ever since. At the fair, devotees scoop up earth seven times, a rite asking Gugga Veer for safety from snakes, and Malwa farmers are said to plan their farm work around the fair's dates. Songs, folk dances and ballads fill the fairground. Another tale told of the Minor Mela says a ruler banned the fair in the early twentieth century after complaints from farmers, but lifted the ban and ordered the smaller fair after his horses began dying mysteriously. These stories are folklore, told and retold at the fair, rather than recorded history.

Population and village life

The 2011 census counted 7,974 people in Chhapar: 4,275 men and 3,699 women, in 1,591 households, an average of about 5 people per household. Spread over 803 hectares, that is about 993 people per square kilometre, a dense settlement by village standards. The sex ratio was 865 women for every 1,000 men, below the Punjab average of 895, and the child sex ratio, at 775, was below the state average of 846. Children aged six and under numbered 882, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 2,936 people, about 37 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Literacy stood at 75.55 per cent among residents aged seven and above, close to the Punjab average of 75.84 per cent, with men at 79.91 per cent and women at 70.58 per cent.

Farming and work

Farming covers most of Chhapar's land. Of its 803 hectares, 690 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, 103 hectares by canal and 587 hectares by wells and tube wells. About 113 hectares were under non agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds, and farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. Work, though, reaches well beyond the fields. The census recorded 3,151 workers, about 40 per cent of the population. Of the 2,584 main workers, the largest group by far, 2,014 people, were other workers in trade, transport, services and other non farm jobs, ahead of 418 cultivators working their own land and 85 agricultural labourers. A further 567 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year. The pattern is that of a village tied closely to the towns around it: many residents earn outside farming while the land itself stays fully cropped and watered.

Schools and facilities

For village facilities, the Census 2011 Village Directory is the fullest record available. Education runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The village also had an anganwadi centre, an ASHA health worker, treated tap water, a post office and a sub post office, a PDS ration shop and mobile phone coverage. No health facility was recorded inside the village in 2011, and there was no bank branch or ATM in the village in that record, so residents travelled to nearby towns for banking and hospital care. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day. These are 2011 records, and present day services should be checked locally.

Getting there and Chhapar today

Chhapar is reached by pucca, all weather roads, and both public and private bus services run from the village. A district road passes through it, while the nearest national highway is more than 10 kilometres away. Its nearest railway station is Ahmedgarh, station code AHH, within about 5 kilometres, and Ludhiana Junction is the main railhead for long distance trains. Ludhiana city, the district headquarters, is about 35 kilometres away by road, and the nearest airport is at Ludhiana, about 21 kilometres away as the crow flies. Visitors coming for the September mela should expect crowds and plan to arrive early in the day. Today Chhapar remains a working Malwa village with an outsized name: for three days each year its fair turns a village of under eight thousand people into one of Punjab's great gatherings.