ਮਾਲੇਰਕੋਟਲਾ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾਮਾਲੇਰਕੋਟਲਾ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਾ

Where is Malerkotla district?

Malerkotla district is in the Malwa region of Punjab in northern India, and its headquarters are at Malerkotla city. The official district site says it was carved out of Sangrur as the 23rd district of Punjab on 2 June 2021, and that it is one of five districts in the Patiala division. It is bounded by Ludhiana district in the north, Barnala in the west, Patiala in the east and Sangrur in the south, a compact position between the states larger industrial and farming centres.

The district covers 684 square kilometres and is divided into three subdivisions and tehsils: Malerkotla, Ahmedgarh and Amargarh. Malerkotla city lies about 40 kilometres from Ludhiana, 45 kilometres from Khanna, 35 kilometres from Sangrur and 55 kilometres from Jagraon, according to the district administration. The city stands on National Highway 11 and on the Ludhiana to Delhi railway line, so the district is close to major markets while keeping a strongly rural character outside its towns.

A princely state with a famous blessing

The district takes its name from the former princely state of Maler Kotla. Its roots go back to the 15th century and to Shaikh Sadruddin, also called Haider Shaikh, a pious Afghan settler at Bhumsi. District history records that after he prophesied success for Behlol Lodhi, the new Sultan gave his daughter in marriage to the Shaikh in 1454, with land containing large and small villages as dowry. That grant laid the foundation of Maler. Kotla was founded later, in 1657, by Bayazid Khan, a descendant of the Shaikh.

The event that gives Malerkotla its special place in Punjab is from 1705. Sher Mohammed Khan, the Nawab of Malerkotla, protested when Wazir Khan, the governor of Sirhind, ordered the two young sons of Guru Gobind Singh, Zorawar Singh, aged nine, and Fateh Singh, aged seven, to be bricked alive. The Nawab said the act went against the tenets of Islam, uttered a cry of anguish remembered as Haa da Naara, and walked out of the court. Tradition holds that Guru Gobind Singh then blessed the Nawab and the people of Malerkotla with lasting peace.

That blessing is widely linked to what happened in 1947. While much of East Punjab saw terrible communal violence at Partition, Malerkotla remained calm, a record the official district history describes as rare and remarkable. The state continued under British protection until 1947, joined the Patiala and East Punjab States Union in 1948, and later became part of Punjab and a tehsil of Sangrur district. Gurdwara Haa da Naara in Malerkotla city still commemorates the Nawabs protest.

How Malerkotla became a district in 2021

For decades Malerkotla was administered as part of Sangrur, even though its history, institutions and identity were distinct. The change came in the spring of 2021. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh first announced the new district on 14 May 2021, on the occasion of Eid ul Fitr, answering a long standing local demand for closer administration. The state cabinet then gave formal approval, and the official district site records the district as carved out of Sangrur on 2 June 2021.

Amargarh, until then a sub tehsil, was upgraded to a full subdivision and tehsil at the same time, joining Malerkotla and Ahmedgarh to make the three units of the new district. The district was formed with 192 villages. District status brought its own deputy commissioner, police leadership and district offices, so residents no longer had to travel to Sangrur for much of their routine government work. Building the full infrastructure of a new district has taken time, and that work has continued since 2021.

People and faiths

Because the district did not exist in 2011, its census figures are worked out for the present district area from Census 2011 records. On that basis the population was 429,754, with about 40.5 percent living in urban areas and the rest in villages. Sikhs were the largest community at 50.89 percent, followed by Muslims at 33.26 percent and Hindus at 15.19 percent, with small Jain and Christian communities. The sex ratio was 896 women for every 1,000 men, and Scheduled Castes made up 21.65 percent of the population.

Those district figures need one careful distinction. Malerkotla district as a whole is not Muslim majority, but Malerkotla city is, and it is the only Muslim majority city in Indian Punjab. In the city in 2011, Muslims made up 68.50 percent of the population, Hindus 20.71 percent and Sikhs 9.50 percent. Punjabi is the main language across the district, spoken as a first language by 94.69 percent in 2011, with Urdu spoken by 4.21 percent, reflecting the citys history and its schools, where Urdu is taught alongside Punjabi.

Literacy in the district in 2011 was 72.62 percent on the Census basis used by the census data source opened for this page, with male literacy at 77.75 percent and female literacy at 66.9 percent. Faith here is lived side by side: the shrine of Haider Shaikh draws devotees from different religions, Eid is a major public festival for the district, and Sikh, Hindu and Muslim neighbours share markets, schools and village life across the three tehsils.

Towns, villages and landmarks

Malerkotla city is the administrative and commercial heart, Ahmedgarh is a busy market and rail town to the north, and Amargarh serves the farming villages around it. Between them, the districts 192 villages hold most of its fields, schools and panchayats. Ahmedgarh and Malerkotla give the district its urban markets, while Amargarh keeps the district closely tied to the surrounding countryside of the Malwa plain.

The landmark list in Malerkotla city is unusually rich for a small district headquarters. It includes the Eidgah, shown as the district's emblematic image, the Jama Masjid, the Shahi Maqbara tombs of the Nawabs near Sirhindi Gate, including the tomb of Sher Mohammed Khan, the tomb of Haider Shaikh in the centre of town, the Sheesh Mahal Diwankhana, the Mubarak Manzil palace, Fort Rehmatgarh, and the Kuka Smarak, which remembers the Namdhari martyrs executed in January 1872. The official history puts the number blown from cannons at 66.

Farming, work and getting there

Farming underpins daily life outside the towns, and Malerkotla is noted by its own administration as a major supplier of vegetables to this part of Punjab. Town work is just as distinctive. Artisans in Malerkotla are known for hand embroidered badges and insignias made for the armed forces, a craft recognised well beyond the district. The district also has a metal industry and workshops that manufacture agricultural machinery, linking town employment directly to the needs of the farms around it. Its poets and monuments add a cultural reputation that reaches further than its size suggests.

Getting there is straightforward. Roads link the headquarters to Ludhiana, Sangrur, Khanna and Jagraon, and the Ludhiana to Delhi railway line passes through the district, with Malerkotla and Ahmedgarh as useful rail points. Today Malerkotla district is still one of Punjabs newest and smallest districts, but few districts of its size carry as much history per square kilometre: a princely past, a blessing remembered for more than three centuries, a peaceful Partition, and a living example of communities choosing to live together.