ਰੋਡੇਰੋਡੇ

Where Rode sits

Rode is a large village in Bagha Purana tehsil of ਮੋਗਾ district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It has its own gram panchayat in the Baghapurana development block, covers 3,005 hectares and carries census village code 033968, with PIN code 142049. The 2011 directory recorded ਬਾਘਾ ਪੁਰਾਣਾ, about 8 kilometres away, as its nearest town, and the district headquarters at Moga is about 28 kilometres away. Villages recorded around it include ਸਮਲਸਰ, ਲਂਡਾ, ਪਂਜਗਰੈਨ ਖੁਰਦ and ਦੇਂਰੁ ਕਲਾਂ. On the map it is one more big canal colony farming village; in Punjab's memory it is one of the best known village names in the state, because of one man born here in 1947.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 9,270 people in Rode, up from 8,928 in 2001: 4,892 men and 4,378 women living in 1,670 households, about 5.6 people to a household. Spread over 3,005 hectares, the density works out to about 308 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 895 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 914, about 10 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,003 people, about 32 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 64.84 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 67.14 per cent and women at 62.27 per cent. The census recorded 2,914 workers, about 31 per cent of the village. Of the 2,730 main workers, the largest group, 1,025 people, were cultivators on their own land, ahead of 899 agricultural labourers and 742 other workers in trade, transport and services; a further 184 people were marginal workers. Counting everyone, the village held 1,048 cultivators and 929 agricultural labourers: a village where the land still employs most of the people who work.

Land and farming

Farming covers nearly all of Rode's land. Of its 3,005 hectares, 2,805 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated. The water is canal led: canals irrigated 2,020 hectares against 785 hectares from wells and tubewells. About 196 hectares were under non-agricultural uses and just 4 hectares were barren. The crops recorded for the village are wheat, rice and maize. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day, and an agricultural credit society was recorded in the village.

The birthplace of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale

Rode's place in modern Punjab history rests on a single birth. Jarnail Singh Brar, known to history as Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, was born in the village on 2 June 1947, the seventh of eight children of Joginder Singh Brar, a farmer and local Sikh leader, and his wife Nihal Kaur. The village was then in Ferozepur district. He went to the village school, left it at about the age of eleven to work on the family farm, and in 1965 joined the Damdami Taksal, the travelling Sikh seminary then led by Sant Gurbachan Singh of Bhindran Kalan, studying afterwards under Sant Kartar Singh.

When Kartar Singh died in 1977, Bhindranwale was chosen as the Taksal's fourteenth jathedar, taking his name from Bhindran Kalan, the seminary's home village. The Taksal he led made its headquarters at Chowk ਮੇਹਟਾ, and through the Dharam Yudh Morcha years he became the most debated religious and political figure in Punjab. In June 1984 the Indian Army carried out Operation Blue Star against the armed men holding the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, and Bhindranwale was killed at the Akal Takht on 6 June 1984. Judgement on him remains sharply divided to this day: the Akal Takht describes him as a martyr and he keeps an immense following in rural Punjab, while many others hold him responsible for leading a militant movement. Both readings are part of the record. His birth anniversary still draws large gatherings to this village, and his nephew Jasbir Singh Rode, a former jathedar of the Akal Takht, is the family's best known public figure.

In April 2023 Rode returned to the national news when Amritpal Singh, the Waris Punjab De leader who had evaded the Punjab Police for over a month, came to the village gurdwara, gave himself up and was arrested, as The Hindu reported at the time. The village's other name in print is quieter: reference works also list the Punjabi poet Navtej Bharati among the notable figures of Rode.

Faith in Rode

The village's religious centre is its gurdwara, named in reporting of the 2023 arrest as Gurdwara Sant Khalsa, the place where Amritpal Singh's turban tying ceremony had been held in September 2022 and where he later surrendered. As the birthplace of the Damdami Taksal's most famous jathedar, Rode also receives a steady flow of devotees through the year, swelling around his birth anniversary.

Schools and health

The Census 2011 Village Directory recorded one government primary school, two government middle schools, one government secondary school and two government senior secondary schools in Rode, so children can study in the village up to Class 12, and directory listings add private schools at the lower levels; the census directory summary also records a government arts and science degree college in the village. Government health care here is fuller than in most villages of this size: the directory recorded a primary health centre, a primary health sub-centre, a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, and the census detail adds four MBBS medical practices, seven registered medical practitioners and three medical shops. Drinking water in the directory table came from untreated tap water supplies. Both a post office and a sub post office stand in the village. A cooperative bank is in the village, the nearest commercial bank within 5 kilometres and the nearest ATM 5 to 10 kilometres away; there was no PDS ration shop inside the village in 2011. An anganwadi centre, an ASHA worker and sports facilities were recorded, and domestic power supply was 12 hours a day.

Getting there

Rode is reached by pucca, all-weather roads; a district road passes through the village and a state highway runs within 5 kilometres. The 2011 directory recorded no bus service of either kind inside the village: the nearest public and private bus services, and the nearest railway station, were all 5 to 10 kilometres away. Bagha Purana, 8 kilometres away, is the everyday hub, and Moga, about 28 kilometres away, serves for the district headquarters and onward travel.

What is the population of Rode?

The population of Rode was 9,270 at the 2011 census, living in 1,670 households in Bagha Purana tehsil of Moga district. It had grown from 8,928 in 2001.

Why is Rode village well known?

Rode is known across Punjab as the birthplace of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Damdami Taksal leader born here in 1947 and killed in Operation Blue Star in 1984. In April 2023 the village was in the news again when Amritpal Singh was arrested at its gurdwara.

Which tehsil is Rode in?

Rode is in Bagha Purana tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Baghapurana development block, about 8 kilometres from Bagha Purana town.