Nawanshahr is as old as the Khiljis
Located about 100 km from the state capital, it was in this small, sleepy district that Bhagwant Mann had chosen to take the oath as Punjab Chief Minister instead of the Punjab Raj Bhawan, the usual venue for the ceremony.
Starting his innings formally from the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan in Nawanshahr district, officially Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Mann’s idea was to convey it to everyone that he aimed to create a Punjab which the freedom fighter had dreamt of.
Though more popular these days as Bhagat Singh’s town, Nawanshahr is historically very significant and still has traces of the Khilji reign, Mughals and the Sikh empire. The town has its origin in the early 14th century during the reign of Alauddin Khilji. There are a couple of beliefs about how it got its name. As per the official records, it was built by Alauddin Khilji’s Afghan military chief Nausher Khan. It used to be called as Naushar, which eventually became Nawanshahr.
Old persons in the town shared another theory. As per this theory, Rahon town, which is now a part of Nawanshahr district, was more popular as silk trade route to Tibet and Central Asia.
“After Mughals and Sikh warrior Banda Singh Bahadur fought a battle here in October 1710, Rahon faced massive destruction. The inhabitants moved to ‘Neevan Vashon’ (a settlement on lower ground as compared to Rahon) and it eventually got to be called as ‘Nawanshahr’. This theory is more acceptable,” said writer Didar Singh Shetra, who also penned a book ‘Sada Nawanshahr’, which was released by the first Deputy Commissioner of Nawanshahr, JB Goel, in 1997.
Mark the date
November 7, 1995 Nawanshahr was made the 16th district of Punjab. It was carved out of Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts. The announcement was made on the occasion of Parkash Purb of Guru Nanak. It then had two subdivisons — Nawanshahr and Balachaur. Banga was added as the third subdivision later.
September 29, 2008 Nawanshahr was renamed as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in the memory of the youth icon, who had his ancestral place at Khatkar Kalan. The village falls under Banga tehsil and houses a memorial and a museum showcasing exhibits related to the life of the freedom fighter.
Over the years, Rahon became less popular and Nawanshahr gained more importance as it fell on the highway connecting Jalandhar with Chandigarh. “But things were the other way round earlier. Nawanshahr did not even have its own police station till as late as 1980. It only had a police post in Ghah Mandi while the police station was located in Rahon,” said Shetra.
Sharing an interesting finding reported in his book, he said, “We brought to light the fact that there are two caves in the Shivalik Hill area of Railmajra near the Sutlej. These were created by Banda Singh Bahadur to station his troops and horses. The caves had two-way openings and the troops could move in and out of either side, depending on the direction from which the attack was being made. There is a temple and gurdwara at these sites now.”
In fact, Nawanshahr has a major connection with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The Baradari here was a garden complex and summer resort for the first king of the Sikh empire. Enclosed by a wall, having fountains and streams at the entrances and covered with trees, it came up about 300 years ago. The Baradari had 12 entrances and hence its name. AAP Lok Sabha MP Malvinder Singh Kang, who had recently laid the stone for revamping of Baradari Garden here, had announced, “We shall spruce up the historical garden and renovate a library in it. It will have the WiFi facility and the furniture will be replaced.”
Former Congress MLA Angad Saini says, “My elders used to tell me several stories about a number of historical gurdwaras and temples in the town, which are centuries old like the famous Suraj Kund temple. A government school in Rahon, which is still functional, is perhaps the oldest in Punjab. Nawanshahr had developed during the British rule after they had got laid a railway line connecting Rahon with Jejon town in 1860.”
Another popular temple in the town is Shivala Banna Mal, which is learnt to have been built by Diwan Banna Mal, who was the Chief Minister of the Maharaja of Kapurthala. The temple still has huge gates as the Diwan used to travel to the place on his elephant.
On the Mughal connection with the area, former MLA Tirlochan Soond shared, “There is a big village, Khan Khana, in my constituency Banga that is named after one of the Navratnas of Akbar’s court — his minister and poet Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan as he lived here.”
