Amritsar

This article is about the city. For the district see Amritsar district.

Amritsar Amritsar ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ
City
Nickname:  ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ ਸਿਫਤੀ ਦਾ ਘਰ
Population  (2009)
• Total	1,194,740
Website	www.amritsarcorp.com

Amritsar (Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪtsəɾ]) is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077. Amritsar is situated 217 kilometres (135 mi) northwest of state capital Chandigarh and is 32 kilometres (20 mi) east of Lahore, Pakistan and therefore, very close to India's western border with Pakistan.

A typical chilly Amritsar morning

It is home to the Harmandir Sahib, known as the Golden Temple/Darbar Sahib, the spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal in Agra as it has more than 100,000 visitors on week days alone and is the number one destination for non-resident-Indians (NRI) in the whole of India.The city boasts of being the main centre of Sikhs' cultural, religious and political history. Amritsar is also known for the incidents of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919 under British Rule and Operation Bluestar in 1984 under the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The main commercial activities include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades and light engineering. The city is known for its food and culture. Amritsar is also home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once a home for Shaheed Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement.

History

Amritsar city is one of the cities of the Punjab state in India. This city was founded by Guru Ram Das in 1574 on land bought by him for 700 rupees from the owners of the village of Tung. Earlier Guru Ram Das had begun building Santokhsar Sarovar, near the village of Sultanwind in 1564 (according to one source in 1570). It could not be completed before 1588. In 1574, Guru Ram Das built his residence and moved to this place. At that time, it was known as Guru Da Chakk. (Later, it came to be known as Chakk Ram Das)

Amritsar is dominated by the history of Sikhs and many of their sacred shrines are found in and around the city. The city has highest temporal seat of Sikhs "The Harmandir Sahib" popularly known as Golden Temple. The famous temple is also referred to as Darbar Sahib. Amritsar's central walled city has narrow streets mostly developed in the 17th and 18th century. The city is a peculiar example of an introverted planning system with unique areas called Katras. The Katras are self styled residential units that provided unique defence system during attacks on the city.

The city lies on the main Grand Trunk Road (GT Road) from Delhi to Amritsar, connecting to Lahore in Pakistan. The GT Road, built by Sher Shah Suri, cuts across the entire northern half of the Indian subcontinent, connecting Peshawar, Pakistan to Sonargaon, Bangladesh. The city is also connected to most other major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata by an extensive rail network. The city also provides air connectivity to major Indian cities, as well as international cities such as Birmingham, Toronto, Dubai, Singapore, Tashkent, Ashgabat, London,Doha etc. from the Raja Sansi International Airport, recently renamed the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport. The airport is being developed for projected increased future capacity; a new international terminal is operational. A cargo terminal is also under construction. The city is the administrative centre of Amritsar District. Amritsar developed from a small village pool to a business center. However, it did not become the industrial centre of Punjab due to its proximity to the volatile Indo-Pak border.

Partition of 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had the most profound effect on the demographics, economics, social structure and culture of Amritsar. The state of Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan and Amritsar became a border city, often on the front lines of India-Pakistan wars. Prior to partition, the Muslim league wanted to incorporate Amritsar into Pakistan because of the Amritsar's proximity to Lahore (a distance of 30 miles) and a nearly 50% Muslim population, but the city became part of India. The Indian National Congress had similar aims of incorporating Lahore into India as Lahore was the cultural, economic, and political capital of undivided Punjab and Hindus and Sikhs constituted nearly 50% of the population, but Lahore became a part of Pakistan. Amritsar and Lahore experienced some of the worst communal riots during the partition of India. Muslim residents of Amritsar left the city en-masse leaving their homes and property behind due to violent anti-Muslim riots in Amritsar. Similar scenes of communal carnage against Hindus and Sikhs were witnessed in Lahore and led to their mass evacuation.

Important Muslim dominated villages in Amritsar district prior to partition include Sultanpur, Kala Afgana, Abdul Kalan, Rasheed Bal, Lahorie, Qadian, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

Gallery

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  Golden Temple Amritsar
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  Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Ram Bagh Gardens Amritsar
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  Golden Temple
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  Kothe Da Mela in Vallah Amritsar
• 
  Kothe Da Mela in Vallah Amritsar

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of unarmed, defenceless Indians by a senior British military officer, which took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, took place on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day). Jallianwala Bagh, a garden belonging to the Jalla, derives its name from that of the owners of this piece of land in Sikh times. It was then the property the family of Sardar Himmat Singh Jallevalia (d. 1829), a noble in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839), who originally came from the village of Jalla, now in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab. The family were collectively known as Jallhevale or simply Jallhe or Jalle, although their principal seat later became Alavarpur in Jallandhar district. The site, once a garden or garden house, was in 1919 an uneven and unoccupied space, an irregular quadrangle, indifferently walled, approximately 225 x 180 metres which was used more as a dumping ground. In the Punjab, during World War I (1914–18), there was considerable unrest particularly among the Sikhs, first on account of the demolition of a boundary wall of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj at New Delhi and later because of the activities and trials of the Ghadrites almost all of whom were Sikhs. In India as a whole, too, there had been a spurt in political activity mainly owing to the emergence of two leaders Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915 and Mrs Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who established, on 11 April 1916, Home Rule League with autonomy for India as its goal. In December 1916, the Indian National Congress, at its annual session held at Lucknow, passed a resolution asking the British government to issue a proclamation announcing that it is the aim and intention of British policy to confer self government on India at an early date." On 10 April, Satyapal and Kitchlew were called to the deputy commissioner's residence, arrested and sent off by car to Dharamsetla, a hill town, now in Himachal Pradesh. This led to a general strike in Amritsar. Excited groups of citizens soon merged together into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the deportation of the two leaders. The crowd, however, was stopped and fired upon near the railway foot-bridge. According to the official version, the number of those killed was 12 and of those wounded between 20 and 30. But evidence before the Congress Enquiry Committee put the number of the dead between 20 and 30. Crowds react to the intimidation

As those killed were being carried back through the streets, an angry mob of people went on the rampage. Government offices and banks were attacked and damaged, and five Europeans were beaten to death. One Miss Marcella Sherwood, manager of the City Mission School, who had been living in Amritsar district for 15 years working for the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, was attacked by a mob in a narrow street, the Kucha Kurrichhan. Beaten, she was rescued by local Indians who hid her from the mob and moved her to the fort. The civil authorities, unnerved by the unexpected fury of the mob, called in the army the same afternoon. The ire of the people had by and large spent itself, but a sullen hatred against the British persisted. There was an uneasy calm in the city on 11 April. In the evening that day, Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer born ironically at Murree in the Punjab hills, commander of the 45th Infantry Brigade at Jalandhar, arrived in Amritsar incensed at the attack on an English lady, instructed the troops of the garrison regarding reprisals against Indians. Meeting at Jallianvala bagh.

He immediately established file facto army rule, though the official proclamation to this effect was not made until 15 April. The troops at his disposal included 475 British and 710 Indian soldiers. On 12 April he issued an order prohibiting all meetings and gatherings. On 13 April which marked the Baisakhi festival, a large number of people, mostly Sikhs, had poured into the city from the surrounding villages. Local leaders called upon the people to assemble for a meeting in the Jallianvala Bagh at 4:30 in the evening. Brigadier-General Dyer set out for the venue of the meeting at 4.30 with 50 riflemen and two armoured cars with machine guns mounted on them. Meanwhile, the meeting had gone on peacefully, and two resolutions, one calling for the repeal of the Rowlatt Act and the other condemning the firing on 10 April, had been passed. A third resolution protesting against the general repressive policy of the government was being proposed when Dyer arrived at about 5:15 p.m. He deployed his riflemen on an elevation near the entrance and without warning or ordering the crowd to disperse, opened fire. The firing continued for about 20 minutes whereafter Dyer and his men marched back the way they had come. 1650 rounds of .303-inch ammunition had been fired. Dyer's own estimate of the killed based on his rough calculations of one dead per six bullets fired was between 200 and 300. The official figures were 379 killed and 1200 wounded.

Operation Bluestar

Operation Bluestar(3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to remove armed Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Modern Amritsar

Amritsar is currently witnessing rapid urban growth. Government of India and Government of Punjab have unveiled a Rs. 3,150 Crore plan to modernize Amritsar. . Money from the plan would fund construction of roads, water and sewage management, and a mass Rapid transit system. Amritsar has witnessed a spurt in high-end residential property and multiplex development, courtesy the government’s decision to set up a special economic zone there.

Leading property developers from north India have lined up a series of townships containing villas, luxury apartments, service apartments, and penthouses. About a dozen malls are also in various phases of completion.

Amritsar acts as an education hub for the region. There are many educational institutions ranging from engineering to arts. Also many institutes such as Institute of Banking Services (IBS) cater to the city as well as surrounding areas.

New localities are coming up in and around the town developed by private developers like Ansal City, Impact Projects Garden Enclave, S.G. Enclave and developments by government agencies like Punjab Urban Dvelopment Authority-PUDA and Amritsar Development Authority (ADA). The ADA has a mandate to design, develop, re-structure and beautify those urban estates which have not been handed over to Municipal Corporation Amritsar(MCA). The authority is also responsible for the overall development and maintenance of commercial pockets within the urban estates already handed over to MCA.

Amritsar lately has become hub for medicare for North India with two Medical colleges and two Dental colleges and other big hospitals in private sector like Fortis Escorts Hospital located on Majitha Verka Bypass.

To protect Amritsar's historical and religious heritage, part of the new budget is dedicated to the preservation of religious shrines in the city.

Food

Amritsar is well known for its food. Dhabas such as Bhrawan da Dhaba and Kesar da Dhaba are extremely popular with locals and tourists.

Geography and climate

Amritsar
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     28     13 1     22     20 3     29     25 9     12     32 11     14     41 16     58     42 22     186     45 26     184     35 25     102     35 22     25     32 14     6.2     21 6     15     15 2 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C █ Precipitation totals in mm Source: IMD
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     1.1     56 34     0.9     68 37     1.1     78 49     0.5     90 51     0.6     105 61     2.3     108 72     7.3     114 78     7.2     96 78     4     94 72     1     90 58     0.2     70 43     0.6     60 35 █ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F █ Precipitation totals in inches

Amritsar is located at 31.63°N 74.87°E / 31.63; 74.87 with an average elevation of 234 metres (768 ft).

Amritsar has a semiarid climate, typical of Northwestern India and experiences four seasons primarily: winter season (November to March) with temperature ranges from 4 °C (39 °F) to about 19 °C (66 °F), summer season (April to June) where temperatures can reach 45 °C (113 °F), monsoon season (July to September) and post-monsoon season (September to November). Annual rainfall is about 681 millimetres (26.8 in). Since 1970, the lowest temperature, −6.6 °C (20.1 °F), was recorded on 21 Jan 2005 and the highest temperature, 49.7 °C (121.5 °F), was recorded on 21 May 1978. There are on average 3,200 sunshine hours per year in Amritsar

Demographics

As of 2007, Sikhism and Hinduism are the main religions followed in Amritsar. Males and females constitute 55% and 45% of the population, respectively. Amritsar has an average literacy rate of 75% (which is higher than the national average of 59.5%). 15% of the population is under 6 years of age. The main spoken language in Amritsar and in the surrounding villages is the Punjabi dialect of Maajhi, considered to be Standard Punjabi. Other languages spoken in the city are Urdu and English and Hindi.

Transport

Air

Amritsar's international airport, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, has more than 200 domestic and international flights during the week with daily connections to Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu in India and international flights to Tehraan, Frankfurt (Mahan Air), Doha Qatar Airways,Ashgabat Turkmenistan Airlines,Tashkent Uzbekistan Airways.

Rail

Amritsar Railway Station at night

Amritsar is well connected by rail to almost all major cities in India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Indore, Bhopal, Agra, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh etc. Amritsar Railway Station is the main terminal station. There is a special train that runs west to Wagah (Attari Border), which is the last station on the border in India before continuing on to Pakistan.

Indian Railways has proposed a high speed rail line to serve Delhi-Amritsar via Chandigarh and Ambala. The train is to run at high speeds of 350 km/h, second only in India to the Bhopal Shatabdi Express. It will travel the 445 km between the two cities in 2.5 hours (compared to the current time of 5 hours). Companies from Japan, China, UK and Canada have expressed an interest in the project. The contract for building the line were to be awarded at the end of May 2008. Other lines of this kind have proposed in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata.

Road

Amritsar is located on the historic Grand Trunk Road (G.T Road), also known as National Highway 1, and therefore very well connected to the road network. Daily bus services run to and from Ambala, Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu. Rs 450 crores is being spent to expand the Amritsar-Jalandhar stretch of G.T. Road to four lanes. In 2010, elevated road with four lanes connected to the National highway for better access to the Golden Temple has been started.

For transportation within Amritsar city, rickshaws, autorickshaws, taxis and buses are easily available. Recently, the government of India and Punjab pledged Rs. 2,100 crore for the development of a mass rapid transport system for the city. It is hoped that this will help relieve traffic congestion and improve air quality.

References

For further reading: Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (2005), Sikh Twareekh Vich Akal Takht Sahib Da Role, Sikh University Press Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (2011), AKAL TAKHT SAHIB (Concept & Role), Sikh University Press Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (2008), SIKH TWAREEKH (5 volumes), Sikh University Press.

External links

• Official Website of District of Amritsar
• Official Website of Amritsar Municipal Corporation
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