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Batala
One of the oldest towns in the province of Lahore in mediaeval times. Batala was founded by Rai Ram Deo, a Bhatti Rajput from Kapurthala, in 1472 A.D. During the region of Farrukhsiyar (1713-1719), Sayad Muhammad Fazal Gilani established a college here, which attracted students from distant parts of the country, which had gained for it title of Batala Sharif.
Introduction
One of the oldest towns in the province of Lahore in mediaeval times, Batala, located 38 km north-west of Amritsar on the Pathankot road. The town of Batala was founded by Rai Ram Deo, a Bhatti Rajput from Kapurthala, during the time of Bahlol Khan Lodi in 1472 A.D.
Batala is a class I municipality. Its population was 76,488 in 1971 as against 51,300 in 1961. There are 12 primary schools, 2 middle schools, 10 high/higher secondary schools, 4 degree colleges, Government Training Institute ( I.T.I., government Polytechnic, Community Development Training Centre, Regional Foundry Research Centre (run by the Government of India), Quality Marking Centre, a civil hospital, a maternity hospital, a veterinary hospital, two police stations, a post and telegraph office, a telephone exchange and a rest house.
History
The town of Batala was founded by Rai Ram Deo, a Bhatti Rajput from Kapurthala, during the time of Bahlol Khan Lodi in 1472 A.D. The country between the Satluj and Chenab at that time was to a great extent lying waste, owing to disastrous floods and the ravages of Jasrat Gakhar, and the revenues of the province were formed to Rai Ram Deo by Tahar Khan, the viceroy, for nine lakhs of tankas. Ram Deo became a disciple of Sheikh Muhammad Kadiri of Lahore, and was converted to Islam. The spot first upon for the city was considered unpropitious, and so, on the adviceof astrologers, it was exchanged for that on which the present town now stands, whence the name Batala, from "batta" or "vatta", exchange. The tomb of Ram Deo, consisting of a brick building, with a sloping dome supported on enormously thick walls constructed of bricks laid in mud, still exists to the south-east of the town, and judging form the slope of the dome, the date of its foundation may be ascribed to the later Pathan or Lodi times. In 1567 A.D., in Akbar’s (1556-1605) time, Shamsher Khan, an eunuch, and the Karori of Batala built a fine tank to the north-east of the town in 1573 A.D. (925 A.H.), and planted gardens in the suburb known as Anakali, where his tomb still stands close to the tank which bears his name. The city was enriched with a bazaar and shops constructed in Aurangzeb’s (1658-1707) regin by Mirza Muhammad Khan, who received the title of Wazur Khan, with a Jama Masjid by Kazi Abdul hak, and a fine garden in three terraces constructed by Amar Singh, Kanungo. Batala at that time enjoyed a great reputation for learning and piety. The saints Shahab-ud-din, Bukhari, Shah Ismail Shah Niamatullah and Sheikh Allahdad lived here.
During the region of Farrukhsiyar (1713-1719), Sayad Muhammad Fazal Gilani established a college here, which attracted students from distant parts of the country. This was, however, destroyed by Banda Bahadur; and the town soon lost its reputation for learning and piety, which had gained for it title of Batala Sharif.
Batala was also the centre of the petty welfare constantly waged between the rival Sikh misals of the Kanhayas and Ramgarhias. From 1798 to 1811, the former misal was ruled by Sada Kaur, the widow of Gurbakhsh Singh Kanhaya. This remarkable woman is till remembered at Batala, which she appears to have administrated with great energy and tolerable success. To the south of the city, close to wall, still exist the remains of her citadel, consisting of present of a very lofty mound, and there are two smaller our-works, said to have been constructed by heron the west and north of the town. She appears to have again been given a grant Batala and Pathankot, as in 1820 she was called upon by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to make over half of her possessions for the support of alleged grandsons, Sher Singh and Tara Singh. At first she refused, but eventually Ranjit Singh, as usual, got her into his power by guile, and then sent a force, which took over all her estates and personal property. She was after this kept in confinement till death in 1832, and Batala and adjoining territory was assigned to Sher Singh. This prince lived here almost entirely until his accession to the throne in January 1841, and the old people of the country round Batala and Kahnuwan used to be full of stories of his prowess as a mighty hunter. His palace at Anarkali (in which the Baring Union Christian College, Batala, is housed), built somewhat in the Italian style, is an imposing pile its way, and commands a fine view of all the country round. He also converted Shamsher Khan’s mosque, in the centre of the large tank at Anakali, into a pavilion, which still exists. The Hansali Nullah which once carried water to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, flows through this town and drains off the flood waters.
There is the historic Gurdwara Kandh Sahib at Batala where a part of the scared wall still exists in a glass case. Guru Nanak Dev came to this place with his marriage party comprising deformed and maimedpersons. This caused an offence to the relatives of his bride and some of them conspired, out of anger, to push this wall on the marriage party. History has it that, with the spiritual power of the Guru, this wall stood up the onslaught. A g urdwara has been constructed at this place.
There is a Sati Lakshmi Park which house the smadh of Lakshmi Devi, the wife of Vir Haqiqat Rai of Sialkot.
The Punjab occupies an important place in India’s Industrial development while Batala gets the first place in making iron products and small-scale manufacturing units, thus forming the backbone of Punjab in the technical field.
Small-scale industries of Batala manufacture machine tools and agriculture implements. Plano-miller is a machine which is just being manufactured by a unit in Batala, though there is a queue of other machine s, viz. planer, lathes shapers, drilling machines, etc. Besides being situated on the border line, the efforts of the entrepreneurs and the skilled efficiency of labour has enable Batala to occupy a prominent place in the industrial development of the Punjab. The era of economic stability and prosperity is enhanced by rapid industrialisation of the city after the partition. No doubt the partition gave a serious setback to the local industry because some of the efficient workers migrated to Pakistan. It took some span of time to recover and revive the agricultural implements manufacturing industry whereas the machine tool industry was in its nascent form. At present both of them are at the peak of their prosperity. More than seven hundred small-scale units are engaged in manufacturing machine tools and agricultural implements, etc.
Small-scale units occupy a prominent place in industrial progress. Batala is already reporting machine tools as well as agricultural implements.
Location
Headquarters of the sub-division/tahsil of the same name, Batala is connected both by rail and road with Amritsar on the one side and Pathankot on the other, being 38 km from the former and 69 km from the latter. It is also connected both by rail and road with Qadian. By road, Batala is also connected with Fatehgarh Churian, Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur, Kahnuwan, Harchowal, Srigobindpur and Jullundur.
Personalities
It is amazing how a tiny place can produce so many great names. Obscure town of Batala has givenus quite a few Batalvis.
Batala has given greats in the fields of politics, literature, history, poetry, Islam, and law. Someone should carry out a serious study into the Batala phenomenon. What caused it? Was it just coincidence, of the right sort of people being in the right place at the right time? Was it the early schooling and family training? Or was it the Punjabi ‘hawa’ (air)?
Not content with merely coming from this town, these chaps proudly announce their association with it by using the surname ‘Batalvi’. And wherever they go, they take Batala with them.
In Pakistan there is a Batala Colony in the city of Faisalabad. Pakistan’s famous Batalvis were the prominent historian Ashiq Hussain Batalvi and the legal man Ijaz Hussain Batalvi. Our own distinguished scholar-journalist Khaled Ahmed once reminded me, “Not only was Ashiq from Batala, KK Aziz’s town [more on this later], but also my other great, Ghulam Ahmad Parvez”.
It has given us the Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi, and the list for the pre-partition period includes the following names: Sir Fazl-i-Hussain, the Punjab chief; Allama Mashriqi, the founder-leader of the Khaksar movement; and Maulvi Muhammad Husain Batalvi, the Ahl-i-Hadith leader.
Sir Fazl-i-Hussain was a Chauhan Rajput from Batala. His daughter married Manzur Qadir, the famous lawyer and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister”.
Another Batalvi is Mian Kifayat Ali (1902-1994), who used the pen name ‘A Punjabi’. Kifayat wrote the well-known book ‘Confederacy of India’ (1939). This book has been referred to as “the most comprehensive and far-reaching scheme aimed at furthering and elaborating the idea of Pakistan”.
There are far too many prominent Batalvis for the size and importance of the town. With distinguished persons on either side of the Indo-Pak border.
Tourism
Batala is home to 14 monuments of religious and historic importance.
Of these, five are mosques, two temples and two gurdwaras (rebuilt recently,
preserving the old portions of the building). Three monuments are connected
with Sikh history and two with the Mughal period.
Jal Mahal stands in the middle of the big tank of Shamsher Khan. Shamsher
Khan (a eunuch) was an administrator (karori) of Batala during the regime of
Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar.
Jal Mahal and the palace of Maharaja Sher Singh were built by the Maharaja
(AD 1780-1839). The palace is under the control of the authorities of the
local Baring Union Christian College. The administrative offices of the
college are housed in it.
Jal Mahal is said to be under the control of the Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI). Jal Mahal (Baradari) and the palace of Maharaja Sher Singh were
connected through a tunnel. According to some senior citizens Shamsher Khan
Tank of Jal Mahal used to filled with water through the tunnel which was
further connected by a long tunnel (canal) to the Beas near Kahnuwan. The
remnants of the tunnel can be seen near Baring Christian College.
Maharaja Sher Singh used to hold meetings of his courtiers in Jal Mahal. The
water reservoir was built by Shamsher Khan while the beautiful Baradari in
the centre of the tank was constructed by Maharaja Sher Singh. It has a
square room in the centre of a pavilion with a passage. The entry to the
first floor is by a staircase with concave-shaped steps on the north-eastern
canal. Jal Mahal has eight doors in the lower part of the building and four
in the upper storey. The inner wall contained beautiful art glass carvings
and wall paintings. However, major parts of the paintings have been erased
or damaged. The roof of the pavilion has also fallen. The Municipal Council
had provided a tubewell to fill up the tank till the eighties. All sides of
the reservoir were lined with Nanakshahi bricks. However, with the passage
of time the brick lining has been destroyed. Now a days, on one side of the
tank is located a vridh ashram owned and managed by the Dainik Prarthana
Sabha. There also exists Bhadr Kali Mandir and Shivala. The upper portion of
Jal Mahal is in a dilapidated condition and the time is not far when this
magnificent structure will pass into oblivion.
Locally known as Hazira, structure is near Baring College and was built by
Shamsher Khan. The tomb stands on a raised platform surrounded by a low wall
having bastions in the corners. The tomb is an octagonal structure crowned
with a low dome. The spandrels of the arches have painted arabesque and
geometrical designs.
The interior wall as well as the exterior of the tomb is richly adorned with
paintings depicting floral, geometrical and calligraphic designs. The
decoration is intact on the interior but on the exterior only its traces
survive. Recently, the ASI had undertaken repairs. Preservation work has
been done on its interior as well as exterior walls. The surroundings of
this monuments, too, have been beautified.
The palace of Maharaja Sher Singh reminds one of the love of rich
architectural structures by Sikh rulers. This beautiful building with mud
plastering was known to be part of Anarkali which was initially built along
with Baradari as an imitation of Shalimar Garden of Lahore. The remnants
wall paintings and carvings can seen. However, the attitude of the
authorities of the ASI and Baring Union College may lead to the fading away
of the original design and structure of the building.
