Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab state of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 by the Government of India, to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces, on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379.

Courtesy: North-West Frontier Diary

Mollie Ellis. 77, on her visit to her mother’s grave in Kohat British Cemetery in 1983.

Flashback : The Epic Story Of Ajab Khan Afridi.

Uprisings against the British Empire have often been a favourite topic for movies produced in this region. While the bashing of farangis in films sold like hot cakes, the rebels were glorified as anti-colonial heroes. Both India and Pakistan have churned out such movies in abundance, yet most of them have ended with the sacrifice of the protagonist.

Based on real life heroes, movies on Tipu Sultan, Shaheed Titu Mir and Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah could obviously never have had a happy ending, while characters such as the Rani of Jhansi, Bhagat Singh and Mangal Pandey also ended up dying on screen too.

Rakesh Om Prakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti (2006) could not defy history either, despite connecting the freedom fighters with the present-day scenario.

However, 60 years ago, a movie on the life of the legendary Ajab Khan of Darra Adam Khel, the best known hero to hail from the present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan — formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province — broke the norms. It was the first of its kind movie on the outlaw who brought the British Empire to its knees, and lived to witness the day when they had to leave for good.

Ajab Khan died in Mazar Sharif, Afghanistan, in his 90s, only in 1959. His death prompted renowned writer Rahim Gul to bring his character to the screen. With PTV still years away from being established and a documentary film out of the question, the Kohat-born Gul joined hands with a fellow Pakhtun, Sudhir — the most bankable film actor of those days — and wrote a powerful script for a full-length feature film on Ajab Khan.

Gul, who also co-produced the movie, was well aware of the character, the tribal laws, the people, the sites and the Ajab Khan-Miss Mollie Ellis episode on which the film is based. Directed by Khalil Kaiser, the movie was shot in the mountainous region of Kohat and Abbottabad.

Ajab Khan rose to power in times when the Non Cooperation Movement — the first civil disobedience movement in colonial India — had come to an end. Memories of the horrifying Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Punjab were still fresh in people’s minds and hatred against the British was rising. Pakhtuns felt no differently and Ajab Khan was a constant threat to the British ‘rulers’. In real life, Ajab Khan along with his men, was involved in numerous skirmishes with the British.

The movie begins with Ajab Khan framed for stealing a rifle while serving in the British Army. During the search of his village, Bosti Khel, members of the British Army misbehave with the local women, an act that enrages Ajab Khan, who is away at that time.

To avenge the humiliation, on April 14, 1923, Ajab Khan barges into the Kohat cantonment and abducts Miss Mollie Ellis, daughter of Major Ellis, from their residence. Ajab’s brother kills the wife of the major, as she tries to alert the guards. The news creates headlines worldwide and a search for the young girl ensues. Ajab Khan takes Miss Mollie to the tribal areas, it is said that he took very good care of her. The British offer to pay a huge bounty for Ajab Khan, but fail miserably in capturing him.

After a jirga of the elders and political

administration is held a week later, Miss Mollie is handed over to the DC Kohat and Major Ellis. The DC Kohat had to give in to all the demands of Ajab Khan, which included the return of captives and ammunition.

Released on February 3, 1961, Ajab Khan was directed by the visionary Khalil Kaiser. The title character was depicted marvelously by Sudhir, who had earlier also portrayed a poet, a Mughal prince, a rebel and a dejected lover on screen. Born as Shah Zaman Khan Afridi, Lala Sudhir — as he was known in film circles — had, in fact, been labeled an action star in movies such as Baaghi (1956) and Aakhri Nishaan (1958).

The role of Noor Jamal, the love interest of Ajab Khan, was played by actress Husna. It was a big breakthrough for the then 19-year-old, who had earlier played the daughter of Sudhir in Society (1959). Agha Talish played the role of Miss Ellis’s fictitious fiancé and a captain in the British Army, while Rehan was superb in the short but powerful role of the DC Kohat.

Kaiser introduced a local girl, Margaret, as the 17-year-old Mollie Ellis, while character actors Nasira and Nazar were there to provide comic relief. The music, composed by G.A. Chishti, was a letdown, however, as the veteran musician could not manage the magnitude of the situation.

Khalil Kaiser was trying to make a team for the future, and the failure by Baba Chishti made him opt for Rasheed Attre in his future projects. Together with legendary writer Riaz Shahid, Kaiser and Attre went on to produce hits such as Shaheed (1962) and Farangi (1964). Kaiser’s murder in September 1966, happened at a time when he was busy making Hukumat, also starring Sudhir.

Famous for his Urdu novels Tuntara and Jannat ki Talash, Rahim Gul decided to direct the Pashto film Ajab Khan Afridi in 1971. It was the second movie on the character, and the first of the two made in Pashto.

The movie had the same storyline as its predecessor and made Asif Khan an overnight star. “Rahim Gul was the one who wanted to introduce me as a lead in Musa Khan Gul Makai [released in October, 1971],” recalls actor Asif Khan from Peshawar. “But due to financial constraints, he could not complete the movie on time. By the time Musa Khan Gul Makai was finished, I had already made my film debut with Darra Khyber [released in May, 1971]. Ajab Khan Afridi was my third film.”

Shot in the Pir Baba mountains of KP, Ajab Khan Afridi established the Pushto movie industry, which was in its infancy. Besides Asif Khan playing the title role, Yasmin Khan was cast in the role played by Husna in the Urdu film, while the role of the captain played by Talish was replayed by Humayun Qureshi. A surprise addition was the casting of Saleem Nasir as Ajab Khan’s brother.

Born as Syed Sher Khan in a Pakhtun family, Saleem achieved wide recognition as Mamu in the PTV serial Ankahi (1982) and then as Akbar in Aangan Terrha (1984). “People don’t know that Saleem Nasir was Pashto-speaking,” says Asif Khan. “He was well-known for his roles on TV, and I had a wonderful time with him during the making of Ajab Khan Afridi.”

The Pashto movie was produced by veteran songwriter Qateel Shifai, who himself was born in Haripur. Qateel Shifai was quite popular in Bollywood and had close relations with Dilip Kumar and the Kapoor clan. When the youngest brother of Raj Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, produced Junoon (1979), the similarities with the character of Ajab Khan didn’t go unnoticed.

Set around the Indian rebellion of 1857, the story of Junoon is about Javed Khan (Shahshi Kapoor), a freedom fighter who falls in love with Ruth (Nafisa Ali), a British girl, who is abducted by Javed.

Javed Khan eventually dies fighting the British towards the end of the film and Ruth, reciprocating his love, never marries. Something similar actually happened in the real-life Ajab Khan-Miss Mollie Ellis case, as the latter remained single all her life.

In 1983, the 77-year-old Mollie came to Pakistan with official protocol, visiting her mother’s grave, as well as the places where she had stayed during her captivity. In her later interviews, Ms Mollie Ellis revealed that Ajab Khan never looked her straight in the eye during her days of captivity.

People still remember Ajab Khan as a warrior who was a thorn in the side of the British occupying forces. As a tribute, a statue of Ajab Khan Afridi was erected in 2018 in his hometown, Darra Adam Khel.

The story of Ajab Khan has all the elements of an epic love story and, in the current situation, with Pakistan’s film industry back in a struggling phase, a remake based on the life and times of Ajab Khan may well work miracles.

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 28th, 2021

View of Jallianwala Bagh Memorial at Amritsar, Punjab

On April 13 1919 British Indian troops under the orders of Colonel Reginald Dyer killed at least 379 civilians in the Indian city of Amritsar. A large crowd had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh as the Sikh festival of Baisakhi happened to fall on the day. Apart from pilgrims, Amritsar had filled up over the preceding days with farmers, traders and merchants attending the annual Baisakhi horse and cattle fair. The city police closed the fair at 14:00 that afternoon, resulting in a large number of people drifting into Jallianwala Bagh.

The Defence of India Act of 1915 was still in operation and continued the wartime restrictions the Indian population faced. The act granted very wide powers of preventive detention, internment without trial, restriction of writing, speech, and of movement. There was also a ban on public meetings with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities during and in the aftermath of the First World War. The gathering in Amritsar was thought by the British to be a political gathering in defiance of orders restricting public gatherings which warranted a heavy response.

Dyer went with Sikh, Gurkha, Baluchi, Rajput troops from 2-9th Gurkhas, the 54th Sikhs and the 59th Sind Rifles. They entered the garden, blocking the main entrance after them, took up position on a raised bank, and on Dyer's orders fired on the crowd for about ten minutes, directing their bullets largely towards the few open gates through which people were trying to flee, until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted. Dyer stated that approximately 1,650 rounds had been fired, a number apparently derived by counting empty cartridge cases picked up by the troops. No official figures were given for the number of people in the crowd. The Hunter Commission (set up in October 1919 to investigate the massacre) claimed there were 6,000 in the park and 379 killed with 3 times as many wounded. Indian sources claimed the casualty numbers were much higher. The figure of 379 deaths was given by Colonel Dyer himself.

The British Government tried to suppress information of the massacre, but news spread in India and widespread outrage ensued; details of the massacre did not become known in Britain until late 1919. This report from the week ending September 24 1919 was sent to the Governor-General Of New Zealand, The Earl of Liverpool. The reports received by the Governor-General included a summary of events from across the British Empire. The reports makes reference to the massacre in Amritsar and outrage from Indian leaders such as Pundit Mahan Malaviya.

Archives New Zealand Reference: ACHK 16597 G42 Box 4

collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?q=R3796224

For further information email research.archives@dia.govt.nz

Material from Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te

Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab state of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 by the Government of India, to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces, on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379.

Sri Harmandir Sahib

Sri Harmandir Sahib, the famous Golden Temple

Jallian Wala Bagh is a place where one of the most notorious massacre under British rule happened.

It is 400 meters north of the Golden Temple in Amritsar (Punjab).

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

The crowded street leading to the Golden Temple in Amritsar with the Jallianwala Bagh on the other side. There is a constant throng of devotees towards the shrine, and with shops on either side including many toy shops and catering to children. There are vendors selling posters and wall hangings of Sikh gurus and others.

The Golden Temple is one of the most famous monuments in Amritsar, in the state of Punjab in North India. It is the spiritiual headquarters of the Sikh religion, and is a very well visited place. Besides Sikhs, people from other religions visit the temple, it being an open place. The temple is also referred to as the Harmandir Sahib or the Darbar Sahib, and was built during the 16th century by the fifth Sikh Guru (completed in the year 1604), Guru Arjan Dev around a holy tank. Earlier to this, in 1577, the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das ji excavated a tank which came to be known as Amritsar. The Harmandir Sahib symbolizes openess, and has four doors to depict the same. Over a period of time, modifications were done, such as the layering of gold over the dome by the ruler of the time, Maharajah Ranjit Singh.

The holy nature of the Golden Temple is also symbolized by the presence of the Holy Book of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib. The central structure of the Gurudwara is surrounded by a holy tank of water, with a causeway over this body of water. There are some restrictions for entering the site, such as the removal of shoes before entering (and washing ones feet in a small pool of water as well), covering the hair through a scarf or some other cloth, and ensuring that they show proper respect towards the central shrine.

The Golden Temple is also the location for a major military operation (Operation Blue Star in 1984), where the Indian Army went in against Sikh militants lead by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale inside the compound of the Golden Temple, with bullets and even machine guns inside the compound. The operation was a major operation, with the death of more than 500 people reported (including soldiers, militants and civilians). It was also very controversial, since this was seen as an attack on the spiritual center of Sikhs, and lead to some desertions in the army, and also an attack on the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by her own Sikh bodyguards which resulted in her death.

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

at the Old City 's Golden Temple road

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

at the Old City 's Golden Temple road

at the Old City 's Golden Temple road

preparing lunch for the pilgrims

at the narrow lanes of the Old City

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

at the Old City 's Golden Temple road

at Jallianwala Bagh, the 1919

Sikh massacre memorial park - a couple looking at the bullet holes in the wall

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

at Jallianwala Bagh, the 1919

Sikh massacre memorial park

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

The entrance to the park/garden, where, in April 1919, British Indian Army soldiers, under the command of Brigadier Reginald Dyer, opened fire on a gathering of Indian civilians, causing many deaths and injuries. Caroline and I were shocked as we were guided around the site of the massacre by a young Sikh volunteer, as we had never heard of this particular aspect of British history before.

Photo scanned from a full frame Kodachrome slide (transparency)

More information at

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_Massacre

at the Old City 's Golden Temple road

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

Brigadier-General Dyer incharge of Amritsar had, issued a proclamation prohibiting meetings and processions in the town. Jallianwala Bagh was an open enclosure with tall buildings on all the four sides with a narrow passage which led into it. It is said that about 25000 men, women and children had gathered to participate in a protest meeting against Rowlatt Act. They included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. General Dyer appeared on the scene with his armed troops and without any warning ordered firing, aimed at dispersing the crowd though he had blocked the only exit of enclosure. With escape route unavailable, there was a general stampede. Old men, women and children got crushed under those who trying to escape firing. To escape bullets many jumped to death in an open well now known as Martyr’s well.120dead bodies were later recovered from this well.General. Dyer left the ghastly scene along with his troops after they had exhausted their ammunition. Far from attending to the wounded, there was none to offer even water to the dying. According to the official version, 379 people were killed on the spot and thrice as many wounded to die later. The unofficial number of the dead runs into four figures.

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab state of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 by the Government of India, to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces, on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379.

Images of broken light, which dance before me like a million eyes, they call me on and on across the universe. Sounds of laughter, shades of life, are ringing through my opened ears, inciting and inviting me. Limitless undying love, which shines around me like a million suns, it calls me on and on across the universe.

This one took quite a bit of time and conceptualization on my part. Even though it’s not complete by any stretch of imagination, it is in its raw state, well, very pleasing to the eyes already in my opinion. So I thought of getting your views on how this is shaping up. The shot was taken at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, India. Yes, that is a part of the memorial built in the remembrance of those who were there and massacred. The hot air balloon was rendered and textured in 3ds Max, and finally both were clubbed together in Photoshop. I wonder if anyone can demystify the concept that was going through my mind here.

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Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

IWA Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Meeting 20th April 2019, 100th Anniversary,

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

The Nankana massacre (or Saka Nankana) took place in Nankana Sahib at that time united India, modern-day Pakistan. The event forms an important part of Sikh history. In political significance, it comes next only to Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 1919. The saga constitutes the core of the Gurdwara Reform Movement started by the Sikhs in early twentieth century. The interesting part of this saga is the unprecedented discipline, self-control and exemplary patience displayed by the peaceful Sikh protesters even in the face of extreme barbarism.

Amritsar; Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ; Punjabi pronunciation: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ]), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as Ambarsar, is a city in north-western part in India and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Amritsar was 1,132,761. The city is situated 217 km northwest of state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan, with the Wagah Border being only 28 km away. The nearest city is Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, located 50 km to the west.

The Akal Takht (Punjabi: ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ) meaning throne of the timeless one is one of five takhts (seats of power) of the Sikh religion. It is located in the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar. The city houses the Temporal seat of Sikhs.

Amritsar is home to the Harmandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on weekdays alone and is the most popular destination for non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Akal Takht, the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa, and the committee responsible for the upkeep of Gurdwaras.

The Ramtirth temple situated at Amritsar is believed to be Ashram site of Maharishi Valmiki, the writer of Ramayana. According to the Hindu mythology, Goddess Sita gave birth to Luv and Kush, sons of lord Rama at Ramtirth ashram. Large number of people visit Ramtirth temple at annual fair. Nearby cities to Amritsar, Lahore and Kasoor were said to be founded by Lava and Kush, respectively. During Ashvamedha Yagna by Lord Rama, Lava and Kush captured the ritual horse and tied lord Hanuman to a tree near to today's Durgiana Temple. During Navratra festivities it is considered to be auspicious by Hindu population of the city to visit that temple.

The main commercial activities of Amritsar include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades, and light engineering. The city is known for its rich cuisine, and culture, and for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 under British Rule. Amritsar is home to Central Khalsa Orphanage, which was once home to Udham Singh, a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement. Gandhi Ground is the main sports complex in the city which is home to the Amritsar Games Association, (AGA).

Amritsar has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.

HISTORY

Amritsar is one of the largest cities of the Punjab state in India. The city origin lies in the village of Tung, and was named after the lake founded by the fourth Sikh 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'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.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killing of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of a senior British military officer, Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).

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 Ghadarites, 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: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) who after a period of struggle against the British in South Africa, had returned to India in January 1915, and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India, who on 11 April 1916 established the 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 king 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 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, 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 into a crowd of about 50,000 marching on to protest to the deputy commissioner against the arrest 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. Evidence before an inquiry of the Indian National Congress put the number of the dead between 20 and 30.

Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress determined that approximately 1,000 people were killed.

PARTITION OF 1947

Partition of British India into India and Pakistan had a most profound effect on the demographics, economics, culture, political and social structures 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 because of 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, Shahpur, Shahkot, Alipur, Aliwal, Allahbad, Fatehbad, Chak, Guza Chak, Jattan, Cheema.

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Operation Blue Star (3– 6 June 1984) was an Indian military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India to curb and remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops with tanks and armoured vehicles. Militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy, and the government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. Operation Blue Star was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine.

Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in anti-Sikh pogroms. Within the Sikh community itself, Operation Blue Star has taken on considerable historical significance.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2011 census, Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%.

Amritsar municipality had a population of 1,132,761 and the urban agglomeration had a population of 1,183,705. The municipality had a sex ratio of 879 females per 1,000 males and 9.7% of the population were under six years old. Effective literacy was 85.27%; male literacy was 88.09% and female literacy was 82.09%. The scheduled caste population is 28.8%

RELIGION

Sikhism is the most practised religion of Amritsar district with 71.91% of the total population being Sikh.The second largest religion is Hinduism with 26.03% of the citizens identifying themselves as Hindus. However, according to 2011 census, the city of Amritsar is Hindu majority with 49.4% of the city being Hindu and 48% being Sikhs. In Amritsar city, Islam is followed by 0.51% and Christianity by 1.23%. Around 0.20% of the population of the city stated 'No Particular Religion' or another religion.

WIKIPEDIA

Salimgarh Fort (Hindi: सलीमगढ़ किला, Urdu: سلیم گڑھ ‎،literally "Salim’s Fort") was built in 1546 AD, in Delhi, in a former island of the Yamuna River, by Salim Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri. There was a pause in Mughal rule when in 1540 AD Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal Emperor Humayun (and ousted him from Delhi) and established the Sur dynasty rule in Delhi. Sur dynasty rule lasted till 1555 AD when Humayun regained his kingdom by defeating Sikander Suri, the last ruler of the dynasty. During the Mughal period, in later years, while building the Red Fort and Shahjahanbad, several Mughal rulers including Emperor Shahjahan who is credited with completing Shahjahanabad in 1639 AD had camped at this fort. It is said that Humayun had camped at this fort for three days before launching his successful attack for recapturing Delhi.

Aurangzeb, the Mughal Emperor, converted the fort into a prison, which practice was perpetuated by the British who took control of the fort in 1857. The Fort is part of the Red Fort Complex. The complex was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007, which obligates Archeological Survey of India (ASl) to ensure well planned conservation measures for the heritage monuments.

HISTORY

The location chosen for building the fortification was in the Delhi plains (with an elevation range of 24–34 m, hemmed by the Yamuna River on one side and the northern spur of the Aravalli range of hills on the other side. This topography of the land area with the rock exposures at the Fort’s location, with a favourable link with the northeast trending ridge and the main mosque (Jama Masjid), was visualised as an ideal setting that provided the needed protection against erosion by the Yamuna River. It was also obvious that a stream on one side and a mountain ridge on the other side of any fortification would be a formidable barrier for invaders to penetrate into Delhi, as such a setting would only force the invaders to follow the river course. Keeping these advantages in view the Salimgarh Fort was built in 1546.

However, Humayun after he won back the Empire had renamed Salimghar Fort as "Nurghar" since the first ruler of Sur Dynasty, Sher Shah Suri (father of Salim Shah Suri who had built the fort) had earlier usurped his Kingdom in 1540 AD. He had, therefore, decreed that nobody would use its original name in his court.

During the British rule, the Sepoy Mutiny (also called the First War of Independence (the Uprising) was put down in 1857 and the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb. This fort was then the scene of lot of war activity. During the Upraising, Emperor Bahadur Shah II‘s complicity with the mutinous soldiers was obvious. He operated from this Fort. During August and early September 1857 he held meetings at the fort on war strategy. He also watched, from the ramparts of the fort, artillery fire aimed at the British Army. He even played a psychological game with his army officers who had come in a delegation seeking salary, when he told them that he would forego some of his crown jewels for the purpose and that he would give up his life for the cause; the officers refused his offer trusting that the Emperor was stating all this in right earnest. Following this, even proclamations were issued declaring that the Emperor would lead the attack against the British and urging all his people, irrespective of caste or creed, to join him in fighting the war. But, in the middle of September 1857, British soldiers were closing in on the Fort. At this stage, his trusted assistant Bhakt Khan urged the Emperor to leave the fort and accompany him to a safer place and look for a day when he could "renew war in the open country". But the Emperor refused, permitted his army to vacate the fort but he himself moved to the Humayun tomb. The fourth infantry of the British army entered the Salimgarh Fort where they encountered a single sentry only. Similar experience was encountered by the Punjab Fourth infantry regiment when, earlier, they had entered the Palace from the Lahore gate of the Red Fort.

After the Uprising was put down, the fort was, for a time, used by the British as an army camp (with artillery units) but was subsequently, from 1945, used as a penitentiary to hold prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA).

STRUCTURE

The Fort has a triangular plan and its thick walls are built in rubble masonry. It has circular bastions. From the time it was built, the fort structure has undergone several stages of repairs over the centuries. An Arch bridge links it with Red Fort on the northeastern side, which was constructed during Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign and hence the gate is named as Bahadur Shah Gate. The gate is built of brick masonry with selective use of red sandstone. During the British rule, a railway line was constructed, after demolishing an old bridge, which divided the Salimgarh Fort and chipped part of the Red Fort, and which was then considered an uncaring action. This railway line has truncated the fort.

AS A PRISON

During Aurangzeb’s reign, the fort was first converted into a prison. Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad Baksh (whom he had caught unawares while sleeping after a drinking binge at Mutra) who had acted as his confidant and supporter during his fight with his elder brother Dara Shikoh, at this fort for reasons of "apostasy for abandoning the fundamental tenets of Islam". He was later shifted to Gwalior where he was executed. It is also said that Auranagzeb, apart from imprisoning Murad Baksh, had the dubious credit of incarcerating his favourite eldest daughter Zebunnisa in the Salimgarh Fort for 21 years till her death. It was stated that she was imprisoned for being a poetess and a musician (both anathema to Aurangzeb’s austere, more orthodox and fundamental way of life and thinking) and for being sympathetic to her brother Muhammad Akbar who was persona non–grata with the Emperor. The British had kept Bahadur Shah incarcerated at this the fort, after he was taken prisoner at Humayun tomb and later shifted to Rangoon, Burma. The Fort has been compared to the Tower of London in England where state prisoners were either tormented to death or faded away in the prison.

Before India got Independence from the British Rule, prisoners from the Indian National Army (INA) were also imprisoned in this fort from 1945 until India’s independence in August 1947. Hence, Salimghar Fort is now renamed as Swatantrata Senani Smarak in memory of the prisoners who died in this fort prison.

Ghosts are said to haunt the fort area and several stories are narrated in this regard. One of them relates to Zebunnisa wearing a black veil singing poems composed by her, on moonlit nights. It is also mentioned that the moans and groans of the soldiers of INA who were tortured and who died here are heard in the vicinity. Thus, this fort established a strong link between the Mughal rule and the British rule.

FORT CONSERVATION MEASURES

The fort which had been continuously occupied by the Army, from the time of first independence movement in 1857 till 2005, was initially under the British army control with artillery units headquartered there and also as a prison, and subsequently it was under the control of the Indian Army after India's Independence on 15 August 1947. Several other government agencies, including ASI, were also involved with the upkeep of the monuments. This became an issue when ASI had approached UNESCO in 1992 to include this monument for inscription on World Heritage List. Hence, at that time ASI withdrew the application for listing by UNESCO. The multi control of the Fort was causing problems to the ASI in taking adequate conservation measures to protect and preserve this monument, along with the Red Fort and other monuments within the fort complex. ASI had petitioned the Courts through an affidavit stating: "It is impossible to maintain these portions of the Fort unless and until they are completely vacated and handed over to the ASI for proper assessment of the damage already caused". ASI had also stated that the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India would approach the UNESCO to accord world heritage status to the monument once it was transferred to their complete jurisdiction and after completing the needed restoration works. The Army transferred the fort to ASI’s possession in December 2003 and thereafter, in 2006, the ASI submitted its proposal for World Heritage listing by UNESCO. Finally, the World Heritage Committee accepted Government of India’s request and accorded approval for inscription of the Red Fort Complex, Delhi in the World Heritage List, in its meeting held from 23 to 27 June 2007 at Christchurch, New Zealand. The Press release issued by the ASI, after UNESCO listing was approved, states:

The core zone of about hectare includes the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort while the buffer zone measuring over 40 hectares includes the immediate surroundings of the Red Fort and Salimgarh Fort. The Red Fort Complex, Delhi is classified as a cultural property with an outstanding universal significance. The inscription of the Red Fort on the World Heritage List is very significant for Delhi since the Red Fort Complex would be the third World Heritage Site in the city, an honour that no other single location in the country can boast of.

Further to the above listing, ASI at the directive of the Supreme Court of India, prepared a draft report presenting a "Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP)” based on a detailed study of the site’s importance. The plan has taken due cognizance of the role and duties of management of the fort by various departments and agencies that operated from within the Fort. The plan also envisages restoration of the old bridge that links Red Fort to Salimgarh since it provides historical link between the Mughal Rule and the British Rule.

Till the time the CCMP is approved and items of work are prioritised, ASI has undertaken several restoration actions in the Red Fort at a cost of Rs 27.5 million (US$0.55 million) and at Salimgarh Fort at a cost of Rs 8 million (US$160,000) to be completed before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

MUSEUM

The Swatantra Sangram Museum, which opened to the public on 2 October 1995, is located in the precincts of the Red Fort Complex within the Salimgarh Fort as it was the prison where the INA prisoners were incarcerated by the British from 1945 till Independence of India from British rule on 15 August 1947. Many of the prisoners had died within the jail premises. The place was chosen as the site for the Museum on the basis of initial identification provided by Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the location where the British had held trial of the Indian National Army prisoners for treason in 1945. Since then he retracted (after the present museum was completed) his selection of the site and indicated a new building adjoining the existing museum as the site where the trial was held. In 2007 (the 60th Year of India’s Independence), ASI decided to shift the Museum to the new location but

with more documents for the new galleries, apart from providing better lighting, panelling, and displays for existing structures.

On this occasion, a section on Mahatma Gandhi was also proposed to be added to the Museum with full–size depictions of the Jallianwala Bagh firing and the Salt Satyagraha. At the Prime Minister’s intervention the premises of the fort and the Museum have been opened to the public. To encourage tourists to visit this place, ASI has also introduced guides at the Red Fort gate to give directions to this Fort, which till recently was hardly known to the public vis-à-vis the famous Red Fort. Also, the long walk from the Red Fort gate to this place discouraged people from visiting the fort and the museum.

ACCESS

In the initial years, the Fort was accessed through boats only but a bridge linking the Red Fort with Salimgarh Fort was said to have been built by Jahangir, father of Shahajahan;a conflicting information also attributes its construction by Farid Khan who held the fort in Jagir. This bridge was later replaced by a railway bridge at the same location. At present, an arched over bridge connects it from the Red Fort end. From this location, the fort provides a commanding view of the Red Fort, the river and the surroundings. But it is a noisy area with continuous flow of heavy traffic from the several artery roads that surround it and also from the traffic flow from the trans–Yamuna over the existing steel bridge on the main river close by. The East India Railway was brought to Delhi through the Salimgarh Fort. The line used to pass over Salimgarh and a portion of the fort. It was later extended to the Rajputana Railway.