Panchkula district was formed as the 17th

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of the Indian state of

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

on 15August 1995. It comprises two sub divisions and two

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

Panchkula Panchkula (ISO: ''Paṁcakulā'') is a city and district headquarter in the Panchkula district in Haryana, India. It is a satellite town of the state capital Chandigarh. Panchkula is a border city with Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh ...

and

Kalka Kalka is a town in the Panchkula district of Haryana, India. It is near Panchkula city. The name of the town is derived from the Hindu goddess Kali. Kalka is situated in the foothills of the Himalayas and is a gateway to the neighbouring st ...

. It has 264 villages, out of which 12 are uninhabited and ten wholly merged with towns or treated as census towns according to the 1991 census. There are five towns in the district: Barwala,

Pinjore Pinjore is a town in Panchkula district in the Indian state of Haryana. This residential 'township', located close to Panchkula, Chandigarh, is set over 1,800 feet above the sea level in a valley, overlooking the Sivalik Hills. Pinjore is kn ...

and

Raipur Rani Raipur Rani is a Town and Tehsil in Panchkula district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is one of three tehsils located in Panchkula District. It is located on the Panchkula city-Chandigarh-Nahan-Paonta Sahib-Dehradun highway east from the ...

. The total population of the district is 319,398 out of which 173,557 are males and 145,841 are females. , it was the least populous district of Haryana. Panchkula city is the headquarters of this district.

Chandimandir Cantonment Chandimandir Cantonment is a military cantonment of the Indian Army located in Panchkula district at the foot of the Sivalik Hills adjoining Panchkula city in Haryana. It is the headquarters of the Western Command of the Indian Army. Back ...

is located in this district, adjoining the Panchkula Urban Estate.

Languages and Dialects Spoken

The primary languages spoken in the district are

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, Standard Haryanvi and

Puadhi dialect Puadhi (Gurmukhi: ; IAST: uādhī sometimes spelled as Poadhi, Powadhi, or Pwadhi) is an eastern dialect of the Punjabi language primarily spoken in the Puadh region of northern India. It is spoken between the Sutlej and Ghaggar river basins ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

. While both languages are widely used in urban and rural settings, the prevalence of the Puadhi is a defining characteristic of Panchkula district's rural culture.

History

Panchkula takes its name from ''Panch khul'', five natural springs in the area. The earlier main town in the region was Pinjore. Near the later part of the 7th century and early part of the 8th century, the district was part of the empires of Yasovarman of

Kannauj Kannauj (Hindustani language, Hindustani pronunciation: ) is an ancient city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar palika, Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Ut ...

and

Lalitaditya Muktapida Lalitaditya alias Muktapida (IAST: Lalitāditya Muktāpīḍa; r. c. 724 CE–760 CE) was a Karkota monarch of the Kashmir region in the Indian subcontinent. The 12th-century Kashmiri chronicler Kalhana characterizes Lalitaditya as a " world c ...

of Kashmir. It was part of the empire of

Mihir Bhoj Mihira Bhoja () or Bhoja I was the Pratiharan Emperor from 836 to 885 CE. He inherited a weakened realm in an adverse situation from his father, Ramabhadra. However, his capable reign transformed it into a large and prosperous empire. Bhoja ...

of the Gujara-Pratihara dynasty. In the 10th century CE, the region was raided by Mahmud of Ghazni several times. However it was soon brought back to peace by the Chauhans of Delhi, until Muhammad Ghori defeated

Prithviraj Chauhan Prithviraja III (IAST: Pṛthvī-rāja; 22 May 1166 – February 1192), popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chahamanas of Shakambhari, Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, w ...

in 1192, when it became part of the Delhi Sultanate. In 1254, Nasiruddin Muhammad plundered Pinjore, an event recorded in the Tabakhat-i-Nasiri.

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

sacked Pinjore on his return from Delhi. After Timur's invasion, Panchkula fell out of central control until 1450, when Bahlol Lodhi, then governor of Punjab, restored central control over the region as Sultan. Panchkula remained in Lodhi hands until Babur crushed the Lodhis at the Battle of Panipat and set up the Mughal Empire. Panchkula was part of the Sirhind Sarkar of

Delhi Subah Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its right bank, Del ...

. During the reign of

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

Fidai Khan Koka Fidai Khan Koka, born Muzaffar Hussain, was a Mughal noble who was the governor of Awadh and Lahore, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb had two Foster-brother, foster-brothers, Fidai and Bahadur Khan (Moghul General), Bahadur Khan, who was Aurang ...

, his Master of Ordinance, constructed the

Pinjore Gardens Yadavindra Gardens, also known as Pinjore Gardens, is a historic 17th century garden located in Pinjore city of Panchkula district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Haryana. Panchkula, Panchkula city is nearby it. It is ...

(now called Yadvindra Gardens) for use by Aurangzeb as a summer retreat. After Aurangzeb's death in 1707,

Banda Singh Bahadur Banda Singh Bahadur, born Lachman Dev (27 October 1670 – 9 June 1716), was a Sikh warrior and a Jathedar, general of the Khalsa Fauj, Khalsa Army. At age 15, he left home to become an Sannyasa, ascetic, and was given the name Madho Das Baira ...

, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh, ravaged erstwhile Ambala district, including Panchkula, but was defeated at the

Battle of Sadhaura The Battle of Sadhaura was fought between Sikhs and the Mughal, Sayyid, and Shaykh forces in Sadhaura in 1710. The imperial forces were defeated and took refuge behind the city's walls. Banda's forces captured the fort and levelled it to the gro ...

in 1710. In 1739, the region was plundered again by

Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

. After his retreat, the region was dotted with various minor principalities such as Ramgarh, Raipur, Kotaha and Kizhirabad, which were practically independent. In 1755,

Adina Beg Adina Beg Khan (; – 15 September 1758) was a Punjabi general, administrator, and statesman who served as the Nawab of Punjab from April 1758 until his death in September of the same year. He began his career as a patwari (accountant) and la ...

defeated Qutub Khan, and in return was given the sarkar of Sirhind, included present Panchkula district. In 1753, Ahmed Shah Abdali invaded the region and took over the Sirhind Sarkar. Afghan rule was ended when the Sikhs killed Abdali's governor,

Zain Khan Sirhindi Zain-ud-Din Khan known as Zain Khan Sirhindi (died 14 January 1764) was the Mughal Faujdar of Sirhind, a serviceman of Shah Alam II, and an ally of Najib-ud-Daula and Ahmad Shah Durrani. Zain Khan Sirhindi fought during the Third Battle of Panipat ...

, in 1763. Afterwards Panchkula district became part of various Sikh misls, and was incorporated into the

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the East India Company, Br ...

. In 1805, the British conquered the region from the Sikhs, and made it part of the Ambala district. The

1857 Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

had a nerve centre in nearby Ambala, and Panchkula played a role in supporting the rebels. After the suppression of the rebellion, the region was made part of the British Raj. Panchkula became part of the Ambala district. Ambala produced many freedom fighters such as Lala Muralidhar, who exhorted the people to fight against the British. At the time of Partition in 1947, Panchkula, like the rest of Punjab, saw riots which forced its Muslim population to flee to Pakistan and their replacement by Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan. In 1950, the city of

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

was founded in the then-middle of Punjab, situated very close to Panchkula. In 1966, Punjab was trifurcated into Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Ambala district was split and part of it went to Punjab, while the Panchkula and Ambala areas came to Haryana. In the 1970s, the Haryana Government began the construction of Panchkula as a planned city. In 1995, the district was split off from Ambala district.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census of India, Panchkula district had a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 561,293, This ranked it 537th in India out of a total of 640 districts. The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 19.32%. Panchkula has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 870

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1,000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 83.4%. 55.81% of the population lived in urban areas. Scheduled Castes made up 18.14% of the population. At the 2011 Census of India, 82.13% of the population in the district declared their first language to be

, 9.48%

, 2.72%

Haryanvi Haryanvi (हरियाणवी or हरयाणवी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Haryana and the territory of Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which a ...

and 1.19% Pahari..

References

External links

Website PanchkulaOfficial Web Site of Panchkula district
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panchkula District Districts of Haryana